GW don't make metal figures anymore?!
The durability, quality, and heavy feel of metal figures was one of the reasons to justify the increase in cost over the plastic starter stuff.
>>47002278
GW has mostly phased out its metal line, or is bundling it up and selling it for those who want to pay for it.
If you want a company that produces purely metal figures, Corvus Belli's Infinity is the way to go. Otherwise you'll be using OOP or third-party miniatures.
Ironically, I'm pretty sure metal is actually cheaper for small producers, it's only when you get larger does plastic become a cheaper option.
>>47002278
Metal is shit, a bitch to clean and even worse to convert. Also, try casting something like the new weirdnob shaman in metal.
inb4 muh undercut
>>47002667
Plastic > metal > shit > finecast
>>47002278
Welcome to.. 4 years ago?
Gotta be at least that.
inb4 100+ post pointless metal vs plastic debate that completely ignores the financial realities of producing anything.
>>47002730
I really don't get the hate for finecast. I've never had any problems with it and it's in fact a lot easier to work with than even plastic.
>>47002278
Laughing at the idea of metal being more durable. Have you ever dropped a metal mini on the floor? Say goodbye to your paintjob + the weight will flatten whatever detail it lands on.
>>47002792
>Welcome to.. 4 years ago?
>Gotta be at least that.
Almost 5.
>>47003038
It also melts in any temperature exceeding 85 degrees.
Sucks to live in the American southwest I guess.
>>47003038
Not him but...it melts over 39°C... here in south spain nobody buys finecast figures, better throw that money out the window
>>47003038
Because when it was new, they just used their resin in metal molds without considering the difference in material. So you'd get all this awful bubbling because you can't cast resin like you do metal.
And not just old models. The necron update happened around the same time, and you had all these thin, delicate models being made by people unpracticed in the material. One well-known painter had to return like 12 necron lords before he got a salvageable one. Not perfect, but minimally offensive.
Couple this with GW hailing it as the cutting edge in detail and quality while it demonstrably wasn't, as well as the price increasing after switching to a cheaper material, and you can see why people hate on it.
>>47002278
Metal flattens when you drop it, and Finecast practically explodes. Plastic will just bounce, with hardly a single deformity.
Plastic 4 lyf
>>47003521
Plus it's harder to strip paint off it without damaging the model, so there's far less appeal in buying used models.
>>47003630
>>47003631
You forgot about spears/swords etc.
I think i never saw a decent Valkia the bloody model... that spear always looks like a bow.
>>47003671
That's because of improper storage most of the time. You shove a mini into a foam case when you're finished with the game, and forget about it. Unbeknownst to you, it spends weeks, months or years in the same slightly wrong position. Spear ends up warped. It's happened with like half my Bloodletters, but guess what? 30 seconds and a hairdryer makes it good as new.
>>47003753
no i meant in the box, out of factory.
>>47003667
Yes, that's a good point.
>>47003922
Of course, Games Workshop considers that a huge positive
The problem with metal is that when it bends, a process called work hardening occurs. This basically means that if you pend a piece you can never bend it back into the same shape.
Finecast is also shit. Focusing on plastic models is the best thing GW could have done.
They switched to resin largely to save money. And their new stuff is plastic as you can have overhangs with lots of little pieces.
>>47002667
>>47003631
Plastic is plebeian.
GW is quite possibly the only wargaming company that can afford to go all plastic for large ranges of miniatures (disregarding tiny companies that go through kickstarter to release maybe a couple of sets, all the other big but nowhere near GW big companies still have to go mixed at best to cover everything) because they own all the hardware to do it and the distribution and sales to make it a massive profit deal.
>>47004190
They switched to plastic because resin was an intermediate step to keep old metal miniatures around for sale that backfired massively due to lack of quality control.
>>47003667
Which GW would view a a plus of the material.
>>47004657
Range isn't as massive but wyrd moved to all plastic and has a decent sized range. No kickstarter as far as I know.
>>47002667
>Metal is shit, a bitch to clean and even worse to convert
>how to tell if somebody's a scrub
Sure plastic is easier, but metal isn't hard unless you're bad in which case you're bad at plastic too.
>>47004657
Plastic Soldier Company? They have nothing that isn't hard plastic, and do the entire range for the main Flames of War armies. Also as >>47004907
said, and they have a lot of models even if the smaller scope of their game leaves the average troop box at about 3 figures.
mfw I bought a bunch of finecast without knowing the horrible quality
>>47003631
>Metal flattens when you drop it, and Finecast practically explodes. Plastic will just bounce, with hardly a single deformity.
Why are you dropping them? They're miniatures, not bouncy balls. Don't you try to take care of them?
>>47005024
This
>>47003038
>it's in fact a lot easier to work with than even plastic
[citation needed]
>>47005788
Unsupervised game store kid.
>>47005788
>Don't you try to take care of them?
Accidents are called that because you can't plan for them.
>>47002558
>Ironically, I'm pretty sure metal is actually cheaper for small producers, it's only when you get larger does plastic become a cheaper option.
Metal used to be the cheaper option for small runs, because making the moulds is relatively quick and cheap. You basically just cats them around a master.
To make the moulds for injection moulded plastics on the other hand you start with a large slab of steel, that you cut the cavity for the figure into. That takes time, machinery, and money.
I think the machinery the plastic mould goes into costs more than the one the metal-casting mould goes into as well.
Once you have done this though, plastics are cheaper and faster to produce, making it mroe economical for big runs.
Resin by comparison is kinda like metals, except they're slow to cure, more temperamental about how you treat them, and the leftovers are hazardous waste subject to a phonebook's worth of handling and disposal regulations.
Now, this is how things where. Then the Chinese economic boom happened, driving the prices of all kinds of metals skywards. Tin was one of them. So suddenly metal minis started having trouble making economic sense at any volume. Which is why GW decided to go all plastic, with Finecast thrown in as a stop-gap measure (since making new steel tooling to make everythign in plastic overnight wasn't happening, and in many cases the entire sculpt would need re-doing as well, as the rubber moulds for metal can allow some overhand, whereas the steel tooling for plastics simply refuses).
And while few are big enough to aim for all-plastics like GW, many have abandoned metal for resin or some other not-injection-moulded polymer.
>>47006206
At last check (which was a couple of years ago) I think the costs for setting up a cheap mould for casting plastics were at about £20k vs £1k (or lower) for metals. Which is still a massive improvement on affordability for the plastics front over the past 30 years. iirc things like the original Rhino took noticeably over £100k to set up back in the late '80s
Metal still is the cheap option, or rather the only viable option for many, many miniatures companies, despite the increase in materials costs.
>>47006179
I understand that, but if you're dropping them so often that you find yourself choosing a material because of its drop-proof abilities, you should probably try to exercise more care in handling your miniatures that you spent your hard-earned money on.
>>47007736
You want 40kids to actually take care of the property they spent their allowances on?!
Preposterous.
I don't know about the rest of it, but moving a metal miniature, with all its weight, into position is a satisfying feeling.
Plenty of other manufacturers still use white metal.
>>47007736
I don't drop them often, but when your infinity model turns into a frag grenade and it's tiny fucking antennae fly far enough you never find them again, it's irritating. Plastic is easier to clean, easier to put together, lighter (a significant advantage if you have to carry 200 imperial romans to a local club every week) and just about the only disadvantage is that it can't have as many undercuts. Outside of financial reasons for the company, there's no argument for metal to be had.
>>47002278
Man I hated metal minis. Picking the burr of them and trying to file the mold lines but not having the right equipment and trying to make sure you dont go over some detail that isnt burr/moldline along with using terribly shitty superglue which never held pieces in place for very long.
Then they released finecast.
>>47002730
Good resin > good plastic > metal > shit plastic > Finecast > shit resin
