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I last purchased GW plastics on the release day of Black Reach. Since then, I've pretty much been playing Warmachine/Hordes and working entirely with metal. I always like the look of the Legion of Everblight Warbeasts. But I hate the hobgoblins that are pretending to be the winter elves known as the Nyss.

So I ordered some Wood Elf plastics to use as stand ins. I just finished building my 3 Glade Riders that will sub in as Nyss Raptors (light cav with bows, unit size 3 or 5 miniatures).

What a joy they were to put together. Thanks to their light weight and plastic cement, pinning wasn't need at all. I got to pose the miniatures how I want and customizing the leader was easy and fun (I turned her long spear into a short spear as Raptors don't have "reach"). Also, GW's cavalry looks really good on 50mm warmachine style round bases.

I have a metal angelius to build and quite frankly, I just don't want to work with metal for a while after working with GW's nice soft plastic. And the cost per miniature-- Less than $5 a pop vs. $15+ for the metal ones from PP.

I know I keep harping on it, but I really wish GW had a set of rules that made their miniatures valuable in play as individual miniatures. The glade riders are so much cooler based individually on large circles than all bunched up en masse on a movement tray.

Now I'm starting to think which other Warmachine/Hordes factions can I make from GW plastics. I love how the WM/H rules make models feel important, valuable and dynamic in game. I love the options and ease of construction of GW's plastic kits. Seems like I found a good match up to give me everything I want out of miniature gaming.

i know what you mean.
<3 plastic.

thats one of the main reasons why i gave up SoB.
Plastic is so much easier to put together and model.
dont need a massive butcher knife or saw to cut and re pose! a nice keen hobby knife that works out really cheap and easy to use it the tick!

also i think that plastic tends to hold together better when some one drops your model after man handling it! with plastics you seem to get alot more options too (different weapons, heads, pants etc.).

For a game of Fantasy on round bases, I can heartily reccomend War Of The Ring.

Lovely rules set, and even has Sylvan Elves of a kind. Been bigging it up as a rules system to our local Historical Crowd, given as it works pretty nicely.

Say what you want about the evils of GWs prices and written rules... But you HAVE to admit their plastic fig tech is getting INCREDIBLE. I just did two boxes of the new Gargoyles and they're just awesome. I think I've got at least a dozen of the old metal ones, which will no longer be used and I will gladly replace them with more plastic figs that don't fall over and break constantly.

@Aduro: Knowing how much people hate metal models on flying stands, I was surprised it took GW this long to fix the Gargoyles. I wonder how many people will trade or sell "classic" metal Gargoyles for new plastics.

I'm going to cut mine up to make more "extra leapy" Hormagaunts.

The plastic metal hybrids they used to have for devastator units were hell to put together, i.e. the space marine with the plastic backpack with plasma cannon. I could never get that thing to stick right with super glue.

Plastics for the win.


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Sorry... I meant plastic torso with metal backpack and plasma cannon.

GWs plastics are their main saving grace. I mean, if you like generic fantasy, LOTR plastics are just the balls.
I agree wholeheartedly with the OP on loving Legion warbeasts and hating the Nyss models. GW plastics are just brilliant, and you can get really good deals from the starters and so on.

War of the Ring is cool, but it does the same thing that WFB does. It takes awesome miniatures and sticks them in blocks so the individual figure ceases to matter. My thinking is to keep that type of set up for smaller scales. Epic and Warmaster are great examples of how awesome smaller scale stuff looks on stands.

From a rules standpoint, my 5 glade riders acting as Nyss Raptors will be 10 points out of about a 40 point army (35 + 5 extra warbeast points from the caster). 5 models representing a quarter of my forces. And they'll perform like it as well. I'll be able to act decisively with them and win and lose games as a result of the decisions I make and the attacks of the individual models. Compare this to what? Probably around 70 points out of 2000 in WFB?

I guess I just prefer skirmish games for my 28mm stuff. When I play games meant to represent a large battle, I want it to look like a battle. Smaller scale stuff really wins out here. If I were to play WotR or WFB, I'd likely get 10mm stuff like Warmaster, Copplestone Castings, Kallistra, etc.,. and fill the bases with smaller miniatures. I'd make heroes be a hero and his elite squad, all on one base. It would look grand without breaking the bank or devaluing my nice 28mm heroic scale guys.

Till then, my awesome elven horse archers are going to put arrows into people's eyes. Hopefully even warcaster eyes.


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I had a small swarm of metal gargoyles in 2nd edition. They were sure potent on the battlefield, but heavy chunks of metal on top of a tippy flight stand? Ughh. Not doing that again. I love the new gargoyles. I'll probably get some some day just to build and paint. Along with the Trygon-- that this amazing. Due to exchange rate changes over the last couple decades, I can get one shipped to my door from Maelstrom for what I bought my first metal carnifex from during 2nd edition. And it's a way better kit than the metal hunter-screamer.

I specifically haven't bought any Gargoyles since my original 8 (or 12) 2nd Ed Gargoyles (the very first ones) because I knew they'd be plastic one day. Additionally, the FW Trygon is something I've almost impulse bought on a few different occasions, and I am so glad I didn't. Resin = the suck.

I definitely notice that the metal models I have chip far, far easier. The plastic ones just bounce a bit when they get knocked over.

I still like the weighty feel of the metal ones, though... but prefer plastic, definitely.

Maxstreel wrote:The plastic metal hybrids they used to have for devastator units were hell to put together,

I could never get that thing to stick right with super glue.

I usually built them starting with the backpack and working my way around, but yeah, somehow, they're not quite centered properly. I think it's because the metal parts shrink by about 1% when cast, but the plastics stay at 100%.

Not so bad, but definitely something of a gap issue.

Yeap.. full plastic kits are the way of the future. Metal is dying imho.

I built some broadside battlesuits... the metal railguns are just stupid. One slight fall and they WILL break off.

The cynic in me thinks that GW only insist on producing metal minis purely as an excuse to inflate prices.

They don't need metal models to inflate prices. They've said as much themselves - they'll charge whatever they want for plastics.

H.B.M.C. wrote:They don't need metal models to inflate prices. They've said as much themselves - they'll charge whatever they want for plastics.

I agree. They do inflate the price of plastics to bring them closer to the metal prices, however, I think that one of the reasons they still produce metal ranges is to 'artificially' keep that price high.

Aduro wrote:blah blah blah

Aduro!!! I hereby challenge you to keep the same avatar for a month!

As for the thread, yeah, plastic is great.

@ Frozenwastes: I have a unit of Bloodgorgers made from Black Orks and Kroot and my Alexia's Risen are plastic Zombies. I also have a metal Skaven Warpfire thrower as Swamp Gobbers but as they're metal they're probably beyond the scope of this thread.

"I know I keep harping on it, but I really wish GW had a set of rules that made their miniatures valuable in play as individual miniatures."

Every day, every time I look at their new miniatures. I was looking at their new Minotaurs (which are nice IRL) and wondering how I could fit them into my Circle Orboros army.

HBMC Just when I thought we could have nice things . . .

H.B.M.C. wrote:They don't need metal models to inflate prices. They've said as much themselves - they'll charge whatever they want the products are worth for plastics.

Fix'd to represent source more accurately.

Manchu wrote:HBMC Just when I thought we could have nice things . . .

H.B.M.C. wrote:They don't need metal models to inflate prices. They've said as much themselves - they'll charge whatever they want the products are worth they can get away with for plastics.

Fix'd to represent source more accurately.

Amended your amendment my dear Manchu...

That just says the same thing that I wrote. (am confuse)

What something is worth and what GW can get away with charging (ie what the market will bear) are two separate beasts


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And anyway, 'worth' is such an arbitrary concept...

filbert, your flag is British but your economics are Soviet . . .

Manchu wrote:filbert, your flag is British but your economics are Soviet . . .

That is ironic given that my political leanings are fairly right wing. However, to explain myself further, what something is worth, in monetary terms is a combination of production and design costs as well as material and shipping etc.

What I think MGS, and what I was trying to say, is that GW's dominance and effective monopoly on the market means that they can inflate the cost of their models over and above what they would 'normally' cost to a value that the market deems acceptable. That's not being Soviet; that's capitalism in action for you. GW dominate the market both with their mini's and their rules. They have a captive market and they exploit that market to a degree by inflating their prices.

Twaddle. You charge what the market will bear. This absolutely standard practice in the free market. GW even have 'loss leaders' of a sort in the form of the Core Games.

Now, go have a look at GW's investor relations, tell me what their exact profit margin is, and tell me again with a straight face their prices are over inflated. Markup is a different thing altogether from Profit!

Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:Twaddle. You charge what the market will bear.

QFT. Now no more of this "from each according to his ability to each according to his desired FOC for the cost of plastic" nonsense. Crazy Communists *sigh.

You're right. I apologise. I keep forgetting that GW can do no wrong.

Yep, consider my opinion of the subject of 'worth'.

I do not consider a stormvermin or a greatsword to be 'worth' more than the standard rank and file for those armies, both are nice boxed kits but the same resources went into the clanrats as went into the stormvermin, yet the stormvermin cost double. Why? GW would suggest that they don't sell as many of the elites so are justified in elevating the price, I would suggest to that they simply make less of them, they will, over time sell a good deal of them at any rate.

So, it is not 'worth' since that's going to vary from one person to another. It is about how much they can 'get away with' as they walk a tightrope between losing/putting off new customers due to price vs continued sale at the elevated price. Eventually this must all reach a critical mass when the price is more than people are willing to tolerate and the loss of customers and newbies being priced out will exceed the continued fewer sales.

But to the OP, yes, I think the plastic boxes are great kits. The total overhaul that Orks got was excellent and I'm hoping to see more work like it, it is just a shame that the conversion to plastic does not equate to a reduction in prices overall.

I still fail to see where the link is between thinking GW artificially inflate the cost of the models and communism though...

H.B.M.C. wrote:You're right. I apologise. I keep forgetting that GW can do no wrong.

Apology accepted.

Don't worry filbert, the Commie part is just a joke. Worth is a subjective concept, as MGS pointed out, made objective by a market's acceptance, as MDG pointed out. Contrary to popular (well, HBMC's not that popular) belief, GW did not make this up in order to make people sad and/or angry.