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I haven't had anyone to play with for a long time so my buying basically ground to a halt, recently I convinced my roommate to try out Warmachine and he is very excited. We decided to start with the basics, so we bought two plastic battle boxes, he got Protectorate, I got Retribution. This was the first time I've bought plastic minis from PP and I've heard some complaints about pieces not fitting or having terrible mold lines, but I have to say initial impressions are good. Mold lines aren't really that much worse than comparable GW kits, the plastic feels sturdy and none of the things I expected to be bent are bent, plus things like Kaelyssa's sword are unexpectedly sharp looking without feeling too fragile. Everything goes together pretty easily too, with only a couple gaps (less than the metal counterparts anyway). Only issue I have is that both boxes are missing a piece, which I already submitted a ticket for. It's just unfortunate that it kind the momentum of my roommates excitement, but he's being good about it.

All in all I'm a fan of the plastics and I didn't expect to be, so kudos to PP.

PP plastic kits are not bad by any means, its just that GW's plastics are probably the best around and most people notice the step down (because the majority of Warmachine players are ex 40k players). My biggest complaint about the PP plastics is that you can't use plastic glue with them, which makes assembling them a huge pain compared to GW kits. I would almost rather have metal models at that point because either way you have to use super glue but metal models are much easier to play with because they are heavier (so less prone to being bumped etc).

Powerguy wrote:
PP plastic kits are not bad by any means, its just that GW's plastics are probably the best around and most people notice the step down (because the majority of Warmachine players are ex 40k players). My biggest complaint about the PP plastics is that you can't use plastic glue with them, which makes assembling them a huge pain compared to GW kits. I would almost rather have metal models at that point because either way you have to use super glue but metal models are much easier to play with because they are heavier (so less prone to being bumped etc).

I'm a new, ex-40k player, and all this seems applicable and accurate. The plastic cement incompatibility caught me off guard and irked me, but oh well. I can't comment on the preference of metal for weight, though, as I'm still building the 2 player starter. These are the first models I've looked at and thought "these are gonna fall apart if I don't pin them", due to the places and the way the ball-and-socket parts connect.

I personally despise the material Privateer Press uses. The sculpts are good, the material simply doesn't work for me. Still, I'm willing to pay a little more for metal when it exists, so it doesn't really effect me overly much. As to plastic cement, I never used it, so thanks. I've been looking into it, thanks for the heads up.

I was originally rather disappointed in them. As while they are nice solid figures which hold good detail, I found the mold lines to be really frustrating to remove (And I already loathe that step of assembly as it is.)

Once someone on here gave me a tip on how to remove the mold lines from their plastic more efficiently I've had no problems and will happily buy a kit I'm interested in regardless of it's material (And that damn Miniature Market sale has offered plenty of opportunities to do so...)

I just cut them off with a hobby knife. Usually no problems, with the occasional hiccup where they cross a rivet. Still, a careful hand and a few pushpins for replacements works wonders.

I've never had an issue with the PVC.

Also, the naming of any glue as "plastic glue" always bugged me as it's formulated for a specific type of plastic and I found out really early on thanks to scratchbuilds that it's useless outside of the type it's made for.

The naming of the stuff to bond together traditional plastic models really annoys me. Just about everyone calls it "plastic glue" or "poly cement" which makes it sound like it glues all plastic and polymers, clearly false when it can only bond styrene and similar stuff whilst be useless for a majority of polymers. Really it should be called "styrene bonder" since it only works on styrene parts and bonds the 2 pieces into a single piece instead of gluing the parts together.

Anyway, PP plastic is crappy compared to GW plastics, which are in turn crappy compared to the best plastic model kits.

 sing your life wrote:
The naming of the stuff to bond together traditional plastic models really annoys me. Just about everyone calls it "plastic glue" or "poly cement" which makes it sound like it glues all plastic and polymers, clearly false when it can only bond styrene and similar stuff whilst be useless for a majority of polymers. Really it should be called "styrene bonder" since it only works on styrene parts and bonds the 2 pieces into a single piece instead of gluing the parts together.

We've been over this before, perhaps your memory is too short. Let me school you son, but "Poly cement" is short for "Polystyrene cement". This is industry standard. Just like there is "PVC cement". Just because you misunderstood what "poly" is short for does not mean anything is wrong with it.

 sing your life wrote:
Anyway, PP plastic is crappy compared to GW plastics, which are in turn crappy compared to the best plastic model kits.

Would you care to elaborate through specific problems or cost comparisons. Your statement is meaningless without context. Of course something is crap when compared to the best in its catagory (unless it is the best) that's what "best" means. However, when you define "best" then at least we can intelligently discuss your opinion,

 sing your life wrote:
The naming of the stuff to bond together traditional plastic models really annoys me. Just about everyone calls it "plastic glue" or "poly cement" which makes it sound like it glues all plastic and polymers, clearly false when it can only bond styrene and similar stuff whilst be useless for a majority of polymers. Really it should be called "styrene bonder" since it only works on styrene parts and bonds the 2 pieces into a single piece instead of gluing the parts together.

The so-called "mis-naming" is the fault of GW. Whenever I see one of the packages of it that are being marketed for the plastic model market, it's always labeled "polystyrene cement".

Given GW's typical modus operandi ("What? Products that we don't make actually exist!?"), the labeling of it as plastic glue isn't really a surprise.

Eumerin wrote:
The so-called "mis-naming" is the fault of GW.

It really isnt:

Revell and Army Painter use the "plastic glue" name instead of the properish title as well.

But this is still terribly OT.