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How would you feel? Would having the option of buying the miniture you want already assembled and painted (like hero clix ect. ect.) intise you to do more with 40k then you do now?

What do ya think? Would ya like to see this someday?

My opinion:

Yes. I would love this to happen. I could finally buy myself my dream Tyranid army, and not have to assemble and paint a buttload of minitures.

I would be all for it, so long as it was alongside the regular range, rather than replacing it.

Anything that results in a higher percentage of painted armies on the table is a good thing, in my book. Leave the modelling to those who actually want to do it, and let those who just want to play the game do that.

insaniak wrote:I would be all for it, so long as it was alongside the regular range, rather than replacing it.

Anything that results in a higher percentage of painted armies on the table is a good thing, in my book. Leave the modelling to those who actually want to do it, and let those who just want to play the game do that.

This, I don't care if other people want to bypass the modeling side and just game with decent looking figs but I would want the normal range still available, modeling is a big part to me.

Mark1130 wrote:What if GW released pre assembled and painted models...

If they did that then they couldn't sell you overpriced paints, glue and hobby tools.

I think that in some respects it would be a good idea, especially if, as has already been said, it was along side the current range.

I think that it would be somewhat limited though, especially with armies like marines, where there are supposed to be 1000 chapters. Though, so long as they made more than just UMs.. for instance making minis in the chapter colors of all of the first founding marines. Also the same with Eldar, since you have the aspects covered, the main craftworlds could be covered in the farseer models (or whoever in the eldar get their respective craftworld colors)

This game is so wide open, that it would be a shame to see literally everyone playing the same army with different build (ie. all smurfs, or all evil sunz, or all HV leviathan, etc.)

I would LOVE for GW to release pre-assembled models.. Since I cant fathom how anyone could enjoy putting together generic troop models over and over again.. Total chore

Characters and unique models are fun.. and big stuff is fun *once*.. After that, I will pay extra to save me massive amounts of time. To me this is a major issue for WFB where your rank and file grunts have 0 personality and after the first rank exist only to die. Its horribly boring assembling guys who you barely see and are just wound markers in essence

My favorite part of the hobby is the spectacle of two personalized armies kicking the crap out of each other. Prepaints and pre-assembled models mitigate that. I wouldn't give anybody a hard time for fielding prepaints, but I'd rather see the real deal.

RE: Topic

I wouldn't mind... so long as they don't discontinue the kits. As much as I like making lists and playing, the hobby aspect of it is what keeps me going.

A no from me. As time consuming as it is, modelling and painting are a big part of the hobby. Preassembled, prepainted miniatures would take away its soul. You may as well play with Star Wars figures.

If Games Workshop did this, then everyone who rides the whaaaambulance about the pricing will go into overdrives. "they're not painted just right" "wow, would've expected better quality" will be the by-words of the gaming community then.

Just stop complaining that this happens to be a two-fold hobby. If you can't paint, pay someone to paint for you. Then complain that they didn't do it how you wanted them to.

H.B.M.C. wrote:

Mark1130 wrote:What if GW released pre assembled and painted models...

If they did that then they couldn't sell you overpriced paints, glue and hobby tools.

Is it a fact that the paint is overpriced? It's generally comparable in size, quality, and cost to Vallejo, Reaper, and PP's line of paints.

I would not buy any, and I would expect GW to fold in the near future.

I'd just expect them to dump the line and file bankruptcy shortly after.

Like Wotc did with D&D minis (if a company their size can't make it work, no-one can).

Still, other games on the tabletop. About time another small miniatures company got the chance to do the "Global domination" thing.

I would not be a fan. Part of the draw is to be able to do your own thing with models, either in the poses you use, or the colours you paint them.

I'd love to see it just to watch our LGS owners head explode. the guy hates pre painted mini's

Didn't another mini company already try this and with less than spectacular results? Can't remember the name of the company offhand. If the quality can be kept high then it might be a winner but knowing GW, it would be outsourced to the cheapest possible supplier in order to keep the margins as high as possible.

I'd honestly stop collecting if they did that - modeling (and to a lesser extent, painting) is the biggest part of the hobby for me, as I don't get much time to get any games in. Take that away and I've got no reason to get them anymore. Too restricting in my opinion.

filbert wrote:Didn't another mini company already try this and with less than spectacular results? Can't remember the name of the company offhand.

Your thinking of confrontation/rackham.

Terrible idea


I played a game called "Mageknight" for a few years when I was a kid. Lots of "My Big dragon figure fighting... the same exact one."

I think of the "GW Hobby" more then the "I play 40k... the game... not the hobby". A bet a majority of the people posting here that want pre-assembled/painted figures don't have fully painted armies and can appretiate the end result.

Pre-assembled is fine, but pre-painted is not so great. I would only want it on Troop/Core choices, things I need in bulk.

But for my Tyranids, I know they wouldn't be in my Hive Fleet colors, so I'd have to repaint them anyway.

But pre-assembled, especially Fantasy rank and file, would be pretty nice.

In an ideal world, it would be great. People who don't like painting would be able to play without the guilt of unpainted models. I used to buy D'n'D minis and I quite liked that they were ready to go immediately.
At the same time, I like painting my warhammer armies, but hate assembling miniatures. Snap fit minis like those in the boxed sets are a godsend to me.

I know that in reality, a move to pre-oainted would suck resources away from what GW is really good at (high quality plastic kits) and enrage certain segments of the fanbase, so I would be against it actually happening for that reason. Nice idea, though.

To be honest, Skaven Clanrats largely are "preassembled" (I think preassembled is the wrong word for this thread, multi-monopose might be more appropriate). You only have to glue on the weapon arm. In this case, it works fine and makes the overall miniature look better. On reflection, I think I would definitely like to see more kits with complete bodies (like Dark Eldar, Beastmen etc) but keep separate options for heads, arms and the like.

When I made this thread, I did mean pre-assembled and painted released along side the current kits. I love the model and paint part, just cannon fodder fig's get so tiresome after painting the 30th one.

Very good discussion so far.

H.B.M.C. wrote:

Mark1130 wrote:What if GW released pre assembled and painted models...

If they did that then they couldn't sell you overpriced paints, glue and hobby tools.

They'll pull a Rackham on us: selling crappy pre-paints and releasing army or campaign books that tell you if you paint your models in certain colours they benefit from certain things in game.

I don't see it as a bad idea, there would probably be a fairly large market for something like this. However the prepaints would either have to be rather expensive or poorly painted. With that said though, I don't want to see GW release prepaints but discontinue their regular line as I rather like painting.

To each their own though.

insaniak wrote:I would be all for it, so long as it was alongside the regular range, rather than replacing it.

^ This.

It would make it far easier for me to branch out into other armies than Eldar. I have SOOOO much Eldar, the LAST thing I want to do is start a new army to build and paint. I despise the grey armies, so that is not really an option. I think G-Dubbs could really profit from somethign like this. I would wager that this very topic has come up a time or two in the boardroom...


King Ghidorah


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Brother SRM wrote: I wouldn't give anybody a hard time for fielding prepaints, but I'd rather see the real deal.

What about fielding unfinished models with no heads/arms/guns and bare plastic or metal? Would you rather see that? At least with pre-paints, you would get to see painted, finished, cool models the majority of the time. I mean, it's G-Dubbs. It's not like they'd put out crappy (comparatively) minis on a detail level of Star Wars Miniatures, or Axis & Aliies...



King Ghidorah

I'd never buy them.

But I understand that some people do not have the time, physical ability, or skill to paint. So, I'm not against the idea. They just wouldn't get a penny from me.

BrookM wrote:

H.B.M.C. wrote:

Mark1130 wrote:What if GW released pre assembled and painted models...

If they did that then they couldn't sell you overpriced paints, glue and hobby tools.

They'll pull a Rackham on us: selling crappy pre-paints and releasing army or campaign books that tell you if you paint your models in certain colours they benefit from certain things in game.

That last part?

I'm actually kind of...intrigued by that. It'd cut down on the Darkultrawolfangeltemplar armies at least

As Insaniak said, if they made them in addition to the regular range, it's fine. A bit of a low kick to those of us who got into the hobby because of the painting, but I understand not everyone likes to paint. If they replaced the models with prepainted crap I'd flip out. Heroclix, DnD minis and even reaper mini prepainted models all look like complete garbage. Eyes in the middle of cheeks, symbols and icons smeared-it looks like a two year old painted them with his breakfast food. If my warhammer models were completely replaced by that, I'd be pissed.

I think they could do it and do it successfully but not in the way you're thinking. They could release a small, skirmish level, game kind of a gateway drug for the younger market that would introduce people to the universe (both fantasy and 40k) with simplified rules that they could later expand into full-scale battles with later.

An example of what I mean would be something like this:
An army box with a small booklet that introduces the army and has unit information. The box could contain 1 HQlord, 1 troop/core choice and 1 fast or heavy/special or rare.

They could also release a battle box-set with 2 opposing forces and an additional booklet of fluff/scenarios that basically walked the players through a series of fights and the two units' struggle inside a larger war for a world/kingdom. (Smurfs vs. Orks, Empire vs. Dark Elves, etc.)

They could release small "expansions" that would introduce a dynamic between other armies.

The main fluff/rulebook would lay the groundwork for the mythos and serve as an advertising tool for larger battles later.

The models could be pre-painted of course. The basic idea would be an escalation league type environment but controlled by the company.