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Today I bought a bargain bin Droid Tri-fighter made by Revell.

The regular price was £12.99 and it was on sale for £5.99. I've bought four to chop up to use for building terrain.

Anyway, the point is that this is a snap-fit kit with moving parts and comes ready painted and moulded in eight colours. The amount of detail is really surprising. The curved arms have four different colours on including some quite complex designs. Presumably it's all done with automated masks and sprays.

Even at the original price of £12.99 that is a bargain. The kit is as big and complex as a typical 40K vehicle.

Isn't this the way forwards for GW? An end to the grey hordes? SM stuff could be offered in several different coloured plastics with various print schemes on top. The amount of variation would be huge.

No, GW is bland enough as it is.

I would find the "oh this topic again" picture if i wan't so lazy.

Firstly GW will never do it. In there view they are a miniture company first and formost, and a wargames company second. Just look at the way they view golden deamon and the way they view tornys.

Secondly i personaly think it would be a very very bad idea. The reason to personalise your force and do something creative have been dissapering for years, lets not have another nail in that coffin.

Finaly i know e kit you are talking about and i dissagree with the idea that it is even in the same league as GW models. The detail is nothing like GW. on top of that the price is reduced by bulk production and cheap workforce (revell are made in china where as GW make there stuff in the UK).

My answer is not going to be a "no."

It's a "HELL no."

A picture of the mentioned model would be nice though.

Kilkrazy wrote:Today I bought a bargain bin Droid Tri-fighter made by Revell.

The regular price was £12.99 and it was on sale for £5.99. I've bought four to chop up to use for building terrain.

Anyway, the point is that this is a snap-fit kit with moving parts and comes ready painted and moulded in eight colours. The amount of detail is really surprising. The curved arms have four different colours on including some quite complex designs. Presumably it's all done with automated masks and sprays.

Even at the original price of £12.99 that is a bargain. The kit is as big and complex as a typical 40K vehicle.

Isn't this the way forwards for GW? An end to the grey hordes? SM stuff could be offered in several different coloured plastics with various print schemes on top. The amount of variation would be huge.

Prepainted stuff kills GW's effort of making their products "worth" something.

for one they cant sell the paints and hobby products.
2nd, they wouldn't be able to justify the price as "hobby" as easily.

and finally it gets dangerous close to decent " pvc figure / toys " out there that is like 1/4 of GW price.

Gorlack wrote:A picture of the mentioned model would be nice though.

Necron Tau Hybrid gunship xD

I left Star Wars miniatures for that reason.
I love spending an hour on a single marine.
I love to show off my minis and have my family be surprised i have talent that doesnt involve video games.

I have to say that is one of the nicer pre-painted figures I've seen. Most of the ones I've seen are pretty terrible.

Having said that I don't see them going down that route.

hotsauceman1 wrote:I left Star Wars miniatures for that reason.
I love spending an hour on a single marine.
I love to show off my minis and have my family be surprised i have talent that doesnt involve video games.

Same here. I get a sense of accomplishment out of a job well done on painting and modeling, and it is a good way to relax.

If I was going to get pre-painted figures to use, I may as well just play a board game or something, since for me painting and building is the biggest draw of 40k (though I do actually get a game in from time to time).

What GW can do is offer both painted and unpainted minis. I'd like to think it'd be a good business model, assuming prices are reasonable and makes sense. There'd still be a ton of hobbyists who'd buy the unpainted stuff and still be a ton of players who'd just buy the pre-painted stuff, I'd assume. Seems like a win-win situation to me (again, assuming there is proper pricing).

The main question would be color variety and such in the pre-painted models. What if someone who doesn't want to paint wants red Necrons and GW only sells metallic silver Necrons? Or Skaven w/ pink clothing? etc. I suppose the outsourcing/commission community would still have work to do.

I feel like if there was a market for this, someone would have already entered that arena.

I feel like Lego gaming may be a better alternative to pre-painted minis. Easy to customize for WYSIWIYG which is conducive to wargaming. Lots of fantasy skeles and Orcs and dragons and such already between Legos and Megablocks. And we have seen some downright *AMAZING* lego tanks.

http://www.brickbrigade.com/

Personally, If something was gonna go pre-painted, I would rather play something intended to be pre-made like lego wargaming over just prepainted crappy figures trying to interact with wargaming figs. But these custom Legos are not cheaper than Wargaming minis... But they would appeal to me.

Someone should design some 40k-looking lego bitz!

http://stores.brickbrigade.com/-strse-Minifigs-cln-Video-Game-Characters/Categories.bok

All you would need is a helmet, a back pack and a bolter!

Dr. Cheesesteak wrote:What GW can do is offer both painted and unpainted minis. I'd like to think it'd be a good business model, assuming prices are reasonable and makes sense. There'd still be a ton of hobbyists who'd buy the unpainted stuff and still be a ton of players who'd just buy the pre-painted stuff, I'd assume. Seems like a win-win situation to me (again, assuming there is proper pricing).

The main question would be color variety and such in the pre-painted models. What if someone who doesn't want to paint wants red Necrons and GW only sells metallic silver Necrons? Or Skaven w/ pink clothing? etc. I suppose the outsourcing/commission community would still have work to do.

I could see this working if they made all the prepainted stuff one piece zero customization models. Let's face it there is a large contingent that plays these games with little to no interest in the modeling/painting side of the hobby. This would help those players stay in the hobby and perhaps attract others who wouldn't otherwise get into the games

The key would be keeping the multi-part unpainted stuff far more dynamic, so they don't take a big hit by losing players on the fence about the hobby aspect and losing the paints/supplies sales. (though this could be mitigated if the pre-painted stuff brings in players who would have never considered it before)

Dust Tactic is pretty much doing the right thing for pre painted stuff

Does anyone remember the old GW spray paints in a can? Great idea. Get your basic colors of your army and fine detail later if you wish.

The corporation will never go back to that again due to the higher profit margins with the standard pots of paint.

GW with pre painted stuff? Probably with hell freezes over.

This is a great information....thanks for sharing.

Reaper offers both prepaints and unpainted.

Just saying

Pre-paints are one thing (I'm not a fan, painting is a big part of the experience for me), what KK is suggesting is different.

These kits are presumably snap fit, and while the molding on the components would be as detailed I think this would lead to the whole kits being simpler. We would also certainly only get one "flavour" of each kit. Everyone one would have an ultramarine Land raider or a blood angel storm raven.

While this might favour better looking gaming (if bland hegemony is desirable?) it would also lead to a poorer hobby IMO.

Right, although at least that would be a step up from the mass of grey plastic-coloured Storm Ravens I have seen!

I think it is definitely a market that could be explored, although considering the price of unassembled and basic plastic GW kits compared to practically everything else on the market, I shudder to think how much an assembled and painted example would cost. I'm not sure how more inclusive that would make GW games.

If there's such a big market for pre-painted stuff, how come painted minis sell so bad on ebay? One answer is "most of them are bug-ugly", but then again, factory-prepainted toy soldiers are usually not great too.

Gundams come in eight colours with additional stickers, have more detail and options, and are poseable, and cost less than GW kits and are more popular.

Kilkrazy wrote:Gundams come in eight colours with additional stickers, have more detail and options, and are poseable, and cost less than GW kits and are more popular.

While GW doing specific models in specific colors is certainly feasible--it would also lead to some issues. Are Space Marines going to be molded in green plastic or blue? Black? What Chapter/book are they intended for?
Or how about Tyranids. Are the models all going to be for one specific Hive Fleet? Necrons gonna be one Tomb World?
The list goes on, but it primarily revolves around the idea that this is a case where "more detail" on the models (the models being primarily colored to save time from painting) is going to result in "less variety".

Gundams are a completely different story as they have specific color schemes, with many of the model kits as well being for specific Gundams and their pilots who have very recognizable color schemes. The decals are intended for that specific Gundam.
The Gundams which are meant to be more "generic" (like the ones from 08 MS) when you look at them in the series had a huge amount of standardization across them with very specific colors. The sniper Gundams for example were all green, with no variation in tone or shade.

Unless GW goes to having everyone for a specific army book wearing the same thing with no variation, I don't see it happening or even really being feasible without them creating a whole crapload of duplicate models in different colors.

Kilkrazy wrote:Isn't this the way forwards for GW? An end to the grey hordes? SM stuff could be offered in several different coloured plastics with various print schemes on top. The amount of variation would be huge.

I would hope not. Painting and modeling is my favorite part of the hobby.

Also, I wouldn't think so. GW touts themselves as a miniatures and hobby company, first and foremost. Further, wouldn't they have to have miniatures painted in a variety of options since people would want to play Ultramarines or Salamanders or Pre-Heresy Luna Wolves and so on?

Just my opinion.

The Gundams are another example of advanced moulding technology that GW has not caught up with.

It doesn't matter about character Gundams, the basic point is that Gundam kits can be moulded in multi-colour plastic with different colours on the same sprue frame. (Matchbox models introduced two colour moulding on separate frames in the 1970s.)

The technology exists. I would like to see GW maintain their reputation as a leading model figure manufacturer by using that technology.

It's just a matter of investment in the equipment and mould design.

Well, investment and finding colors which allow for the most return on said investment.

Not every Guard player wants the Cadian 8th, nor does every Cadian 8th player want to use their "standard" uniform.

Can you imagine the argument on Dakka if this was the case?

"Are you willing to play against someone who uses mismatched color schemes?"

Kilkrazy wrote:Today I bought a bargain bin Droid Tri-fighter made by Revell.

The regular price was £12.99 and it was on sale for £5.99. I've bought four to chop up to use for building terrain.

Anyway, the point is that this is a snap-fit kit with moving parts and comes ready painted and moulded in eight colours. The amount of detail is really surprising. The curved arms have four different colours on including some quite complex designs. Presumably it's all done with automated masks and sprays.

Even at the original price of £12.99 that is a bargain. The kit is as big and complex as a typical 40K vehicle.

Isn't this the way forwards for GW? An end to the grey hordes? SM stuff could be offered in several different coloured plastics with various print schemes on top. The amount of variation would be huge.

I am not an expert on this but my guess is that large toy companies can do this because they sell a significantly larger amount of a single item compared to GW. This means the up front costs like setting up production get spread over a larger number of items that will be sold. I could be completely wrong but that is just my guess as to why they can offer such nice miniatures (and all toys are really some kind of miniature). at such a low price.

The reason I don't think GW will go this way is that the number of color schemes that would have to be available probably makes this a little but of an unrealistic for them at this time. For example said company could make TIE fighters which have a single (well mostly anyway) established look including their coloring. Now if you look at a Rhino what color would you paint it? And then if you are going to offer different colors you are going to increase costs.

Kilkrazy wrote:
Isn't this the way forwards for GW?

No.

kronk wrote:

Kilkrazy wrote:Isn't this the way forwards for GW? An end to the grey hordes? SM stuff could be offered in several different coloured plastics with various print schemes on top. The amount of variation would be huge.

I would hope not. Painting and modeling is my favorite part of the hobby.

Also, I wouldn't think so. GW touts themselves as a miniatures and hobby company, first and foremost. Further, wouldn't they have to have miniatures painted in a variety of options since people would want to play Ultramarines or Salamanders or Pre-Heresy Luna Wolves and so on?

Just my opinion.

Me too, I absolutely love painting/modelling, and the chances are I probably wouldn't buy any pre-painted stuff.

But. that's just me. I know there are a lot of wargamers who don't have the time and/or disposition to paint, something that has become an increasingly tall order considering the size of army needed for a modern 40k/WFB army. Even a lot of players at my club, who you would say are a notch above casual in terms of the amount of time they spend playing, have armies of unpainted (not even undercoated) plastic and metal.

I think there have been some failures from previous pre-painted lines by other companies, but I think in most cases that was due to lack of support for the game system itself or the manufacturer not implementing it correctly, rather than an inherent problem with the concept.

But, arguably no-one is better positioned to try this kind of thing than GW, and they have the financial capital to back it up. You could also say that they could benefit massively in turnover - after all time spent modelling and painting is time not spent buying new stuff.

It would need to be plastic I think though - with the current Finecast QC issues, liquid green stuff would be no good on a mini that is already supposedly finished. Finally, as is often the case, I don't think this should be viewed as an 'either/or' thing. No one is suggesting that GW drop all of their current lines in favour of pre-painted stuff. But, there would be nothing to stop them releasing a few of the more popular lines, in standard colours, alongside their existing range.