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I bought a Gundam kit on holiday, just to see what it would be like.

It's the 1/144 scale HG series Gundam Virtue -- more details from Hobby Link Japan
http://www.hlj.com/product/BAN952242

I haven't built it yet.

The reason I mention it is because the kit contains eight different colours of plastic, including a sprue which has three different colours all on the one sprue! I never knew this technique was possible.

It makes the kit very impressive. Just by using the kit parts and decals, a detailed and colourful model can be made. If you add the Gundam Markers, it can be detailed even further, without painting.

Anyway, could this lead GW towards making multi-colour figure kits? In theory, a sprue could be made with all the torsos on one side in blue, and all the legs on the other side in red. The other sprue in the kit could have the weapons in silver and the heads in white. Or whatver.

It would take clever design, but it's obviously possible because Bandai are doing it.

This seems to me like a good compromise between the evil heresy of pre-painted miniatures, and the grimdarkness of uniform grey or primer black armies.

It's nice and all, but you have to note that the multi coloured sprues are designed for models with lots of parts. If you take a look at the NG 1/144 models, you'll find that even though they have multiple colours, the detail is almost nonexistant. Multi-colour sprues are really best saved for larger kits. I can see it working for things like super heavies, but for models like the average space marine? Too small to make proper use of it. You'll have to paint them anyway.

While it might be a good thing, I think we have to realize that GW has no financial incentive to pursue this technology for their own products. They've convinced us that getting their products fresh from the molds is a virtue, that it makes it a "hobby" and even if they did want to make such things, just look at the reaction in the (joke) prepainted mini thread to see how poorly it would be received by some folks.

The quality and sophistication of model kits coming out of Japan especially is amazing, but I don't see GW even attempting these techniques unless a competitor in their market starts first.

Also, when you build one of those it doesn't sound like you are expected to paint them, some of the fun in building an army is painting it so it is unique to you.

Yeah I've seen these kits. Bandai makes top-end product, no doubt. I used to collect gundam models until my ing cat knocked over the bookshelf they were on. It would be awesome if GW used this method, if only for starter sets, but I somehow doubt we'll see that happening any time soon.

All my plastic turn into black , grey , or white after i undercoat them :<

such wonderful multi color injection into plastic is cool i guess , but totally redundant in our hobby aspect of this game.

Multicolor parts are one of the joys of injection molding. Different colors of plastic are injected into the mold in an automated fashion so that they meet in the required areas. It's a great technique for models that need no painting or very little like gundams or action figures.


Games workshop has no reason to do this as their models are glued together and painted, rather than snap fit gundams or action figures (though by the sound of it yours is a glue-together). It would just be a substantial extra cost for GW with no real benefit. Those machines aren't cheap.

No, his is a snap fit. HG 1/144 are all built to be snapped together. There are some cases where glue is useful, but it's almost never required.
Not only that, but you'd have to model every tiny piece of each model individually, or else they'd still be the same colour(since you can't give one piece multiple colours). Either that, or you'll have to paint it anyway.
So, precoloured plastic for models isn't what I'd really want.

However, if GW were to take a note from the Japanese, if there's one thing I'd have them do, it's put all the sprue connectors on parts that aren't visible(see Bandai's Hyakushiki and Akatsuki models, they had to leave all connection points invisible, as they were gold plated), and no mold lines.

Yes, "invisible" sprue attachment points would be a godsend!

I've never got the appeal of Gundam stuff, anime robots with prongs and wings poking off them. They all look the same don't they?

Buzzsaw wrote:They've convinced us that getting their products fresh from the molds is a virtue...

Perhaps a little too fresh, if they took their time they wouldn't get sink marks.

Howard A Treesong wrote:I've never got the appeal of Gundam stuff, anime robots with prongs and wings poking off them. They all look the same don't they?

Buzzsaw wrote:They've convinced us that getting their products fresh from the molds is a virtue...

Perhaps a little too fresh, if they took their time they wouldn't get sink marks.

I've never really been into Gundam. I prefer the more 'realistic' Crusher Joe and Macross type of giant robot. However, if you want a giant robot kit there's a lot more Gundam than anything else.

It only cost 1,260 Yen which is under £10 even at today's pathetic exchange rate. I got it with some idea of using it for a Tau Broadside but it's too large for that. Still, it should be a fun kit to build.

Howard A Treesong wrote:I've never got the appeal of Gundam stuff, anime robots with prongs and wings poking off them. They all look the same don't they?

From what I gathered, the "bad guy" robots of Zeon are more popular, and they have some variation in their designs, such as these fellows:

http://www.hlj.com/product/BAN934108
http://www.hlj.com/product/BAN955521
http://www.hlj.com/product/BAN919253

The "Gogg" is my personal favorite. It just looks cheerful, like an Egg of War.

Kilkrazy wrote:I...could this lead GW towards making multi-colour figure kits? In theory, a sprue could be made with ...it's obviously possible because Bandai are doing it...a good compromise...

Oh my. Killcrazy, what you have touched on is something that has bothered me for years. I have always been a modeler of all sorts, miniature painter, prop guy, plastic model builder, model rockets, cars aircraft etc. Comparing GW product to others pretty quickly shows some things they could ad that other producers have had for years:

Multicolor plastic components
Hidden seem line designs
Rubber additions (tracks)
Brass Etch
Poly cap (rubber ballsocket joins and poseable hinges)
Liquid metal finish (chrome)

GW kits never have these features. I will say they are making progress, the space marine heavy weapon sprue for example has bilaterally deivided heavy weapons that already have barrel holes when assembled, a major improvement! But where are the rest of the features? GW just doesn't make them.

I think you are totally right, the plastic colorations would be great, imagine chromed necrons, how sweet would that be? Other companies have been doing it for years...

Agamemnon2 wrote:

Howard A Treesong wrote:I've never got the appeal of Gundam stuff, anime robots with prongs and wings poking off them. They all look the same don't they?

From what I gathered, the "bad guy" robots of Zeon are more popular, and they have some variation in their designs, such as these fellows:

http://www.hlj.com/product/BAN934108
http://www.hlj.com/product/BAN955521
http://www.hlj.com/product/BAN919253

The "Gogg" is my personal favorite. It just looks cheerful, like an Egg of War.

I'm very unimpressed with you. Why didn't you mention the Kampfer?

http://www.hlj.com/product/BAN900366

I'm not sure GW sells in the volumes to allow for the level of variation and tech in a Gundam kit.

There are some technical issues, but less visible seam lines and hidden sprue connections should be easy enough for them to do. Bandai's been doing this for years, it's not like it's new technology. I mean, they've had hidden sprues(this is not the case with all their models, but with most) and invisible seamlines since at least the Hyakushiki, which was released in 2001.

Yes, GW could do something about mold lines and sprue connectors, but I was thinking more about the 1990s system injection technology for full-color kits, along with the overall design for polycaps (which is a lot more intense than you might guess).

That said, why couldn't GW return to the 1990s use of colored plastic? green Orks, tan Guardsmen & blue Nids.

Because the colour shows through white primer. And I use white primer exclusivly.

Anyway, polycaps and multi-colour sprues would be useless for GW models. Polycaps because GW models don't need to be articulate(and Bandai is starting to phase them out anyway. They're making sturdier joints these days). As for multi-colour sprues, GW models are too small to benefit.

I think a Wraithlord is 4" tall, a Carnifex is 5" long - that's big enough to use color when you consider a 1/144 Gundam is only 5" tall.

1/144 Gundam models don't have as much detail as a carnifex model. Besides, I'd rather paint them, and colour requires lots of coats before it's covered by white primer.

Here’s how this could work for SMs.

First, the kits need to be redesigned to split each marine into the following parts:

Head and pauldrons
Backpack and weapons
Torso+arms
Legs

Put each of these on a separate sprue

Each sprue could then be moulded in a different colour.

Mould the weapon/pack sprue in a metallic plastic.
Mould the other sprues in four different colours, say, blue, red, white and green.

Then, by picking different colour sprues, a wide variety of uniforms could be created.

The starter box could have a random selection. Regular customers could order whatever colours they liked through the website and have them delivered to the store.

By adding a colour marker to the starter box, new users could have a four colour army with details picked out in a fifth colour, for almost no effort.

If two friends bought a set, they could swap parts to make more variations. For example, the pauldrons and heads would be the same colour in one set, but a quick swap would let you have pauldrons to match your legs.

Naturally there are objections, such as the spectre of the dreaded PP figures. Many of these objections are similar to what was heard when plastics were first introduced, and we have come to love them.

Maybe coloured plastic would be harder to prime white, however, wouldn’t everyone be better off with starter SM armies that already come in an attractive colour scheme? The bigger danger at the moment is the grey horde, surely?

SMs are the obvious place to start because GW sell more of them than all other armies. Once the design method had been worked out, other armies could be reworked along similar lines. Eldar, Tau and Tyranids would all work well. The bare skin armies like Orks and IG do not lend themselves to the method because of the lack of obvious armour parts.

Well, if priming white is such a big deal, pastel plastics could be the answer. Light green Orks, tan Guardsmen & Tau, baby blue Nids, etc. Light enough that white primer doesn't struggle, but some color for variation on the board.

For those concerned about priming anime stuff:
pvc/ gundams or anything like that , look up

Mr Surfacer. it'll solve the coating problem.

Following a Benthamite philosophy -- the greatest good for the greatest number -- the white primer fans might have to suffer a bit so that the grey horde could be rescued from their greyness.

I prime with medium grey. I find white too pale and black too dark.

White primerers could prime once in med grey and then spray white to get the base white finish over coloured plastic. Alternatively, brush prime with acrylic gesso which comes in Titanium white as its basic colour.

I also use gesso priming and colour the gesso with paint if I want a different base colour.

This is all a theoretical discussion since it will take GW years to get around to changing their moulds even if they look at the idea of multi-colour models.

And they will only do it if there is a profit for them.

True, but colored plastic is something GW used to do. They could always go back to that.