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I'm still a bit new, but here's how I feel about them:

Metal: I love the weight that metal gives, it just... feels right. But they're a pain in various unmentionables to work with. Just... eesh. On the plus side, I have yet to have one break on me.
Resin: The only resin I've worked with was FW stuff, so it's a limited exposure, and frankly, I was... Intimidated by it. The level of detail is amazing, but that same quality makes me nervous about changing the stock models in even minute ways. Also, I was shocked at how brittle they were.
Plastic: Seems to be a nice balance. Not as tough as metal, or as detailed as Resin, but easy to work with and more... approachable.

So I voted plastic. Though that might change once I actually get around to actually painting anything.

Although, I think they have more detail in metal, I like working and playing with plastic. I always fear dropping the metal stuff.

My favorite has to be plastic, but I am turning into a resin fan. I don't however like the fact that every Forgeworld piece I buy seems to be warped or deformed in some fashion, but I digress. Overall ease and converting hands down best material is plastic. Hopefully when I order FW Imperial Lightning Fighter it will not be all jacked up!!

Mike

Resin. Detail of metal. Workability of plastic.
Also it doesn't require high temp or prohibitively expensive equipment.

The new dark plastics in the trygon and venerable sets and really nice and strong, very crisp and sharp too. Doesn't get better then that.

Well - assuming the models were 100% identical, I'd go with plastic because it's easier to prime. But for the time being (and it's getting very very close) metal still edges out plastic detail wise so for characters and only characters I'm ok with metal.

Plastic, it's the easiest to work with.

Plastic for "basic" units for good conversion and good neough quality, resin for unique or important characters for high quality

I prefer metal, the detail and undercuts are better. Plastic is ok though. I like resin, it's the best of the lot for detail but requires that bit more work, metal is more durable. If resin was cheaper though, I'd buy it more often.

I am surprised as many people went with anything other than plastic ... shocked actually ... none of them must be big on conversions.

I do like the detail of metal figures but weight for a whole army is too much. I like plastics due to its ease of use and weight savings. The details in plastics is steadily improving so the detail difference isn't that much.

I like the weight of metal - I'm of an age where I tend associate weight with quality.

My BA army has at least $5 in nickels (5 cent coins) glued to the underside of bases to give plastic models some heft.

Pewter all the way. I <3 Anima

Bear LaMorte wrote:I am surprised as many people went with anything other than plastic ... shocked actually ... none of them must be big on conversions.

Or we actually have enough skill to convert non-plastic. I hate the clean-up time a typical plastic model calls for.

Edit: Not meant to sound like metal lovers are better than anyone, just clarifying that plastic-lovers aren't the only ones who get to convert.

i like plastic because its easier to convert, easier to put together, and best of all: its alot cheaper

Plastic as its easier to paint. I hate metal with a passion.

Plastic, It's easy to paint, put together, convert and is alot cheaper!

Plastic= Cheap, Easy to paint and alows for easy cutting, and molding for conversions

I like metal because of the weight. Plastic is fragile and yes it is easy to convert

Like plastic. No pinning involved

I'm sort of surprised that metal and resin got as many votes as they did. I can understand if you're casting at home, but...

With metal, you're paying much more money for something which is all but impossible to convert unless you spend a ton of money on tools (including a respirator...), all for something that's heavy, has a really hard time holding paint, and for something that BENDS. Once you loose detail in metal (say, from a particularly bad tumble off a table), that's it, you're done.

With resin, you're paying MUCH more money for something that becomes soft and bendey when you so much as leave it in a hot car on the way to the gaming store. That and it's far more brittle. And far more toxic.

Plastic is, by far, the best way to go. Cheapest, easiest, and, now that they're getting technology better, holds detail just as well as metal, and is far more difficult to destroy, and is much better to paint.

There's a reason why GW has been moving towards all-plastic as fast as it possibly can...

Resin and then plastic. I hate dealing with metal and will gladly shell out 10-20 extra dollars for something that doesn't look like a PoS and weigh half a ton.

Generalstoner wrote:Plastic is obviously easier to convert but I prefer the way metal figures are cast and I think paint holds to it better than plastic.

the paint is not my issue, ever. I want a full army first, paint is not my priority

Plastic for sure, easier to glue together, easier to convert, and if you break plastic you can fix it, try doing that with metal.

Plastic for me.
I haven't had much problem with it(providing i actually have plastic glue when I convert instead of superglue)
Resin...I haven't worked with but I have heard some things about it.
Mainly how brittle it is and that sometimes your model is chipped/broken when you get it from FW
And metal looks good, but I rarely use it. I hate that it comes in a few pieces and I don't have the time to convert it, nor do I want to.
HOWEVER, if I where to cast my own custom pieces(might be doing that soon if finances work right) I would use metal over resin any day.

Plastic

I do like the metal figurines for their details, the poll was asking for standard model. Thus, I would have to go with plastic. Its easier to assemble and it doesn't weigh as much. It's good stuff ^^.

plastic for building, metal for painting

Plastic all the way! Only thing I preffer with metal is that it feels better when you hold it and it won't tip over as easily during gaming. *shrugs*

Metal all the way. Plastic warps too much in the heat, which ruins your paint job. Plastic cannot achieve the level of detail the white metal does. Plastic breaks too easy when you drop it. Plastic is harder to clean up properly. Plastic costs more to get the initial mold for than metal so it actually ends up costing quite a bit more in initial monetary layout. Plastic is too lightweight, so it doesn't sit properly on some tables, and slides too easily off of some terrain.


Until they can actually get the detail of plastic to be better than the detail of white metal then I will never ever like it. When I look at a dire avenger model and see that the models butt and grenade hanging off of it's waist pretty much flow into each other with no real 3d detail to separate the two, I have to ask myself what kind of garbage did I buy. I can cast that better in White Metal and actually get the level of detail right.

Plastic hands down.

I just can't stand the idea of pinning metal models together.

Plastic just holds without any hastle.