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Unless their production methods differ appreciably from what we currently have, these models would end up costing a fortune.

Think how long it takes to clip models out of sprue, assemble including removing sprue and mold lines, and then actually paint them to a 3-color standard with a wash to make it look decent.

Even if it's 2-piece Macragge/Blackreach Tacticals, you're looking at a LOT of labor and time; waiting for each color of paint to try enough to wash, waiting for wash to dry, fixing up 'goofs' like an eye lens color slopping over onto the helmet...

10 fully painted Tacticals could easily be double or triple the price of a normal kit, and you'd be stuck with whatever generic color scheme GW decided to endorse (probably Ultras).

I don't think there'd be enough demand to keep the product around. Having pre-set colors in a game that places substantial differentiation on affiliation and background expressed through color scheme is too counter-intuitive for me to think it'd work. It's probably doable for stuff like Cadians, Aspect Warriors, and Fire Warriors, but how can it possibly work for Marines?

sourclams wrote:10 fully painted Tacticals could easily be double or triple the price of a normal kit...

Which precisely fits GW's business model...



King Ghidorah

I would, like most others stop collecting because warhammer is all about the painting and different colour schemes of armys.

Kanluwen wrote:

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

Well, AT-43 only had one campaign pack, which was on a snow world. If your infantry models had white or snow camo on the models, they'd get an extra cover save or something like that. They book actually told you that if you wanted that save or whatever it was, you gotta paint your minis white.

Ghidorah wrote:

sourclams wrote:10 fully painted Tacticals could easily be double or triple the price of a normal kit...

Which precisely fits GW's business model...



King Ghidorah

Yes, BUT, it wouldn't actually increase their margin, the additional price would get eaten up in labor costs.

Then you have the issues with demand for the product, which is probably going to be lower due to a merely 'adequate' paint job, wrong colors, or boring poses, and the headache of stocking triple the 'normal' number of Tactical boxes, but now in Ultramarine and Imperial Fist as well.

I think the direct and indirect costs eat up any margin incentive they'd have to do so.

BrookM wrote:

Kanluwen wrote:

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

Well, AT-43 only had one campaign pack, which was on a snow world. If your infantry models had white or snow camo on the models, they'd get an extra cover save or something like that. They book actually told you that if you wanted that save or whatever it was, you gotta paint your minis white.

Oooh yeah, I remembered hearing about that.

I found it quite entertaining.

It could get me interested again, well in buying more than the occasional mini anyways. As far as actually playing 40k...that will require a major rules revamp. I like almost nothing about the current edition of 40k.

BrookM wrote:

Kanluwen wrote:

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

Well, AT-43 only had one campaign pack, which was on a snow world. If your infantry models had white or snow camo on the models, they'd get an extra cover save or something like that. They book actually told you that if you wanted that save or whatever it was, you gotta paint your minis white.

Followed by them releasing a select amount of the models in snow camo, mitigating that requirement. Worst part? That upgrade was FREE, points-wise.

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.

Exactly. I'd rather see the same cruddy ultramarines on every table than have to look at ones dipped in house paint

Although quality is an issue. GW just wouldn't be able to paint everything to a decent standard, unless you paid like three times as much for them :3

I would be in favor of having maybe the starter set being pre-painted, but I wouldn't buy pre assembled, or pre painted models. I like painting my horde of Guardsmen thank you very much. it makes me feel a little attached...

I'd say no thanks. Not for any personal objections against pre-painted(I own butt tons of AT-43), but because I would buy more than I currently do(I own butt tons of AT-43).

If they cost a bomb in pieces what will the premium be on models that are made and painted?!!

Aside from stuff like Heroclix, the only companies I've seen offering painted miniatures have a smallish customer base and offer a limited range of painted items.

There's only one way a company the size of GW could hope to reliably supply the volume of painted miniatures and at a price anywhere near that needed to make this remotely viable and that's through unethical means - It's chinese kids in sweatshops painting 12 hours a day so they can afford to buy a potato for their family that night.

Correct me if I am wrong but aren't most prepainted minis just colored injection molded plastic. Which is why alot of them look like ass.

I would be fine with it. At the very least I feel some of the terrain that's available should have both painted and non-painted options.

sourclams wrote:Yes, BUT, it wouldn't actually increase their margin, the additional price would get eaten up in labor costs.

Initially, yes. But, just like the HUGE and highly expensive move to plastic models, the overhead eventually turns into profit and capitol to increase the scope of production lines.

There was an article in a White Dwarf back in the mid 90's that discussed the immense costs GW faced when first moving to plastic kits. It took MILLIONS of dollars in design of the models, development of the sprues, r&d on the plastic casting machines, purchasing the machines, production materials, and so on. As you well know, they have CLEANED UP on plastic kits and the product has shifted to majority plastic. With all the price hikes, they have more than made a good ROI.

No reason to think that pre-paints would not work out in a similar manner.

Of course, that's just my theories. They are base solely on conjecture and speculation. Basically what "sounds about right" to me. Take it with as much salt as you like.



King Ghidorah

Flashman wrote: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.

While I wouldn't buy prepainted figures because I enjoy personalization, to many people playing the game is a much bigger part of the hobby. Why the modeling/painting community gets up in arms over this in thread after thread is beyond me.

Correct me if I am wrong but aren't most prepainted minis just colored injection molded plastic. Which is why alot of them look like ass.

Some are but many are painted in chinese sweatshops by twelve year old kids and that's also why they look like ass. IF GW were to release prepainted minis you rest assured they wouldn't look like Golden Demon winners but probably more like the crap put out by heroclix and the like.

augustus5 wrote:

Flashman wrote: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.

While I wouldn't buy prepainted figures because I enjoy personalization, to many people playing the game is a much bigger part of the hobby. Why the modeling/painting community gets up in arms over this in thread after thread is beyond me.

I was quite relaxed when I made that observation, hardly up in arms at all actually

There are always painted armies on ebay, and there are several miniature painting services who would be happy to help the "I want prepaints" crowd.
Prepaints seem to be the death toll of too many systems.
I don't think they are a good idea.

If it was possible to introduce and work, then yes!

But it does seem too difficult to make work.

(I SUCK at painting :( )

Pre assembled I've been wanting forever.

Prepainted, no.

I think GW could released colored plastic models pre-painted on the sprue. It is pretty simple for Genestealers to be purple plastic and Blood Angels to be red.

All they would need to do is plan plastic sprues in such a way that the colors would match up better and then have the robot spray that part of the sprue with a little extra color. It is the same way toys are done as most of them are simply colored on the sprue by the raw color of the plastic then painted on the sprue.

It would take explicit design of the molds to make sure all the 'green' parts were on one sprue and all the black or metal parts were on another. That is assuming they wish to keep the quality the same. AoBR could have been done with 1piece plue marines and onepiece black orks with ork arms and heads on a green sprue and marine weapons on a black spure.

It 'COULD' be done but I am not sure the increased cost would lead to increased sales at all.I have a feeling anything anyone makes people will immediately say "costs too much" or "looks like crap"

Personally, I think it is easier to just do a drybrush and dip technique and call it a day, (since that is basically the quality you are paying for with a pre-painted model)

If there was a business model where it would work, I think it would be good for someone to do. I am not sure there is a working business model for pre-painted minis... Just aftermarket painted minis.

Hell, I'd LOVE GW terrain assembled and painted. Some of it is nice, but I look at GF9 and see higher quality, assembled, and painted for cheaper, it gives me no reason to buy GW terrain.

It'd be cooler if you could just rent the models for a game, or for a long period of time, rather than buying them.

GW could make a LOT of money from that

I wouldn't agree to it really, I like assembling my mini and then painting them in my own color scheme

wouldn't renting army make people want to switch over to the next big thing immediately after it launched? while just returning their old army ?

I have seen my friend's D&D prepaints and to me they look like gak, but I am a model painter. They like them just fine as they are a step up from pennies and poker chips. I could see the merits of some very basic prepaints, especially something with a simple color scheme... a blob of blue plastic with 2 dots for eyes, a silver gun, and a yellow rim around the shoulders = ultramarine, a blob of black plastic with a green face and arms with a silver axe head and gun = goff boy. A blob of tan plastic with, well, yeah thats it = fire warrior, necron warrior? those couldnt be too hard. At least we wouldnt have to play against the greys any more.

I don't see them ever doing this, for a lot of reasons.

chromedog wrote: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).

When did WotC file for bankruptcy?

They've dropped the D&D minis, certainly. But they 'made it work' for what? 10 years? That's a fair whack of time in the miniatures industry. And at a guess, I would say that it was the random collectible nature of the D&D minis that ultimately killed it off, rather than any inherent failing of pre-paints. Makes it harder for newcomers to collect what they want, as older sets become progressively hard to find, and you have to keep up the buzz to keep people buying boosters... which gets progressively harder with each set released.

Alongside sure go for it. If they stopped doing it as they do now in favor of assembled / painted I would stop playing. It's no longer MY army, it's (insert painter here)'s army that I'm using. I lose all personal connection to the army & to me it becomes a toy not a hobby.

Howard A Treesong wrote:If they cost a bomb in pieces what will the premium be on models that are made and painted?!!

Aside from stuff like Heroclix, the only companies I've seen offering painted miniatures have a smallish customer base and offer a limited range of painted items.

There's only one way a company the size of GW could hope to reliably supply the volume of painted miniatures and at a price anywhere near that needed to make this remotely viable and that's through unethical means - It's chinese kids in sweatshops painting 12 hours a day so they can afford to buy a potato for their family that night.

I do think that overseas painting operation is the only way GW could make this work. However, they could do it the way many other painting services do and not create a sweatshop.

Companies that have gone to prepaints have done so with games with a relatively limited number of factions and sub factions that can be produced en'masse on a production line. Unless GW wanted to only pick certain sub factions for prepaints, it would be hard to use this production model. GW is so varried that the only way I could see prepaints done would be if it was a special order where you select your forces and then pick from a list of GW approved paint schemes then GW has them painted and mailed to you from overseas.

Basically GW being the middleman for what many folks like this are already doing http://www.paintedfigs.com/index.html

cyrax777 wrote:Correct me if I am wrong but aren't most prepainted minis just colored injection molded plastic. Which is why alot of them look like ass.

Most prepaints are made of white or black vinyl. The figures are then painted (usually by hand, though quickly) with vinyl paint (or some other very sticky paint) that adheres to the vinyl better than standard paint, hence the near indestructibility of CMG paint jobs. Some look like crap and most are sub-par, but, I've found many that are tabletop quality, or can be made to be so with a bit of touchup.

Prepaints sell buckets and its the best thing since sliced bread... According to Rackham Look were it got them.

Recipe for disaster if you ask me...