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After some scouting over at the Privateer Press site I decided I'll give their plastics a try. So I've bought myself a Khador plastic heavy jack, for hacking, slashing and other atrocities (converting that is). Now, when I was looking at those models online they looked fine, if a bit "off". I couldn't put my figner on it just by looking at studio pictures so I thought "hey, how bad can it be" and went with it.

God damn.

It's like Battletech all over again. Well, almost. The model I got had precisely 0 sharp edges (you know, important on a mechanical model). Every round thing (like vents, holes, arm joints) was either oval or some other misshapen attempt at circular shape. Some of the rivets looked like they were torched with a flamethrower. Some surfaces got that melted look you get when the mold is lifted to early and the plastic warps. The body of the jack wasn't even symmetrical.

Sure, the model is salvageable, and it probably will look alright after some paint is applied, but it was a major disappointment after GW sharp and crisp kits (and it's not like GW makes the best ones).

So, am I just plain unlucky, and that was just some one off accident that somehow made it thought QC, or is that how all the PP plastics look like?

Sounds like you got a bad one. Maybe it got left out in the sun?

I have a couple of the plastic kits, and other than a ridiculous sprue cut on the Slayer, they were pretty sharp.

The Khador has been known to have sinkholes though.

Be sure to contact the frontdesk at privateer for replacements if its that bad. They will surely help you out.

I'd wish it was one faulty box but I found this review of the same model I bought:

http://www.drunkdwarves.com/?p=564

And it doesn't look good either

Something is rotten in the PP kingdom? I've heard stories about their casting issues but come on...

I'll probably have to fork out for a metal Jugger Extreme now, and hope it turns up without issues.

Haven't had any problems myself. Sounds like it probably got left out in a hot truck at some point: Privateer plastics are fairly easy to bend if heated (reshaping bent parts is easy enough to do with a hair dryer, in fat), so it wouldn't surprise me if they deformed rather drastically when exposed to extreme heat for a prolonged time.

His Master's Voice wrote:I'd wish it was one faulty box but I found this review of the same model I bought:

http://www.drunkdwarves.com/?p=564

And it doesn't look good either

Something is rotten in the PP kingdom? I've heard stories about their casting issues but come on...

I'll probably have to fork out for a metal Jugger Extreme now, and hope it turns up without issues.

Well, they are made in China, so this sounds about par for the course. Considering the delivery problems and horrible quality, plastics are biting PP in the ass quite hard. Let's just hope they won't take the rest of Warmachine down with them.

I'd like to come to PP's defense on this (Warmachine has been the game I've been playing the most for the last few years), but their plastics have not been what they should have been. I don't buy PP plastics unless I can see them in advance, open the box and examine them. Their quality control just is not there.

At all.

Generally I dislike plastic models for anything other than vehicles. Metal models are always poorer quality when plastic tries to do something that isn't just flat planes. They can be OK if the price is reduced accordingly (such as with Perry Miniatures or Warlord), but when (as with PP and GW) they hike the price up pretty darn close to what is the going rate for metals, then forget it!

Plastic < Metal in terms of quality, always has been, always will be no matter the BS put out by the publicists of the companies concerned.

If you want quality, don't ever look at plastic, unless you have had a taste transplant.

I disagree completely. I have some of the sentinel sprues, a recent GW release (March 2009?) and the quality is absolutely fantastic.

Osbad wrote:Plastic < Metal in terms of quality, always has been, always will be no matter the BS put out by the publicists of the companies concerned.

And resin > metal, but that's not the point. I didn't expect them to be Tamiya stuff, just that they match the quality of GW vehicle kits like Kans or Dreads. Instead, I got something I'm not even sure is worth working with.

Osbad wrote:If you want quality, don't ever look at plastic, unless you have had a taste transplant.

Erm, kits like Stegodon, Doomwheel or Bell are relatively high quality stuff. Yes, doing a plastic, organic kit with more than one pose will always be harder than a mecha kit but even then, it can be done. GW giant is a good example of this.

His Master's Voice wrote:

Osbad wrote:Plastic < Metal in terms of quality, always has been, always will be no matter the BS put out by the publicists of the companies concerned.

And resin > metal, but that's not the point. I didn't expect them to be Tamiya stuff, just that they match the quality of GW vehicle kits like Kans or Dreads. Instead, I got something I'm not even sure is worth working with.

Fair enough. Bad moulding on top of a not-perfect process just compounds the problem.

His Master's Voice wrote:

Osbad wrote:If you want quality, don't ever look at plastic, unless you have had a taste transplant.

Erm, kits like Stegodon, Doomwheel or Bell are relatively high quality stuff. Yes, doing a plastic, organic kit with more than one pose will always be harder than a mecha kit but even then, it can be done. GW giant is a good example of this.

Nah. None of them work for me. In all the cases - even the Giant and the Doomwheel/bell the lack of undercuts is obvious and a big detractor for me, which devalues the model. Plastic will always be an inferior solution for such things, only worth buying at a significant discount over metal - and GW's and PP's practice of pricing such kits at near-metail prices is just a rip off tactic in my book.

Well, the de gustibus non est disputandum so let's leave it at that.

I have the Cygnar plastic jack. I find the quality of the cast a bit muddy, but workable. There is definitely problems with scale. I just finished working on the torso of my Old Rowdy conversion and find that the two feet are of different sizes - and both are much smaller than the metal model. The plastic is hard and difficult to cut. On the upside, the stiffness of the plastic means it takes pins very well, and jointing heavy metal parts to a plastic torso are easy.

Overall, I perfer the metals, but bought the one plastic kit to get the parts for the new warjack. PP Frontdesk claims that there are no current plans to discontinue the old metals. We'll see if this is the case.

From what I've seen/read it sounds like the same plastic as the old Warzone boxed set.
Presumably the casting tech has improved since then but those were horrible blobby miniatures, cutting them was a huge pain, and you couldn't use poly cement on them.

The issues people seem to be having with the PP plastics are issues I'd expect to see with old resin molds not a brand new line of plastic kits.

Sorry about the quality of the pic - it was meant to showcase size problems... but it works as well to show quality of the plastic. You can see part of the Ironclad's body in the top of the frame.



Edit: HOLY CRAP... Plastictrees... do mine old eyes decieve me? Welcome back!

It's a well known 'fact' that PP have been having problems with their plastics, even their stuff that's moulded properly.

Off the top of my head there's been:

1: Ridiculous conversion rate ($/£) for Plastic heavy kits.
2: Shortages of the above. Heavy myrmidons are sold out everywhere.
3: Delayed releases for light warjacks.
4: Hordes releases obviously intended to be plastic (Legion heavy warbeasts, Skinwalkers) released in metal.
5: No sign of the Retribution cavalry or the new Man-o-Wars

I will add in my 2 cents as well on this. I dont actually play any of PPs games but I have friends who do and who own some plastic kits and have been there when they open them and they are pretty weak for the most part. They are not the worst models I have seen. But they are in the bottom 50% at the least. Plus there cost doesnt really fit the quality you are getting.

GW might charge me out the butt for there models but they are very very well done so it helps make up for it.

Well, it seems that was my first, and for the time being, last purchase of PP plastic kit.

Though I did just order a Juggernaut Extreme...

Wow, this is interesting.

However, the problem seems to lie directly with the factory in China.

I did some research into who does that particular kind of plastic that PP (and Alkemy) uses so I could potentially use it for my own game I'm funding. It turns out it's basically a single (or small group) factory in China that's doing the plastics for both Alkemy, PP, and anyone else using that plastic.

Because of various patents or some legal thing, only that factory can use that particular mix of plastic (which is necessary for the kind of plastic minis that have details that previously only metal molds could do. This is because this plastic handles a bit like resin, where while warm, it's very flexible.

Kraken Editions, the guys behind Alkemy, also announced a little over a month ago (May 30th) that Alkemy was going metal due to delays in the plastics process.

So, sounds like that Factory took on too many jobs at once, rushed a bunch of stuff, and now whole product lines are suffering.

I've gotten two Cygnar plastic heavies for Cyclones and two Retribution heavies in the past couple months and have no complaints with either. I already had two Defenders, two Ironclads ( and Rowdy ) in metal so it wasn't a problem with trying to match anything else.


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His Master's Voice wrote:Though I did just order a Juggernaut Extreme...

Already have the Behemoth?

I've had zero problems with the plastic Cryx Helljacks I've gotten, and I've not heard of anyone at the FLGS getting and bad stuff either. I only hear of bad product on the internet, and it's most often accompanied with reports of PP replacing anything that was bad.