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So I was looking on the FW website, specifically terrain, when I realised that 3/4 of the terrain section was 'out of stock'. It has been this way for a very long time now, is it possible that they are no longer in production? I had noticed that some terrain has already been removed (the cod wall sections).

Even items such as the imperial fortress walls are out of stock, and at £700 no sane human I know would buy one!

Perhaps someone can enlighten me on why FW seems to be stopping producing their terrain? I have got to say that I am at a loss.

Cain

(handy link)

http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Warhammer-40000/Warhammer_40,000_Terrain?filter_action=3&filter_value=1

Long story short:

We don't know. The only answer I've gotten out of FW is that they're in the process of redoing the molds.

Perhaps they're renewing the molds? As I understand it, they wear down with use, and imperfections can creep in, so they recreate the molds from the originals every once in a while. Don't quote me on it, though.

Some has gone altogether. The downed Land Speeder, the crashed Piranha...

In the case of Tyranid terrain, the moulds wear down pretty fast and FW has no intention to make new ones. When an initative started on Warpshadow.com to make a collective order, FW finally answered this (15th March):

Hi there.

I’ve talked to the people in charge and they have informed me that due to the cost of making these terrain pieces we would have to increase the price of each kit by at least three times the previous amount. However, we are not prepared to re-release them at those prices and so we will be continuing the research into alternative production methods for our larger scenery pieces. As such we will not be able to supply them to you for the foreseeable future. Once again, please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused.

Kanluwen wrote:Long story short:

We don't know. The only answer I've gotten out of FW is that they're in the process of redoing the molds.

Lies!

Kan just bought it all so there would be none left for the rest of us!

Commander Cain wrote:Even items such as the imperial fortress walls are out of stock, and at £700 no sane human I know would buy one!1

Makes me one insane guy then

SilverMK2 wrote:

Kanluwen wrote:Long story short:

We don't know. The only answer I've gotten out of FW is that they're in the process of redoing the molds.

Lies!

Kan just bought it all so there would be none left for the rest of us!

Damnit Silver, stop ruining my plans!

I was going to form the Forge World Cartel, selling resin terrain at rockbottom prices to the Venezuelans and then smuggling it into the UK.

Could be that like with other ranges production is shipped to China, which takes a few months.

I think it is more than just mold wear. There is a limited ceiling and volume associated with terrain pieces. They also take more material and labor to produce. So as far as priority I assume they fall down the latter a bit. It will be interesting to see how this new RoB tile turns out as it is a departure of sorts material wise. I think in general they are looking for some efficiency and improving the process and the product, as they should be especially with the terrain products.

It's not the moulds that will be the major problem, when I was working there you could only get so many useable 'pulls' from the moulds. On top of this the wear on the masters would be quite high, requiring regular maintenance.

Time is something, like it or not, that FW don't have for limited production items. Taking into consideration the more modern minis and the techniques that have been learned over the the years, I'm surprised they weren't pulled earlier. Terrain probably wasn't a big seller, as we never made it by the bucketfull, unlike the newer superheavy kits.

I would be less than surprised if you couldn't get the Fortress on a made to order basis, but as I've been away from it for some time I have no idea.

The Fortress was already on a "made to order" basis.

I suppose terrain is not going to be FW's best seller, while they made some fantastic pieces I would much rather spend money on their figures such as DKoK or the new marine kits.

Glad I got all my Nid terrain last year. We ordered in 2-3 of all the pieces for one of the tables in the bunker.

Nice pieces, and after 4 hours of trying to carve one little piece of it out of pink foam, I gave up and appreciate it so much more.)

Kanluwen wrote:The Fortress was already on a "made to order" basis.

That's pretty correct, although sometimes they have one cast up. I don't know if they burn extra resin or what....

AgeOfEgos wrote:

Kanluwen wrote:The Fortress was already on a "made to order" basis.

That's pretty correct, although sometimes they have one cast up. I don't know if they burn extra resin or what....

I think they'll have some cast up to take to events and show off or GW asks them to have one cast up and then decides they didn't need it.

There was always a separate cell while I was there, set aside for the odd Manta or other large made to order kits. They always sent across the most experienced caster to ensure it all came out correctly, as the moulds were huge in comparison to the regular stuff.

TBH it's been some time since I worked there, and the guys that were there at the time were great to work with.

The market for nice pre-made terrain is a pretty small one. Given that they haven't produced any new pieces in a while I'm surprised that they've saturated their market.

Scott-S6 wrote:The market for nice pre-made terrain is a pretty small one. Given that they haven't produced any new pieces in a while I'm surprised that they've saturated their market.

Depends on the piece. The new stuff for 40k that Gale Force 9 is producing is selling very fast, and I have to re-order each week. Several guys have bought 2+ sets from me. The advantage to it is that it comes prepainted out of the box, and is good generic 40k terrain.

But I agree that the FW stuff is limited in market. Most of it is quite specific, expensive, and takes some time to get it ready.

But it's also sweet stuff. Wish I had more of it.

mikhaila wrote:

Scott-S6 wrote:The market for nice pre-made terrain is a pretty small one. Given that they haven't produced any new pieces in a while I'm surprised that they've saturated their market.

Depends on the piece. The new stuff for 40k that Gale Force 9 is producing is selling very fast, and I have to re-order each week. Several guys have bought 2+ sets from me. The advantage to it is that it comes prepainted out of the box, and is good generic 40k terrain.

But I agree that the FW stuff is limited in market. Most of it is quite specific, expensive, and takes some time to get it ready.

But it's also sweet stuff. Wish I had more of it.

Sell you my Hydra Emplacement for a franchise

Did just get the FW river sections though. From what I was told they made a few sets and never really released them. They are pretty brittle and were one of the first kits made by FW. These came nicely pre-painted from a friend cleaning out his closet. Ex-GW VP. To him it was 'an old river', he was quite amused by how happy it made me.)

They did see a general release, but never really sold well.
I think the molds got damaged as well, but I dunno.

I'm glad i bought my set when i did, tank factory et al. They truly are nice solid pieces.

It is a shame on the tyranid sets, while i probably never would have gotten one, having the option there is a comforting thought. i wonder if they could remold for plastic, the return on that investment probably would not work out though.

mikhaila wrote:

Scott-S6 wrote:The market for nice pre-made terrain is a pretty small one. Given that they haven't produced any new pieces in a while I'm surprised that they've saturated their market.

Depends on the piece. The new stuff for 40k that Gale Force 9 is producing is selling very fast, and I have to re-order each week. Several guys have bought 2+ sets from me. The advantage to it is that it comes prepainted out of the box, and is good generic 40k terrain.

But I agree that the FW stuff is limited in market. Most of it is quite specific, expensive, and takes some time to get it ready.

But it's also sweet stuff. Wish I had more of it.

Even though it's less than ideal for Warmachine, I've also bought the
Gale Force 9 Pre-painted terrain. Beautiful stuff. The giant tree stump is
kind of odd, though.