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Personally I don't see a great deal of difference in final painted model and material the model is made of.

If the material captures the details, then the model will look the same after you cover it in paint

Reaper has a "bones" material that they have started pumping out a lot of models in (they have a kickstarter running at the moment if you are interested in getting a bunch of models) - it has been a little hit and miss on a few models in the range but most of the figures you cannot tell from looking at a painted/undercoated model that it is made in "bones" rather than metal, resin or plastic.

However, some people swear by metal models, while others prefer plastic. Personally metal is a PITA as it is heavy and often requires pinning. Plastic is better for modelling and converting (IMO).

Resin is often brittle so dropping resin figures or using them in regular play can cause breakages.

Bones is a PVC which is slightly bendy but holds paint and detail pretty well.

 Squiddy wrote:
Thank you for all the help. But what I was mainly asking was which one is easier to paint?

There isn't too much difference between them. You might need to wait longer between priming and painting with metal to ensure the primer is set as it can scratch off more easily, and you might want to seal it all when fully painted, again as it is easier to scratch off.

Plastic should be a lot easier to paint.

 Tommy wrote:

 sing your life wrote:
I ask, is there some kind of scientific reason for metal's inability to go together?

I'm not an expert on glues, though I have used my fair share. My guess is that metal is hard to glue mostly because its not a porous material and the glue cannot sink into the material
as it can into wood for instance. Plastic models are great to glue with poly cement because it melts the plastics together creating a great bond, in this case its not actually the glue holding
the parts together, they're more fused to eachother.

Plastics in general (lexan etc.) are really tough to glue because the material is oily and very hard to adhere to. I also think that regarding metals, many times some kind of oxidizing layer can be the culprit as well.

If you want metal to superglue to metal, you need to roughen the surfaces to give the glue something to grip to.

 Tommy wrote:
I know that you should always roughen the surfaces,

Sorry, I was just commenting in general rather than to you specifically

but I have yet to find a superglue that can really hold metals together properly.
Whenever I need to glue metals for something that needs to be able to take more stress than a mini I always use epoxy glue.
For metal minis I use Zap at the moment, it works quite okay, Loctite is also a good brand of superglue, still - they wont hold for much abuse.

Pinning and epoxy are the main ways to go for metal. I have a few metal models where I have had to pin tiny things like hands because they just will not stay on the damn model - really annoying and not something you tend to get with plastic, though sometimes resin can be a little bit finicky about sticking together.

 Squiddy wrote:
It is a Not-Mind Flayer with a staff.

Here it is:

http://www.reapermini.com/OnlineStore/bathalian/sku-down/20021#detail/20021_w_2_a

I've seen that model painted both in metal and plastic and you really can't tell the difference.

 Squiddy wrote:
It looks like I'm getting the metal one. The plastic one is pre-painted.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Wait, hold on... is this model... resin?

https://www.reapermini.com/Miniatures/bathalian/sku-down/77020

That one is in their "bones" material - it is as mentioned above a slightly softer plastic PVC.

This is the comparison I mentioned earlier.

A review of painting Bones by Victoria Miniatures - she sculpts, sells and paints awesome models.