Nuclear Mekanik wrote:
I'd like to argue that point, mainly because that's what i always thought... apparently to get the quality
GW actually pay a hell of a lot for plastic.
Was told to me by a guy who used to work at
GW. I'm not a fanboi by any means.
I know someone who owned/ran a plastics company and visited his factory many a time. Yes, some polymers are
very expensive, heat resistent ones especially, however
GW plastic is the standard model kit polystyrene which is not particularly expensive, it may have gone up in price because it is an oil derivative like most polymers, however the cost of materials for a plastic kit is still only a small percentage of the cost of the kit; the packing may well cost more. Packaging processes almost certainhly do.
Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:Indeed. The setup costs of a sprue are very high. Some plastic kits never pay back the cost it made to make them, though with the greater push toward plastic, it certainly appears GW has a way round it.
Yes tooling for plastic kits is very expensive. A tool (plastic mold) normally costs between £50K and £200K, however it has a long working life far in excesss of metal and especially resin molds. Plastic molds being made of steel. However with the defrolla already made - and it will take months to complete the process to do so, there should be no issue.
It is very likely that the same tool batch used for the battlewagon itself was used to pay for the parts sprue, it will
not be a whole seperate cost.
Besides polystyrene molds are nothing new, rarely have we seen these sorts of prices for plastic model kits, and
40K sells far faster than most if not all model aircraft kits from Tamiya Revell or Airfix.
Actually £35 for a tank this size is not really acceptable, let alone the extra £5-£10. I bought a Dragon 1/35 Grant which is larger than a Russ has far more sprues and full interior detailing. It cost £22 average price (I paid £17 by shopping around), I can almost guarantee it has sold far less than a Russ.
