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Catyrpelius wrote:Alot of people in this thread are also assumeing that the cost of plastic is not going to increase dramatically. Plastic is only cheap because it is essentially a bi-product of the oil distillation process. But what happens when the demand for plastics increase while the demand or supply of oil decresses with the large scale adaptation of alternative energies?

I can tell you from reading industry magazines that alternatives are being worked on to keep plastics viable for quite a long time. Far too many things are made from plastic to allow it to be killed by the eco warriors.


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Kirasu wrote:
metal sucks for converting, gluing, stability, assembly, painting, etc

This is my main reason for preferring plastic. I really like to convert stuff, but converting metal is such a pain I keep it simple on metal figs.

The weight difference is taking some getting used to. I started in minis with 2nd ed 40K and Battletech, everything was metal. Although the plastic figs feel flimsy and light they are actually more durable. I have dropped some of my plastic minis and they simply bounced, where as a metal mini taking a similar fall would have at least bent, likely had chipped paint, if not completely broken.

Mad4Minis wrote:

Catyrpelius wrote:Alot of people in this thread are also assumeing that the cost of plastic is not going to increase dramatically. Plastic is only cheap because it is essentially a bi-product of the oil distillation process. But what happens when the demand for plastics increase while the demand or supply of oil decresses with the large scale adaptation of alternative energies?

I can tell you from reading industry magazines that alternatives are being worked on to keep plastics viable for quite a long time. Far too many things are made from plastic to allow it to be killed by the eco warriors.

What eco warriors say has nothing to do with world oil supplies coming under pressure and the barrel price going up.

Malifaux are metal... very high detail minis and certainly outperform any GW metal or plastic you can put up against them.

That being said, my favourite minis of all time are Rackham Confrontation... all Metal...

While some of the extremely detailed Ilyad minis are cast in Resin...

Scott-S6 wrote:Their models are priced higher because they know full well that you don't need to buy as many.

People talk about warmachine being cheaper than 40K (which it is) but the cost per model is horrendous.

About the same as GW's actually: $8-10 for a metal infantry model, $30-50 for a Dreadnought-sized hunk of metal. It's the general lack of plastic infantry that skews the numbers, although their medium based plastics are about the same as Terminators (or a lot cheaper, in the case of Fennblades). The metal infantry aren't too much worse than GW's plastics in cost, at $50/10 models compared to GW's $40 (tac squad).

Slipstream wrote:One of the main points that I was trying to make and made a mess of was this; There are many manufacturers out there producing small ranges which are more suited to making into armies but because of metal/production costs they do not expand on. Prospective customers may purchase some as a one off and that's it. A range that has the scope to be continued into a larger force surely will make more long term sales for the company? What I was getting at is that if metal continues to rise in price, less and less people will buy them whereas plastic opens up their market. As I said there are counless ranges out there that demand to be expanded on; If a company only produces 5 models for a range, where's the impetus to build an army therefore continue buying from them?

If you look at historicals, there are plenty of companies which have been in the market for years, producing entire ranges of figures, which are widely bought and used.

Essex Miniatures, for example, has been operating since the early 1980s, and produces practically every kind of feudal and mediaeval figure you could possibly want, in 25 and 15 mm. I have a 25mm Wars Of The Roses army from them.

Minifigs has been going much longer and offers a similarly massive range of 15mm Napoleonics. I used to have a Saxon army from them, but I sold it when I switched to 6mm for Napoleonics.