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goffnob deffsmakka wrote:
snips
Having to fix up the paint after removing the sprue gates and mould lines seems like the main downside to me.
snips

Honestly mate I don't think the sort of people buying pre-painted terrain are the sort that are too bothered by mold lines and clean up. I'm not being condescending, I'm one of those people

I wouldn't be surprised if these were like 'snap-fit', so a really tiny connection not needing much effort to remove?

Pretty much that.

I do enjoy painting terrain, and it’s often a nice palette refresher between other projects.

But this stuff? Buy box, assemble, game? I for one am willing to not worry about mould lines.

For gate cleaning? I’ve recently bought some sanding pads and sticks for Gundam. Use those, and I should be able to avoid any whitened stress marks where it’s clipped free.

I think it's the price point that'll be the main thing.

Totally understand why they've gone for this route - terrain is far more important this edition it seems and don't want that getting in the way of people playing.

twoseventwo wrote:
They are in a bit of a bind about the mold lines, as if they fixed them for the publicity shots they would be defeating the entire point of the product.

There is something about this that kind of makes me sad, for no really good reason, just that this isn't what I think of the hobby as being. I hope they don't move on to doing the same for non-terrain models.

GW are not fools, they know that one of the big strong points for them is THE HOBBY. It's part of the hand+eye, creative and educational skills that they sell to young Timmy's parents which has always given it a bit of an edge over other toys in the market.
Even if it would mean an end to unpainted armies, there's also the whole "I'll do it oneday" which is the same reason they can't do away with rules and the game itself to focus on the fact that "most people just collect and don't play (that often)". There's a dream being sold and, as AoS helped prove at launch, if you take that dream away the sales go with it.

Plus lets face it, most wargames that have gone pre-painted often end up dead.


Could I see GW one day doing a side game with prepainted models - sure I could see them doing that as the technology continues to mature and improve; but their main lines I cannot ever see switching to prepainted. It's just a wholly different market.

Now if GW decided to start a new RPG brand of models to sell to RPG gamers then yes I could 100% see that being prepainted

 Olthannon wrote:
I think it's the price point that'll be the main thing.

Totally understand why they've gone for this route - terrain is far more important this edition it seems and don't want that getting in the way of people playing.

Big question is “what price convenience”.

Whilst the price could absolutely by Too High? Having a damned near Out Of The Box terrain set is really appealing. Spesh as the paintjob whilst imperfect (metal bit looks…well…bobbly to me?) much of it is better quality than I can bother to do meself

For what I mean by bobbly, see the attached screen grab, the piece on the bottom right. Might just be the weathering though.

This will definitely find a market. Just…is that market gonna be big enough? Because whilst pretty decently done pre-painted terrain is one hurdle on the road to a home board neatly removed, still not everyone has space for said home board. And regardless of the cost of this set? Providing enough terrain for a club is still an expense.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:

 Olthannon wrote:
I think it's the price point that'll be the main thing.

Totally understand why they've gone for this route - terrain is far more important this edition it seems and don't want that getting in the way of people playing.

Big question is “what price convenience”.

Whilst the price could absolutely by Too High? Having a damned near Out Of The Box terrain set is really appealing. Spesh as the paintjob whilst imperfect (metal bit looks…well…bobbly to me?) much of it is better quality than I can bother to do meself

For what I mean by bobbly, see the attached screen grab, the piece on the bottom right. Might just be the weathering though.

This will definitely find a market. Just…is that market gonna be big enough? Because whilst pretty decently done pre-painted terrain is one hurdle on the road to a home board neatly removed, still not everyone has space for said home board. And regardless of the cost of this set? Providing enough terrain for a club is still an expense.

Honestly GW have been posterior about face for a while with terrain. They back themselves into this cycle of "it costs a lot a sit doesn't sell much, but it's not selling so better put prices up".

These are units for armies, they're going to do better selling by economy of scale. Keeping margins lower and prices down. But that'd be a big attitude shift from GW.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Spesh as the paintjob whilst imperfect (metal bit looks…well…bobbly to me?) much of it is better quality than I can bother to do meself

For what I mean by bobbly, see the attached screen grab, the piece on the bottom right. Might just be the weathering though.

The paintjob does have a lot of graininess to it, but it might be more noticeable on pictures than with the naked eye. The bottom right building seems to be pretty zoomed in, it looks smaller than the upper floor on the left. Apart from when you first build it, you'd probably almost never look at it that closely.
I would definitely want to see them in real life first before buying though.

I wonder if they come pre-varnished, it wouldn't really be a low-effort product if the paint starts coming off after some use.

Grainy. That’s a much better word for it!

Seeing those Black Legion figures in the leaks makes me wonder if Joytoy is involved somehow, which has my hopes up slightly that this might be somewhat affordable.

Let me dream please.

There's definitely a significant demand for prepainted stuff. It's easy to talk about "The Hobby" but the reality is wargaming is three separate hobbies in a trenchcoat and not everyone enjoys every one.
There's a substantial amount of people that play with hastily built unpainted or barely painted minis because they just don't care about those aspects. And that's honestly fine.
Prepainted offerings would be great if those people could just pick up and army and get playing and I can still feel the enjoyment of playing against painted models too.

whether or not painted armies is viable for GW?
Honestly probably not. They certainly couldn't offer prepainted variants of everything. I could maybe see a core run of prepainted Space Marines though.

But prepainted terrain is a great place to start.
I enjoy having beautiful terrain but honestly don't view painting terrain as particularly rewarding. And based on the gaming tables I see? I think very few people do. Two colour airbrushed is about the zenith of painted terrain quality in my local groups lol.

Entirely arbitrary, but I don’t want to see pre-painted models.

Terrain? That’s a relatively one and done purchase. And due it’s often large size and chunky dimensions, takes a fair amount of paint to get done. And looked after should last you decades.

But armies? No ta. Not for me.

Don’t get me wrong, my standard is only my standard and I’ve no place telling others what to think. But I’d rather not play against a pre-painted army.

Thinking on this a little bit waiting for yet another restructuring meeting at work... mold lines and clip dodgy paint application and all that really sell the effect of an STC to me. Everything is just made/printed/cast/molded to the absolute bare miniumum requirement in the Imperium.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Entirely arbitrary, but I don’t want to see pre-painted models.
Terrain? That’s a relatively one and done purchase. And due it’s often large size and chunky dimensions, takes a fair amount of paint to get done. And looked after should last you decades.
But armies? No ta. Not for me.
Don’t get me wrong, my standard is only my standard and I’ve no place telling others what to think. But I’d rather not play against a pre-painted army.

just think about it, the easiest way to get people away from using 3D printed carbon copies at official events is to only allow your own "ready painted" models without individual paintjobs
in addition, solves GWs problem that people don't buy models for different sub-factions but use their own colours to switch around or official events using 3D printed or 3rd party terrain

for all the stupid ideas GW had in the past to remove the possibility of people saving cost while playing that game, this comes like a wet dream for the penny counters

 Tabletop_Magpie wrote:
Thinking on this a little bit waiting for yet another restructuring meeting at work... mold lines and clip dodgy paint application and all that really sell the effect of an STC to me. Everything is just made/printed/cast/molded to the absolute bare miniumum requirement in the Imperium.

The techpriests chant their canticles and swing incense burners as they operate their massive pair of archaeo-sprue clippers. Ancient texts speak of a mouldline remover STC, an unknown machine that was to be used prior to the ritual of assembly, but its knowledge has been lost since the Dark Age of Technology.

Actually, Orks have that tech now!



Image spoilered for size.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Entirely arbitrary, but I don’t want to see pre-painted models.

Terrain? That’s a relatively one and done purchase. And due it’s often large size and chunky dimensions, takes a fair amount of paint to get done. And looked after should last you decades.

But armies? No ta. Not for me.

Don’t get me wrong, my standard is only my standard and I’ve no place telling others what to think. But I’d rather not play against a pre-painted army.

I could see GW doing starter sets prepainted in the future, EtB minis in prepaint to really appeal to newcomers and have everything you need in one Box.
I don't see it happening for other kits, simply because subfaction appeal and make the minis your dudes and the whole collecting aspect is far too important. No one likes Ultramarines vs. Black Legion all the time.

There have been people in the past clamouring for preset tournament lists. I could see GW at some point solitting the whole tournament affair from the actual hobby with fixed lists and prepainted tournament boxes (Combat patrol is already similar, but it's more a way of slapping rules onto the arbitrarily chosen arrangement of units in that Box, not the other way around).

I can't see GW ever doing premade tournament lists.
Like 50% of tournament 'skill' is in list construction. If there was any appetite for fixed list tournaments the community would be making their own.

Yeah that’s a fair point.

I do kinda see the appeal. Certainly it would stop whatever is flavour of the month due to wonky wombocombos dominating. But there’s also the not at all safe assumption that all lists would be equally effective.

Worse, let’s introduce a profit motive. Tourny Lists are set. And every so often? GW just completely changes whatever is sanctioned.

Surely the flavour of the month wombocomboing is entirely what keeps the tournament scene going?

And it's certainly not something GW will ever try to curtail.
"Oh no we accidently made Raiders too strong and we've sold more in a month than the previous 3 years combined, sorry everyone we'll nerf those again". "Oh no, now everyone's bought wytches instead, anyway".
vs
"Just buy one army and be legally required to stick to it for three whole years" is absolutely the antithesis of what GW is doing here.

 The Phazer wrote:
As much as I personally spend a bunch of time cleaning up mold lines on all my terrain, I genuinely can't think of another soul I know in person who bothers doing that. I don't think it will be an issue in the market of "here is how to get playing as quick as possible."

You might have bumped into me in London? It takes so long, but I can't not do it....

Instead of having preset lists, it would make more sense to have separate Combat Patrol and open list categories at tournaments.

 BrookM wrote:
Actually, Orks have that tech now!

Arkhan Land is spinning in his grave...
The Mekboy workshop is such a nice terrain piece though, glad I managed to find one at retail value after it was discontinued.

This is definitely something I'm excited for. As someone who abhors painting terrain 95% of the time (only really enjoy it when I'm particularly inspired by a single piece) and has limited hobby time this is a pretty useful product. If the cost is similar to other GW kits (read expensive) I'll probably pick up a kit or two, and that with some scatter should be enough for a board for me (I'm a skirmish gamer exclusively, so I don't need terrain for 4x4+ tables).

I'm not really bothered by the print lines or mold lines. If the cost is reasonable the amount of time it would save me is worth something I will rarely ever notice. It also frees up more time for me to paint minis, which is something I do actually enjoy.

 kirotheavenger wrote:
I can't see GW ever doing premade tournament lists.
Like 50% of tournament 'skill' is in list construction. If there was any appetite for fixed list tournaments the community would be making their own.

That's Kill Team/Spearhead/Combat Patrol!

But prepainted models would definitely be a step too far for them I think, outside perhaps of some new foray into the board game world perhaps.

 Tastyfish wrote:

 kirotheavenger wrote:
I can't see GW ever doing premade tournament lists.
Like 50% of tournament 'skill' is in list construction. If there was any appetite for fixed list tournaments the community would be making their own.

That's Kill Team/Spearhead/Combat Patrol!

But prepainted models would definitely be a step too far for them I think, outside perhaps of some new foray into the board game world perhaps.

Blind-bag stuff like Space Marine Heroes I could see going pre-painted as well (it would also allow for chase rare paintjobs to drive up sales to the whales).

 goffnob deffsmakka wrote:
I wonder if they come pre-varnished, it wouldn't really be a low-effort product if the paint starts coming off after some use.

It's UV printing, no worries about it rubbing off.

 kodos wrote:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Entirely arbitrary, but I don’t want to see pre-painted models.
Terrain? That’s a relatively one and done purchase. And due it’s often large size and chunky dimensions, takes a fair amount of paint to get done. And looked after should last you decades.
But armies? No ta. Not for me.
Don’t get me wrong, my standard is only my standard and I’ve no place telling others what to think. But I’d rather not play against a pre-painted army.

just think about it, the easiest way to get people away from using 3D printed carbon copies at official events is to only allow your own "ready painted" models without individual paintjobs
in addition, solves GWs problem that people don't buy models for different sub-factions but use their own colours to switch around or official events using 3D printed or 3rd party terrain

for all the stupid ideas GW had in the past to remove the possibility of people saving cost while playing that game, this comes like a wet dream for the penny counters

While I agree on a cynical level, it doesn't ultimately make sense. GW is raking in the dosh with their overpriced paint (I'd know, I have a table full of it).

 lord_blackfang wrote:

 goffnob deffsmakka wrote:
I wonder if they come pre-varnished, it wouldn't really be a low-effort product if the paint starts coming off after some use.

It's UV printing, no worries about it rubbing off.

Is there an easy way to strip it though?

 tauist wrote:

 lord_blackfang wrote:

 goffnob deffsmakka wrote:
I wonder if they come pre-varnished, it wouldn't really be a low-effort product if the paint starts coming off after some use.

It's UV printing, no worries about it rubbing off.

Is there an easy way to strip it though?

Not that wouldn't potentially damage or warp the plastic as it takes a decent amount of heat to do, but the way it works you won't lose detail spraying over it.

Now wondering if they’ll also offer unpainted versions of this and any subsequent terrain kits. Customer choice, after all, is usually a good thing.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Now wondering if they’ll also offer unpainted versions of this and any subsequent terrain kits. Customer choice, after all, is usually a good thing.

If its the same price what would be the point?