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I remember the first time I went into a GW. It was just before my 13th birthday (June 98). My army of choice was Eldar. Looking back through my years in the hobby (it's been on and off) I think it's pretty cool that so many things have been achieved by GW. It feels only a short while ago that the idea of having all of the greater demons in plastic was a far-off pipe dream. Then I look through the "Ynnari" section of the GW website and I find myself at the same (or similar) sculpts for aspect warriors I remember buying all those years ago.

My question is. If you were to jump say 5/10 years into the future. What do you think you would expect (and hope) to see when you went to GW.com?

Codex: Primaris Lieutenant.

No, sorry Eldar players, you will have to wait your turn.

I’d hope we have Epic back on the metaphorical shelf.

But I can predict Chaos players will still be complaining

A bit of wishlisting:
- Expanding upon the original Tau concept as an alliance of different xenos
- Ork Clans as proper subfactions! I want Bad Moon boyz with silly caps and Death Skulls coming straight from the scrapyard, not just generic grimdark Space Barbarians.

Well, I'm sure GW will re-do Eldar & Guard sooner or later, but I'm not sure if this will be more than a cosmetic update. And Emperor's Children & World Eaters will surely also happen, might be the next 'bigger' thing, I guess.

Redone Cadians and Catachans, a plastic Thunderbolt kit and proper Cities of Sigmar humans.

Battlefleet Gothic reboot would also be nice.

And if we're really going there, a redone ruleset for Inquisitor, but in 28mm.

 BrookM wrote:


And if we're really going there, a redone ruleset for Inquisitor, but in 28mm.

Id love them to do it in 54mm scale actually. That scale of model with the tooling and modelling of GW today. I loved Inq (and still do) because its in the larger scale.

It would take 10 years, but - I'd want GW stores to be a place where you play games and pick up fully customized models printed to order. No boxed sets on the shelves, maybe some books, maybe a printer in each store or deliveries from a local fab.

Not that I have a problem with how things are right now, but imagine if there was never a period of waiting for sculpts to be updated and you could get any model from any edition for a relatively low price.

GW's annual report described automation improvements including robotics in a second factory. That approach centralizes production and throughput for manufacturing in a location that's distant and remote for most players.

At the same time, resin printers + 3D scanners are getting to the point where they can match GW's quality at a lower price point. For less than the cost of 2 armies, you can get a rig that scans existing models and prints them out at high accuracy. We're talking a difference of a few microns, which is imperceptible except upon close inspection.

I'd really like the company to stay relevant in the face of innovation. My guess is they have maybe 10 years before this becomes a serious threat to their existance.

 techsoldaten wrote:

At the same time, resin printers + 3D scanners are getting to the point where they can match GW's quality at a lower price point. For less than the cost of 2 armies, you can get a rig that scans existing models and prints them out at high accuracy. We're talking a difference of a few microns, which is imperceptible except upon close inspection.
.

Thing is that would really only affect the production end of GW and they've already spent their money on fast casting injection moulding machines. For a new firm starting up 3D printers might be the way forward, but for a big firm like GW they don't need to change gear necessarily. If they do they could do it slowly, introducing "custom leader" printing services for 1 model per customer for your own leader of an army type casting rather than all the rest of the army.


For home use the 3D printer is a big saving in the long run, but its up front costs are much greater. Even the cheap ones are still enough to buy you a good chunk of an army. Plus you still need all the same assembly and painting tools so there's zero savings to be had there. Plus there's both a learning curve, setting it up and the mess of cleaning resin from the machine and such. Even if you've a big build plate to cast many models at once, you are still looking at far more chemical mess for the clean up and likely a setup that is fine for mature teens and adults, but not as good nor as easy to introduce to young teens and younger (unless their parents are already involved).

I'd see 3D printing affecting the market at the more mature and established gamer and even then I'd wager many wouldn't want the faff, smell and hassle.

It might happen, there's already water washable resins on the market which takes out the need for IPA cleaning (and smell). However I'm not sure what the thresholds are for making a super easy super safe child friendly reliable and affordable 3D home printing experience. It might take all of those 10 years for it to reach that point.

That's an interesting discussion. GW has been really good in switching to digital sculpting from an aesthetic perspective, less from a modelling perspective - the new kits don't look too 'digital' (there's a lot of other stuff out there where you can more or less see that it's just some default 3D models slapped together) - but they've become much more restricted, and are a often pain to assemble. So, print to order might actually fit their design practices more than their production technique, even though it might still take a while.

 Overread wrote:
If they do they could do it slowly, introducing "custom leader" printing services for 1 model per customer for your own leader of an army type casting rather than all the rest of the army.

Well, in a sense this could replace much of what Forgeworld is doing right now? I mean, old Forgeworld was the expensive boutique and super-heavy tanks + monsters department, but now you'll get pretty much just as detailed/large (and more expensive) Citadel minis from GW. And many of the Necro expansions like weapons etc. could easily be done with a printing service - would seem a good fit both for GW and their customers.

Re: inq 28 (or even 54), yeah, this would be very cool. Something that is more granular than the GW skirmish games or dungeon crawlers, but not yet a pen & paper RPG. Let's see where new WHQ is going, I'm not even sure if this is going to be a board game, given its setting in a city.

I'm really not sure what I would expect. I guess the safest bet is that the models will transition fully from 28mm to 35mm scale.

 Overread wrote:

 techsoldaten wrote:

At the same time, resin printers + 3D scanners are getting to the point where they can match GW's quality at a lower price point. For less than the cost of 2 armies, you can get a rig that scans existing models and prints them out at high accuracy. We're talking a difference of a few microns, which is imperceptible except upon close inspection.
.

Thing is that would really only affect the production end of GW and they've already spent their money on fast casting injection moulding machines. For a new firm starting up 3D printers might be the way forward, but for a big firm like GW they don't need to change gear necessarily. If they do they could do it slowly, introducing "custom leader" printing services for 1 model per customer for your own leader of an army type casting rather than all the rest of the army.


For home use the 3D printer is a big saving in the long run, but its up front costs are much greater. Even the cheap ones are still enough to buy you a good chunk of an army. Plus you still need all the same assembly and painting tools so there's zero savings to be had there. Plus there's both a learning curve, setting it up and the mess of cleaning resin from the machine and such. Even if you've a big build plate to cast many models at once, you are still looking at far more chemical mess for the clean up and likely a setup that is fine for mature teens and adults, but not as good nor as easy to introduce to young teens and younger (unless their parents are already involved).

I'd see 3D printing affecting the market at the more mature and established gamer and even then I'd wager many wouldn't want the faff, smell and hassle.

It might happen, there's already water washable resins on the market which takes out the need for IPA cleaning (and smell). However I'm not sure what the thresholds are for making a super easy super safe child friendly reliable and affordable 3D home printing experience. It might take all of those 10 years for it to reach that point.

Interesting thoughts.

Custom HQs - I could see GW going down that road. And I imagine it would create massive consumer demand for custom everything else, which would accelerate the process.

But I can't see a future where GW is in business 10 years from now without pursuing this path. Not selling miniatures, maybe as an IP warehouse.

The pace of change in the fabrication of small plastic objects is immense, we're starting to see innovations that have been around since the 90s make their way into consumer-level printers. The concerns about cost, smell, safety, etc - they diminish more and more as time goes by.

True, but don't forget we had the same process with printed paper. And yet if anything its done nothing but hit libraries now and then with renting out their printers a little less.

In general terms printed media has been more heavily hit by the sideways attack of digital media; whilst the home printer is still a baffling thing to many if the cartridge doesn't print right or the toner needs updating.


Basically we have seen home-made stuff appear for other markets but its not been taken up. Also don't forget companies have spent a good few decades training people and products in not being fixed at home. Compared to the 50s and such, many home items are not made to be repaired and even where you can information isn't easily found through the company. They'd rather you paid them or they sold you another.



So I wonder if the home revolution of 3D printing isn't going ot have some big cultural as well as logistical and other elements to overcome.

 Overread wrote:
True, but don't forget we had the same process with printed paper. And yet if anything its done nothing but hit libraries now and then with renting out their printers a little less.

In general terms printed media has been more heavily hit by the sideways attack of digital media; whilst the home printer is still a baffling thing to many if the cartridge doesn't print right or the toner needs updating.


Basically we have seen home-made stuff appear for other markets but its not been taken up. Also don't forget companies have spent a good few decades training people and products in not being fixed at home. Compared to the 50s and such, many home items are not made to be repaired and even where you can information isn't easily found through the company. They'd rather you paid them or they sold you another.



So I wonder if the home revolution of 3D printing isn't going ot have some big cultural as well as logistical and other elements to overcome.

Might be talking apples and oranges.

With laser jet printing, you download a book. You could print it, but it's probably easier to read the book on your computer. The decline in printer sales correlates with the adoption arc of mobile devices, most major uses for paper are being digitized.

With 3D printing, you download a model of a coffee cup. You could look at it on your computer, but it's more interesting to print it for use in holding beverages. No one is going to come out with a killer piece of technology that's more efficient than a cup.

Sure, maybe it's inefficient for everyone to have their own 3D printer. Maybe there's small printing centers locally where your models get printed. What I'd contend is - regardless of where the printer lives - quality is going up, cost is going down, and there's a point at which it will be cheaper to print your army than buy it on the sprue from GW.

Bought a Primaris Apothecary the other day for $35, did not like having to pay that amount for a single infantry model. Pretty sure I could have borrowed the model from someone, scanned it with a 3D printer, and printed it for less than the cost to buy it. After it's painted, no one would ever know I didn't get it from GW.

What's stopping people from doing that en masse? Probably the fact that it's easier to just spend the money and get the kit. At what point does the cost difference overcome the easy factor?

Dunno, but GW better be paying attention. People with resin printers are getting used to subscribing to Patreons where they download STL files and print a whole army. It's a matter of time before creators figure out they could stuff STL files into NFTs and monetize the hell out of a print on demand business.

What would I expect in 10 years?

*Prices so high that todays Varangaard & character model prices look reasonable.

*SMs will have increased in size to the point where they're at least as big as my early 90's Bloodthirster.
Speaking of that OG Bloodthirster.... People already claim that I should use him as a mere demon prince (not ever going to happen). In 10 years they'll probably be mistaking him for a slightly undersized winged bloodletter. :(

*Some of the 2e Eldar sculpts will still be in use.

*Man-O-War will finally have been re-released.

*The Emperor will be a playable figure.