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Just been looking through the recent new releases over the past say 8 months and GWs models have become terrible! There clunky and goofy looking, details haven't been picked out properly. They have really let their game slide! They were producing better models 5 years ago then they are now. Then I saw the new HE release and nearly wept... For those who haven't seen it, their terrible. Seems like forge world is the only one producing good models these days...

I'm not a massive fan of GW's huge monsters/war machine kits these days (though in recent months I've liked the Skycutter and Vortex Beast), but their infantry kits are still pretty good IMHO.

Shadow Warriors this month are very nice (apart from waving swords and bows around, but this is fixable) and I loved the plastic Pathfinders last month.

I just wish they'd go back to focusing on infantry releases.

For me i used to love Games Workshop models, and they still do some beautiful stuff, but every new release army wise seems to have more in it that i dislike then like.

i think for me the sculptors seem to do very little research, and as such a lot of models look a little goofy just because poses are so ridiculous, i would like fantasy models in decent fighting stances for example.

For me the more plastics i buy from other companies, Perry, Warlord and even gripping beast all of whoms models are nicely proportionate and look human the more stupid half of games workshops stuff looks in terms of bulkiness and generally badly done proportions.

Though still GW does produce enough good miniatures to nearly tempt me back into the game consistently, the plastic grey knights i particularly like.

Now if only they would produce a good set of plastic imperial guard who are not rambos or do not have utterly stupid oversized helmets.

A lot of GW's recent stuff looks like it has been styled on overinflated children's happy meal toys.

There are now a lot of companies making very nice models on a reasonably large scale that make GW's stuff look like pants.

It's always been hit and miss in my opinion. I personally think the New high elf Stuff is pretty cool, from what I've seen of it. Wasn't a huge fan of the New chaos/ dark angels stuff though, too clunky.

Thanks to advancements in molding technology GW can produce bigger kits for less money than ever before. THis means EVERY release needs something on a 100x150mm base or an oval base no matter how stupid those models look next to everything else from the faction they are being forced into.

As for the infantry, GWs sculptors seem to be either rushed or all the good ones have left. What we are getting now are not detailed models but rather models with lots of skulls/eagles/etc added all over them and GW are calling that detail despite hair being a single large blob.

The move to 3D modeling software instead of just sculpting it seems to have impacted them as well.

I think the sculters try to make the most of poor concept choices. Look at this guy:



That'd probably be pretty cool if it weren't for the giant paper airoplane going up that eagle's arse.

True alot of horrible concepts :(

I really like the Maidenguard mini (shame she's finecast) and the Sisters are ok as is the guy with the trident.

Eagles are quite nice but alot (like with the recent Tau) I just don't want in my collection

yeah its well wierd that the models are becoming more cartoony (just look at old necrons vs new ones), while they are trying to make the fluff more serious (eg getting rid of squats, using less cartoony art for the black library books, getting rid of most references to orks being mushrooms etc)

I don't think I have anything bad to say about the quality of the plastic or metal molds that I've gotten, generally they're really great looking. Tanks, as much as they used to suck to put together, aren't all that bad anymore (from my perspective anyway).

I have however, never liked how they designed their infantry kits, Space Marines in particular. I get that they're supposed to have a degree of customization to them, which is fine. But as far as a GOOD kit to put together, most of the infantry in 40k have pretty poor design.

Although, I do get the thing with the new giant kits. To me anyway, it gives off a feeling that they're trying to hard to get people to like them. *shrug*

The big model kits depend entirely on the range in question.

The Riptide looks great. The Dreadknight does not. The Valkyrie, Dakkajet and Razorwing fighter look amazing (in fact, most of the Dark Eldar range does), but the shortbus, Storm Talon and Tau aircraft do not. I don't think you'd find many people unhappy with the Tyranid gribblies.

Like Loki says, it's all very varied.

As for the High Elf releases this month, I think the new Shadow Warriors look fantastic. Like Flashman says, they are oddly posed in the pictures, but since they're plastic that's easy to fix. I also really like the Pheonixes - despite GW's rather annoying monster policy these days. The other sculpts don't please me that much. I'm a little disappointed by the Loremaster (the fireball looks more like a squid to me) but, again, being plastic, that should be easy to convert. To end at the bottom of the scale, Alarielle is, ironically, an awful looking model in my opinion.

@jonolikespie, I agree rushed is the word, when i saw the chaos plaguebearers, really?

The models as a whole have only improved. They are better looking now than they were 10 years ago, and they were better then than when GW first hit the scene. You can point at some of those old models and call them "classic", but by today's standards they are poor models.

Most of the time, when someone dislikes a model, it is for the concept, not the model itself. Not saying this is always the case, but much of the time. Take the much-maligned Dreadknight. Is there anything wrong with the actual kit?

 Jehan-reznor wrote:
@jonolikespie, I agree rushed is the word, when i saw the chaos plaguebearers, really?

I maintain that, having a bought a box myself, you need to see the Plague Bearers first hand to appreciate them. The GW paint jobs did them no favours, but they really are nice models (in a gruesome kind of way).

I'm finding that new plastic versions of previously metal minis (Pathfinders, Black Knights, Raptors, Stormboyz) are usually pretty good, probably because they are based at least in part, on existing concepts.

Kits for brand new unit types have been very hit and miss though, as if the design team aren't really thinking things through.

GW has had some damned stupid ideas, each new release always has 1-3 "giant plastic kit of some horribly bad idea".

Meanwhile, the core infantry is left to rot with model kits that are 15 years old and look like crap.

HE are the perfect example, this release could have been new archers and spearmen instead of stupid eagle chariot and shadow warriors plastic kit that doesn't look much different to the old metals and is the same price.

I don't know how GW have managed to constantly and completely screw up the HE release.. this edition they've both been in the starter, and gotten an army book but they're still stuck with the same old goofy as hell hamfist core plastics.

Even the Mantic elves look better than those ancient minis. Seriously, I own both the GW and Mantic ones. And I don't really like the mantic ones all that much, but the GW ones are just atrocious and need to be sent to go live on a farm pronto.

They're so bad I couldn't even give the models away to someone with a 4th edition HE army, he flat-out refused. :p

 scarletsquig wrote:
GW has had some damned stupid ideas, each new release always has 1-3 "giant plastic kit of some horribly bad idea".

Sixth edition 40K started off well with the Dark Vengeance box set. The models in the set are great with good designs and very innovative mold design. The chaos figs in particular are really nice figures.

Then came my two main 40K armies, Chaos and Dark Angels. The chaos Raptors are nice but the dino bot and the Helturkey? WTF are those things? They are certainly not going into my army. These turkeys were followed immediately by the Dark Angel Landspeeder Escalade variants, scrawny thigh Deathwing and yet another Chibi flyer toy. Am VERY disappointed. Will have to kitbash/scratchbuild my way around these really bad models because I'm certainly not going to BUY any of them...

T

 scarletsquig wrote:
GW has had some damned stupid ideas, each new release always has 1-3 "giant plastic kit of some horribly bad idea".

Meanwhile, the core infantry is left to rot with model kits that are 15 years old and look like crap.

HE are the perfect example, this release could have been new archers and spearmen instead of stupid eagle chariot and shadow warriors plastic kit that doesn't look much different to the old metals and is the same price.

I don't know how GW have managed to constantly and completely screw up the HE release.. this edition they've both been in the starter, and gotten an army book but they're still stuck with the same old goofy as hell hamfist core plastics.

Even the Mantic elves look better than those ancient minis. Seriously, I own both the GW and Mantic ones. And I don't really like the mantic ones all that much, but the GW ones are just atrocious and need to be sent to go live on a farm pronto.

They're so bad I couldn't even give the models away to someone with a 4th edition HE army, he flat-out refused. :p

That's been a problem with most of GWs latest releases imo.
Tau troops were fine asaik.
Deamons didn't need the big new stuff but had plenty of older stuff that needed fixing (greater daemons mostly).
Warriors of chaos didn't really need the slaughterbrute thing but their warriors are still pretty much snap fit models and only offer half the available options for them.
DA didn't really need their troops fixed.
Chaos marines were given dino-bots despite their basic box missing options and still looking like marines with spikes despite all the recent stuff (raptors and chosen from DV) being much more mutant marines, ruining any sort of cohesive look there.

When I got into the HHHobby I didn't notice any misses. I suspect that's the rose colored shades of nostalgia though - those sepia-toned days of 2008; when I was young and innocent.

Now though I've notice they either have a release where all the models kinda suck (CSM) or where all the models are pretty awesome (GK, Necrons, Tau)

However, in the cases of the awesome releases, they always feel compelled to add a single truly awful model. I half-suspect for the otherwise-perfect releases, this is intentional, much like how in antiquity muslim rugmakers would put a single intentional flaw in their work, believing perfection to be the purview of God alone. "Great work, Jes. Now make a Dreadknight, or it's blasphemous".

I still think GWS is capable of absolutely amazing works, I think they just do so less consistently; but again, maybe nostalgia.

BaconUprising wrote:
Just been looking through the recent new releases over the past say 8 months and GWs models have become terrible! There clunky and goofy looking, details haven't been picked out properly. They have really let their game slide! They were producing better models 5 years ago then they are now. Then I saw the new HE release and nearly wept... For those who haven't seen it, their terrible. Seems like forge world is the only one producing good models these days...

What makes you say the HE are terrible? HE have always had huge hats and flamboyant weapons. They've always been busy with baubles and details. The new release seems to fit that perfectly. The flame phoenix and the great eagle look better than previous large bird models, and fit right next to the dragon lord on the design scale. The flying chariot could work better as its own piece, but that just means the eagle is a bonus.

Is this whole complaint about the Sisters of Avalorne? GW is famously bad at displaying model women, so maybe wait on the hate until a third party gets to them.

For those putting on their rose tinted glasses of nostalgia, there have been plenty of poor sculpts in the past.

I present Exhibit A...

I'm not a fan of some of the more cartoony models (the already-posted eagle chariot is well sculpted, but I think the concept is silly as it gets) but the artistry in the plastic tooling these days is insane. The quality of the stuff in Dark Vengeance is kind of mind blowing. I don't think GW's hit/miss ratio has really changed at all, people are mostly just finding things to complain about and clinging to nostalgia.

I quite like some of the new HE releases. I think I'm going to convert some of the models for my Wood Elves, before I get started on my Cernunnos Spellsinger.

 -Loki- wrote:
The big model kits depend entirely on the range in question.

The Riptide looks great. The Dreadknight does not. The Valkyrie, Dakkajet and Razorwing fighter look amazing (in fact, most of the Dark Eldar range does), but the shortbus, Storm Talon and Tau aircraft do not. I don't think you'd find many people unhappy with the Tyranid gribblies.

See that's because with nidz, the designers and sculpters did a huge amount of research into bugs and insects and drew on the concepts of other alien films such as AvP to create what are beautiful models. I can't help but feel that the current team is neglecting to do this and it really shows in their final products.

 Brother SRM wrote:
I'm not a fan of some of the more cartoony models (the already-posted eagle chariot is well sculpted, but I think the concept is silly as it gets) but the artistry in the plastic tooling these days is insane. The quality of the stuff in Dark Vengeance is kind of mind blowing. I don't think GW's hit/miss ratio has really changed at all, people are mostly just finding things to complain about and clinging to nostalgia.

I think it's more that GW's poor sculpts used to mostly be just that - technically deficient. Whereas more and more often now, their misses actually miss because of awful design decisions, despite being extremely proficient technically. Look at the phoenix model, the fire one is pretty nice looking, but the variant is trailing bloody magic-star-sparkles like something out of a Saturday morning kids cartoon. Now, the actual sculpting of the model looks very well done, and no doubt it's impressive from a technical perspective that GW can put out dual-kits like these, but what use is all that talent and technical skill if it's being hamstrung by design choices that seem to be trying to pay homage to My Little Pony and Dinobots?

BaconUprising wrote:
Just been looking through the recent new releases over the past say 8 months and GWs models have become terrible! There clunky and goofy looking, details haven't been picked out properly. They have really let their game slide! They were producing better models 5 years ago then they are now. Then I saw the new HE release and nearly wept... For those who haven't seen it, their terrible. Seems like forge world is the only one producing good models these days...

I think a lot of the "clunkiness" comes down to paintjob. GW love to paint things with hard edges even where no hard edges exist. This is a huge detractor for things like Maiden Guard, any chance they might have had of NOT looking like transvestites has gone out the window with the sharp lines used for painting the faces which simply do not suit female models well (they don't suit male models well IMO either, but DEFINITELY not female ones).

But yeah, other than that, GW sure do have some stupid concepts.... flying boat towed by an eagle... seriously? Which 3 year old thought that one up?

 scarletsquig wrote:
GW has had some damned stupid ideas, each new release always has 1-3 "giant plastic kit of some horribly bad idea".

Meanwhile, the core infantry is left to rot with model kits that are 15 years old and look like crap.

HE are the perfect example, this release could have been new archers and spearmen instead of stupid eagle chariot and shadow warriors plastic kit that doesn't look much different to the old metals and is the same price.

I don't know how GW have managed to constantly and completely screw up the HE release.. this edition they've both been in the starter, and gotten an army book but they're still stuck with the same old goofy as hell hamfist core plastics.

Even the Mantic elves look better than those ancient minis. Seriously, I own both the GW and Mantic ones. And I don't really like the mantic ones all that much, but the GW ones are just atrocious and need to be sent to go live on a farm pronto.

They're so bad I couldn't even give the models away to someone with a 4th edition HE army, he flat-out refused. :p

Exactly, if they re-did the spearmen, archers, and silver helms I would've bought bucket loads of them and started an army, I love the High Elves. They are the army that got me into GW and war-gaming in the first place.

Instead they released two kits that are basically the same thing (a flying eagle boat is mind-bogglingly stupid) which you will never use more than two of, and another kit of a chaff/skirmishing unit which you will also probably never need more than two boxes of.

Consider selling two $60 kits and two $50 kits over selling me 4-6 boxes of $35 spearmen, 2-4 Boxes of $35 bowmen, and 4-6 boxes of $25 Silver Helms in addition to all the other stuff I'd need starting a new army.

The worst part is, they make their outdated core infantry kits look even more dated because the detail on the new stuff is so much better by comparison. I can't wait for the day when a company finally gets the balls to compete with Fantasy and 40k directly and completely wrecks them. Privateer Press already makes much better models. Still, the market is flooded with a thousands of small scale skirmish games that nobody plays for more than a couple of weeks.

Griever wrote:
Instead they released two kits that are basically the same thing (a flying eagle boat is mind-bogglingly stupid) which you will never use more than two of, and another kit of a chaff/skirmishing unit which you will also probably never need more than two boxes of.

Consider selling two $60 kits and two $50 kits over selling me 4-6 boxes of $35 spearmen, 2-4 Boxes of $35 bowmen, and 4-6 boxes of $25 Silver Helms in addition to all the other stuff I'd need starting a new army.

Feeling a touch optimistic about the hypothetical pricing, aren't you?

 Dysartes wrote:

Griever wrote:
Instead they released two kits that are basically the same thing (a flying eagle boat is mind-bogglingly stupid) which you will never use more than two of, and another kit of a chaff/skirmishing unit which you will also probably never need more than two boxes of.

Consider selling two $60 kits and two $50 kits over selling me 4-6 boxes of $35 spearmen, 2-4 Boxes of $35 bowmen, and 4-6 boxes of $25 Silver Helms in addition to all the other stuff I'd need starting a new army.

Feeling a touch optimistic about the hypothetical pricing, aren't you?

Possibly, but that actually only helps make my argument stronger.

Griever wrote:

 scarletsquig wrote:
GW has had some damned stupid ideas, each new release always has 1-3 "giant plastic kit of some horribly bad idea".

Meanwhile, the core infantry is left to rot with model kits that are 15 years old and look like crap.

HE are the perfect example, this release could have been new archers and spearmen instead of stupid eagle chariot and shadow warriors plastic kit that doesn't look much different to the old metals and is the same price.

I don't know how GW have managed to constantly and completely screw up the HE release.. this edition they've both been in the starter, and gotten an army book but they're still stuck with the same old goofy as hell hamfist core plastics.

Even the Mantic elves look better than those ancient minis. Seriously, I own both the GW and Mantic ones. And I don't really like the mantic ones all that much, but the GW ones are just atrocious and need to be sent to go live on a farm pronto.

They're so bad I couldn't even give the models away to someone with a 4th edition HE army, he flat-out refused. :p

Exactly, if they re-did the spearmen, archers, and silver helms I would've bought bucket loads of them and started an army, I love the High Elves. They are the army that got me into GW and war-gaming in the first place.

Instead they released two kits that are basically the same thing (a flying eagle boat is mind-bogglingly stupid) which you will never use more than two of, and another kit of a chaff/skirmishing unit which you will also probably never need more than two boxes of.

Consider selling two $60 kits and two $50 kits over selling me 4-6 boxes of $35 spearmen, 2-4 Boxes of $35 bowmen, and 4-6 boxes of $25 Silver Helms in addition to all the other stuff I'd need starting a new army.

The worst part is, they make their outdated core infantry kits look even more dated because the detail on the new stuff is so much better by comparison. I can't wait for the day when a company finally gets the balls to compete with Fantasy and 40k directly and completely wrecks them. Privateer Press already makes much better models. Still, the market is flooded with a thousands of small scale skirmish games that nobody plays for more than a couple of weeks.

why would they redo those? there's absolutely nothing wrong with them. what exactly do you not like about them? Do you need more feathers? Or do you need sparkly snow flakes on your core troops?

speaking of the sparkly snowflake thing... damn, that is one of the dumbest models iv seen. GW really needs to stop trying to sculpt fire onto everything. The flames one looks terrible, the sparkly snowflake thing is even more dumb.

on the other hand the shadowwarriors look awesome.