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I recently put together some Necron goodies and was frustrated that putting a warrior together could take almost 4 times as long as it would to paint!

Why would a model so simple require 9 separate parts, specially when 4 of them are for the gun which is identical on each model as far as I can tell??????

Have GW gone down the Airfix route cause there is a market there or have they just gone to far thinking its cool to boast about options (that do not really exist most of the time)???

It could be that it was more efficient to make the model in many pieces on the sprue rather than few. I'm not familiar with the models in question, but I like it when models come in many parts, More options never hurts, they can be modeled in different positions easier and leftovers can be used for other things.

Half the fun of putting GW models together is the amount of options they give. I wish they had more parts on the sprue to be honest.

 squall018 wrote:
Half the fun of putting GW models together is the amount of options they give. I wish they had more parts on the sprue to be honest.

But here is the thing, sometimes some pieces are simply meant to go with another and there isn't an alternative. And it is also meant to be assembled in a specific way as well. For example, the Space Marine torsos, which are a front and back piece. The back piece is the same for all while the front is unique. It would be the same if they just had them as a single piece of plastic. Same with vehicles, some pieces just simply don't need to be separate (for example the track pieces on Imperial vehicles), and if for some reason somebody wanted to kitbash, they could easily cut the piece off and seperate them. Much easier to cut something off then to assemble.

Of course, I'd love there to be tons of extra bits and options, but sometimes I'd wish GW's sprues would have certain parts of a model just simply be a single piece of plastic. Not the end of the world and definitely not insane annoying to the point that I would just quit the hobby because of it, but annoying enough. I'm sure GW's designers have their reasons. But at least they could make the parts themselves easier to assemble. Sure you could magnetize, but why not put some holes in some of the pieces and protrusions in pieces meant to go with that piece so you can just snap it in like the "snapfit" models GW makes, except they still have the functionality of magnetization so you can swing the arms up and down and what-not, and take it out when you want.

Minor annoyances.

Keep in mind, these are models...... and while people joke around that they are toys - they are not toys.

I swap bits around on my figures all the time.... it would be a massive pain if I had to cut heads and arms off every time I wanted to do a simple conversion. Half the fun is trying to make a unique army with individual poses/wargear - if I had to make an army out of just snap-together starter set figures then I would quit the hobby immediately.

Also as someone who builds high detail scale models with 800+ pieces each (half being PE bits a few millimeters in width), it would be a joke if GW kits were simplified.

- Rant

 ChakLong wrote:

 squall018 wrote:
Half the fun of putting GW models together is the amount of options they give. I wish they had more parts on the sprue to be honest.

But here is the thing, sometimes some pieces are simply meant to go with another and there isn't an alternative. And it is also meant to be assembled in a specific way as well. For example, the Space Marine torsos, which are a front and back piece. The back piece is the same for all while the front is unique. It would be the same if they just had them as a single piece of plastic. Same with vehicles, some pieces just simply don't need to be separate (for example the track pieces on Imperial vehicles), and if for some reason somebody wanted to kitbash, they could easily cut the piece off and seperate them. Much easier to cut something off then to assemble.
Minor annoyances.

The reason thing like torsos are in 2 parts is so they can get higher detail in areas. The sprue needs to come out of a mould, so it can't have overhangs. Multipart models can have an overhang when assembled. This is the reason bolters on the dark vengeance/assault on black reach are moulded into the armour.

 gossipmeng wrote:
Keep in mind, these are models...... and while people joke around that they are toys - they are not toys.

I swap bits around on my figures all the time.... it would be a massive pain if I had to cut heads and arms off every time I wanted to do a simple conversion. Half the fun is trying to make a unique army with individual poses/wargear - if I had to make an army out of just snap-together starter set figures then I would quit the hobby immediately.

Also as someone who builds high detail scale models with 800+ pieces each (half being PE bits a few millimeters in width), it would be a joke if GW kits were simplified.

- Rant

I hate the snap-together starter sets as the bits aren't separate and are all meant to be in a specific pose. Heck, even the Space Marine Scout Snipers plastic kit are actually single-pose and the only thing you can really customize without heavy green-stuff use and modification are the heads and a few random attachment bits. I was saddened they didn't release an updated Scouts kit for 6th edition Space Marines.

If you just glue the bits together, you get your unique pose but it is static. Magnetizing things like arms would be the solution, but not everyone has the patience and skill for that. So you could have single arms that have connectors on the flat surface that are meant to be glued together. And another example would be weapons. In the case of Space Marines, you could just have tons of weapons that have the Space Marine hand modeled onto the gun, or even as a separate piece, and have connectors on that so not only do you have a dynamic pose for the arm itself, but you can swap out specific weapons for every arm bit provided on the sprue without needing to magnetize any bits or cut things off so that people who rely on visual confirmation of equipment are satisfied.

I would absolutely hate it if the heads and arms weren't separate bits and were part of the torso or something, it'll be just as bad as the single-pose finecast models.

I like to paint my models, painting is my part of the hobby. I do not play, I occasionally enjoy the fluff and of course like most people who are in the hobby for the modelling and painting I love to kit bash. What I do not understand why a gun has so many parts when it will always come out looking the same way, there are no left overs, there are no options but there are 4 small parts. I am not a mutant but I find putting 4 small parts together 60+ times having to spend time concealing the join or cleaning the over spill of glue hard on the eyes and hands when they could quiet easily be one part and still have the same level of detail its over kill


Automatically Appended Next Post:
To add to this I am not getting at the dynamic possibilities or the options those are the best parts giving each model an different look, but there are more than a fair share of bits that have no right to be not connected to a largert part of a model are not modular and are far to small to be justified

kranki wrote:

Automatically Appended Next Post:
To add to this I am not getting at the dynamic possibilities or the options those are the best parts giving each model an different look, but there are more than a fair share of bits that have no right to be not connected to a largert part of a model are not modular and are far to small to be justified

I agree, which is why I said earlier: "But here is the thing, sometimes some pieces are simply meant to go with another and there isn't an alternative."

Unless you want half of a tank track, or half of a gun for your crazy kit-bashed models, that is absolutely fine, but I'd say it would be better for most people to just have it as one piece.

 ChakLong wrote:

kranki wrote:

Automatically Appended Next Post:
To add to this I am not getting at the dynamic possibilities or the options those are the best parts giving each model an different look, but there are more than a fair share of bits that have no right to be not connected to a largert part of a model are not modular and are far to small to be justified

I agree, which is why I said earlier: "But here is the thing, sometimes some pieces are simply meant to go with another and there isn't an alternative."

Unless you want half of a tank track, or half of a gun for your crazy kit-bashed models, that is absolutely fine, but I'd say it would be better for most people to just have it as one piece.

Sometimes you do want half a piece of something though. For example, my Demon Prince has a dead Ultramarine on the base. I only used the front half of the torso so it was able to lay flat, and then I used textured paint to raise the base so it looked like he was in the mud. If the torso was one part, it wouldn't have worked and looked ridiculous, but the way it came out with just half a torso was pretty sweet. This is a VERY specific example, I know, but the point is, the smaller pieces give you more options and ways to use your models. If the price to pay is that it takes me a little longer to build my model (which I also enjoy) then I don't see the harm in that. To each his own and all...

 squall018 wrote:

 ChakLong wrote:

kranki wrote:

Automatically Appended Next Post:
To add to this I am not getting at the dynamic possibilities or the options those are the best parts giving each model an different look, but there are more than a fair share of bits that have no right to be not connected to a largert part of a model are not modular and are far to small to be justified

I agree, which is why I said earlier: "But here is the thing, sometimes some pieces are simply meant to go with another and there isn't an alternative."

Unless you want half of a tank track, or half of a gun for your crazy kit-bashed models, that is absolutely fine, but I'd say it would be better for most people to just have it as one piece.

Sometimes you do want half a piece of something though. For example, my Demon Prince has a dead Ultramarine on the base. I only used the front half of the torso so it was able to lay flat, and then I used textured paint to raise the base so it looked like he was in the mud. If the torso was one part, it wouldn't have worked and looked ridiculous, but the way it came out with just half a torso was pretty sweet. This is a VERY specific example, I know, but the point is, the smaller pieces give you more options and ways to use your models. If the price to pay is that it takes me a little longer to build my model (which I also enjoy) then I don't see the harm in that. To each his own and all...

A good example, it is always better to have more options rather than limit yourself. Besides, for those who do no conversion work and just build out of the box - it can't possible take you that much time to construct the army. You only build each army once (hopefully), there is no need to rush the process considering the money investment.

Having 2 part sm torsos allows them to be hollow saving plastic and therefore money. Also solid blocks of plastic are harder to work with in terms of cutting for conversions, and how long does it take you to put together 2 torso pieces? A couple of seconds?

Anyway, if it takes 4 times aslong to build your models as it does to paint them, your doing something too fast or too slow.

The real answer to the amount of parts is "we need more!"
There's never enough, they're like your LEGO-pieces: gotta have more.

Greater detail means more difficult pieces to mold. When the molds get more complex they have to break them down to smaller and simpler pieces

There are a few good reasons GW kits come in so many parts. I know one is a moulding reason. To get the right amount of detail and to create parts that dont merge into one another, you need more parts that are connect during assembly.

Its also so that you can have a greater degree of pose-ablilty and the option for kitbash' and conversions.

I personally love assembly the models, and I like it when they have lots of parts. Within reason that is. There are some kits that are a real pain to assemble, but thats not always due to the number of parts.

For marines, I find that 10 parts for a standard trooper to not be that bad. Adding purity seals and pouches is where it gets a bit tedious, but there is always the option to leave those off. The vehicles get a bit more awkward to piece together correctly with an abundance of parts, but from my point of view, they need to have that many parts to have the level of detail they are going for. On a Rhino chasis, for example, I can't see how they'd be able to cast the tread in one piece without a) having issues with assembly (putting the housing together first would make this impossible) or b) losing the detail in the hinges or treading with their current molding system for plastic models.

Plastic njection molding is not easy or simple. You need to ensure uniform pressure throughout as well as channels for air to escape and make sure no plastic gets stuck. making a model in one piece in plastic is no easy task. with resin & metal you can just pour into a mold which is much easier. With plastic this will not work & so the model has to be cut into pieces in order to be molded properly. It's actually a complex process and quite the pain in the arse.

kranki wrote:
I recently put together some Necron goodies and was frustrated that putting a warrior together could take almost 4 times as long as it would to paint!

Oh and I can't believe most of us completely missed the key part of the OP's statement. He plays necrons and by law your are required to only AND ONLY prime black and spray boltgun.

In the OPs case it would take 4 times longer to assemble then to paint

I like more parts. More bits, more modeling options.

More parts means more posing options and more converting possibilities. Give me all the bits.