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So I have refused to buy any of PP's plastic kits, mainly just because I am not a big fan of their plastic quality. All of my friends who bought battle boxes and plastic jacks/units have all been unimpressed with the lack of detail, and all of the weapons on the models show up messed up. Our gaming group has been trying to buy all the units and jacks in metal they want before they get redone in plastic.

Does anybody else wish they would release higher quality metal Privateer Press Exclusives like they did with some of the 2010 resculpts of the plastic battle box casters? And, I have just been wonder)ing what peoples opinions on the plastic kits are. Thank you!

To me, the plastics do have something to be left kind of desired as you said, but I would say they are decent once you clean them up a bit. Although, the details can use some work (either lack of detail or exaggerated), I find the material durable (unlike the mess that failcast.....). Most of these complaints are for the units mostly.
The plastic multi-Warjack/beast kits I actually like since they give you three for essentially the price of one, which means you can pin and magnetize them to give you multiple choices rather than buying three separate ones, and which I do like about it.

I've no problem with the quality of the plastic, but I do rate PP plastic as the second worst thing to clean up (Finecast sadly takes the lead). It's a tough plastic so you really can only scrape it clean or use a very fine sandpaper carefully - anything harder that might work on regular plastic or metal tends to cause burring and it clogs up fast (ergo scratches fast).

Otherwise its hard nature makes it easier to work with than finecast - it doesn't bend or wobble and is easy to drill into to fit magnets or cut up for conversion use.

They do have issues with cleanup, and if something thin is bent it is very VERY difficult to get it straitened out. It is however durable and more resistant to the heat than Finecast.

Another problem is PP doesn't do as much checking for mould lines. Some of them can get pretty bad.

Its a good material I just think PP's quality control could be a little better.


One thing they should probably do is include a little slip of paper or a label that informs people that plastic glue does NOT work on their plastics, that you must use super glue or they won't stick.

As far as I have experiences with pp plastics I can say that they have major issues with mold lines. Coming from 40k i was pretty much spoiled with quality, I´ve not seen mold lines across faces here... I prefer the metal minis by far!

They're alright. I generally prefer plastic over metal as I like to convert and magnetize my stuff.

My issue is that I wish they would add in some ways to vary the poses. I gotta give credit to GW, the space marine style sprues are awesome.

Grey Templar wrote:
One thing they should probably do is include a little slip of paper or a label that informs people that plastic glue does NOT work on their plastics, that you must use super glue or they won't stick.

A very good point indeed and something that I think a lot of people easily overlook!

Mordekiem wrote:They're alright. I generally prefer plastic over metal as I like to convert and magnetize my stuff.

My issue is that I wish they would add in some ways to vary the poses. I gotta give credit to GW, the space marine style sprues are awesome.

After GW and Kingdom Death I'm hard pressed to really think of another large miniatures range (and KD is only in concept at present, barring a handful of never in stock models released) which has variable poses and parts. Whilst people might complain about prices the fact that some GW models can often have nearly double the parts needed is something we have to consider - always a bonus to have parts for conversions.

Most other ranges stick to single pose single build setups. PP has a few combined kits now for some of their warmachines and warbeasts, but otherwise its single pose stuff.

I think the thing is producing a quality multi pose model is complicated, not just in cutting and joints, but designing the model so that you can have joint positions that look natural when posed (or where the joints can be hidden under other parts to keep a natural look).

I understand the convenience of the plastic jack kits, that and the fact that they can give you so many options for each jack chassis that come in a box. Not enthused by the pewter character jack add ons to the plastic kits either, they will never give the jack the flair or individuality that say Beast-09, Thunderhead or Ol Rowdy has.

I play Khador as my main faction and compared the plastic battlebox Sorscha to the metal 2010 battlebox Privateer Exclusive on their website, and the difference is absolutely night and day. There is so much detail the plastic one is missing, I would also love to replace my old metal Winterguard Infantry with the new models, but I prefer the bad sculpts I already own to the plastic ones with just "eh" detail that I would have to pay for again.

I've found that the battle box plastics are not as good as the normal plastic boxes which is weird but hey.

But I'm old and will always love metal models over plastic.

Now get off my lawn you rotten kids.

I must be old school too. I prefer to get all armies I have (including Warmachine/Hordes) in pewter if possible. I fell in love with MKI because it was the "heavy" game with all the models in pewter when everybody else seemed to be going more towards plastic.

And, I do prefer plastic over pewter for converting, much easier. But, thatch is another reason I love PP is because there honestly isn't a need to convert, there aren't any real weapon customization optional or need. All the special weapons are attachments and have their own models. If I want a modelling project I will work on my Fantasy and 40K models, or highly poseable models from another line.

I do hope that PP improves the quality of plastic for the sake of others gamers, but I will stick to metal, and I know that PP won't offer metal versions of any of the plastic new releases because it is not cost effective, and there isn't a demand for higher priced finely detailed metal versions of their plastic releases... I can dream though right.

I put together a retribution warjack for a friend, once. Every single piece had a giant mold line running down it, with no care for if it sliced any details in half. There were no instructions. Pieces designed to slot into each other wouldn't slot, including the model and its base.

Plastic retribution warjacks ended a friendship.

 ImperialFists2ndCompany wrote:
And, I do prefer plastic over pewter for converting, much easier. But, thatch is another reason I love PP is because there honestly isn't a need to convert, there aren't any real weapon customization optional or need. All the special weapons are attachments and have their own models. If I want a modelling project I will work on my Fantasy and 40K models, or highly poseable models from another line

There are ALOT more reasons to convert other than just to add a special weapon to a group. Probably the biggest reason for me is that I don't want my army to look like everyone elses. But people may not like poses, weapons, funny looking heads, etc. Maybe they have a model they never use and want to make it into something cooler like converting a slayer into a seethe or an ironclad into Rowdy. I also consider magnetizing the plastic kits as a conversion and that is simply to allow yourself more options.

And I no longer play any GW games or any other game with "highly posable" models. I'm not even sure what games those might be.

Customization is great. However, therein lies the issue with customization in PP games. They have rules for converting, but the main thing is that all models remain recognizable as their standard counterpart.

Multi part is great for a model company that also makes games, but a gaming company that makes models requires more uniformity, even if most conversion, even drastic, are recognizable. It's an accessability thing.

OT: A thread was recently raised on the PP forums about the quality. There was a response from the company that quality improvement is a top concern of theirs right now.

I tend to prefer the plastic jacks* over metal ones, but metal units/solos/casters. This is mainly due to weight considerations and it's significantly easier to magnatize/weapon swap with plastic 'jacks.

*The one caveat to this is I got a plastic Cyclone in a trade a while back and I don't know if the person who had it before me did something weird to it, but it feels to light, and the surface of the models is really rough. If I got another plastic model like that one I'd probably return it.

I am not super stoked with their quality, but in some cases it is alright. I have two of the plastic merc jack kits, and they were both fine to work with. My plastic skinwalkers I am a little paranoid about now though, after I dropped one and his ax haft broke off. Apparently there was a plastic seam there I couldn't see from the outside, but was definitely not well fused. Granted, it wouldn't be any better in resin, but a harder plastic would be preferable.

All in all though, plastic jacks and critters are a lot easier to put together and slash apart than metal, so I am generally in favor of them. I just wish they would put together some metal or resin conversion kits to spice up the looks a little. I far prefer my metal nomad to the plastic versions :(

I haven't had many issues with PP plastics. The details are definitely softer. My bastions were a little miscast around the arm sockets with some bubbling issues, but it wasn't noticeable when assembled. The biggest issue I've had is pieces not fitting well. Often the tabs are too big for the sockets. It takes some time to work with which is annoying but not deal breaking for me. One thing I am disappointed about is they didn't fix the Titan Glad's body issue. There's still that gap between torso and legs that is present on the metals.

At least wrinkly elephant skin is easy to greenstuff.

I'm still torn on the jacks. I live metal minis and for the most part the rant too heavy. But then there was the Behemoth....

That thing weighs a ton and I had to use huge brass rods to pin it.

TBH, I hate them with a passion. Out of the out of , many you cannot pose into cool poses, The khador jack legs are one piece it is furiating.
Dont get me started on the warpwolf

 hotsauceman1 wrote:

Dont get me started on the warpwolf

I like the plastic Warpwolf...

I prefer metal models to the extent that I went to the trouble of tracking down a metal Hammersmith on ebay after the Cygnar Heavy Jack plastic kit came out.

But then again, I really don't mind the limited "posability" of metal models since I don't understand the "all the models in my unit must be unique snow flakes" mentality when you really can't distinguish the difference in poses from two feet away in the middle of a cluttered table...

They're okay. You can't really pose them that well and they are a little bent but I can't complain.

 Platuan4th wrote:

 hotsauceman1 wrote:

Dont get me started on the warpwolf

I like the plastic Warpwolf...

It looks cool, but they should have put the head, legs and other things on ball joints, so you can pose them out of the box.

Indeed, although you can still get some nice poses out of the kits. If you have some experience with cutting, pinning, and greenstuffing(fur is easy to greenstuff)

 hotsauceman1 wrote:

 Platuan4th wrote:

 hotsauceman1 wrote:

Dont get me started on the warpwolf

I like the plastic Warpwolf...

It looks cool, but they should have put the head, legs and other things on ball joints, so you can pose them out of the box.

Yeah, that would've been cool. The shoulder and neck joins mean you don't need to magnetize, though.

I was a little irked with the quality of some of my plastic PP models. The detail is soft in some places and sort of a mess.

The legs on the man-o-war models for example. I don't know if anyone else has had a similar issue with them but the lower legs and feet of all mine are a little misshapen in one way or another whether it's huge ugly mold lines or missing detail from a poor cast.

I still like my Khador but it has made me appreciate my GW models more.

That's ok, once you get more Khador, you'll never notice it because you'll rarely ever use MoW.

 Platuan4th wrote:
That's ok, once you get more Khador, you'll never notice it because you'll rarely ever use MoW.

Nuts, can't run all jacks, can't run MoW, beginning to wonder what the hell you can run that's khador and not the deathstar.

 Ma55ter_fett wrote:

 Platuan4th wrote:
That's ok, once you get more Khador, you'll never notice it because you'll rarely ever use MoW.

Nuts, can't run all jacks, can't run MoW, beginning to wonder what the hell you can run that's khador and not the deathstar.

IFP
Kayazy
Rifle Corps
Uhlans
Greylords
Great Bears
Greylords on horses
Doom Reavers

 hotsauceman1 wrote:

 Platuan4th wrote:

 hotsauceman1 wrote:

Dont get me started on the warpwolf

I like the plastic Warpwolf...

It looks cool, but they should have put the head, legs and other things on ball joints, so you can pose them out of the box.

Not really, because then it would look too artificial and a bit rubbish IMO. What works on a sculpt for something mechanical, (like a Warjack) won't work the same for something organic.