Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

The vast majority of my models are GW, and I play more GW games than other games.

I largely "keep to script" but every now and then a Starship Troopers Bug will turn up as a Tyranid, because I like the model and it roughly fits sizewise.

Many moons ago I built a Court of the Archon because I liked the idea and GW had rules but no models at that time (and again I see have no models, nor rules, but I have both). They were made up of a mixture of 3rd party & GW models and parts, and they still occasionally see the field. My vision wasn't quite GW'S, but who cares?

Even longer ago, I built a metal Necron army when there were about 4 units (Lord, Warriors, Immortals, Destroyers and large template exploding Scarabs if I remember correctly). I remember the white dwarf codex and when bigger rulesets came out (but still pre plastic) filed down some Eldar big guns to make Heavy Destroyers. If I'd found 3rd party big guns, I'd have been just as happy with those.

Each to their own - whatever you do - HAVE FUN!

 Olthannon wrote:
I'll be brutally honest and say I've yet to see a 3D printed model that actually looks good.

There's plenty of people out there sculpting with miliput and green stuff and they look fantastic. Some of it isn't to my taste but some really nail my style. but I think 3D printing has a long way to go. It's cheap for people and I see that as a real boon, but I don't see it as a replacement. I've bought a couple of 3D printed things for projects when I couldn't be arsed/ didn't think I had the skill to create something suitable. All of it was low detail because that's where most digital sculpts fall dead.

I think the best way to describe 3D printing is like veggie/ vegan meat alternatives. They can look similar to the real deal and sometimes can taste pretty close but it's not a real contest.

Of course other people think very differently to me but I like official minis for games on the whole.

Honestly I'd be interested to see the 3D prints you've got cause my experience is that they've really become insanely good - esp liquid resin ones.
Style is a huge thing and yes some sculptors are very robotic; but there are loads of very talented sculptors making really outstanding stuff out there.


I'm just curious if you've got good quality prints and its things that are really hard to avoid like layerlines (improving steadily all the time as resolutions increase and as AA settings improve; or if its the designs or if they were just printed really badly (or even FDM vs resin printing variation)

 Lathe Biosas wrote:

 JNAProductions wrote:
I play at an actual GW store, so…

I feel your pain.

I have a model that looks official, but isnt... I'm always afraid to try and play with it.

There's almost 40 years worth of 40k stuff. You can't be expected to know all of it. Put it on the table and if called on it, apologize & claim ignorance. Just don't go out of your way to point it out.

ccs wrote:

 Lathe Biosas wrote:

 JNAProductions wrote:
I play at an actual GW store, so…

I feel your pain.

I have a model that looks official, but isnt... I'm always afraid to try and play with it.

There's almost 40 years worth of 40k stuff. You can't be expected to know all of it. Put it on the table and if called on it, apologize & claim ignorance. Just don't go out of your way to point it out.

If Lathe talks in real life like he posts on this forum, he won't be able to help it and tell everyone as soon as he enters the Shop

Sgt. Cortez wrote:

ccs wrote:

 Lathe Biosas wrote:

 JNAProductions wrote:
I play at an actual GW store, so…

I feel your pain.

I have a model that looks official, but isnt... I'm always afraid to try and play with it.

There's almost 40 years worth of 40k stuff. You can't be expected to know all of it. Put it on the table and if called on it, apologize & claim ignorance. Just don't go out of your way to point it out.

If Lathe talks in real life like he posts on this forum, he won't be able to help it and tell everyone as soon as he enters the Shop

Hey. I can be quiet... in theory.

Apparently, I talk in my sleep.

 Overread wrote:
Most people I know in the hobby buy official models.


They tend to buy knock-offs when its big forgeworld style models or out of print stuff. Heck I'm fairly sure there's a healthy bunch of metal models on ebay which are not authentic secondhand but are recasts instead.

But for the most part people want to support the hobby they love. This means buying official models - often because that's directly supporting the local store (be it 3rd party or GW) and thus keeping interest in the local area.


I've always said it myself as well - if you want the hobby to thrive put your money in the support structure for that hobby. Local stores; 3rd parties; own brand - support the chain. Sure the individual makes no impact; but everyone in an area supporting a store does; every store in a region makes a huge impact on a company etc....

My FLGS has so many games from so many companies on the shelves. Yet there are people that would never buy/play anything that is not GW.

That's what I meant, and this thread went in a utterly different direction.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Sgt. Cortez wrote:
I mean, with 3rd party bits and models you also "put your money where your hobby is". My hobby is at GW. And Kromlech. And Archon. And Spellcrow. And ArtelW. And Wargame Exclusive. And...

Would you ever play/buy a non-GW game?


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Olthannon wrote:
I'll be brutally honest and say I've yet to see a 3D printed model that actually looks good.

There's plenty of people out there sculpting with miliput and green stuff and they look fantastic. Some of it isn't to my taste but some really nail my style. but I think 3D printing has a long way to go. It's cheap for people and I see that as a real boon, but I don't see it as a replacement. I've bought a couple of 3D printed things for projects when I couldn't be arsed/ didn't think I had the skill to create something suitable. All of it was low detail because that's where most digital sculpts fall dead.

I think the best way to describe 3D printing is like veggie/ vegan meat alternatives. They can look similar to the real deal and sometimes can taste pretty close but it's not a real contest.

Of course other people think very differently to me but I like official minis for games on the whole.

Do you play 6/8/10mm? I have amazing 3D stuff for Epic and Warmaster. I guess scale matters a lot.

SU-152 wrote:

 Overread wrote:
Most people I know in the hobby buy official models.


They tend to buy knock-offs when its big forgeworld style models or out of print stuff. Heck I'm fairly sure there's a healthy bunch of metal models on ebay which are not authentic secondhand but are recasts instead.

But for the most part people want to support the hobby they love. This means buying official models - often because that's directly supporting the local store (be it 3rd party or GW) and thus keeping interest in the local area.


I've always said it myself as well - if you want the hobby to thrive put your money in the support structure for that hobby. Local stores; 3rd parties; own brand - support the chain. Sure the individual makes no impact; but everyone in an area supporting a store does; every store in a region makes a huge impact on a company etc....

My FLGS has so many games from so many companies on the shelves. Yet there are people that would never buy/play anything that is not GW.

That's what I meant, and this thread went in a utterly different direction.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Sgt. Cortez wrote:
I mean, with 3rd party bits and models you also "put your money where your hobby is". My hobby is at GW. And Kromlech. And Archon. And Spellcrow. And ArtelW. And Wargame Exclusive. And...

Would you ever play/buy a non-GW game?


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Olthannon wrote:
I'll be brutally honest and say I've yet to see a 3D printed model that actually looks good.

There's plenty of people out there sculpting with miliput and green stuff and they look fantastic. Some of it isn't to my taste but some really nail my style. but I think 3D printing has a long way to go. It's cheap for people and I see that as a real boon, but I don't see it as a replacement. I've bought a couple of 3D printed things for projects when I couldn't be arsed/ didn't think I had the skill to create something suitable. All of it was low detail because that's where most digital sculpts fall dead.

I think the best way to describe 3D printing is like veggie/ vegan meat alternatives. They can look similar to the real deal and sometimes can taste pretty close but it's not a real contest.

Of course other people think very differently to me but I like official minis for games on the whole.

Do you play 6/8/10mm? I have amazing 3D stuff for Epic and Warmaster. I guess scale matters a lot.

Honestly the thread is being very well behaved, I expected a slew of "evil corpo, GW buyers are bootlicker, 3d print to destroy the machine" type comments to slowly work their way in.

That said the wording of the title and the OP makes it read like you're asking if people will play warhammer with stuff that isn't a GW mini, not "do people only play GW games and only with official minis".

Even in my gaming group I have some players whose brand loyalty to GW is astounding. There may be games that have rave reviews, top scores from thousands of BGG users, you can see from rules and batreps that the design and gameplay are top notch, and still when you propose playing them the reaction is "yeah, I don't know...".

But the moment the new GW game is teased they are immediately "wow, are we going to play this?! I am making a preorder!" even though there's zero information on whether the game is actually any good (GW is one of those few game producers that do not upload rules to BGG for everyone to check before buying) and the precedent is firmly set at "pretty models, crappy rules".


This forum also has some of that, when some game design solutions are discussed and after investigating a little bit it turns out some participants have no scope of reference other than games of the one and only producer they ever play, let alone games of different genres and design philosophies. It's like talking about movies with people who only ever watch, say, Friends TV series and nothing else, ever.

 Olthannon wrote:
I'll be brutally honest and say I've yet to see a 3D printed model that actually looks good.

It depends on what you are printing. If someone is only printing the free stuff they find on Thingiverse, it might not look great. Start paying for STL's from a good sculptor, you'd never be able to tell the difference from a cast mini.

This thread did really get me thinking about why I play certain games and not others, and which ones I may want to play in the future and it got me to look at my hobby habits.

In the same way I seem to have an irrational fear of the airbrush (I have one, never used it, afraid to break it or not clean it properly and cleaning it looks like too much of a hassle...) I also seem to have an irrational fear of 3D printing - don't have one and don't buy 3D printed minis. No reason why not, my mate has a 3D printer and loves it and the models he prints are fine.

It really does seem like I am stuck in my ways - could this be a generational thing? I am in my 50s and have been playing with toy soldiers since I was 13.

I prefer to go into a shop to buy games and hobby supplies so I can see them "in the flesh" before buying. I only buy online from GW because I feel I know the product will be fine. I also like to try a game before committing if I can.

This is probably why I restrict myself to GW products - they are widely available, I can go into most stores (GW and non-GW) and pick up GW products off the shelf and more often that not I can either try a game or see a mini before I buy it.

Is this an old person thing, lol. Am I missing out by not trying new things "blind"? Youtube is sort of helping with this.

I have started to be interested in Trench Crusade. never played it, never seen any models in the flesh but have watched quite a few videos and like the models and lore.

That also made me think about the non-GW games I like - they almost always tend to be games that have plastic minis, tend to have nice, crisp minis (although not always) and be easily available.

The non-GW games I have tried have been:

Malifaux - loved the minis, didn't mind the rules but struggled to find players in my area
Massive Darkness - Lots of fun with this, enjoy the game and the models are ok.
Zombicide - see Massive Darkness
BattleTech - this was long ago, hate the minis but quite like the game but if memory serves it drags on too long, lol. Don't play that any more
X-Wing - this was great, pre-painted, OK minis, OK rules - died in my area though

But that's it...... Quite telling.....

maybe I should try new things. You're never too old right?

I’m not interested in 3d Printing either.

I have strong, certain thoughts on 3d Printing an army that’s originated as 3d Scans of existing models.. But I’m the same on general piracy.

As I said earlier? The odd part to make the most of an existing kits options is fine. But to just make a copy of something? Nope. I don’t hold with that.

If you’ve created the underlying STL yourself? That’s different. You’ve put effort and artistic skill to good use. No real problem there, even if your designs are based on existing ones.

Part of this comes from 3d Print Bros. Reddit occasionally throws up posts about 3d Printing Warhams, and a lot of the posts are just own fart sniffing smuggitude.

But? That’s just me. I might look askance at someone who does things I don’t personally agree with, but going further is a waste of everyone’s time and energy.

In our core group....hell no

Let me start by saying, no matter how much we may disagree with current GW as a company, We all understand GWs market position and there will always be people willing to buy their kits for the foreseeable future no matter how much they cost or what rules they come up with for the game.

Some of our guys still buy official kits if they see something they like, or 3rd party alternate miniatures, or 3d prints. one guy has 3 armies, his guard is 90% official as is his loyalist marines, his 3.5 chaos codex themed list is 100% 3d printed mostly because he designed and printed all the minis himself because he didn't like how things looked with the official models.

Since we play at a private club and our group plays 5th edition to boot nobody really cares what models you use.

SU-152 wrote:

My FLGS has so many games from so many companies on the shelves. Yet there are people that would never buy/play anything that is not GW.

That's what I meant, and this thread went in a utterly different direction.

I've played a number of non-GW games - for the most part enjoyed all of them.
Infinity - amazing models
Bolt Action - scratched my WW2 itch
X-Wing - played probably hundreds of games with my wife
Legion - Fun game
Warmachine - tried with a friend but assembling their models was a nightmare
8mm Napoleonics - game I play with my dad, games last literally all weekend...
Wrath of Kings - loved the models

The first war-game I played growing up was trying to learn napoleonics, so I don't have brand loyalty like many people. The main issue I have with non-GW games is trying to find players to consistently play. I've gotten better with it, but I do have pretty bad social anxiety and meeting new people every weekend makes it difficult for me to relax after a long week. If it's a simple game to learn I can generally convince my wife to play ie.- X-Wing, Warcry, Age of Sigmar. Once it starts getting more complicated to learn the basics...

Generally I will always buy the 'official' kits for the systems I want to play as it's just easier for me. I don't like proxying.

I'll avoid knock offs/scans but I know many many people that play MESBG that will happily chip in on a big order for prints of OOP units and heroes.

 Tabletop_Magpie wrote:
Generally I will always buy the 'official' kits for the systems I want to play as it's just easier for me. I don't like proxying.

I make a distinction between proxies ("these half-assembled Skinks are my Bretonnian archers and this plastic box is my trebuchet") and alternative models (WYSIWYG in style and function).

I buy miniatures how I buy cheese or toothpaste. What counts is whether I like it and how much it costs and the ratio between the two (I may compromise on quality if the price is good and vice versa). What brand or logo is printed on the packaging is totally irrelevant.

Results are varied on this forum of well informed gamers.

However, I suspect that if you like polled a wide swathe of GW players a majority of them would be players and purchasers of only GW products. Likely also they wouldn't have some overarching philosophy on it beyond simply that they're "'Into Warhammer".

For those folks, they're into the "Warhammer Hobby" or what used to be called the "Games Workshop Hobby". They play Warhammer and it's probably worth it to then to pay 2-3x as much for their miniatures because they aren't buying for (m)any other games and they know they always have a ready player base and long term support for their "hobby".

That's great for them, but I'm into the "Miniature Wargaming Hobby". This is an important distinction. The minis and games enjoyed by myself and my club are wide and varied. We feel no compunction to acquire our setting, rules and miniatures for a given game from the same company. Rather, while some GW minis will quite often be involved, the setting won't always be Warhammer/40k and the rules will likely never be current GW.

I simply couldn't afford to be hobbying this widely if I was actively playing and buying for a current GW game. Even if I was in an area where the only gaming done was 40k -and I decided to take the plunge- it'd never occur to me to limit myself to only GW models.

Lastly for the issue of local support, I do understand it. I try to support my local shops by purchasing boardgames and the occasional wargaming item, paint, etc. However, when it comes to Wargaming, it's mostly GW and hence there's almost nothing that I want.

My support of the hobby comes primarily from running and hosting a small local group where anyone can play the games they like, and the financial barrier to play is low or non-existent.

Cyel wrote:

 Tabletop_Magpie wrote:
Generally I will always buy the 'official' kits for the systems I want to play as it's just easier for me. I don't like proxying.

I make a distinction between proxies ("these half-assembled Skinks are my Bretonnian archers and this plastic box is my trebuchet") and alternative models (WYSIWYG in style and function).

I buy miniatures how I buy cheese or toothpaste. What counts is whether I like it and how much it costs and the ratio between the two (I may compromise on quality if the price is good and vice versa). What brand or logo is printed on the packaging is totally irrelevant.

I think this comes back to Brand Loyalty, if somebody identifies with a brand then it is part of their personality. I think it is part of modern-consumerism which has been part of other hobbies for a long time, and has also crept into minatures. I have a friend who will never try diffrent skies than Atomic, even if they have plenty alternatives to borrow. Hence if it is part of their identity they will defend it.

On brand loyalty?

I want to play Epic.

That doesn’t mean I want to play a game at epic scale.

It means I want to play Epic. Space Marine, Titan Legions, Epic Armageddon, Legions Imperialis.

I want to play with teeny tiny Marines/Orks/Eldar/Chaos in grand scale battle set in the 40K or Heresy era universe. That’s the setting I want to tell my tale in.

Hence, I’ve no particular interest in Dropfleet Commander. It may be a very fine game indeed, but it’s not Epic. It’s just not going to scratch that itch.

It’s like telling a Star Wars fan “well, we’ve got Wrath of Khan?” when they want to watch Return of the Jedi.

Both are sci-fi after a fashion, both a very fine movies. But only one is Return of the Jedi.

SU-152 wrote:
1628bc470e0cbbd1ce537d119082130d.jpg]

Do you play 6/8/10mm? I have amazing 3D stuff for Epic and Warmaster. I guess scale matters a lot.

I don't play any smaller scales but I agree with you here, smaller scales to 28mm benefit 3D printing a lot where detail isn't as important. People doing space ship games etc look great at that scale with 3D prints.


I know a few people have said ah you've not seen the right 3D sculptor but I've seen a fair few and I stand by what I said. But that's okay, just my opinion what I will say is I don't mind other 3D prints for other game systems I play.

At the AoP event Sunday at the local GW, the topic came up.

One of the guys had some D&D minis in the diorama. SW facing off against a frost giant, DW up against a remorhaz and some spiders. Looked good, good effort, but the manager had to DQ him.

If pictures found their way up the ladder and corporate found out, he could get in trouble. While very supportive as a hobbiest, the reality is that for official GW, these events are about marketing. He needs to be able to put a box into someone’s hand, and ring it out at the till. If someone sees something cool on the table, the potential to turn that into a sale is needed.

That’s the official party line.

Now that can get a little fuzzy on OOP stuff and other corner cases. And I suspect there might be a bit of don’t ask, don’t tell going on. I think the only reason it was brought up was the fact that things were being documented. In the past I know proxies have been allowed in normal in game stores, especially when the official models were temp out of stock, and had been for a while.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
On brand loyalty?

I want to play Epic.

That doesn’t mean I want to play a game at epic scale.

It means I want to play Epic. Space Marine, Titan Legions, Epic Armageddon, Legions Imperialis.

I want to play with teeny tiny Marines/Orks/Eldar/Chaos in grand scale battle set in the 40K or Heresy era universe. That’s the setting I want to tell my tale in.

Hence, I’ve no particular interest in Dropfleet Commander. It may be a very fine game indeed, but it’s not Epic. It’s just not going to scratch that itch.

It’s like telling a Star Wars fan “well, we’ve got Wrath of Khan?” when they want to watch Return of the Jedi.

Both are sci-fi after a fashion, both a very fine movies. But only one is Return of the Jedi.

So for you it is more about the setting rather than the brand-loyalty. For example the brand-loyalty I had in mind would be refusing to play with Kromlech Orks as they are non-GW, despite them matching the 40k setting.

Bit of both.

GW created this shebang, Kromlech didn’t.

Nice as Kromlech’s Orks are? I’d rather stick with GW.

Now, Epic? Let’s say I find other Dusty Old Grognards in my area, desperate to play 2nd Ed Epic Space Marine once again.

If I want to go Marines? I’ll use my existing Legions Imperialis toys. No sense in not doing so. They’re there, I own loads.

But, if I wanted to play pretty much any other 2nd Ed Epic Space Marine army?. There I’d be ok with using Third Party. Not only are second hand ones pretty expensive, but either way GW isn’t in-line for a cut of that, as there’s no route to me giving them that money.

In fact there? I think I would prefer to buy Third Party, so I am directly benefitting a creative.

 Jammer87 wrote:

Warmachine - tried with a friend but assembling their models was a nightmare

Funny enough, the new edition armies are all shipped as effectively pre-assembled as they're produced as 3D prints.

I don't mind 3D prints at all. There's some great stuff out there for sure. I think people wildly underestimate how much effort and time they take though and is really its own hobby. I really appreciate the generosity of the enthusiasts out there, but it's definitely an undervalued skillset that I feel is getting exploited a bit.

As for non GW stuff, I play a ton of different game systems. MCP, Malifaux, Warmachine, Infinity, Judgement, Shatterpoint, Bushido, Guild Ball, and a good chunk of things that didn't quite land. Definitely not a purist in that regard.

 LunarSol wrote:

 Jammer87 wrote:

Warmachine - tried with a friend but assembling their models was a nightmare

Funny enough, the new edition armies are all shipped as effectively pre-assembled as they're produced as 3D prints.

I don't mind 3D prints at all. There's some great stuff out there for sure. I think people wildly underestimate how much effort and time they take though and is really its own hobby. I really appreciate the generosity of the enthusiasts out there, but it's definitely an undervalued skillset that I feel is getting exploited a bit.

As for non GW stuff, I play a ton of different game systems. MCP, Malifaux, Warmachine, Infinity, Judgement, Shatterpoint, Bushido, Guild Ball, and a good chunk of things that didn't quite land. Definitely not a purist in that regard.

Ironically they're slowly releasing more and more of it in HIPS after acknowledging that 3d printing wasn't a viable long term option.

 NAVARRO wrote:

 Da Boss wrote:
I

I don't really see why anyone should do anything else to be honest - loyalty to the company is a one way street, they have no loyalty to you as a customer and will dump you as soon as they perceive a more lucrative market segment to appeal to.

Well getting say a Aeldari army from GW is supporting that product and voting with your wallet that you like it and want more of it. Is that being company Loyalist or simply buying a product you like from the source?
I think you're mixing two different things, for example I dont touch said company finecast or even rulebooks these days, since the product itself is not what I want it to be so I simply dont buy.

Im loyalist to X Product not X company. Different things.
Like I have the full OOP rackham confrontation Uraken goblins and love that collection, why in gods name would I fill it with third party knock offs or bits? See the point?

Dont get your sentiment of not understanding why would other people do something different from you either. I mean if GW would go prepainted minis I would drop it immediately but I can understand other people having a different approach.

I suppose I broadly agree with this, but my tolerance for stuff I don't really like drops away fast when it's at GW prices. All it takes is some design element I dislike to make me move on from a kit and not want to buy it, so for example I wouldn't want to buy the new Eldar because I don't like scale creep. But I'd say what you describe is not being a company loyalist at all, it's just that I purchase with zero regard for what GW might do because of my purchase. I don't think about the future of the miniature line or have any expectation that GW will do anything in particular because of my purchases. I don't think you can be a loyalist to a product really - if you like it and it's worth it to you you buy it. But I don't consider that to be any sort of moral act of support really - they made something I like so I bought it, both sides of the deal got what they want and no longer owe each other anything. I think feeling like a "supporter" means that you're entering into a one way relationship with someone who wants your money.

And yeah, like if you are happy with the miniatures you buy, why would you add stuff you don't like to them? I've bought and still sometimes buy craploads of GW kits. Generally pretty great kits, rarely been disappointed by the products themselves. Modern kits are less appealing to me due to some design choices and price, but some of them are still worth buying to me.

As to my understanding of others, I probably worded my statement poorly. I think it's not a good decision to get emotionally invested in a company who is selling you stuff. A healthy distance from them and their success or failure is better for you than feeling like you need to support them or they'll stop or go out of business. I extend that to small producers too, I think it's just a way of justifying consumption as a moral act when imo it's not really got that moral dimension.

On prices and GW prices?

For me, for the early part of my gaming life, GW Prices Were Just The Price Of Wargaming.

The UK did have FLGS, and of course still does (probably a good deal more these days), but they weren’t terribly common compared to GW Stores.

Between those and White Dwarf? Other games struggled to get on folks radar, pre-internet.

By the time I was seeing other products? I was heavily financially and I guess emotionally (not sure that’s the right word, but maybe it is?) in GW, the others having a lower price just didn’t bother me.

As others have said? I could and can always get a game of a GW system in with relatively little fuss. So yes, I am model for model paying more. But it’s also easier for me to extract value from a GW army.

So it’s all pretty complex.

Dudeface wrote:

 LunarSol wrote:

 Jammer87 wrote:

Warmachine - tried with a friend but assembling their models was a nightmare

Funny enough, the new edition armies are all shipped as effectively pre-assembled as they're produced as 3D prints.

I don't mind 3D prints at all. There's some great stuff out there for sure. I think people wildly underestimate how much effort and time they take though and is really its own hobby. I really appreciate the generosity of the enthusiasts out there, but it's definitely an undervalued skillset that I feel is getting exploited a bit.

As for non GW stuff, I play a ton of different game systems. MCP, Malifaux, Warmachine, Infinity, Judgement, Shatterpoint, Bushido, Guild Ball, and a good chunk of things that didn't quite land. Definitely not a purist in that regard.

Ironically they're slowly releasing more and more of it in HIPS after acknowledging that 3d printing wasn't a viable long term option.

They've been doing that with the 2 player starters, but I haven't seen much of a real push for that for the majority of the line. I'm honestly less impressed with the HIPs stuff personally, as it just doesn't have the mechanical advantages of the way the 3D prints have been working with the readily swappable parts on the heavies.

Cyel wrote:

 Tabletop_Magpie wrote:

Generally I will always buy the 'official' kits for the systems I want to play as it's just easier for me. I don't like proxying.

I make a distinction between proxies ("these half-assembled Skinks are my Bretonnian archers and this plastic box is my trebuchet") and alternative models (WYSIWYG in style and function).

I buy miniatures how I buy cheese or toothpaste. What counts is whether I like it and how much it costs and the ratio between the two (I may compromise on quality if the price is good and vice versa). What brand or logo is printed on the packaging is totally irrelevant.

That's a good analogy. Iit isn't that I refuse to use non-official/3rd party minis, it's just easier for me to use and obtain the 'proper' ones. Lets say I wanted to get in to The Old World with Beastmen. I could spend a fortune on Ebay/Etsy/MMF on having someone run me off the resin prints or spend a fortune on the official GW Beastmen and have it delivered within 48hrs.

On the other hand, I dislike a large amount of the MCP range, but I have seen some excellent alternative sculpts I would have no problem using because Wolverine is Wolverine, right?!

I'm getting in to Infinity and that's the other side of the coin though, every unit has numerous profiles but models for maybe less than half of them so there's lots of proxying there!

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Bit of both.

GW created this shebang, Kromlech didn’t.

Nice as Kromlech’s Orks are? I’d rather stick with GW.

.

This sort of logic doesn't totally hold water for me. GW didn't invent the orc, they just put their own spin and then sci-fi spin on it. Now that spin has gotten more and more unique over the years, but GW is incredibly derivative in so many ways. It gets a pass because it's had so long to make those derivations their own, but they also get alot more credit than they deserve.

If you like GW's product, by all means go ahead and buy it, but a billion dollar company that's going gangbusters financially and constantly raising their prices is in no way deserving of any particular support or loyalty from anyone beyond what they choose to give it.

Which is great. But please read in the context of my other posts.