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So I was at my local hobby shop, and noticed that WotC has begun selling very badly painted table top minis for DnD. Dragons, monsters, and even PCs. Obviously these are very low grade comparable to self painted individualized models, but still. Got me thinking.

If GW offered a product that was the same model, just machine painted (barely table ready) and no base decoration other than a shade of paint, for a 10-15% markup, would that have any affect on your personal experience playing the game? Why, and how?

I would personally be surprised if GW didn't get into the machine painted minis, given how their paints don't really ever sell the way their models do. I mean, I don't think anyone would buy a machine painted Morty, but maybe 15-30 IG or Intercessors pre-painted? Sure. I don't care how my Custodian Guard look for example, but I do care how my Telemon looks. I would not give a like if someone wanted to play them against, me, provided I could tell what they are at a glance. I also think it would hasten the ability to teach new players the game. Just open the box, plop the models on the table, roll dice. Get right into teaching a new player base.

I think this would all have to happen ala pre-order. But I'm sure GW has the manufacturing capacity to do this. If Hero-forge can do it, GW must be able to.

What are your thoughts?

In honest I'd welcome it, there's a lot of people with grey hordes out there and as much as I try and paint my stuff for a game, it sneaks in. On top of that if you can just prime over it anyway, why not.

If it was an optional additional product line that existed in parallel with the real kits I'd love it. We could finally end the whole "I don't have to paint my models" argument as there would no longer be any excuse for not having a fully painted army. You can either buy the normal kits and do it yourself, or you can buy the models fully painted to at least a better-than-nothing standard. And yeah, the armies of pre-painted models would look like garbage, but at least they'd be marginally better than the gray hordes and endless excuses.

If it was a replacement for the normal kits it would be the end of 40k for me. If I have to put in extra work to strip the poor quality paint, clean up the poor quality assembly work, etc, before I can even start working on a new kit that's just too much extra work.

What do you mean by "begun"? Pre-paints for D&D by WotC (and others) have been around since pre-The-Great-Darkness (or pre-2020). They're not a new thing - it just might be new that your LGS is stocking them.

As to the question - it depends on if they stop selling un-pre-painted figures, if that makes sense. If they're an option for people that want them, that's one thing - if they're the only way to get figures, that's a whole different discussion.

GW would have to make a separate line that doesn't require assembly. All new machines and molds. Not even remotely cost effective. Just pay someone to do commission work.

I enjoy the building/painting side of the hobby, and spend vastly more time at the workbench than the battlefield. If other people want to use pre-paints, that’s fine with me. But I’d pass and stick to the old ways.

I have quite a bit of those so-called "badly painted" minis and are quite fond of some them.

I'd rather spend the little bit extra for prepainted these days, I have way better uses of my time. I've also bought several e-bay models that I'm happy with the paint job they already have - and they were cheaper than brand new to boot. Good enough for play is good enough for me.

If the paint quality were on the level of the Joytoy or Mcfarlane figures or better, I'd be open to buying them.

If they were the same price it might work, otherwise people would go with the cheaper Grey ones. Not everyone sees unpainted models as detrimental to the game, so they would obviously stick to the cheaper ones.

DeathKorp_Rider wrote:
If they were the same price it might work, otherwise people would go with the cheaper Grey ones. Not everyone sees unpainted models as detrimental to the game, so they would obviously stick to the cheaper ones.

The current D&D models you can buy unpainted or prepainted. People still buy plenty of the prepainted at the higher cost - enough to keep producing them.

 Daedalus81 wrote:
GW would have to make a separate line that doesn't require assembly. All new machines and molds. Not even remotely cost effective. Just pay someone to do commission work.

Not necessarily. The D&D miniatures that were brought up as an example are not single-piece sculpts. Nor are the miniatures for FFG's Star Wars games. The bigger issue would probably be that GW would need to move their manufacturing overseas, to a country where wages are lower and they could hire cheap labor to sit on an assembly line and build and paint the models.

Honestly if 3D printing and prepainting came along a LOT further than they currently are I could see it working well if GW were to invest in such a setup.


At the same time one of the big conerstones of GW's marketing is skills. One reason parents are prepared to spend money on GW kits, glues, tools and paints for their kids is because the GW Staffer tells and shows them that the game helps with their child's growth and development.
They learn assembly, painting, maths, social skills and more.

Throw prepaints on there and a good chunk of those skills vanish. So from a marketing point of view its not a smart move for GW as it undermines a huge part of their marketing push.

Another issue is GW only just invested in a paint factory so prepainted would interrupt with potentially their own product lines and investments. Heck a lot of traditional prepainted lines only work because they are manufactured in countries with super cheap mass labour - which doesn't fit with GW as their factories are pretty much all in the UK (save for a few items done overseas and their cardstock).






If GW did it would it affect me? A huge part of that is the quality.
A lot of prepainted might come with a low quality of paint, good enough at a distance. There's also the material to consider - a lot of prepainted models can have mouldlines and such on them (which is also a downside to a lot of pre-assembled model lines as well). Even 3D printed stuff still has marks and such that need cleaning off which are often not cost effective to clean off when dealing with mass production systems (although a very fine tuned machine and resin setup could reduce those).

If the quality were good it could be interesting. It would certainly make it quicker to get to the table with a painted force. Indeed it could cause a surge of casual customers and open up markets to GW even more so.

At the same time I feel like it would lose something. Just because something can be automated doesn't mean it should. I think that encouraging building, painting and other skills is a good thing. I think its a big part of the hobby for many people; I think its a big thing we can do alone and in person. Heck just look at how many took up Warhammer during the Pandemic.
Personally I think GW would and should stick to what they do best, model kits that you assemble and paint yourself. Model kits that encourage skills and a diversity outside of just playing the game.
I think prepaints would eat into that in a way that push-fit and coloured plastic don't really meaningfully impact.

I like building models, so I’d probably only buy prepainted minis for bulk things. Basic troopers and the like, that you get a hundred of.

I honestly dislike the idea of pre-painted minis from GW. It does also feel like it's about time they started selling them. GW seems to strongly dislike the hobbyist or at least the creative hobbyist What better way to snub them than to make everything sold exactly as GW wants it to be presented. They have already removed a substantial amount of kit bashing and conversions why not push it further. I feel it would cheapen the hobby over all for me but then I already have a huge dislike of the ruse set so this kind of movie might actually encourage me to paly. All I would have to do is show up, drop cash and open boxes. Now, if the pre-painted figures... Solid gold. Just like that hero clicks stuffs. How did that age anyway? is that even still a thing? and while most of that is suppose to be a little funny at the same time I would totally try to sell all of my models and just buy a pre-painted army as cheaply as I could get it and then sell or give it away when I found I wanted another. I would not have a favorite faction and non of those 'models' would hold any sentimental value to me. Just another disposable product in the wonderful age of planned obsolescence.

I'll be honest, I'm shocked GW hasn't hired a few people from Mattel to start creating minis with the GI Joe figure pre-"paint".

Wouldn't affect my enjoyment at all.

In fact, I'd be stunned. Considering 10 Intercessors is 60 USD, how much would 10 of them pre-built and painted cost?

Would they be printed the same way they did the old metal figures, in two parts that you glue together, but this time in pre-painted plastic? That's the only way I could see them doing it. You'd be locked into very specific loadouts for your models, there'd be zero customization, you'd just stick the backpack on the mini and play your game.

And they'd likely cost 80 dollars for 5 models.

Breton wrote:
I'll be honest, I'm shocked GW hasn't hired a few people from Mattel to start creating minis with the GI Joe figure pre-"paint".

GW doesn't need too, they just licence their brand to JoyToy. 0 investment cost for GW, 100% licence fee profits

I can't see it being workable unless they're only offering a very limited selection. I mean, how many different space marine (loyalist and traitor) factions do they offer? How many different Eldar craftworlds? Every different faction in 40K has umpteen different flavours - do they offer them all? Just some? Or is everyone going to have to play Ultramarines / Black Legion / Cadia / Goffs etc?

Crispy78 wrote:
I can't see it being workable unless they're only offering a very limited selection. I mean, how many different space marine (loyalist and traitor) factions do they offer? How many different Eldar craftworlds? Every different faction in 40K has umpteen different flavours - do they offer them all? Just some? Or is everyone going to have to play Ultramarines / Black Legion / Cadia / Goffs etc?

They'd just do the 1 studio colour scheme for each faction and then a halfdozen to a dozen for Space Marines

drbored wrote:
Wouldn't affect my enjoyment at all.

In fact, I'd be stunned. Considering 10 Intercessors is 60 USD, how much would 10 of them pre-built and painted cost?

Would they be printed the same way they did the old metal figures, in two parts that you glue together, but this time in pre-painted plastic? That's the only way I could see them doing it. You'd be locked into very specific loadouts for your models, there'd be zero customization, you'd just stick the backpack on the mini and play your game.

And they'd likely cost 80 dollars for 5 models.

That would require them to be metal. You can't do current sculpts in 2 part plastic. Undercuts...

They don't do multiple pieces just for fun. And not for customization since they are largely removing those anyway.

They would have to simplify design to reduce need for undercuts, change to metal/resin for these or have cheap workforce pre-assemble them.

As for me if I can get unpainted still fine. Whatever. Looking at pic's I have played vs worse paint job than WOTC. But for me painting is part of the fun so not going to reduce my fun.

Question is thus can GW do two lines profitably? So that combined profit is higher than now.

FezzikDaBullgryn wrote:

If GW offered a product that was the same model, just machine painted (barely table ready) and no base decoration other than a shade of paint, for a 10-15% markup, would that have any affect on your personal experience playing the game? Why, and how?

Overall not much effect.

*Model-wise? I've got a vast collection - painted, unpainted, WiP.... So a pre-painted model of something I've already got has no real effect.

*Enjoyment of the game? Nope. Sure, I like fully painted stuff. It's the end goal for my own stuff. Could take awhile to achieve though.... And I don't care how/why/if someone else paints their stuff. So I just don't let paint (or the lack of) get in the way of me playing the game in the here & now.

**Where there'd be an effect for me is on NEW models. It'd eliminate the time I spend building things. Especially time spent (wasted) on building annoying things - like say Fyreslayer dwarves where I'm left grumbling about why I[i] have to assemble the right heel of random dwarf x. Believe me, I'm not getting anything positive out of assembling tiny bitz that could just as easily been molded as one piece.

And if I decided that a pre-paint should look different? Then I'd repaint it.

I would expect pre-painted figures to be at least this quality: - I would also expect technical limitations would make repaints of pre-paints look far worse than a me-paint. The best you could probably hope for would be detail touchups like the ammo belt on the motorcycle guns or the inexplicably brown engine. I can't paint much better than that, but I can paint better, so I'm unlikely to buy. I'm more unlikely to care if someone else buys. I like it when the opponent army is painted too, but it seems like a lot of hubris to think my priorities should trump theirs, especially with no knowledge of their daily schedule.

Breton wrote:
I would also expect technical limitations would make repaints of pre-paints look far worse than a me-paint.

Oh thats most definitely just a YOU problem, not any technical issue with the items construction/paint job.

ccs wrote:

Breton wrote:
I would also expect technical limitations would make repaints of pre-paints look far worse than a me-paint.

Oh thats most definitely just a YOU problem, not any technical issue with the items construction/paint job.

Nah, I'm assuming the pre-paint won't really be strippable and thick enough repaints will obliterate details even quicker.

The costs for it would be sky high AND would increase the cost of unpainted versions (because you expect to sell less of them).

Nope, as much as GW probably wants to offer something like that, there is no way for them to do it.

I think for a few of GW ranges, using the plastic injection like Gunpla uses, for different parts of the set being in different plastic.
GW could make some fair good pre colour sets.

Just give it a wash, and spray Matt varnish to get the shine off. And then those kits would be usable by painters as well.

I prefer playing painted armies and won't personally put anything on the board that isnt painted. I do see painting/modelling/converting as part of the hobby so on some levels using pre-paints is both missing out and undermining the hobby a bit- on the other side of the coin thats assuming you value those things youtself (and not everyone does) and there's plenty folks that will find great value in it so ita kind of a useful/neutral thing if you look at the big picture.

So...

If done poorly it would cheapen the hobby a bit for me, and yes, it would affect my games.

If done reasonably or even well, as much as I have zero interest in using such a thing myself, I'd have no major issues or concerns beyond what I've said above. If it gets folks into the hobby and makes the games look 'better' to casual walkers-by, it's a good thing

Breton wrote:
I would expect pre-painted figures to be at least this quality: - I would also expect technical limitations would make repaints of pre-paints look far worse than a me-paint. The best you could probably hope for would be detail touchups like the ammo belt on the motorcycle guns or the inexplicably brown engine. I can't paint much better than that, but I can paint better, so I'm unlikely to buy. I'm more unlikely to care if someone else buys. I like it when the opponent army is painted too, but it seems like a lot of hubris to think my priorities should trump theirs, especially with no knowledge of their daily schedule.

https://wizkids.com/dd-icons-of-the-realms-ogre-warband/

Might have become bit more feasible. Though would depend on cheap workforce from China or more likely India to make it feasible.

I'm not seeing how prepaints'd be a viable strategy for GW tbh. How much shelf space does a typical GW store have? Now, imagine, all that shelf space being filled with differently coloured Space Marines, instead of having any actual model selection. Sounds fun? Thought so

 tauist wrote:
I'm not seeing how prepaints'd be a viable strategy for GW tbh. How much shelf space does a typical GW store have? Now, imagine, all that shelf space being filled with differently coloured Space Marines, instead of having any actual model selection. Sounds fun? Thought so

Nah, Pre-paints would be a Special Order Upsell if they were anything. Mom and Jr Come in, Junior wants to play, Mom starts making a Christmas list, Sales Clerk tells her they'll either need to get a bunch of paints, glue and brushes, or go to this section of the website and order them already finsihed.

Breton wrote:

 tauist wrote:
I'm not seeing how prepaints'd be a viable strategy for GW tbh. How much shelf space does a typical GW store have? Now, imagine, all that shelf space being filled with differently coloured Space Marines, instead of having any actual model selection. Sounds fun? Thought so

Nah, Pre-paints would be a Special Order Upsell if they were anything. Mom and Jr Come in, Junior wants to play, Mom starts making a Christmas list, Sales Clerk tells her they'll either need to get a bunch of paints, glue and brushes, or go to this section of the website and order them already finsihed.

Still not seeing it. The amount of SKU's required would go through the roof. Delivery timetables would be impossible to guarantee during peak business times. The amount of incorrectly fulfilled orders and having to redeliver missing items in a timely fashion, all of that. Just not seeing it as a realistic option for the scale of sales GW does.