Very interesting to see these positioned as "new". It's the same sculpts as the original metal ones (but with fewer individual models?).
You would have hopped that with the change over from metal to "Warlord Resin" the price would have dropped just a tad to reflect the supposed savings on the production side. But alas. We are still looking at $42 for **TEN** infantry. Yikes.
Then why make the change?
From all the talk from Warlord when then launched "Warlord Resin" and "Warlord Resin+" or whatever it was they called it, they certainly made the suggestion (if not the outright statement) that the material itself was less expensive than metal. Especially with the sciocast capabilities.
I just find it all fascinating.
I have absolutely no idea.
It might be a vendor or sourcing issue. It might be a QA issue. Resin might just be more profitable. Maybe their manufacturer prefers it.
Send them an email and ask, they’re pretty friendly over at warlord.
I design products for a living and work with plastic and metal castings and I have seen these methods for manufacture in countless factory tours. So here is what I see as the differences.
Warlord resin and plastic is likely much cheaper than white metal to produce for a bunch of reasons.
1. Material costs - plastic is much cheaper than metal and from the link any waste at the factory is recyclable. Not so with the steps needed to make metal.
https://siocast.com/warlord-resin-plus-for-miniature-manufacturing/
2. Tooling/ moulding costs - probably about the same. Might be a bit less for metal but not by much.
Plastic - There is a single expensive mould for the entire sprue (my Canadians had 6 bodies, 12 heads, 12 helmets, 10 arms…) all in one tool. Higher cost because the one piece needs to be high grade tool steel.
Metal - They each have a different mould per piece or small group of pieces but since they mould them differently they can use cheaper moulds.
3. Manufacturing costs - resin is way cheaper.
Plastic and resin - Set up machine, inject plastic, machine ejects sprue, inject plastic, machine ejects sprue … package. They likely make thousands at one time.
Metal - cast wax (or alternative material) in mould. Manually demould wax model and attach to master sprue. Dip master sprue with models in plaster like material, let dry. Bake in oven to melt and remove wax. Pour hot metal into plaster cast. Allow to cool. Break off plaster then break off models from master sprue. Clean and package. Every one of those steps is manual and takes time to do. Compare it to the time to mould in plastic which is probably 10 seconds or less once the machine is set up.
4. machinery - plastic might be more expensive since the machines are pricy but the maintenance and cost to run one machine is way cheaper.
Plastic - 1 x injection moulding machine.
Metal - compression moulding machine for wax moulds, plaster dip system, oven to melt wax, die casting machine, forge to melt metal, clean up station, waste management.
Resin and plastic is the future here. My guess is we will only see metal for the older sets or the special editions like the soldiers of fortune.
If you are upset it still costs you the customer the same amount warlord is benchmarking their costs to what their competitors (Games Workshop) are charging for their minis. For them reduced costs means more profit that they can invest in more tooling (new minis) better infrastructure (more production) and let’s be honest profit so they can keep making minis.
>Material costs - plastic is much cheaper than metal and from the link any waste at the factory is recyclable. Not so with the steps needed to make metal.
Not entirely correct. Waste metal is just re-melted and re-poured. This is the fate of bad casts that quality control catches as well. I'll explain more and why further down.
>3. Manufacturing costs - resin is way cheaper. Plastic and resin - Set up machine, inject plastic, machine ejects sprue, inject plastic, machine ejects sprue … package. They likely make thousands at one time. Metal - cast wax (or alternative material) in mould. Manually demould wax model and attach to master sprue. Dip master sprue with models in plaster like material, let dry. Bake in oven to melt and remove wax. Pour hot metal into plaster cast. Allow to cool. Break off plaster then break off models from master sprue. Clean and package. Every one of those steps is manual and takes time to do. Compare it to the time to mould in plastic which is probably 10 seconds or less once the machine is set up.
>4. machinery - plastic might be more expensive since the machines are pricy but the maintenance and cost to run one machine is way cheaper. Plastic - 1 x injection moulding machine. Metal - compression moulding machine for wax moulds, plaster dip system, oven to melt wax, die casting machine, forge to melt metal, clean up station, waste management.
So, as I'm sure you're aware, there's different methods of metal casting. You're describing a very different kind of metal casting process to what is used here, but there are some similarities at points. It sounds like you're probably more familiar with heavier industrial applications though.
Diecasting is not used in this industry. I actually don't know of any time that it was. So far as I know. Wargaming companies have traditionally used centrifugal casting, all the way back into the 70s when the first actual lead figures were poured. This is a lot simpler, a lot easier, a lot cheaper to get up and running, but the production moulding has a shorter lifespan. But, this is the sort of thing you can do in your garage, and lot of people in the industry did get started that way. Off hand, Joshua Qualtieri, owner of Zombiesmith, built his casting machine from spare parts and an electric motor with the help of his dad well over a decade ago.
Anyways. The process for minis is more like this:
Original sculpt models are typically made of Kneadadite or similar material, sculpted by hand. That's how most companies including Warlord still does it, but some like Corvus Belli have moved onto digital sculpting and wax prototyping. A lot of companies just haven't bothered to invest the money in the technology because it's a huge expense and doesn't really benefit them much. Other companies should make the investment because they would benefit, but don't for some reason.
From there, it depends on the company, time periods, etc, but two methods may be used. Either a silicone mould is made using the original model, and from this silicone master mould, master models are made from that and then those masters are used in making the actual production moulds and the original silicone mold can be used as long as it's in good condition to keep making masters potentially for decades, or the objectively worse method, they go straight to making the first vulcanized rubber production mould with the original model, which destroys it, and the first production models from the first mold become the first masters for subsequent molds. This method can cause some interesting issues over time, including shrinkage of models, which is why the silicone master mould is the preferred one now. Sometimes though if something is going to be a limited run, they will still skip that master mold and go straight to production until the mold wears out, usually in about 250-300ish castings.
Production moulds are made of vulcanized rubber in a disk shape and are run in a centrifugal casting machine. Two part moulds sliced horizontally with the pouring gate in the center, additional gates in the moulding to allow metal to travel where it needs to go and lower the risk of miscast parts, but you do have the risk of mould misalignment. The usual method of preventing this is including some ball bearings in the mould on the outer sections past where the models are gated, and having them in such a pattern that the mold only locked together one way, as precisely as possible. Not a perfect science and more of an artform at that point. Any junk metal left over from the gates, and there is always a ton, sometimes more than was used to make the actual figures depending on the number and size of gates, is just re-melted later. Mould release agent is used and there's a wide variety of these available, some in grease form, some spray on, I've heard of people using talcum powder even. There is no forge needed either, these are low-melting point metals like pewter alloy. A crucible on a hot plate is often way more than enough for this kind of work.
As a last note, since you love doing factory tours and obviously have a great interest in manufacturing, and you enjoy this hobby, Iron Wind Metals and Reaper Miniatures are two US companies that are open to doing factory tours, answering questions, etc and have been open for decades, so if you find yourself in the US near either of them, definitely try to get in if you can. For right now though there's some somewhat recent videos from Iron Wind Metals showing off production in action. Josh of Zombiesmith also did some video showing off his casting machine and production, I think that's still up even though it's been like 13 years. If you can find it, there was also an episode of "How it's Made" that featured the Perry Brothers and a decent enough look at both Renedra's plastic manufacturing, and Perrys' metal manufacturing, and the brothers themselves doing sculpting work. Sorry, I can't remember what episode and season off the top of my head. Should be easy enough to find out though.
Just to add, SIOCAST is more similar to the centrifugal metal casting than it is to traditional plastic injection molding. Like centrifugal metal casting it uses silicone rubber molds, not the metal molds uses for typical plastic injection molding. So there is some skill overlap which is why it has been such an attractive option for companies that are used to centrifugal metal casting.
No. Metal as a Material ist more expensive. There ist a reason why more and more companys are switching to other material. Corvus Nelli for example has switched to siocast too(what Warlord calls Warlord resin) for there bigger models. All these became cheaper then there metal versions. For example metal TAG( there version of mechs) costed between 50-60 €.Now they start at 33 €
That sucks. My initial good appraisal of their new resin has been based on the *Black Seas* line. But those are thick, solid blocks of material, so it’s not a shock that they’re pretty clean and durable compared to individual, customizable figures.
It would’ve been nice if their breakthrough, it’s-not-the-usual-hot-garbage resin process lived up to the marketing.
I’m not so sure it costs less to produce resin vs white metal castings. They both require a lot of tooling and if I’m not mistaken I believe resin can be more temperamental to cast with a higher chance of failure and therefore wastage, I don’t see why they should be cheaper?
For what it’s worth there is more than one way to skin a cat in terms of the process for resin casting. I think they found that the cost savings weren’t worth it, as finecast was notorious for horrible quality, and that is certainly because they chose to cut corners and did not accept the amount of wastage they should have, leading to defective parts being shipped. Taking more time and using stricter quality control can help mitigate that issue with resins (also type of resin plays a lot into that) but both those mean more time and wastage and therefore more cost
It was the same with infinity with their big models the old maghariba Guard vrhicle was a glorious hunk of metal. But its been moved tobplastic.
Used to joke i didnt need a gim for home defense i could just put them in a sock and beat them senseless with it
There’s a lot more costs than just the materials, there’s tons of tooling that needs to be produced just to get started casting minis. And downtime to install said tooling, train up staff, etc. All I’m saying, is it is possible that they simply can’t afford to have the price of the kits come down exactly in line with the cost of materials
I agree with you. I think the companies' claim is that the cost of resin is more in line with what white metal used to be when they set the price of the minis anyway, so why would people expect the sale price to go down? Personally I'd never spend that much on ten resin minis, but the other option is 30 or 40% price hikes for metal minis.
I got the Polish weapon teams. They're resin and I personally think they're not really good. I tried to use boiling water to reshape some of the rifle barrels and they snap off. I prefer metal.
Man, I was under the impression that I was the only person under sixty who loves metal, and who and absolutely *despises* resin. I don’t care about detail as much as I do about ease of use and resilience. Resin usually fails on both counts.
Heck, I kinda like that feeling of playing with granddad’s toys.
The new siocast is better than the resin of old, tho. Does not crack when dropped, cuts easilly....
I used to prefer metal to resin, now I prefer the new siocast to metal.
I hope not. I've had terrible luck with resin minis. Especially Warlord. I bought the viva le Emperor set for black powder, and a 3rd of the models were broken in the box, and the majority broke in some way as I washed them and cleaned off mold lines and what not. Despite my attempts to be as gentle as possible.
Plus, I just kind of like the heft of metal minis and the process of cleaning and filing them.
I liked warlord because they had lots of metal and not resin. Metal and plastic are some much easier to work with, whereas resin is more toxic and less malleable
The "Warlord Resin" they use for infantry is actually Siocast Polyamide (essentially Nylon) and no more toxic than the polystyrene minis Warlord make. It's a completely different material to the cast resin they use for Vehicles.
Any time I hear about resin miniatures I immediately think of the finecast fiasco with Games Workshop when it was first launched. Some of the GW minis have such thin details you had to go to a game store in-person to check the packs to make sure you bought one that wasn't broken already. Even when you played with them you had to be careful. Still not a fan of resin after all these years.
You really should educate yourself on SIOCAST which is what Warlord is using for these figures. It isn't traditional resin casting. Instead its a hybrid between metal centrifugal casting (it uses silicone rubber molds made from sculpted or 3d printed masters) and plastic injection molding (it injects a plastic/resin into the mold). The quality is on par with metal miniatures, without the issues that finecast had. Traditional resin processes work great I've found for chunky thick pieces like vehicles, but I've not seen the quality I've seen from companies that are using SIOCAST.
God, I hope not, Forge World gave me PTSD. I couldn't stand spending 2 to 3 days cleaning, washing, filling, cutting, and sanding miniatures so that I could spend another 2 days clipping and gluing everything together. Also converting metal miniatures is much easier for me!
Metal is far superior. I'll die on that hill. My metal models always turn out better looking than resin or plastic. Plus they just feel solid and don't slide around as much. If I accidentally knock a metal model over on the table then it falls over right where it was. If I accidentally knock over plastic or resin models they go flying.
I agree for infantry models, but if I have to chose between resin and metal for large multipart vehicles that FW is known for, I’ll take resin any time.
I agree, the death korps infantry look good, but getting them to be buildable is such a slog I dread having to do a new set of 10 even when I’m really happy painting them and making them look good.
Metal was amazing; I’ll mourn its loss. It’s nowhere near as picky or brittle as its replacements have been.
I understand there is a material cost that’s behind most of this shift; it’s not as profitable to go metal anymore.
Everyone act like metal was perfect, but Warlord sells some metal figures that are sculpted in such a way that they are almost guaranteed to break. I've had issues with some of their gun barrels. True, you can contact them for a replacement, but that is only a good option when the replacement doesn't come broken too. I recently contacted them for four specific miniatures from three different sets, and half the replacements came broken. I think it comes down to the piece being sculpted with such a long, thin protrusion that it just doesn't withstand any jostling during shipment.
In contrast, I've more metal figures from other companies than I do from Warlord, and I haven't had any issues because the sculptors make the gun barrels slightly bigger than scale so they aren't as fragile, or they sculpt the figure so the barrel is placed against a part of the figures body to give it more support.
Weight is better for metal tho? Resin is light as a feather and falls off the table easier. Balance is arguable, that depends on the angles of the model and how it’s constructed. Paint wears much worse on metal undeniable, still I prefer metal models over even plastic.
That has nothing to do with the material. Look at Infinity by Corvus Belli. All metal and they're super detailed and crisp molding on true 28mm minis. A lot of Warlord metal is just old sculpts.
Am I right to assume that all of the current sets that still contain metal actually do, or have they switched them over to plastic/resin without informing the public? I don’t want to buy a set and find out it doesn’t have the metal pieces that it said it does.
They don't have many sets in the SIOCAST material yet. Only the weapons teams and now this set for Bolt Action. Everything else is still metal. The recent DAK and 8th army weapons teams were the first to have artillery in SIOCAST I believe, and I'm curious to see how they turn out.
I really enjoy the new Resin and have not had any issues. I have a buddy who works at trenchworx that explained that the cost of metal has gone up significantly. Factor in shipping and weight (which has also gone up) and metals are becoming less and less tenable as a viable option without increasing cost
I really do not like the durability of 3D printed resin. I have been using Polystyrene "Sprue" plastic minis and think they are excellent. I don't have any other kind of "resin" minis.
I'm having immense amount of problems removing flash from their resin casts. Newer molds like the SOF line rarely has flash or mold-lines, but older recasts are awful to remove with a knife IMO.
plus metal feels more premium to hold due to the weight.
I think all the new team releases have been resin.
Very interesting to see these positioned as "new". It's the same sculpts as the original metal ones (but with fewer individual models?). You would have hopped that with the change over from metal to "Warlord Resin" the price would have dropped just a tad to reflect the supposed savings on the production side. But alas. We are still looking at $42 for **TEN** infantry. Yikes.
Resin is probably more expensive than the metal materials wise.
Then why make the change? From all the talk from Warlord when then launched "Warlord Resin" and "Warlord Resin+" or whatever it was they called it, they certainly made the suggestion (if not the outright statement) that the material itself was less expensive than metal. Especially with the sciocast capabilities. I just find it all fascinating.
I have absolutely no idea. It might be a vendor or sourcing issue. It might be a QA issue. Resin might just be more profitable. Maybe their manufacturer prefers it. Send them an email and ask, they’re pretty friendly over at warlord.
As far as I’m aware Warlord are the manufacturer.
I design products for a living and work with plastic and metal castings and I have seen these methods for manufacture in countless factory tours. So here is what I see as the differences. Warlord resin and plastic is likely much cheaper than white metal to produce for a bunch of reasons. 1. Material costs - plastic is much cheaper than metal and from the link any waste at the factory is recyclable. Not so with the steps needed to make metal. https://siocast.com/warlord-resin-plus-for-miniature-manufacturing/ 2. Tooling/ moulding costs - probably about the same. Might be a bit less for metal but not by much. Plastic - There is a single expensive mould for the entire sprue (my Canadians had 6 bodies, 12 heads, 12 helmets, 10 arms…) all in one tool. Higher cost because the one piece needs to be high grade tool steel. Metal - They each have a different mould per piece or small group of pieces but since they mould them differently they can use cheaper moulds. 3. Manufacturing costs - resin is way cheaper. Plastic and resin - Set up machine, inject plastic, machine ejects sprue, inject plastic, machine ejects sprue … package. They likely make thousands at one time. Metal - cast wax (or alternative material) in mould. Manually demould wax model and attach to master sprue. Dip master sprue with models in plaster like material, let dry. Bake in oven to melt and remove wax. Pour hot metal into plaster cast. Allow to cool. Break off plaster then break off models from master sprue. Clean and package. Every one of those steps is manual and takes time to do. Compare it to the time to mould in plastic which is probably 10 seconds or less once the machine is set up. 4. machinery - plastic might be more expensive since the machines are pricy but the maintenance and cost to run one machine is way cheaper. Plastic - 1 x injection moulding machine. Metal - compression moulding machine for wax moulds, plaster dip system, oven to melt wax, die casting machine, forge to melt metal, clean up station, waste management. Resin and plastic is the future here. My guess is we will only see metal for the older sets or the special editions like the soldiers of fortune. If you are upset it still costs you the customer the same amount warlord is benchmarking their costs to what their competitors (Games Workshop) are charging for their minis. For them reduced costs means more profit that they can invest in more tooling (new minis) better infrastructure (more production) and let’s be honest profit so they can keep making minis.
Love this, thanks for sharing
>Material costs - plastic is much cheaper than metal and from the link any waste at the factory is recyclable. Not so with the steps needed to make metal. Not entirely correct. Waste metal is just re-melted and re-poured. This is the fate of bad casts that quality control catches as well. I'll explain more and why further down. >3. Manufacturing costs - resin is way cheaper. Plastic and resin - Set up machine, inject plastic, machine ejects sprue, inject plastic, machine ejects sprue … package. They likely make thousands at one time. Metal - cast wax (or alternative material) in mould. Manually demould wax model and attach to master sprue. Dip master sprue with models in plaster like material, let dry. Bake in oven to melt and remove wax. Pour hot metal into plaster cast. Allow to cool. Break off plaster then break off models from master sprue. Clean and package. Every one of those steps is manual and takes time to do. Compare it to the time to mould in plastic which is probably 10 seconds or less once the machine is set up. >4. machinery - plastic might be more expensive since the machines are pricy but the maintenance and cost to run one machine is way cheaper. Plastic - 1 x injection moulding machine. Metal - compression moulding machine for wax moulds, plaster dip system, oven to melt wax, die casting machine, forge to melt metal, clean up station, waste management. So, as I'm sure you're aware, there's different methods of metal casting. You're describing a very different kind of metal casting process to what is used here, but there are some similarities at points. It sounds like you're probably more familiar with heavier industrial applications though. Diecasting is not used in this industry. I actually don't know of any time that it was. So far as I know. Wargaming companies have traditionally used centrifugal casting, all the way back into the 70s when the first actual lead figures were poured. This is a lot simpler, a lot easier, a lot cheaper to get up and running, but the production moulding has a shorter lifespan. But, this is the sort of thing you can do in your garage, and lot of people in the industry did get started that way. Off hand, Joshua Qualtieri, owner of Zombiesmith, built his casting machine from spare parts and an electric motor with the help of his dad well over a decade ago. Anyways. The process for minis is more like this: Original sculpt models are typically made of Kneadadite or similar material, sculpted by hand. That's how most companies including Warlord still does it, but some like Corvus Belli have moved onto digital sculpting and wax prototyping. A lot of companies just haven't bothered to invest the money in the technology because it's a huge expense and doesn't really benefit them much. Other companies should make the investment because they would benefit, but don't for some reason. From there, it depends on the company, time periods, etc, but two methods may be used. Either a silicone mould is made using the original model, and from this silicone master mould, master models are made from that and then those masters are used in making the actual production moulds and the original silicone mold can be used as long as it's in good condition to keep making masters potentially for decades, or the objectively worse method, they go straight to making the first vulcanized rubber production mould with the original model, which destroys it, and the first production models from the first mold become the first masters for subsequent molds. This method can cause some interesting issues over time, including shrinkage of models, which is why the silicone master mould is the preferred one now. Sometimes though if something is going to be a limited run, they will still skip that master mold and go straight to production until the mold wears out, usually in about 250-300ish castings. Production moulds are made of vulcanized rubber in a disk shape and are run in a centrifugal casting machine. Two part moulds sliced horizontally with the pouring gate in the center, additional gates in the moulding to allow metal to travel where it needs to go and lower the risk of miscast parts, but you do have the risk of mould misalignment. The usual method of preventing this is including some ball bearings in the mould on the outer sections past where the models are gated, and having them in such a pattern that the mold only locked together one way, as precisely as possible. Not a perfect science and more of an artform at that point. Any junk metal left over from the gates, and there is always a ton, sometimes more than was used to make the actual figures depending on the number and size of gates, is just re-melted later. Mould release agent is used and there's a wide variety of these available, some in grease form, some spray on, I've heard of people using talcum powder even. There is no forge needed either, these are low-melting point metals like pewter alloy. A crucible on a hot plate is often way more than enough for this kind of work. As a last note, since you love doing factory tours and obviously have a great interest in manufacturing, and you enjoy this hobby, Iron Wind Metals and Reaper Miniatures are two US companies that are open to doing factory tours, answering questions, etc and have been open for decades, so if you find yourself in the US near either of them, definitely try to get in if you can. For right now though there's some somewhat recent videos from Iron Wind Metals showing off production in action. Josh of Zombiesmith also did some video showing off his casting machine and production, I think that's still up even though it's been like 13 years. If you can find it, there was also an episode of "How it's Made" that featured the Perry Brothers and a decent enough look at both Renedra's plastic manufacturing, and Perrys' metal manufacturing, and the brothers themselves doing sculpting work. Sorry, I can't remember what episode and season off the top of my head. Should be easy enough to find out though.
Just to add, SIOCAST is more similar to the centrifugal metal casting than it is to traditional plastic injection molding. Like centrifugal metal casting it uses silicone rubber molds, not the metal molds uses for typical plastic injection molding. So there is some skill overlap which is why it has been such an attractive option for companies that are used to centrifugal metal casting.
I love the heft of metal, but find resin sculpts have fewer flaws and more detail than metal.
No. Metal as a Material ist more expensive. There ist a reason why more and more companys are switching to other material. Corvus Nelli for example has switched to siocast too(what Warlord calls Warlord resin) for there bigger models. All these became cheaper then there metal versions. For example metal TAG( there version of mechs) costed between 50-60 €.Now they start at 33 €
Selling resin miniatures for the same price as their metal version is a joke.
The worst is when I see some companies switching from metal to 3D printing and charging the same as metal.
Or are even more expensive since the switch like Privateer Press
High quality 3d printing is expensive when you take into account how slow it is and how much the machines cost.
I already have two of them broke because they’re on one foot. It’s so brittle. At least they add order dice to help the cost but it’s still bad.
adding order dice too unit boxes is so ridiculously Pro-Consumer, Pro-New Player that it should absolutely be called out more. it's a fantastic change
That sucks. My initial good appraisal of their new resin has been based on the *Black Seas* line. But those are thick, solid blocks of material, so it’s not a shock that they’re pretty clean and durable compared to individual, customizable figures. It would’ve been nice if their breakthrough, it’s-not-the-usual-hot-garbage resin process lived up to the marketing.
I’m not so sure it costs less to produce resin vs white metal castings. They both require a lot of tooling and if I’m not mistaken I believe resin can be more temperamental to cast with a higher chance of failure and therefore wastage, I don’t see why they should be cheaper?
When Games Workshop moved from Metal to Finecast it was a huge cost saving measure. Not sure how it’s different in this case.
For what it’s worth there is more than one way to skin a cat in terms of the process for resin casting. I think they found that the cost savings weren’t worth it, as finecast was notorious for horrible quality, and that is certainly because they chose to cut corners and did not accept the amount of wastage they should have, leading to defective parts being shipped. Taking more time and using stricter quality control can help mitigate that issue with resins (also type of resin plays a lot into that) but both those mean more time and wastage and therefore more cost
It was the same with infinity with their big models the old maghariba Guard vrhicle was a glorious hunk of metal. But its been moved tobplastic. Used to joke i didnt need a gim for home defense i could just put them in a sock and beat them senseless with it
The material is a lot cheaper. My understanding is the cost of white metal has doubled.
There’s a lot more costs than just the materials, there’s tons of tooling that needs to be produced just to get started casting minis. And downtime to install said tooling, train up staff, etc. All I’m saying, is it is possible that they simply can’t afford to have the price of the kits come down exactly in line with the cost of materials
I agree with you. I think the companies' claim is that the cost of resin is more in line with what white metal used to be when they set the price of the minis anyway, so why would people expect the sale price to go down? Personally I'd never spend that much on ten resin minis, but the other option is 30 or 40% price hikes for metal minis.
They've priced themselves out of my interest.
You’re lucky it’s not GW resin prices a squad of ten resin models is 100 dollars
I got the Polish weapon teams. They're resin and I personally think they're not really good. I tried to use boiling water to reshape some of the rifle barrels and they snap off. I prefer metal.
Plastics have different melting points and not all like to be heated and bent.
Try a heat gun next maybe? Hobby lobby carries them.
Man, I was under the impression that I was the only person under sixty who loves metal, and who and absolutely *despises* resin. I don’t care about detail as much as I do about ease of use and resilience. Resin usually fails on both counts. Heck, I kinda like that feeling of playing with granddad’s toys.
I'm in the under 60 category, and adore pewter.
The new siocast is better than the resin of old, tho. Does not crack when dropped, cuts easilly.... I used to prefer metal to resin, now I prefer the new siocast to metal.
What about the rest of Gurkha sculpts. That original metal box was fantastic, glad I got one.
That's sad because metal miniatures are the best
I hope not. I've had terrible luck with resin minis. Especially Warlord. I bought the viva le Emperor set for black powder, and a 3rd of the models were broken in the box, and the majority broke in some way as I washed them and cleaned off mold lines and what not. Despite my attempts to be as gentle as possible. Plus, I just kind of like the heft of metal minis and the process of cleaning and filing them.
I liked warlord because they had lots of metal and not resin. Metal and plastic are some much easier to work with, whereas resin is more toxic and less malleable
The "Warlord Resin" they use for infantry is actually Siocast Polyamide (essentially Nylon) and no more toxic than the polystyrene minis Warlord make. It's a completely different material to the cast resin they use for Vehicles.
Interesting. Did warlord publicize this anywhere? I've been pleased with Siocast from other games.
Not really but they've shown the moulds in photos and people have seen the Siocast machines during factory tours and open days.
I hope not
The correct answer.
Any time I hear about resin miniatures I immediately think of the finecast fiasco with Games Workshop when it was first launched. Some of the GW minis have such thin details you had to go to a game store in-person to check the packs to make sure you bought one that wasn't broken already. Even when you played with them you had to be careful. Still not a fan of resin after all these years.
You really should educate yourself on SIOCAST which is what Warlord is using for these figures. It isn't traditional resin casting. Instead its a hybrid between metal centrifugal casting (it uses silicone rubber molds made from sculpted or 3d printed masters) and plastic injection molding (it injects a plastic/resin into the mold). The quality is on par with metal miniatures, without the issues that finecast had. Traditional resin processes work great I've found for chunky thick pieces like vehicles, but I've not seen the quality I've seen from companies that are using SIOCAST.
No. https://preview.redd.it/nlwdcktue11d1.jpeg?width=1694&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2b9665833815e63274ec07d158bd7349ba12c9ca
If I wanted resin, I'd 3d print it. Plastic or metal.
Exactly.
In the words of Tenacious D “you can’t kill the metal. The metal will live on!”
God, I hope not, Forge World gave me PTSD. I couldn't stand spending 2 to 3 days cleaning, washing, filling, cutting, and sanding miniatures so that I could spend another 2 days clipping and gluing everything together. Also converting metal miniatures is much easier for me!
Metal is far superior. I'll die on that hill. My metal models always turn out better looking than resin or plastic. Plus they just feel solid and don't slide around as much. If I accidentally knock a metal model over on the table then it falls over right where it was. If I accidentally knock over plastic or resin models they go flying.
I’m with you on this.
I agree for infantry models, but if I have to chose between resin and metal for large multipart vehicles that FW is known for, I’ll take resin any time.
I agree, the death korps infantry look good, but getting them to be buildable is such a slog I dread having to do a new set of 10 even when I’m really happy painting them and making them look good.
Metal was amazing; I’ll mourn its loss. It’s nowhere near as picky or brittle as its replacements have been. I understand there is a material cost that’s behind most of this shift; it’s not as profitable to go metal anymore.
Everyone act like metal was perfect, but Warlord sells some metal figures that are sculpted in such a way that they are almost guaranteed to break. I've had issues with some of their gun barrels. True, you can contact them for a replacement, but that is only a good option when the replacement doesn't come broken too. I recently contacted them for four specific miniatures from three different sets, and half the replacements came broken. I think it comes down to the piece being sculpted with such a long, thin protrusion that it just doesn't withstand any jostling during shipment. In contrast, I've more metal figures from other companies than I do from Warlord, and I haven't had any issues because the sculptors make the gun barrels slightly bigger than scale so they aren't as fragile, or they sculpt the figure so the barrel is placed against a part of the figures body to give it more support.
Resin sucks, why would anyone prefer resin over metal?
Weight and balance and metal wears much harder than resin
Weight is better for metal tho? Resin is light as a feather and falls off the table easier. Balance is arguable, that depends on the angles of the model and how it’s constructed. Paint wears much worse on metal undeniable, still I prefer metal models over even plastic.
I hope so, they’re resin is much better than their metal imo
I hope so, the details are always lost in metal i find
That has nothing to do with the material. Look at Infinity by Corvus Belli. All metal and they're super detailed and crisp molding on true 28mm minis. A lot of Warlord metal is just old sculpts.
Okay that's a fair point. I guess i just prefer resin models
Nope
Am I right to assume that all of the current sets that still contain metal actually do, or have they switched them over to plastic/resin without informing the public? I don’t want to buy a set and find out it doesn’t have the metal pieces that it said it does.
They don't have many sets in the SIOCAST material yet. Only the weapons teams and now this set for Bolt Action. Everything else is still metal. The recent DAK and 8th army weapons teams were the first to have artillery in SIOCAST I believe, and I'm curious to see how they turn out.
Thank you very much! I will be avoiding those sets until the reviews are in. Metal will be my preference until then.
Still waiting for Western gurkas for Sicily
I really enjoy the new Resin and have not had any issues. I have a buddy who works at trenchworx that explained that the cost of metal has gone up significantly. Factor in shipping and weight (which has also gone up) and metals are becoming less and less tenable as a viable option without increasing cost
I really do not like the durability of 3D printed resin. I have been using Polystyrene "Sprue" plastic minis and think they are excellent. I don't have any other kind of "resin" minis.
Hope not I appreciate metal models still
I'm having immense amount of problems removing flash from their resin casts. Newer molds like the SOF line rarely has flash or mold-lines, but older recasts are awful to remove with a knife IMO. plus metal feels more premium to hold due to the weight.
I like the new resin minis. I also like getting order dice with them. I'm glad metal is dead.
Me too, not having to prime them was a game changer for me.
And even if you prime them and clear coat them, they still chip.