Editor in Chief Bill | 12 Dec 2011 9:30 a.m. PST |
Games Workshop is proud of a change made, beginning with their Grey Knights releases: The key innovation here is that the arms are split at the wrist as this allows for much more dynamic posing. One of the things with plastics is that if you sculpt an arm with a bladed weapon attached to it, the flat of the blade will dictate the line of the draw. So it has to be placed level in the mould or else the blade will not cast correctly. This means having the arm and blade as one part, while necessary in the past, does limit you. Having two separate parts for arm and weapon gives you much more flexibility
Do you agree that this is a step in the right direction? * yes, it's an improvement * no, I don't like it * no opinion |
nazrat | 12 Dec 2011 9:34 a.m. PST |
It's another thing to have to clean and build, but I think it's a great idea pose-wise. It'll probably add another 10-15 bucks per box though
8)= |
ELH1GT | 12 Dec 2011 9:47 a.m. PST |
I really like the grey knight weapons, but I can't see many other armies having need of it. I can't think of any who can have so many different weapons on one squad, or who have such a small army size each figure needs to be distinct |
ScoutII | 12 Dec 2011 9:49 a.m. PST |
What is amazing is that they have the stones to call that an innovation (wonder if they filed for a patent on it). Other companies have been doing separate weapons at the wrist for years. With plastics it is even easier from an assembly stand point (compared to metals of a similar design). Go through and apply a touch of plastic cement and hold it in place for a few seconds. Solid weld. With metal – things are always a bit fiddly on those joint. |
Beowulf | 12 Dec 2011 10:48 a.m. PST |
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ordinarybass | 12 Dec 2011 10:56 a.m. PST |
Where is this quote from? (It's always good practice to cite sources) Improvement yes, but not an "innovation". Not only were other companies doing this in the past, GW themselves used it across nearly the entirety of the final release for Necromunda some years back. The new versions of Van Saar, Goliath, Enforcers (arbites) and others all had weapons in hands that joined at the wrist. That said, it's definitely going to take one step out of the many conversions that many folks do to space marines that involve cutting and rotating the wrist. I am curious whether this will be taking place across the board. |
CeruLucifus | 12 Dec 2011 11:08 a.m. PST |
I don't play 40K and have no idea what Grey Knights look like, but on the fantasy side GW has been doing this for years. It does vary from figure box to figure box, and isn't appropriate sometimes -- for instance figures with 2 handed weapons are rarely set up this way. Very typically what we'll see on a sprue is several arms with attached hands and weapons, plus 1-2 each of: arm with attached open hand, arm cut at wrist, and loose open hand. Then there will be a number of weapons with hands attached, plus some loose weapons (no hand attached). The Mordheim sprues are a notable example; these were released in 1998 with that game, then re-packaged for Fantasy Battle as Empire militia, now called Free Company. I do agree it is an innovation -- it's much easier to do weapon swaps and other conversions by attaching hands to wrists -- but it's certainly not new with the Grey Knights, and it seems unlikely GW is the only manufacturer who does it. |
Jovian1 | 12 Dec 2011 12:20 p.m. PST |
I don't care how they do their models, so long as the quit doing "Fail Cast" crap with bent weapons, bubbles, holes, missing details, and the whole "crap shoot" resin casting process. |
Space Monkey | 12 Dec 2011 12:41 p.m. PST |
It's not an 'innovation', I'm not sure why they have to trumpet it as some thing they just now figured out how to do
but, especially for plastic kits, it's a good idea Ditching Crapcast would be another. |
Wolfprophet | 12 Dec 2011 6:27 p.m. PST |
"What is amazing is that they have the stones to call that an innovation (wonder if they filed for a patent on it). Other companies have been doing separate weapons at the wrist for years." No kidding. They've been doing this with some of the other 40K figures for a while too, like the Space Marine Commander. |
Wyatt the Odd | 12 Dec 2011 7:28 p.m. PST |
As one of the German TMPers said to me after chucking is Elven Glade Guards "I want to paint miniatures, not build models!" There is a point where a miniature crosses the line. Preiser figures with 20-parts to a single 1/72 miniature, are definitely over that line. Measure downward from there. Wyatt |
x42brown | 13 Dec 2011 6:01 a.m. PST |
The arthritis in my hands say this a step backwards. I am essentially a player not a model maker some ability to customise is good but it's stating to go over the top. x42 |
consectari | 13 Dec 2011 7:50 a.m. PST |
It would be extremely useful to me if it were on something I could use in gang skirmish games. Grey Knigths, not so much. Being able to go with either HTH or firearms and have the hand shape correct would be great. A good compromise would be to have a hand on the arm and hands molded onto most of the weapons, so I could cut the hand off and switch them around. In the interested of disclosure, I'm a modeller first, gamer second. |
richarDISNEY | 13 Dec 2011 9:44 a.m. PST |
I like the idea.
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angelofmenoth | 13 Dec 2011 9:57 a.m. PST |
This really isn't anything new. GW is just tooting their own horn and once again trying to make themselves look like they leaders in the market. They are the leaders in the market simply because of market share, and that was built by being the biggest fish in the pond, or the only game around. That's not the case anymore, so now GW is trying to show how much they push the envelope without doing anything new. This is a new option for how they make Space Marine arms, but it is certainly nothing new. |
M C MonkeyDew | 13 Dec 2011 10:02 a.m. PST |
Ran into that with savage orcs. I gave them muskets rather than the stock weapons. Seperate hands did not aid the conversion and having to go through the extra step of gluing hands to arms was a real bother. I have nothing against plastic figures. However plastics are so easy to convert if one wants to I say the fewer parts the better. |