"Will plastics replace metal miniatures in the hobby?" Topic

the plastic miniatures (if based singles) tend to fall over and have reduced "stay in place" ability compared to metal

I base my plastic minis on fender washers (and my metals on plastic or thin card discs), which gives them some weight, and also provides a very low center of gravity, even for tall and off-kilter poses. They also stay in place like this …

One thing too consider is that a plastic sprues tooling massively outlasts tyhge rubber moulds used for metal figures. They need redoing often which asdds to the costs, even if not at initial price calculations.

…out in the real wargaming world where money is tight and gamers are younger…

GW proves that "tight money" and "younger" don't go together.

Kids aren't buying platic because its cheap, they buy it because its what the big fan-scifi companies are offering- and many times, it's only really cheap for the manufacturers.

B.

B

C. I earnestly hope.

B. The trend that I am seeing is that both plastics and metal companies are beginning to "fill in the gaps"of all armies in all periods. This is great. Perhaps mixing both plastics and metals will be become more and more popular. Why not pick and choose poses? I'm just sayin' . . . .

B till 3D printing becomes the norm the metal will be for collectors only.

I would say 'B', unless and until a better alternative to plastic injection moulding becomes commercially viable.

According to Games Workshop, resin is the way forward …

Resin is too brittle for my liking, though detail quality can be good.
I'd say B.
metal and resin is also niche market for pirats, while plastic has too high entry cost for the copies/fake business

There will be a place for plastic. They have been around for decades in the terrain and vehicle areas.
Those people who never intend to sale the miniatures, the plastic will be more popular than for people who sell painted for a living or float in and out of different eras thus they want to sale their items frequently.

3D printing technology will mean plastic will eventually replace those ugly, squat pumpkin headed figures clutching telephone poles. And not before time either!

Number, that's funny, lately I have been working on GP plastics for saga, the animation and detail is quite nice, better than most metals. Now if we could only get the common types for Punic wars and do the odds and bits in metal. I think this is a trend that will continue in the industry. Plastic 28s look really nice and lifelike.

Plastic figures have been around for a long, long time.
Vast numbers, poses, better sculpts than metal, all available in multiple scales.

People still buy metal figures.
People buy metal figures for no real reason, people will always buy metal figures for no real reason.

The error in the question lays in assuming plastic figures are new. They are not.

Metals developed for some reason through the years even though there was Airfix ,etc available. I do not think the metal figurine developed through some vast conspiracy by metal manufactuers.
At OG we do have the capability of doing plastics and as a businessman I looked at it very serious and I do not see it as a viable or sustainable.
Even the Perrys releases are for the most part metals.
regards
Russ Dunaway

Even now, after 35 years in the hobby, I still think those little metal fellows look delightful. And I see thousands of them, every day.

The problem with the original plastic figures by Airfix is that they are made from soft, flexible plastic to avoid children breaking them. This makes them more difficult to convert than the modern, hard plastic figures by Perry etc. and more likely to shed paint under handling.

Metal all the way. plastic tends to break easy and age not so well the price of oil will go back up and then the cost in the long run will do the same. but after finding out a plastic kit costs less then £0.27 GBP GBP and its a large kit not 20 figures that's less its a huge mark up I know the cost of making a injection die but it's still a silly amount of profit if you think it also costs a lot to setup it doesn't plastic fantastic a woman's best friend lol

Eventually plastic/resin will completely replace metals, but not for a while- not until cheap and reliable 3d printers are household items.
figure manufacturers won't even produce figures, just sell the software for you to print their models.
It will take a while.
It won't make them any cheaper, but it will ultimately be the only profitable method for a company to "produce" figures.

So once the consumer purchases the "software to print their models" what stops him from providing all his buddies? I think the 3d printer thing -- anyway for quite sometime -- is like some dreams many of us has when we were 13?
regards
Russ Dunaway