"Durability of 28mm Plastic Miniatures" Topic

In your experience, do 28mm plastic miniatures suffer from a durability problem?

Not from my experience.

No, not in my experience.

Very thin parts can (bayonets etc.) but mostly no. I've had plenty of them take a beating and be fine.

Small thin parts yes. I often don't add those because they will become broken at some point anyway. But the same can be said for small, thin metal parts. So no. No problems here.

Absolutely. Bayonets, swords, pikes and flagpoles all break off when bent the wrong way.
I've got hundreds of broken GW LOTR figures to prove it.

They don't do well when I run them over with my car or accidentally put them in the oven. Oh, yeah, the metals don't survive that well either.

I'd say they're about the same.

I have far more problems with plastics breaking than metal.

Only in as much as some are not designed for the material from which they are made.

Metal figures suffer from the same flaw.

For example the plastic scabbards on the Warlord Games ECW figs are too thin to stand up to much gaming. A better design would have been to have them cast down the leg like some of the poses do rather than as separate pieces.

That being said, if the same were attempted in metal, like with the Empress ECW figures, the results are similar, they are pretty fragile too.

So they are not less durable than metal figures in my experience in many respects, especially with individually based figures, they are far more durable.

Yeah, a bit more fragile, but also easier to repair I think.

The most breakages I've encountered in plastic minis happen when I ham-fistedly shove the sprues back into the box after gazing at them.

This is fairly frequent, considering my huge backlog of to-be-painted-soons.

Does a plastic bayonet break faster than a metal one? Not really. They are both weak points on a casting. No miniature is going to withstand hard handling.

No problems here.

Dropping them is a "no." Otherwise, the same as reported above.

No problems here.

flagpoles are the worst in plastic.

My plastic seems as durable or more so than lead. May depend on the glue and such ? I find that plastic dropped on a hard surface will prolly bounce where as the weight of the lead make them go smoosh.

Paul

I've seen peolple moving for example their dragon around the table by holding him at the wing-tip. No wonder stuff is breaking then.
In the end it's not so much the material but People treating their figures like trash.
When handled well, theres not much problems with both. I'd give the plastics some advantage though because they survive falls and topling much better then metal.

No problems here

@sneakgun

i base then on round metal washers, have had several falling off th etable, each time landing on their feet without problems

Alex

I've found that plastics survive a fall pretty well because they are much lighter. Much of the damage can be prevented by assembling then with an eye towards handling/storage. I also use tube cement as opposed to liquid. Not only does it act as a filler but it has a much better bond.

No, but I coat my plastic figures with Army Painter Quick Shade and then spray Dullcote, which gives them a robust finish.

No problems beyond the already stated obvious with either type, except …

flagpoles are the worst in plastic.

I would rather glue back together a plastic long pole (spear, flagpole, etc.) that snapped than spend the rest of eternity futzing with trying to straighten out a bent metal one. I can never get them back straight, and sometimes futz with them until they break … and the broken part is still bent after that!

I have more problems with durability of metal figures than plastics.

The only trouble I have with plastics is when I drop parts on the blue/grey indoor/outdoor carpet I have in my basement. I can never find them. Like the Captain I use tube glue that I apply with dental instruments. No issues with durability.

I am still using figures from Games Workshop's first plastic releases in the 80's. No problems so far.

Bob

Apart from breaking, these plastic minis will probably still be around in a couple of centuries.
Considering breaking, plastic and metal are imho not very different. You see broken plastic minis more often, but these are usually stored and transported in a way most people would never dare with metals.

Plastic Pikes (and hoplite spears) break. Metal pikes usually just bend and you can bend them (and if necc. repaint) back into shape with flat pliers. But plastic pikes won't take that kind of abuse and just break off. Replacing them is a real bu**er as they are usually part of the arm, not separate, so replacement means taking off the whole arm, messing up your existing paint job and regluing and repainting a whole new arm onto the figure (usually meaning taking it off the unit base as well. If the pike is also held by the other arm that's an even bigger headache.

It's much easier to glue back broken thin (hard) plastic pieces than thin metal pieces. For polystyrene, plastic cement works extremely well. For metal, superglue is always a crap shoot.

I find them to be overall, more durable in some ways & less in others; Bent gun barrels or spaghetti-esque spears are seldom a problem with plastics as they are with soft alloy based figures, on the other hand outright breakage seems to be a larger issue in comparison to plastics.

I find it easier to reattach parts & avoid breakage by being careful than I do to unbend barrels & spears (which seem to always bend no matter how much are is taken in storage, transport & on-table handling). Therefore, I generally prefer plastics.