"Ready (Pre) Painted Miniatures" Topic

I really don't enjoy painting miniatures. Let me just start off with that chestnut.

I see the absolutely AMAZING work being done by hobbyists and I'm blown away – but mostly just annoyed that mine won't ever – no matter what I do – look that way.

As technology advances I am certain we are not too far away from having painted miniatures that are absolutely beautiful right out of the box. (maybe they will need to be based/flocked).

I wonder how much they will cost at some point? What would a great, ready painted 28mm model go for? Could we buy a box of 12 for $50 USD? Less? What about 10mm? Could you get a 240 figure army for $100 USD?

Where will it go from here? (and when do I have to stop trying to paint???)

Heroclix has already been there for over a decade. Soft plastic (meh) but average around $1.50 USD per figure

I am not sure how technology is going to give you a well painted figure.

A game company (sorry, don't remember who) has a line of pre-painted 20mm or 1/72 WWII. I was at the Chicago Toy Soldier Show in 2015 and one of the toy soldier company was producing 25mm pre-painted metal WWII figures at a reasonable price. Again, I don't recall who (not much use, am I?). It has the potential to work with WWII, ACW and Naps, but it is still a big gamble in which the risk probably exceeds the investment.

I don't like to paint either, but that is why there are painting services.

With full color 3D printing becoming more and more affordable I do believe pre colored miniatures are not too far off.

3dpandoras.com

That certainly opens up a lot of possibilities, but the OP said "painted." We will see what he meant when he comes back.

$50 USD for a box of 12 ??? If I go to my normal painter,
12 figures (well painted) will run me $96 USD, and he's
giving me a discount ! AND I provide the figures !

Look at the Heroclix figures, Mechwarrior, Mage Knight, etc.

Without having a judgement about the quality of those figures, I guess that's the quality we can expect for prepainted figures.

Yes I'm thinking of the 3D printing mostly with this question. It seems (as Psycho Rabbit shows) that it is getting much much better very quickly.

So the question is – if a company starts using some of these technologies (I'm not really thinking of a home user) but a company that decides to 3D print en masse instead of injection molds or casting will the actual cost of very well painted miniatures go down not up?

The technology has existed for many years. I worked with a client over ten years ago who sells this kind of equipment.

Wings of Glory planes are very nicely done in the main.

In terms of actual figures in say 10 – 28mm it can be done already but I suspect the investment is high. What I think it would need is for say the Perrys to produce single piece plastics in march attack pose that can be painted/ printed by an automated process.

Price point – no idea but I've long thought that this will be the next big step forward in the way that 28mm plastic multi-part figures were.

As to the period – I'd suggest that French Napoleonics in coats would be a good bet or ACW as the uniforms for all of these are relatively simple and they could all sell in large numbers. I think it will be a very significant advance since it'll fundamentally change the mindset of many.

For example, these days when considering a new period most will consider if they have the time to paint them, remove that from the pre-diving in decision point and a different set of questions emerge. For me I don't start new periods as I don't have the time to paint armies from scratch any more. Remove that issue and I probably would.

Probably the principle new deciding factor would become can I afford them? If you could literally buy a pre-painted ready to play figure for say £1.00 GBP that rather alters the time barrier to starting new period. Figures could be moulded on a 15 x 20mm base ready to slot into a movement tray so there would actually be no work required. The hobby might then shift so rather like we do conversions, folks would get into improving the standard factory paint finish. So a starter army in pre-painted/printed plastic might cost £200.00 GBP for the bulk of the infantry with others coming from metal ranges. I suggest the £1.00 GBP a figure since plastic unpainted is about £0.45 GBP per figure. The price point of the coloured plastic could work out to be less than unpainted metal…

For a couple of hundred quid I could literally double the size of my table ready Sudan army that has taken me years to paint with just a few mouse clicks.

Then I think we'll then see the big armies that the move to 28mm plastic was supposed to herald. I think it hasn't really done so as the figures were made too complex in needing fiddly assembly and that has actually slowed down the process, so while the raw material (figures) has dropped i.e. plastic vs metal, people still can't churn them out any faster than metal castings.

I'm certain we will see pre-coloured plastic 28m historical figures. When? I've no idea but at a guess within ten years. If the Perrys want to invest in the future and to reduce their tax bill it would be worth them investigating.

Nice comments Timmo.

There definitely has been a trend of late – driven mostly I believe by how much time people have – to go to skirmish style games. SAGA, Frostgrave, many of the Osprey series rules like Lion Rampant and The Men Who Would Be Kings.

Even these though with 25-60 models per side can take a long time to get painted and ready. Ironically, I believe people are spending even more time painting each figure as there are now less of them on the table!

Ready painted figures that can be bought and fielded on the same day could really change things up. Black Powder is all well and good for the fellows who have 1000s of 28mm models ready to go in their glass cases – but it takes most of us years to paint up one army.

It all depends on what you mean with "painted": there are automated processes that can make different parts in different colours so that you have a playing piece which does not just look like plastic, like HeroClix or other examples already mentioned. Is that painted? Not exactly, since it won't show nor enhance properly the details of the sculpt, but if that is what you are looking for there are already some around and more will be available with the new technologies.