The LAF Games Workshop Discussion Thread

[Major_Gilbear]

@ beefcake:

Agreed, but that's my point about the current GW ones: they don't have brand new-looking skull-emblem painted shields.

And if there were the Counts' army in life (especially the Grave Guard), would it be so weird that they would have their masters' sigils and iconography before they are dead and buried with their equipment?


@ Momotaro :

I'm not too keen on the bobble-headed pineapple-fisted gorilla look either. 

[Cubs]

Looks like this is a good time for me to flog off the small pile of old GW plastic skells in a tub on my shelf.

[Argonor]

Looks like this is a good time for me to flog off the small pile of old GW plastic skells in a tub on my shelf.

The original plastic ones? I'm just now rebasing a horde of those (bought second hand many years ago) to use in God of Battles. 

[carlos13th]

I quite like the Mantic skeletons but I can see why someone would prefer more anatomically correct eye sockets on them. As ever it comes down to personal taste.

[Vermis]

Well, sort of! I'm not sure that magical animation suddenly excuses them from looking mostly right though - bad sculpting is bad sculpting and I will call it out.

That. I've never taken 'a wizard did it' as a good excuse for rubbish-looking minis and painfully obvious gaffes.

I'm not too keen on the bobble-headed pineapple-fisted gorilla look either. 

That too. Two wrongs etc. etc.

GW vs. Mantic skellies... I'm undecided. I prefer the better looks of the actual bones on GW's (I won't handwave 'a necromancer did it' for making ossified calcium carbonate frown! Plus, I find the blank automaton look more eerie than "ooh look at me eyebrows") but I'm really not fond of all the skullz and batwings everywhere.
I guess those are more easily modified (i.e. chopped orf) than Mantic's though.

That, or wait for Andy Foster's.

[The Voivod]

Well, on that note, the gw models are easily assembled without the skulls (well aprt from the obviously needed skulls) and bat wings. You just have to pick the right bits.

This unit was almost straith out of the box, with only conversions on the champion and musician (they do only give you weird skully horns as instruments though)



Same goes for this unit. Again only weird necro horn replaced.



I think these are generic enough. Not to over the top.

I do like the matic cartoony look, just wasn't what I wanted.

[Momotaro]

That. I've never taken 'a wizard did it' as a good excuse for rubbish-looking minis and painfully obvious gaffes.

That too. Two wrongs etc. etc.

GW vs. Mantic skellies... I'm undecided. I prefer the better looks of the actual bones on GW's (I won't handwave 'a necromancer did it' for making ossified calcium carbonate frown! Plus, I find the blank automaton look more eerie than "ooh look at me eyebrows") but I'm really not fond of all the skullz and batwings everywhere.

Whereas I like a stylised mini done well, and I love Mantic's skellies,  The frown gives them a dash of character that I find lacking in GW's.  Whereas I find GW's ghouls a little cartoony and Mantic's are just right for me (minus all the nails).

And I don't think stylising a mini to look good on the table is either rubbish-looking or a gaffe.  Super-deformed or Chibi-style minis, anime-style giant swords, he-man musculature on Thrud the Barbarian and Big Boris - bring 'em on!

[Vermis]

Ta Voivod!

stylising a mini to look good on the table

Well there's the old chestnut about subjectivity, and just what looks good to different people, which I think a bit overused to defend funky-looking stuff, but I'll doff my cap to it and to you. And IMO decent sculpting, let alone stylisation, is a tough act to pull off for more than a few mini sculptors and producers. (I'll point to most of the rest of Mantic's KoW range; and the ol' bobble-bob square-fists trope)

rubbish-looking or a gaffe.

Well, I was still thinking of the WGF rather than Mantic skellies in that case. I hadn't seen them from that angle before and I still can't believe it. I don't consider ribs that wrap right round the spine and join together at the back to be a worthy and (even partially) successful stylistic choice, but a rubbish-looking gaffe...

[Momotaro]

Ah, don't get me started on Mantic's other ranges; I got a sprue of their goblin bowmen at Partizan a couple of years back, and it's the only model sprue I've put straight in the recycling.  For every lovely figure they make, they seem to do one "meh" model and another "WTF is this???" figure.  They're a very frustrating company to follow...

And I do take your point about accuracy - I've been wrestling with some of the WGF orcs and every single one looks subtly "wrong".  So funnily enough, given the context of this thread, it's back to GW Uruk scouts for me.  Got loads of WGF weapons to tart them up with now    Not everyone can make Hasslefree-quality figures.

[Vermis]

I feel I came across a bit harsh in my last post, even though I tried backing down. (No really) So I'll add that I'm waiting for my wolf anti-paladin from Andrew May's Tooth and Sword KS, and I've still got a couple of Heresy Thruds about here somewhere, including the LE large scale resin one.

I don't really despise the Mantic skeleton eyebrows either; I just don't prefer them. Although I do hope Mantic would take some of the quality of those - and that of the Deadzone stuff - and apply it if they ever revisit KoW.

I'd like to like WGF's Orcs too, but they have that look of 'old WGF' about them, when digital sculpting and 3D printing were kewl and new but still working out the teething troubles. All that intricately defined musculature in the renders, smoothed out by scale problems, the printing process, injection moulds etc. looks a bit like lumpy tumours in the actual minis. Which might be alright for a certain interpretation of orcs, and not entirely bad, but not what I'm looking for as the norm. (Funny enough, I quite like the Hobbit goblin-town gobbos, but as mutants rather than gobbos)
And Lego hands. Not fond of Lego hands on minis.

So to steer somewhere back on-topic, ironically the only other place I can think of to get non-GW green-gorilla orcs is GW. And they're not too badly-priced, considering.

[Momotaro]

On the contrary, I don't think you were harsh at all.  A lot of these matters come down to taste and you've done well to say why you like or dislike models.  Apologies if I came across as a little red in the face too.

Agree about the Mantic KoW stuff - a lot of what came out of the Kickstarter was restic and had some weird anatomy going on.  I like their trolls, but only above the waist.  What's with the little stumpy legs?

I've been prepping some Hasslefree models tonight - Ekaterina (OK, Lady Gaga), Andreah the space pirate and a few others.  They're just flawless minis, beautiful sculpting/casting and both exciting and daunting to think about painting.

But I'm also working on some Four A dwarfs - classic bowling ball on feet with big heads and exaggerated features.  It's going to be a joy to paint the little angry faces and gritted teeth.  And long may there be a choice.

And cleaving back to GW again - their LotR models are just lovely, but we're back to pricing, aren't we?  I'm still really looking forward to the Battle of the Five Armies models, and I've come close to starting Mirkwood elf and hunter orc warbands...  

I use the Goblin Town gobboes as skaven slaves - they have that air about them.

[Dr Mathias]

I'd like to like WGF's Orcs too, but they have that look of 'old WGF' about them, when digital sculpting and 3D printing were kewl and new but still working out the teething troubles. All that intricately defined musculature in the renders, smoothed out by scale problems, the printing process, injection moulds etc. looks a bit like lumpy tumours in the actual minis. Which might be alright for a certain interpretation of orcs, and not entirely bad, but not what I'm looking for as the norm. (Funny enough, I quite like the Hobbit goblin-town gobbos, but as mutants rather than gobbos)
And Lego hands. Not fond of Lego hands on minis.

I'm painting some early WGF figures now, kind of painful after doing the samurai and AWI ranges. I call them 'Playmobil hands'
I have some WGF skellies (I think first gen before the redo) but I've not inspected them close. Never noticed the spine issue

[Gibby]

Ah, don't get me started on Mantic's other ranges; I got a sprue of their goblin bowmen at Partizan a couple of years back, and it's the only model sprue I've put straight in the recycling.  For every lovely figure they make, they seem to do one "meh" model and another "WTF is this???" figure.  They're a very frustrating company to follow...

Their Werewolves look like big burly mutated bodybuilding contestants with wolf masks on. Terrible figures! The worst Werewolves I've ever seen!

[nic-e]

I'm painting some early WGF figures now, kind of painful after doing the samurai and AWI ranges. I call them 'Playmobil hands'
I have some WGF skellies (I think first gen before the redo) but I've not inspected them close. Never noticed the spine issue

The newer ones don't have the spine issue.

[Vermis]

Fairy nuff.

Can't get my head round Mantic trolls either, and I wonder if it was Rackham who popularised the 12-foot-tall werewolf trope, or did it come about earlier?

On GW: I went for a proper look at the Hobbit minis, and maybe it's the blown-up photo, but... ouch.