The Myth of Multi-Part Plastics

[Silent Invader]

A quick example.

Perry's Napoleonic Riflemen - a pretty basic multi-part plastic set of two sprues, with two torso and leg options, two arm options and separate heads and backpacks.

Forget the paintjobs, just look at the variety of poses.

And just to add to the above, those Napoleonic spruces are great fodder for other periods as well: here are two converted to 18thc sailors:

Officer a conversion of Eureka AWI ensign plus Conquest pistol, ratings are Warlord Napoleonic and ECW plastics; the added tricorn is one of my own casts



Two Eureka AWI ragged artillery and a Warlord Napoleonic with WGF zombie arms

[rob_alderman]

There are a lot of long comments here, which I haven't read, so this could have been covered already! Excuse my ignorance, but let me just talk about it from an 'inside' perspective.

Plastics for a consumer are about several things.
1) Reliability - All plastics are seen to be fairly similar, therefore many think there are no miscasts in plastic.
2) Multipart - Plastics are limited, so must be in multiple parts.
3) Multipose - a lot of people get this mixed up with Multipart. Multipose is nice, but, unless made by really skilled people, it can result in odd looking poses. I am still a little cynical about Malifaux multipose, for example - yet their multiparts are stunning, if assembled well.
4) Cost - Consumers often connect plastics to a low cost. It's not always the case though.

Plastics for manufacturer have different points.
1) Volume - If we know we are selling several thousand of this single kit, it's worth putting the effort into plastic. If you are selling thousands, you can keep the end consumer cost low, which increases sales of volume. However, for smaller kits such as character models, you often have to charge proportionally more. A good example is our Aliens sprue (Approx 3-15 per customer), it will sell more than the Predator Sprue (Approx 1 per customer), therefore, it will cost less than the Predator sprue.
2) Product Identity - All the 'big' companies use plastic. Therefore, to be considered 'big' an easy way is to use plastics. It's a big investment though!
3) Speed - Once the tools are made, printing plastic sprues does not require a lot of time.

So there are a LOT of reasons a manufacturer will choose to make plastics and, quite often, one of these points will be ignored. For Malifaux, it is 'multipose'. They know what they do well and that is making nice figures. I would assume it is the same for your plastics from Dreamforge/Dreamblade/Whatever (I forget their name!).

It's gonna be the same for us, for the Predators to look great, they cannot be multipart. The Aliens, however, are a bit easier to do this with. Again, the Colonial Marines, to look great and not like generic Imperial Guard, have to be multipart, but not multipose.

[westwaller]

Totally agree with that. Very little versatility in that set.

Things do get a little better if you combine the storming party set with the infantry set and steal the drummers arms- then you can get some a few conversions going...

Back to the topic.

[underfirewargaming]

Plastics however are insanely expensive , 5 - 20 thousand dollars for a single mold is not what I would call affordable. Regardless how cheap the casting material is I still do not see most companies ever making their money back unless they are one of the few rare big seller companies. Which is perhaps why you see very rarely companies come out with plastics.

We would have to run a kickstarter just to get the funding for the molds alone. We would end up having to cast with someone in China because the currency exchange rate between Canada and the Euro or the Pound is unrealistic for such a large price ( example : 5,000.00 GBP  = 9,594.43 CAD and that is not including VAT and shipping  ) Their is also no casters in North America that cast in this material as well so China would be the only option.

I wish the market would stop being so focused on plastic being the most highly wanted material. Casting costs are just not reasonable and unrealistic for 99% of miniature companies. Resin and Metal are fine, we will be using Metal for our squad packs and most of our miniatures and our big units will be done in Resin this ensures we can crank out the product we need for demand and avoid any form of product delays.

When it comes too plastic, I myself still have yet too see plastic casted miniatures that beat the current Resin and Metal offerings in terms of Detail, so I do not view plastic as a good material for miniatures. I wish Restic turned out well and worked however sadly it failed. However we need innovation in the casting industry we need someone too try out new compounds and new ideas. Sculpting has advanced to such a high level were casting has not changed at all for decades.

I want too see some innovation in casting, I want too see a new method that combines the strengths and qualities of metal, resin and plastic without the negatives. Plastic is just way too high in cost , Metal is affordable but material is in shorter supply and hence costs more, Resin is great for details and all but it takes an awful long time to cast a good amount of supplies and molds don't last too long. 

This is my view on this area I would love to see someone innovate a new casting method that can replace all 3 of these, perhaps one day but for now very few casters have tried anything new which we need more to do, their is a golden solution out their somewhere and a great opportunity for whoever finds it .

[eilif]

Johnny of Megaminis/Johnnyborg has a nice article from a businessman's perspective on the cost to the business of doing figs in metal vs resin.
http://johnnyborgcastings.blogspot.com/2015/01/my-dog-ate-my-ks-funds-part-3-of-10.html
As to the main subject at hand, I posted to a similar topic elsewhere something like this.

Dreamforge is targeting a market heavily populated by GW and ex-GW fans.  Such gamers were raised on multipart plastic kits. They are the de-facto standard and the expectation is that foot figures will be:
-Plastic
-Multipart (no underside flat spots)
-Poseable.  No two figs alike
-Customizable. Even one-pose figs are multipart for the benefit of possible conversions.

Dreamforge is hitting this market pretty hard and their choices seem to be paying off if the steady flow of new kits is any indication. The irony is that if you buy the extra kit to give your infantry figs the number of options in a GW kit, you end up spending around the same $ as a GW kit.  Still, the figs are undeniably good looking.

[warburton]

I think you're right that people raised on GW expect multi-part kits. Probably why the Perrys and Warlord have gone that way (all ex-GW).

I am just one of the few raised that way who has rebelled against it!

[eilif]

I think you're right that people raised on GW expect multi-part kits. Probably why the Perrys and Warlord have gone that way (all ex-GW).

I am just one of the few raised that way who has rebelled against it!

I understand your point of view.  I've never seen a multi-pose plastic that looked quite as perfect in pose as a well sculpted metal.  Still, it's not just GW that drives Perry and others to plastic.  It's also the ability to sell ALOT of very good looking figs at a price lower than all but the most discounted (and not as nice looking) older metal figures.