Need your thoughts on prepainted miniatures.

[Tom Cashel]

You mean metals? Do you know who did them?

Glyfair might mean these EM-4 pre-painted minis.

The quality varies from set to set. The undead, for example, didn't impress me favorably.

But both sets of Dunwich Detectives are quite well done. And I even had some extra d20s to hand out to my players. No SAN was had by all!

 

[NewJeffCTHome]

Well, I'd prefer metals for bigger things. If you have a giant or something with wings, if it is made out of plastic, it looks kind of flimsy. That said, a colossal pewter dragon is going to weigh a lot more than a plast one.

For the regular rank & file troops - human men-at-arms, orcs, goblins, skeletons, etc - I think plastics are fine. But, would prefer that "character"/officers or PC types are of metal.

I'd be curious to see the quality of the paint jobs, as I'd only buy if they were significantly better than WotC

 

[DaveStebbins]

If it is non-random you would have the option of including multiple figs from the same mold/pose but with different paint schemes. This might help if you are producing a horde of goblins/orcs/skeletons/etc. Most hordes fail because the figures with the same pose look exactly alike. Having different paint schemes might allow you to use the same pose twice in a horde, but still make all the figs look sufficiently different or unique.

 

[JVisgaitis]

If it is non-random you would have the option of including multiple figs from the same mold/pose but with different paint schemes. This might help if you are producing a horde of goblins/orcs/skeletons/etc. Most hordes fail because the figures with the same pose look exactly alike. Having different paint schemes might allow you to use the same pose twice in a horde, but still make all the figs look sufficiently different or unique.

Ya know, that is something I never considered and is an excellent point. It has been noted and I will gladly steal that idea.

 

[zoroaster100]

I answered earlier that I prefer plastic to metal, but wanted to add that if you offered something that is not already being offered at reasonable prices, such as commoner/townspeople, dungeon dressing, player character race/class combos or core monsters not yet covered by WOTC in their plastic line, etc., then I'd still definitely buy your product whether it was metal or plastic.

 

[tigycho]

Everything being equal I prefere metal. Heavier minis have better stability. But I would not pay more than 50% extra for it.

Håkon

Plastic minis with a space in the base to glue a nickle or similar coin/washer for additional base weighting.

That'd be my wish... I have a ton of plastic minis and they all like to topple when the table gets bumped... so I glued nickles to their bottoms. Now they stay stable, but they 'float' a little bit, and it looks a bit odd =)

DWS

 

[tigycho]

One note here.

Given that the cost of moulds for metals is comparitively cheap - and the setup cost for plastic moulds is BLOODY EXPENSIVE, while the consumables on metal are more expensive, the setup most defninitely is not.

If you are a mftr looking at much smaller runs, metal may well be more economical.

If what you were asking was: would I buy pre-painted metals?

If the quality was high and the price competitive, yes.

From an overall durability aspect, plastic wins - hands down. But...I'm flexible if there's a damned good reason.

Also, for those of that like to paint our minis ourselves, try to use a plastic that won't melt in pine-oil or brake fluid =) There are plenty of them out there, and I often do this with inherited Games Workshop minis... its strips the paint nicely, without losing detail.

 

[Aus_Snow]

If the miniatures were to be plastic, and they ended up anything like WotC's offerings, I would stay as far away from them as possible.

I can only offer a heartfelt plea that someone, somewhere will produce high quality pre-painted metal miniatures that are usable for d20 fantasy, in particular. I'll regularly buy them by the freightload, I swear!

This is because I have neither the time, nor inclination, nor ability to paint my own satisfactorily, and yet on the other hand (as I have said) the Wizards of the Coast miniatures line leaves me rather unimpressed.

It seems, however, that in this instance my preferences and doubts may be overwhelmingly in the minority. Never mind. I hope that these minis work out well, and that I end up being pleasantly surprised by plastic minis done right.

 

[Li Shenron]

If it is non-random you would have the option of including multiple figs from the same mold/pose but with different paint schemes. This might help if you are producing a horde of goblins/orcs/skeletons/etc. Most hordes fail because the figures with the same pose look exactly alike. Having different paint schemes might allow you to use the same pose twice in a horde, but still make all the figs look sufficiently different or unique.

As personal taste, I'd largely prefer the same paint scheme but different poses, as visually it is much more elegant (having all different poses in one set would be great). But then it would probably be more expensive to do so.

 

[tigycho]

As personal taste, I'd largely prefer the same paint scheme but different poses, as visually it is much more elegant (having all different poses in one set would be great). But then it would probably be more expensive to do so.

It would be nice if they took into account those of us that do mods to minis to change their poses.. i.e. either a)supply the arms, legs and heads detached, so we can attach them at varying angles, b) supply a couple differnt arms and heads etc so we can attach the ones we want, or c) krealize I might want to cut off the arms and move them, and sculpt the mini with that in mind, so it isn't the world's hardest mod.