WOTC plastic minis deserve to be in metal!

[Silverblade The Ench]

Just readin this article on WOTC
Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game Official Home Page - Article (Lords of Madness Preview 2)

so they now use CAD for making minis, wonder if that's "Zbrush" work?
damn that's good, MUCH better than the minis, alas plastic sucks for precision, unlike metal. The Human-sized figures mostly are pretty poor, alas because of that hence I preffer larger sized plastic WOTC minis.

At that quality of original design I'd love to see them putting them out as metal minis!

[sblock="Githyanki sculpture in 3D"]

[/sblock]

 

[Dausuul]

Wow. Yeah, that's freaking beautiful, and I agree that it would make a really spectacular metal mini. If WotC isn't interested in manufacturing them, I wonder if they could arrange a licensing deal with Reaper or somebody.

 

[Dire Bare]

I'm pretty okay with most D&D humanoid miniatures . . . but yeah, the virtual sculpt is leagues apart from the final product in soft plastic.

After getting started with Warhammer 40K however, I don't really wish a "return to metal" . . . I prefer the hard plastic GW uses for most of their miniatures these days. Not sure how easy/not easy it would be to make a prepainted line using the harder plastic, but I'd love to see someone try.

 

[wingsandsword]

For most minis, plastic will do okay.

Legions of orcs, goblin tribes, kobold swarms, mobs of minions, undead hoardes, plastic is fine.

When it comes to minis of PCs, when those minis will be getting lots and lots of attention and be on the gaming table near constantly, it can be worth it to go metal for the finer details.

 

[JustKim]

Reaper uses greens that get molded directly. Other metal-based companies seem to operate the same way. I don't believe there are any virtual sculpts involved nor any way to really use them, but I could be wrong.

 

[Dausuul]

Reaper uses greens that get molded directly. Other metal-based companies seem to operate the same way. I don't believe there are any virtual sculpts involved nor any way to really use them, but I could be wrong.

Yeah, that had occurred to me, but it might be possible to use the WotC virtual sculpts to create a mold which could then be used to make metal minis...? I guess a lot depends on how WotC's manufacturing process works. There's a reference to "while the machines that make the miniatures are tooled," which suggests they're making some kind of mold rather than using 3D printing. But perhaps I'm misinterpeting.

 

[Silverblade The Ench]

maybe they use a precision 3D printed model for the moulds?

CAD/CAM is much easier since they cna transfer the mdoel to whoever wants to work with it, rebuild etc as need in computer

yeah I prffer plasti cminis for generla play, saves painting time and breakage, hehe
but, as said, they mostly suck compared ot the larger ones

 

[AngryMojo]

Other companies, like Games Workshop, use the 3D sculpting technology. The lack of detail you get in the WotC minis aren't from the technology, but the specific type of plastic used. Compare, if you will, three different types of plastic miniatures.

All three in plastic, all three in very good detail.

Another problem with detail is the idea of being pre-painted. Poor paint jobs with low-quality paints can eat up the detail on miniatures very quickly. I believe this is another problem with the WotC minis.

 

[WhatGravitas]

The lack of detail you get in the WotC minis aren't from the technology, but the specific type of plastic used.

On the other hand, the soft plastic makes the WotC miniatures stupendously hard to damage - I think one of the reasons for that is the original use as easy-to-play tabletop game with boosters with relatively simple (and cheap) packaging.

It's basically like this:

• DDM: Terrible detail, but you can throw it across the room
• Warhammer Plastic: Good detail, but anything more than dropping it from the table... (and even that would scare me)
• Metal: Best detail, but really, never, ever drop it!

With the change of the line now (i.e. "just" RPG minis), a change to detail over damage resistance might be warranted... but a) that might annoy people, b) they've invested in their current technology already.

But I'd love an exclusive best-of DDM line with metal minis, perhaps licensed out to Reaper... they do have a decent price point.

Cheers, LT.

 

[Dausuul]

On the other hand, the soft plastic makes the WotC miniatures stupendously hard to damage - I think one of the reasons for that is the original use as easy-to-play tabletop game with boosters with relatively simple (and cheap) packaging.

It's basically like this:

• DDM: Terrible detail, but you can throw it across the room
• Warhammer Plastic: Good detail, but anything more than dropping it from the table... (and even that would scare me)
• Metal: Best detail, but really, never, ever drop it!

With the change of the line now (i.e. "just" RPG minis), a change to detail over damage resistance might be warranted... but a) that might annoy people, b) they've invested in their current technology already.

But I'd love an exclusive best-of DDM line with metal minis, perhaps licensed out to Reaper... they do have a decent price point.

Cheers, LT.

I definitely would not want DDM to sacrifice durability for detail. I love the fact that I can buy heaps of DDM figures, shove them all in a plastic storage unit with no padding or protection of any kind, and drive like a bat out of hell with the storage unit banging around in my trunk, secure in the knowledge that my minis will suffer no injury. There's a lot to be said for cheap and tough.

But the option to get a few of the really beautiful pieces in metal would be very nice.