This is not an April Fools' joke, which is why I waited until today to post, rather than posting on Friday when I found out about it.

Reliable inside sources have said (including GW sales reps to indie stores) that new metal models are not being produced. All that is currently available is old stock, and empty SKUs are being withdrawn from sale and are now OOP in many cases.

The story is that the recent massive increases in metal raw material prices have made it more financially sensible to switch as many models as can be justified by volume sales into injection molded plastic, and convert the remaining metal moulds for use in spin-molded "resin". GW have something like 15,000 active spin moulds (and 25,000 inactiiv ones) so it makes commercial sense to re-use them rather than scrap them and start from scratch with a completely new technology for these models.

Now there has been much speculation as to the appropriate type of resin that will be used, but my guess is something along the lines of the kind of resin/plastic that Privateer Press use now, or Mantic used for their experimental Revenant Cavalry.

Given the tail off in LotR model sales that has occurred in the last 12+ months, I suspect there is plenty of metal LotR stock still to be hoovered up, and so there is no reason to panic. But just to be on the safe side, if there are any metal models you simply *must* have then it might be prudent to buy them sooner rather than leave the decision for too much longer. Also, don't expect any new models produced for The Hobbit to be in metal.

More discussion on this can be found on Warseer: http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=298959, and also where I found it first, Frothers: http://www.frothersunite.com/phpBB2/vie ... sc&start=0

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Cheers
Paul

So how does this affect us? iF they are simply converting white metals to plastic, why would there be incentive to purchase metals now, if they are being replaced by plastics won't this mean that the price of the blisters go down, or at least stay the same for longer?

Im a novice mini-painter, am i over-looking an advantage to having metals over plastics?

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Dave / Aurielia (game name)
Blog http://pippins-window.blogspot.com/
WoTR: Lothlorien Army. From the UK leeds; PM me for a game

How reliable?

If this is happening, how long before it starts to have an effect?

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"There are few left in Middle Earth like Aragorn, son of Arathorn." - Gandalf, Many Meetings

Well after reading the threads on the other sites, looks like GW are already changing their manufacture.



in answering your question it depends on your definition of 'effect', effect your local store? or Gamesworkshop products. i guess it depends how fast your local supplier needs to restock. But unless more info is supplied from GW its hard to guess how long it will take to change the manufacture lines...

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Dave / Aurielia (game name)
Blog http://pippins-window.blogspot.com/
WoTR: Lothlorien Army. From the UK leeds; PM me for a game

Maybe now we'll get plastic armies for more things...

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"If you can imagine something, then it is possible."
-Whiskas, 26th May, 2009

I've never worked with resin models before so I don't yet see how it will affect my hobby, especially if the material is not yet known. Would it be easier to produce large multi-part models whose pieces would fit well without extensive filing?

Good thing would be (I guess) if they still used casts of their old moulds instead of going all the way to the injection moulding. Those one-piece injection-moulded LotR plastics are mostly hideous compared to metals or multi-part plastics.

-- Pasi

As reliable as it gets.



It started a few weeks back. And is happening now. Walk into your local GW and you will see racks of empty pegs where many of the metal blisters used to be. Contact any online retailer and they are out of stock on many items.

GW have also published a list of OOP metal items: http://www.tabletopgamingnews.com/2011/03/30/45177 and more will follow.

Some will come back as resin (if the technology works), some may not. As yet, they do not know which ones for certain.

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Cheers
Paul

RIP Games Workshop!

What an absolute farce.

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Dagster

This just sounds to me like a clever market scam to get people to panic buy GW metals because their sales have been so poor lately. Since there has been no formal announcement I doubt the whole truth behind this. I am sceptical to say the least. I wouldn't be surprised if GW started the rumour themselves to get sales up. Having said that. I do believe they will pull all metals back to direct sales only to reduce overheads. There won't be any in stores.

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You don't have to be great to start. But you do have to start to be great.

I don't think it is RIP GW.
Looking at Forge World you can see that they really have some good experience in making resin models, and not just small ones either, big big ones like the TItans and the Valkryies. Not saying they are cheap, they most certainly are not. The small 3 man Cadian resin kits cost about 25 USD, while the 5 man Marine kits cost about $40. Sure that is more expensive than a 5 man plastic kit but it is supposed to be a premium kit. Look at the Ork Trukk, it is also a fairly large, complex, resin kit that is $42 USD. That is at least as big and complex as the cave drake, which is metal and @30% more at 62 USD.

I see GW making all current metals into resin and keeping the same price structure. Certainly all rare formations in WoTR, which are metal, will be made resin. Who knows, maybe they will start selling them in 4 packs instead of 3 packs. One can only dream.

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richmondwarmancers we play Lord of The Rings, Battlefleet Gothic, Infinity, some board games, and really whatever tickles our fancy..

Hmmm, I see some models are listed as no longer available on the GW webstore. Metal Haldirs elves, Metal Harad raiders, Older Hasharin, Arwen&Frodo mounted. Just a few that I noticed. No real surprises though as they all either have a newer sculpt or are now available in plastic. Armored Merry&Pippen blister no longer available (£6.85), although you can still pick them up individually at £4.10 each. What a rip.

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You don't have to be great to start. But you do have to start to be great.

Wow,even though I have never used a single metal model or owned one I know that this is Bad News,even resin can't get as much detail as white-metal (still at least Green-Stuff is still the best)...Hmm,nows the time for someone with a deep pocket to start buying off all the metal figs they can so they can sell em later.

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Newbs of the world,unite!!


Click my link,you know you wanna: http://blackreaper93.blogspot.com/

People don't like change.Some people will get rid of every thing in their collection and move on.Some will regret it later. Most will move on. Wait a bit there will be lots of bargains.
I did not think the GW LOTR license would be around as long as it has. Nice to be wrong.

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"the same as a duck you must be made of wood"

If your referring to the cost of metals, you only have to check price on London Metal exchange, Tin has increased in price by 500% in the last 2 years. We're all lucky that GW blisters haven't followed this trend.

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Dave / Aurielia (game name)
Blog http://pippins-window.blogspot.com/
WoTR: Lothlorien Army. From the UK leeds; PM me for a game

That's because GW metals use pewter.

Cyndra the Grey

EDIT: Sorry my bad just looked it up, but I was convinced they used pewter in them.

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{aD}??? wrote:

Procrastination. A favourite pastime of mine
Exaggeration. Also another pastime.

My General WIP

There are some metal blisters I've always meant to purchase...but I really just don't have the money for it right now. Hopefully the miniatures I want will still be around for a while yet.

I wonder if this incident is linked to those rumours about a big LotR/WotR release this year...

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"There are few left in Middle Earth like Aragorn, son of Arathorn." - Gandalf, Many Meetings

No way - just as i thought i was catching up on the out of production lot GW move the goalposts again!!!!!!

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Commission Availability : BOOKED SOLID (again lol)

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So can we assume that the new metal blisters being released with the Grey Knights are going to be some of the last?

Interesting, but I doubt it's really driven by the price of white metal. Other companies, Reaper for example haven't felt the need to jack up their prices as much or as often as GW.

Rob