No Dave, I was actually referring to the absence of any announcement by GW that they plan on phasing out all metal products from sale. You don't need to remind me of the increase in metal prices. I had to put up the prices in my own webstore recently to reflect this.

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

Oh yh forgot you would be well aware of metal prices since you have a business. My apologies

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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, as the Tomb Kings models put up on advance order today are all multi-part plastic kits...

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/armySubUnitCats.jsp?catId=cat440004a&rootCatGameStyle=wh

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"Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone"

Well, the original Hasharin is listed as no longer available, as are the elves with swords ( Haldir/Galadrim style ), and Armoured Pippin and Merry blister pack-available individually.

Iron gaurd are delayed 3-4 weeks. Farmer maggot 6-7 weeks. Origianl Isengaurd Uruk hai command 3-4 weeks.
Remember that this is for the US store.

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

I just telephoned GW, it is not true, they have NOT and have NO intention of stopping metal models, they did say they do have some technical production problems as the moment delaying various models by 2 weeks

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Harfoots-The first of the Hobbit people to cross over the Misty Mountains and enter Eriador.

Well from reading the OP links, they say they are changing to Resin casting? I'm a graduate Mech. Engineer and i should know if this may use metals but...

Can resin casting use metals for the products?

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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

NO the casting process is the same the phrase "resin Casting" simply denotes the material used to form the models. "White Metal Casting" id the phrase from casting in metal.

You know how GW keep everything close to their chests and never let on about what's coming. And also how the staff don't know anything beyond what they need for their job...

My LGS just told me they can not get ANY metal models at the moment and there will be a big announcement in May about this.

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

Yh i tend to be inclined this way, jsut beacuse an inside source confirms that metals will no longer be cast does not mean that ther rest of the company is willing to disclose its retail stratergy.



Just checking , i understand resin casting but don't understand how this can be effective... i'm pretty sure this used for reinforcing and producing boat hulls and car bodies... i need to look at my notes from my Design and Manufacture Module.

(apologies can't be bothered to correct spelling, 'im tired )

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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

Will they simply remake all metal models into resin or just cast away all current metal models?

that could potentially stink if they dont re-issue the olds stuff in plastic, there's some great metal figures im still way behind in grabbing up

Resin uses the same spin casting equipment, but the material is lighter that metal so it requires a little more finesse to get the models to come out right. The can use the same molds they're using for metals.

Resin is very brittle though in my experience...for some things this wouldnt be an issue but a lot of the models have spikes...in less words lots of things to potentially snap off. If it makes the product cost less and they can keep the quality control high im all for it.

Regarding the GW denials: GW sources seem to be in conflict on this. The public statement seems to be that metals will continue in product. However, privately and off the record this has been stated not to be the case. Or so I am told. THe main, reliable, public statement that GW are switching to resin seems to be "Harry". A poster on Warseer and Frothers who has a 100% reliability rating on his rumours. He's not a staffer, but is a "somewhat mature" gamer who knows a lot of insiders. He only posts rumours when he knows they are true.

Of course GW can change their mind and what may be true at one point in time may cease to be true a week later as they alter plans.

My money's on Harry, for what its worth. The fact that stocks of metals are running out now, and looking at the ridunkulous prices of raw materials compared to only a couple of years back, and I can understand why GW would want to switch to resin. I can also see why GW would want to keep a lid on the news, and why others would want to leak it. I also think its pretty dim of them to let stocks run out like this and to make no definitive announcement. It means any announcement they make now will be unlikely to be believed by skeptics like me.

As for the quality of resin. The resin that Forgeworld uses has its benefits and its drawbacks. Whether GW will go with that (unlikely as it requires a lot of training to use properly) or with another type of resin (there are an awful lot different plastic compounds that can be described as a "resin" which are suitable for various types of casting) so we will have to see. Look at the materials Privateer Press and Mantic use for their non-injection molded models. Both are diffent to Forgeworld resin, both do the job pretty well, and both are commercially used to produce high quality cast toy soldiers to good effect. Its doable and not necessarily the end of the world.

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Cheers
Paul

Why would they want to keep it secret? If they are ending production of metal models I would have thought that they would really publicise it in order to persuade customers to buy the models while they're still available.

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

Yes, not to mention the air bubble problems common with resins.

Or it may be to do with whomever GW uses to deal with their metal futures contract -

"look, get us a better deal or we'll just use resin"
"You can't do that!"
"Can too, just watch us!"

I'm not terribly surprised. Though it doesn't really affect me. I'll just buy metals from someone else. Or secondary markets like ebay.

And when that gets too expensive, I'll find another, cheaper hobby like, I dunno, hiking.

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Dreaming of getting back to painting...any month now.

Because they haven't completed the process yet and they don't want to face the chicken-licken response from gamers who dislike the swap? Because they are used to announcing stuff only once it is a done deal and this one has run into unforseen problems and isn't a done deal yet? Because they really don't know how to handle public relations and as has been demonstrated time after time, they are totally clueless in that department?

I never claimed their reasons were rational, just implied that they made sense to GW corporate management!

In the same way they didn't forwarn the public about the axing of the "bitz" service until the day it happened, and IMHO that was a much bigger deal. Just swapping the material and packaging arrangements for (say) 10% (?) of their product line pales in comparison to that move.

Of course it *could* be just that they're switching away from blister packaging to another format (one reason given by GW store staff for the stockouts) has coincided with casting problems (another reason given by GW store staff for the stockouts) and their existing preference for shifting slower selling metal models to "Direct Only".

Which is more likely in your view given GW's corporate track record of behaviour towards its long standing and "valued" customers?

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Cheers
Paul

GW believes all of their Valued customers are 12 years old or about that. They believe they have sold people like me all that I am going to buy. So they have a tendency to devalue my opinion.They don't listen to complaints like I am not going to buy any more.They don't think you are going to buy any more anyway.They have a toy makers attitude toward us. We are going to grow up and buy sports cars and boats. They are not going to listen like a smaller company might.

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