No real confirmation as to whether this is actually happening but got his email from miniwargaming tonight:

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Ash Nazg Durbatulûk, Ash Nazg Gimbatul,
Ash Nazg Thrakatulûk Agh Burzum-ishi Krimpatul.

They'll pronounce it May 16th? If they'll stop making metals? Oh god.. this might become a crappy birthday..

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My YouTube channel: [url] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4V0Iifm9-oU9lSNEm-IEkw[/url]

I reckon there will be an announcement on May 18th. Because it's a wednesday.

I'm curious how much this will actually mean beyond the concept of metal vs. non-metal. GW can't stop making these models as the metals represent all the Heroes, elites, specials, etc.

If they use the "same" molds (yes I understand the physical equipment will be different but the mold shape is what I'm referencing) and produce resin pieces for us instead of the metals I'm not going to be overly bothered. I've seen fantastic resin work from other companies and have no reason to doubt that it can be done with quality. Resin would not be prone to bent spears/swords that plague my metal figures and would be easier to work with for conversions. I doubt GW would drop the price on them at all (it will take them time to reclaim some cost for switching production and then they'll get hooked on any extra profit) but theoretically they could be cheaper as well.

I really do like the metal models, don't get me wrong. But the models themselves (at least most of them) should make the transition from metal to whatever their next substance of choice is.

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Wait ye the finish! The fight is not yours.
Beowulf

http://TacticsInMiniature.com

Ok. This has gone on for aaaaages. When have GW said they're stoppoing metals? Is this based on NOTHING other than a wait on blisters? Someone at a GW store not having to count blisters on a stock check. That means one thing. They didn't have to count blisters on a stock check. Nothing more. I'm always amazed at how people can convince themselves to believe the rumors they started when there's nothing. at. all. To back it up! No offense to anyone, but this is a load of nonsese.

Voicing speculation and preferences for material is one thing, but people are discussing this as if it's real, when there isn't the slightest hint that it is, not yet. Berating GW for not making a statement, what's the statement to say or comment on? That the internet's alive with a rumor someone started based on a guess of what's happening, extrapolated from an event (Lack of blisters for a while) that could be attributed to a million things and result in a million courses of action (including production resuming ASAP)? So in other words...nothing?

Again, no offfense to anyone at all or in particular, but I think it's worth bearing in mind that everything in this thread os based on conjecture, guess work and assumption. If anything said proves to be true, like they DO stop metals, it's a fluke that's not true at the moment, based on the available information.

Ok then name the 1 million reasons.

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Compulsorily acquired? You know what this means don't you, they're acquiring it compulsorily. - Darryl Kerrigan

Ummm...look at the second page. It's not all rumors and guesswork.

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Backlog reduction Oath Participant

The fact is that a big chunk of the range hasn't been available for quite some time. There are rumours flying left and right on websites with many more users than this one (no offence) and GW have remained silent. It's not even about proving or disproving the rumour. It's about giving their loyal customers information. I've been buying their stuff for a decade and spent thousands on it, and now I can't find most of what I'm looking for. I personally would have appreciated some kind of statement saying what's going on, or at least how long it's going to be going on for. As a customer giving them my money, is that too much to ask?

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Gondor: 2339pts
Rohan: 1318pts
Dwarves: 2482pts
Elves: 1091pts
Mordor: 2305pts
Isengard: 1762pts
Moria: 1463pts
Evil Men: 381pts

LOL, I like this line! Talk about covering all your bases, "So even though I'm wrong and the people who founded the rumours are right, they're still wrong and I'm still right."

Anyways Hydraface I hope you're right, that this is nothing but a rumour because I love metal models, but things are getting pretty weird in the online stores, such as stocks being depleted on GW and independents. Just like the above posters have said, if there's something wrong going on with their metal production how come they didn't release a statement by now? Apparently it's rumoured (today's word) that they will be releasing a statement shortly in a couple of days, May 16th-18th so someone said.

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My Lotr backlog: 305/952[][][][][][][][][][]32% completed
Painting Lineup: Mumakil x2, Rohan Heroes x8, Haradrim, SKoDA

Meh. I don't care about being seen as right or wrong in peoples eyes. What I was saying is, despite rumors being stated as facts, NOW, at THIS MOMENT, the suggestions and speculation are categorically NOT true. If it transpires there's some truth to the rumors, there'll be lots of 'told you so!'-ness, but at this moment, no-one knows the truth of the situation. All the guess work, no matter how viciferous it is, and how certain the people are when they tell themselves it 'must' be true, is hogwash and nonsense.

Now, I read the second page. Since the only official statement clearly says they will continue to produce metal models, that makes me more sure of what I've said. I can see no way in which anything from this or any other site would suggest the random musings are anything but that. Nothing wrong with that, it's just when things are being considered solid and true when they're obviously not. I just don't get it. Since everything is based on 'conflicting reports' from unkown sources, everything is still chinese whispers and conjecture. Nothing has been produced of even a vaguely strong enough certainty to suggest any of the guessing and speculation people are indulging in has even the vaguest credibility.

Will I name the thousands and millions of reasons why metal production's been affected? No. Check out this and other sites for baseless speculations as to what's going on. Aren't enough people saying 'Well, I reckon it's the price of tin/machine breakdown/mould breaks/alien invasions/attacks on manufacturing staff by oversized marauding office statiuonary etc". I'm not adding to that. What's the benefit?

Should there be an official announcement? Yes, perhaps. With a few important caveats.
The big addendum to the validity and use of creating a statement, is that this can only be done IF there really IS something happening regarding the production, or stopping of production, of metal models. For my money, nothing's been said or produced to suggest this is even likely. Again, what do we know? Blisters haven't arrived in stores for a while. There's a growing wait for metal models. Those are facts. They indicate 2 things:1) that blisters haven't been in store for a while, and 2) there's a growing wait on metal models. the reasons or ramifications of those facts are guesswork until something official or genuinely compelling and reasonably true comes to light.

Even then, a statement is utterly useless to averyone, unless they have made a decision, and IF they know exactly what it is. If something's happening behind the scenes, and it hasn't been finalised, I don't want some wishy-washy, open-to-interpretation statement about something uncertain which is going to leave everyone precisely where they were before: in the dark. I don't want G.W. to do something as pointless as make a statement about a solution that hasn't been decided, to a problem that may not exist. I dunno about anyone else, but I'd get nothing from that.

Well you do have valid points. All I know is that I don't want to wait around to see if this rumour actually becomes truth and metal models are being halted. I might as well prepare myself now and get all the metal models that I want from my wishlist so that I won't be stuck with just plastic later on, false rumour or not. So yeah this rumour has changed my budget plans and my prioritizing for things I wish to buy for this summer.

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My Lotr backlog: 305/952[][][][][][][][][][]32% completed
Painting Lineup: Mumakil x2, Rohan Heroes x8, Haradrim, SKoDA

LOL! Well, one thing I would say, if people do wanna take the rumors seriously, and err on the side of caution and buy up those metals they've always wanted, just to be sure, that makes sense to me. Hell, if you were gonna get 'em anyway, if there was something you were sure, 100% that you didn't want to be unnecesarily delayed on getting, may as well do it now. It's a practical precaution. If you were going to get 'em in anycase, you only have something to lose by not doing it. That's because metals ARE being delayed. That is a fact, and how long that's gonna last for is uncertain. Things may be back to normal tomorrow, or may not. So while attempting to divine the outcome of all this through the collective guesswork of an internet's worth of people is pointless (I still don't get the benefit, folks), getting metals just to be sure, based on what we know IS happening, makes sense.

Yeah I didn't want to believe the rumor at first and thought of it as gibberish until someone pointed it out to me that Maelstrom.com are completely removing items from their list. That's when I started to realize there might be some truth behind it.

So anyways, speeding up my purchases is of no big consequence since I was always looking to get the models that I want. It's just that I prefer buying bi-monthly a few blisters at a time over the course of this year and the next rather than make a few huge purchases in one season.

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My Lotr backlog: 305/952[][][][][][][][][][]32% completed
Painting Lineup: Mumakil x2, Rohan Heroes x8, Haradrim, SKoDA

I spoke to the manager of my local GW (UK) today. He said that he didnt know if a change was imminent, but that GW had been experimenting for some time with resin. It is no big surprise that a manufacturer would experiment with other materials I suppose. What he did say that I found interesting was that when they switched from lead to their current alloy, from the customer point of view it happened overnight. So in one day the old material was completely gone and replaced by figures of the new material. He said that if a change was made that he would expect it to be the same.
Independent stores/suppiers would presumably keep selling until they ran out?

Assuming you don't think anyone is just bald-faced lying and making things up...

We have Harry and a couple other rumor-mongers over on warseer conclusively saying this IS happening and they have a reliability probably up around 90% and when they aren't sure have always prefaced statements with stuff like "From what I have seen...","the impression I have", and so on. They haven't son that this time, they have been conclusive.

We have numerous indy stores having been told to stop ordering blisters for stock and to discourage customers from placing special orders

We have GW stores with practically bare blister racks

We have a report (I forget from where but I thought it was this thread) that GW have allowed their stockpile of tin to reach almost zero, indicating they CAN'T produce more metal figs right now because they don't have the raw materials.

We have reliable reports from multiple sources that GW is going to announce SOMETHING big this Monday that may be related to the metal figs, may be related to changes in their international sales policy, may be both, may be neither.

We know that GW is practically incapable of keeping a secret so if they are making an announcement on Monday it should be about something we have already heard about and the metal thing is the only likely candidate.

That is the evidence so far. Given that evidence, I don't think the speculation and discussion of possible consequences of a metal to resin switchover that have occured on this and other boards I read has been at all unwarranted or over inflated. Of course the rumor hasn't been officially corroborated, that is what a rumor IS, news that hasn't been officially announced. When and if it gets announced then it stops being a rumor and becomes news. You may have noticed that the title of this particluar sub-forum is "News & Rumours", not just news.

Pwned

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Compulsorily acquired? You know what this means don't you, they're acquiring it compulsorily. - Darryl Kerrigan

I couldn't be bothered reading back through all 8 pages but I don't recall any one stating it as fact?!

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Ash Nazg Durbatulûk, Ash Nazg Gimbatul,
Ash Nazg Thrakatulûk Agh Burzum-ishi Krimpatul.

Good grief. Ok, lemme clarify. This post has a statement: Games workshop has stopped producing miniatures. That's offered as the topic's heading. Nothing that's been said since resonably indicates that's a fact. Listing more guess work and rumor-mongering and saying it's anything other than guessing 'cos a guy on the internet told you to believe him doesn't make it a fact.

Something is up. There;'s a wait on models. Some stockists are limiting their supply of metals. Those are actual facts. What it is that's up, what the solution will be, or what will happen after is guess work. As was pointed out this is News and Rumours. The operative word was mistaken, it should be 'AND'. It isn't news/rumours. They're two different things. Some rumourmongers from another site said they're 90% sure (in other words, not sure) this bout of speculation is true, and, gosh! didn't have a disclaimer saying it's just chinese whispers and hear-say? Oh, well, that's solid as a rock then! I bet that's the kind of thing that Lead 'em to Osama...

Listing more and more 'guess-idence' doesn't make something more likely to be true. Quite the opposite, it's dilutes things further. Some independent stockist aren't getting blisters? Ok, that means independent stockists aren't getting blisters. It doesn't answer For how long? Forever? For a month? Why? What about GW stores? What about mail order? Is something like made-on-demand going to take over? Why does any of the conjecture prevent ANY other course of action or explaination for what's happening? Oh yeah, I forgot, guesses suggest G.W. MIGHT make a statement about SOMETHING and it COULD be to do with metals. On Monday. Or Wednesday or Thursday. Conjecture-idence isn't 'conclusive'

Well, from now on I'll be happy to just discuss what might happen, or might be the cause, to speculate on what it may mean for the hobby and all, but seriously, the facts on the ground are thin as anything, and don't reasonably indicate that any of the speculation has any weight. No problem with that, again, throwing ideas around ain't doing anyone any harm, but I don't get how people can get upset when they imagine what it may all be about and mean, and find out other people don't regard it with the same degree of certainty. I could say I think Germany will win Gold in the hammer throwing at The Olympics. Seems reasonable, they've won stuff in track-and-field events before, and also, a guy who may or may not have been from Germany, may or may not have said that could be true at some point somewhere! I wouldn't then get upset if someone disputed my assumption, I'm surprised people would.

I'd personally not lament the passing of metal models, I gotta say.

Games works shop announced 25 years ago they were going to start making plastic miniatures. It was not the doom of metal then it is not now. They used to make the best metal miniatures in the word. That is no longer true. Their plastic has never been better than second rate. GW plastic is way behind the curve.GW is struggling with the economy and taxes like most businesses. Has it accrued to any one they might be changing the business plan? Closing some stores or other cut backs are more likely than abandoning metal. They established the trend toward plastic 25 years ago. I will not lament GW passing if they abandon metal.

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But none were more dangerous than the Great Willow: his heart was rotten, but his strength was green; and he was cunning,

I almost thought you were being sarcastic here! GW have led the development of plastic model making technology. They've put the most money into it and are at the forefront of plastic model production. To argue anything else is crazy.

In truth I haven't seen every metal model produced by every other company out there, but I haven't yet seen one that can surpass GW standards. I have Reaper, Privateer, AoW etc models that are very nice, but they're never as good as recent GW ones.

If you could show me examples then great, please do.

Closing stores and making cutbacks seems unlikely. GW opened 10+ new stores in the past year in the UK and their last statement to the City said that they would be making a good profit this year. Of course every business has had issues due to the economic climate over the past few years, but GW have continued to expand over that time so it can't all be bad!