Telchar wrote:
Sacrilege83 wrote:
Jamros wrote:
That's very interesting if true; the original metal LotR releases certainly appealed to "model hobbyists" rather than just wargamers due to their material and quality. I'm sure a lot of those Fellowship of the Ring sales came from people who bought the boxed sets simply to paint them, with no regard for a game associated with the miniatures. Making it in plastic would be great for gamers, and the current boxed set layouts would fit well with The Hobbit. But, I feel plastic models would limit outside interest in purchasing any of the boxed sets. Still, if in Finecast, they would be probably be too expensive to be attractive to either exclusively wargamers or exclusively scale model hobbyists.
People who have seen my hobby always appreciated the metal miniatures over the plastic ones. They think I already pay a lot for tiny metal figutres, I don't want to even mention the cost of the plastics to them. Plastics just seems less valuable.
I beg to differ. For the same price (near enough) for which I can get 18 Perry metals, I can have 40 Perry plastics (not working with GW, as they don't have metal anymore officially, but there the exchange rate is even worse). Both are of near equal quality, the same scale, etc. etc. The same is true for every other manufacturer. And don't say "metals have better detail" because that's hardly noticable, or "I prefer metals because they weigh more", because then you should just glue some lead to the base and be done with it.
Plastics are much cheaper, and its becoming more common for the quality and sculpt of plastic miniatures to rival their typical wargaming metal or resin counterparts. Additionally, hard plastic seems to retain an undercoat better. For wargaming, plastic by far has to be the material of choice. But for display, or for miniatures that are to be "taken seriously" as art or whatever, I would prefer metal or resin. These materials tend to produce a better paint job. Metal gives a hard, sturdy surface with detail that does not get easily blurred under a few layers of paint, with a nice heft. Resin tends to absorb the paint better making layering and blending more smooth. Both are just much nicer materials to work with and often produce better results than plastic. I know I haven't explained myself well, but check out the top models at Cool Mini or Not...plenty of metal, resin, and self-sculpts, very little plastic. It's the best option for wargaming, but it just can't produce the results needed for display or serious collectors' miniatures.
Which is why I found it interesting that Bilbo, Thorin, and Co. might be released in plastic. This effectively targets only the wargaming market, unlike the last go around, which likely saw a large number of people purchasing several of the metal boxed sets just for collecting or painting.
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