new plastic minitures

[Morabela100]

Being a gamer since the 70ties and assembling plastic models since the 50ties. I would really like to see the new Maliflux plastics made in a bit of a larger scale. Not just the assembly but the painting as well suffers greatly from the smallness of the parts, If you are a new person  coming into the game and are faced with these small kits  it is going to be a  downer if they don't have some ablities to assemble the models and paint them. If we get enough people speaking on this. May be the kits will become more userr friendly in the future. I have bought lady justice crew and ronins so farand I am really not please on how difficult these kits were to assemble and the enjpoyment of painting them just was there at all.

 

What is really sad is I havre lost the enthusiasome to buy more kits. Which is sad since I have spend quite a bit of money since the 70ties  buying game workshop products  and have played there games since then. I really  like the idea of Maliflux but dont know if I will continue with this game. I hope they will do something to address this problem.

[Omenbringer]

Well if it is any consolation the two boxes of models you mentioned were early plastics for the company and well there were some issues with them (Primarily in scaling consistency and delicate fiddly parts). Newer kits are quite a bit better in these areas. I would say that Wyrd models are not really intro models, they do require a more advanced touch in assembly and gap filling. You could always look at the older metals though, as many of them are still available and much easier to put together. In truth a lot of them are even better looking than the plastic versions (a bit of a subjective statement of course).

[Morabela100]

Thank you   I wish I could find The metal ones . I have looked om line and no luck so far. Gonna buy a starter set this week end and see how they are Thank you for your repy

[Ariamythe]

Well if it is any consolation the two boxes of models you mentioned were early plastics for the company and well there were some issues with them (Primarily in scaling consistency and delicate fiddly parts). Newer kits are quite a bit better in these areas.

I just bought Smoke and Mirrors at Gen Con, and the small, fiddley bits on there are MADDENING for assembly. Whomever decided Casandra's arm should be in TWO PARTS plus the body attachments should be flogged.

[JoeJones]

All I can say about assembling Malifaux plastics is that I've gotten really good at finding 1/8" pieces of grey plastic on a grey carpet - by feeling the bounce when it hits....

That being said, I love these plastic minis. They tend to be very beautiful, however fiddly the assembly can be.

[Morabela100]

If they were to adjust the scale they would be great Yes even finding that 8th on the floor is a adventure ;p

[szendroib]

I have assembled a lot of gremlin models with tiny parts but it is actually not that bad. I guess the problem for a lot of people might be the glue, most glues needs to be held at place for a long time and even than it breaks easily. I use plastic glue that melts the plastic parts and mend them together. With these kind of glues you don't have to hold the pieces together for too long to stick since they get melted together quite quick and you can just wat a little to dry again. Also in the end your model will be one piece of plastic not 10 pieces glued together, in my experience it is much more durable. Most people in my playgroup still use normal superglue and they have a lot of assembly problems also. Or breaking fiddly parts during game.

[zFiend]

I too hope they would be a bit bigger in scale as the details really get lost being so damn small. Also the assembly is really tough on points. 

[Omenbringer]

Thank you   I wish I could find The metal ones . I have looked om line and no luck so far. Gonna buy a starter set this week end and see how they are Thank you for your repy

 

I have a local game store in Cleveland that has a lot of the metal models still available. He is willing to ship pretty much any where. PM if you want his contact info.

 

If they were to adjust the scale they would be great Yes even finding that 8th on the floor is a adventure ;p

 

zFiend, on 04 Aug 2015 - 03:32 AM, said:

    I too hope they would be a bit bigger in scale as the details really get lost being so damn small. Also the assembly is really tough on points.

 

Fairly certain it has a lot more to do with the metal molds required for plastic manufacture than the scale. Having to use metal molds induces a lot of design limitations.

[dgraz]

[Morabela100]

The address to the game store in Cleveland or website would be very helpful please.

[Loveless]

I actually find a lot of the metals to be more obnoxious than the plastics - metal Wyrd has a tendency to either be a brick or share modeling cues with Infinity - tiny joins that are nigh impossible to pin.  The early plastics can be difficult to clip, but given they're plastic you can use proper plastic glue and it holds far better than super glue on metal.

 

Tweezers might help if your fingers are lacking some dexterity.  Be sure to use plastic glue, too.

[solkan]

My suggestion would be to make sure to get one of the containers of plastic glue with a brush.  (I really like stuff like the Plastic Weld because it works for several of the common plastic types...)

 

It'll be way less mess than the tube stuff, and there are really neat things you can do with brushing glue over seams so that they melt down or fill in. 

[tomjoad]

I really like the Malifaux plastics, generally speaking. The scale is larger than GW stuff and I find that the details really have a chance to pop, where as a space marine is relatively flat and the faces are difficult to make out. The plethora of tiny tiny pieces that Wyrd tends toward is pretty bad, though. I guess they have to be like that for casting and packaging reasons? Aside from that, though, I really like the aesthetic and the detail.

[Vidd]

Putting together the Bayou Gremlins was genuinely one of my most frustrating experiences in miniatures. That said, I would never sacrifice quality for ease of construction. A miniature that takes an evening to put together looks good forever.

 

Some of the kits are particularly difficult. I wouldn't let that put you off the rest of the range.

[Norken]

In general I think the scale is just fine the way it is.

 

If the number of parts could be reduced without changing the way the models are sculpted, then reducing the number of parts would be good.  However, not at the expense of the sculpting.  If decisions are being made to change the sculpts to reduce the number of pieces, then I think those are wrong decisions.

 

What I like about Malifaux and Infinity models is that the models make NO apologies.  The models aim to look great and don't compromise on the subject.  Yes, they are harder to assemble, and harder to paint.  On the other hand I'm a better painter after having painted Infinity and Malifaux models because I had to put more effort into it.  Wyrd isn't selling boxes full of Space Marines that are one dry brushing away from looking decent with a lowest common denominator paint job.  Nor did I ever get the satisfaction of being decent to good at painting from painting Space Marines.  I'm not looking for the Space Marine experience when I buy a Malifaux model.  If it takes the same amount of time to assemble and paint one Malifaux model as it takes to do a whole squad of Warmachine or 40K models, then that works out as a Malifaux crew is under 10 models.

 

I suppose that is a bit on the L2Model and L2Paint side, but honestly, I think people can learn and something being hard doesn't make it bad.  The rules for Malifaux are a lot harder than Age of Sigmar.  Doesn't make one or the other inherently good or bad.  It does make them different, and different people like different things.

[paradoxstorm]

I'm guessing that if the scale were much larger the models wouldn't work as well as game pieces.

 

I have a love/hate thing going with the plastics.  They look nice, but they are a pain to assemble.  

 

So many fiddly bits that are too small for even my smaller than average hands.  

 

Parts that take two hands to hold in place while a third hand reaches for the glue--except I never grew a third hand.  

 

Parts that despite dry fitting repeatedly refuse to go where they belong once the cement is brushed on.  

 

And it is probably just me, but I have more gaps to fill than I did with metals.

 

And, I just like working with metal.

 

On the plus side, there is more and better detail.  

 

IF you can get them assembled and are a good enough painter to manage the details the plastic models look pretty sweet.  

[daniello_s]

Today I was assembling Ama No Zako. It went smoothly until I was defeated by the ribbons... I just couldn't attach them so my Ama No Zako is ribbon-free demon, just like my Strongarm is cable-free (or wireless) model.

Oh, one more thing: the person who designed Ama's head as 4 pieces (left/right face, top of head, back of the head) definitely was later involved in designing Gremlin's sprues

[solkan]

You know it's Wyrd when you assemble both the Two Player Starter set and the Torch and Blade (Sonnia Criid) box set, and when you discover that Wyrd actually has some one piece figures they aren't in the Two Player Starter set. 

 

Open Spoiler

The Witchling Stalkers in the Sonnia box are one piece figures because they're posed perfectly for it.

 

 

[scarlett fever]

I've lost a couple of (luckily relatively insignificant) model pieces and sometimes the modelling is frustating.

 

But also rewarding, the models are by far my favourite of any gaming company (even if I do have gripes with some of the scaling).

Don't change anything, I would find compromising dynamism for ease of construction off-putting

[zFiend]

Oh, one more thing: the person who designed Ama's head as 4 pieces (left/right face, top of head, back of the head) definitely was later involved in designing Gremlin's sprues

 

Also the Flying Monkeys which I was really sad to see had their face cut in half in the middle..

[dgraz]

You know it's Wyrd when you assemble both the Two Player Starter set and the Torch and Blade (Sonnia Criid) box set, and when you discover that Wyrd actually has some one piece figures they aren't in the Two Player Starter set. 

 

Open Spoiler

The Witchling Stalkers in the Sonnia box are one piece figures because they're posed perfectly for it.

The Stalkers also don't have the detail that the multi-piece models do.

 

I'd rather be a little more patient and careful building a multi-piece model that has amazing detail than sacrifice that detail because some people don't want to deal with it.

[Math Mathonwy]

OTOH more parts doesn't automatically translate into a more awesome mini. Fingers was in four parts and went together super-smooth and I think he looks better than the fiddly basic Gremlins.

I do think that recent plastics have gotten better. There are fewer scale problems and fewer Skeeter-style problems (million tiny hairs on with mould lines through them).

All in all, I would really prefer if more thought was put into the placement of mould lines. GW are often really clever about this but Wyrd seems just random. Ironsides has her mould line go straight through the middle of her face. It's really difficult to clean up nicely, especially since there's extra detail there like the band-aid on her nose.

[dgraz]

All in all, I would really prefer if more thought was put into the placement of mould lines. GW are often really clever about this but Wyrd seems just random. Ironsides has her mould line go straight through the middle of her face. It's really difficult to clean up nicely, especially since there's extra detail there like the band-aid on her nose.

Gotta agree here. The lines are quite the pain sometimes.

[solkan]

More parts doesn't automatically mean a more awesome figure, but how a figure is posed, and which directions the details are carved into have big impact on how many parts the figure has to be cut into in order to be produced.

 

I mean, the one arm down, one arm raised pointing but on the same plane, head turned, detail carved from the front or from the back, is pretty much the stereotypically 80's/90's single pose wargaming figure.  (It's not that the direction has to be directly from the front or directly from the back, but detail can't go sideways because sideways produces parts that get stuck in the mold...)  That's the Witchling Stalker pose--arms to the side, detail carved from the front and from the back.  If the stalkers were looking left or right, their heads would be cut off and probably cut into two parts.  Point one of the arms forward instead of to the side, and that arm is going to get cut off as its own piece unless all of its detailing is carved towards the body.

 

Apparently there are more expensive (and more complicated) multiple-part metal molds that can be produced, if you want to cut details from multiple directions, but that sort of mold doesn't produce the traditional plastic sprue runners that are seen in plastic kits like Wyrd or Bandai produces.  Because the additional mold surfaces come in through where the sprue runners would be.

 

Disclaimer:  I haven't tried to break up a model for casting, so I can't get into an argument over how Wyrd's chosen to divide up some of the models.  But the posing of the models changes which directions the details are being carved, and that's what leads to more parts being needed for the model.

 

So more parts doesn't automatically mean a more awesome mini, but more parts does mean more directions for detail to be carved into the model.