So, would there be sufficient interest in a set or sets of figures to do entire armies on the cheap? And, if so, what ranges would you want to see?

You remember the old Grenadier Fantasy Warriors figures? Still available from EM-4? Would there be any interest in a range of them? I mean the orcs and dwarves are fine as far as they go but what about humans, elves, goblins and undead?

I like single piece figures for big units. They rank up well and save time on assembly. As I find myself with less and less time to paint I find myself favoring one piece figures. As far as quality goes, I like clean details but fewer details equals less time to paint and for rank and file, clean, simple figures are appealing.

Having talked to Wargames Factory about plastics production got me thinking about this. A mould for about six single piece figures is $10000 but by the time you're done shipping and producing the 10000 sprue minimum order you're up to $30000 dollars. So, including a healthy markup for Wargames Factory, that's three dollars a sprue for a dozen figures or about twenty five cents a figure. Depending on lots of things of course. Personally it can be just about as easy to cut a hand or a head off a plastic figure as it is to get them off the sprue and each cavity on the mould takes up space / costs money. Honestly, I find myself looking at Mantic's recent goblins and wondering if they were even cheaper.
At the lowest end, if the figures are set up right you could do humans, elves, dwarves, goblins, orcs, and beastmen on a single sprue with a mix of spearmen, swordsmen, and archers or crossbowmen. I'd want separate shields either way, cast on shields aren't easy to clip and swap.

A step above that would be two sides to a sprue with a cavalry figure and/or an ogre sized monster added to each.

The next best would be to put a full army on a sprue cavalry and a monster or warmachine plus two poses of spearmen, swordsmen, and archers and a comand group or conversion bits for them. But that would be dependant on having financing to do all the armies that way because what I'd be most interested in is lots of rank and file for a low, low price.

Just wild speculation on my part incidentally. Nothing I'm planning to do, though Kickstarter certainly makes such ideas more viable.

You could always do spinnable plastics.

Aren't those just resin with plastic in the mix?  No, I think the way to go would be injection moulding.  The various restic figures are pretty close to the cost of metal.

Quote from: David Johansen;639845So, would there be sufficient interest in a set or sets of figures to do entire armies on the cheap? And, if so, what ranges would you want to see?

You remember the old Grenadier Fantasy Warriors figures? Still available from EM-4? Would there be any interest in a range of them? I mean the orcs and dwarves are fine as far as they go but what about humans, elves, goblins and undead?

I did buy a bunch of em-4's 21p orcs & dwarves, but I think their science fiction unpainted plastics at £2.55 for 5 is probably a more realistic price point for good quality figures. I especially like their Troopers -
http://www.em4miniatures.com/acatalog/Science_Fiction.html - very easy to put together a starship security squad or platoon of sf light infantry depending on paint scheme, accessories etc. If they had similar figures for fantasy human soldiers I'd be very happy.

The arms on the troopers aren't great and take some filling.  The gang members are not nearly as nice.  I do like the Space Rangers though.

But yeah, generally when a company produces something cheaply it's because someone else made it and went under and the new manufacturer got the moulds at fire sale prices.

Still, with kickstarter it should be possible to produce a range of figures that have very few middlemen and are aimed at being a cheap bulk set.  Mantic's plastic stuff almost hits it but I'd like a wider range of troop types for less money and I'm not as interested in fiddly details.  I've painted forty of their space orcs and it's just more detail than I want in massed units.

I am also seeking this, and honestly I'm starting to think I'm going to have to come up with new manufacturing methods myself.

Quote from: David Johansen;639874Aren't those just resin with plastic in the mix?

No.

Quote from: David Johansen;639874I think the way to go would be injection moulding.

Have you looked at other methods? Because when I looked at injection molding I found the quantity needed to be competitive with other methods was far in excess of the 10000 you're looking at. Also the kind of plastic is important, as some don't take paint as well.

Well, not really, I'm just speculating and the industry standard is injection moulded polystyrene.  It depends a great deal on where and how you get it done.  But yeah, what we really need is an inexpensive replacement for metal.