I have to assume Psycho is one of the IW sculptors? I can guarantee they'd be done better digitally for the reasons I pointed out the current line of mechs don't hold up well to close analysis.
Actually, you
CAN'T "Guarantee" that, without having the same mini done by
Psycho as well as someone doing it digitally. Like so many arguments (from everyone) in this thread, that's simply
Your Opinion, rather than a
Known Fact. A lot of views expressed here are
purely Opinion rather than Certifiably Proven/Provable Fact.
Yet another problem I can see with pre-painted plastics for BT is the fact that there's so many different "Factions", whether it be House, Clan or Merc Unit. In SW, the Empire uses one scheme (gray and black), while the Rebels use another (gray and red), so it's not like there's a
HUGE Variety of colors in the SW minis line. :-\ Also, as
GunjiNoKanrei pointed out, the color of the primer influences the finished paintjob. Sure, we've all seen re-painted MWDA minis that turned out well, but I wonder how many are simply what the painter "settled" for, rather than what they really
Wanted to do? ??? I've no idea how involved a process it would be, to change the paint lines over from one "scheme" to another, but to paint a single "Iconic" mini for one faction would require
MANY changeovers to paint one in all available Canon schemes. For example, painting a Panther for House Kurita alone would probably be 10+ paint schemes, including their House Units and House Merc Units. Then you've got the Panthers for the other Houses and their Mercs, various independent Merc Units, Comstar, various Periphery Units. . . #P
As it is,
ANY time a new mini is released, you have a mix of people both praising
AND condemning it for various reasons. For every 5 people praising a mini for one feature, you'll have as many complaining about the same thing. Surely you've noticed by now:
No One can make
EVERY BT Fan Happy at the same time. #P Something else to keep in mind is this is
NOT the MWDA Fan Site, this is the Classic BattleTech Fan Site. The people on this site that are into minis (and lets face it, not everyone that enjoys BT is in it for the minis), are generally into minis that they can paint
As They Please. They
DON'T want pre-painted minis, whether they're made of resin, plastic, or some metal alloy (lead, pewter, etc.). I'm one of those Collector's that owns more unpainted minis than painted, and the vast majority of painted ones I do own I bought that way, or commissioned someone to paint for me. I'm a "basic" painter at best, and I'm Well Aware of that fact. I've painted two of my minis, 23 years apart. One is black with red highlights (a
Raven), the other is gold with silver highlights (Unseen
Ostroc). Still, if I ever get the bug to paint a mini, it will be a metal one of some sort. O0