If you could get pre-painted BattleTech figures, would you?

[Charistoph]

We Already have the MSRP for the Star League Force Packs, $35 for the Star League Command Lance (4 minis), $40 for the Second Star League Assault Lance (5 minis), and $45 for the two Third Star League packs (6 minis each), which puts the packs at $5 more then the MSRP of the packs from the Mercenaries Kickstarter with the same number of minis.

But the same as the Mercenary Lances which have been released.  So about the cost of one more mini.  Even then, I think only the 1st and 2nd will have pre-painted, as far as I know.

[Aresneo]

But the same as the Mercenary Lances which have been released.  So about the cost of one more mini.  Even then, I think only the 1st and 2nd will have pre-painted, as far as I know.

Every single time they have been talked about in an official capacity the fact that each one includes a pre-painted mini has been highlighted, the description of each pack on the Coming Releases page tells you which mini in the pack is pre-painted.

[Normie]

We Already have the MSRP for the Star League Force Packs, $35 for the Star League Command Lance (4 minis), $40 for the Second Star League Assault Lance (5 minis), and $45 for the two Third Star League packs (6 minis each), which puts the packs at $5 more then the MSRP of the packs from the Mercenaries Kickstarter with the same number of minis.

For me 5 dollars per mini would be enough to price me out for fully painted lances. Maybe if it were exactly what I wanted I would be fine with it, but it would have to be perfect. The $5 increase for the lances that have one painted mini wouldn't bother me that much though, I would be a little pickier on the combination of mechs in the kit, but it would be fine.

Thats why I really think the catalyst would need to do a lot of market research if they went in this direction.

[Hellraiser]

Not sure if this has been mentioned specifically, but the "Faction" packs might be an area where Pre-Painted could work.

It would have to be VERY simple to not drive the price up but some thoughts on this.........

You could, in theory, just use some colored plastic for certain parts/limbs & have every unit from said pack be a version of that.

The Kell Hounds Pack, could have been Red Torso Plastic w/ Black Limbs for example.

SLDF is all OD-Green Plastic.

GDL is similar to Kells but make it 2 shades of gray for Torso/Limbs

Dragoons might be mostly black w/ just Red for the Head or Arms as a highlight.


Pro-Painted or even close to it would probably turn off a lot of customers, but, effectively being a Primer/Base coat by just coloring the plastic/resin could be a solid option I would think.

Give they already charge $5 more for the Merc packs, I'd think this would be an area that might work.

I'm no 3D Print master but I'm assuming they can have different colored resin v/s everything else I've seen in the industry.

[Charistoph]

There are videos from the Forcepack manufacturer making colored Battlemech models.  Those COULD be fitted in to that realm.

[worktroll]

Catalyst has experience with pre-paints from the original Leviathan launch, and presumably with the KS fulfilment for the re-launch. A light paint - base coat, detail colour, metallic, and black - should be cheaper* than printing components in coloured resin, and probably a better result.

* Cheaper due to being done in a country where labour is cheap, machines expensive.

[Aotrs Commander]

So, it occurred to me in the fresh light of morning, I could of course actually LOOK what prices my resin print-house actually charges for pre-coloured models.
 
The cheapest I saw were around $13-14, for "25mm" (this for a lady standing on a pile of bones being quoted as 46mm tall; even accounting for the base and the skull pile, that's 28 or more like 30-35mm...), but that would at least be vaguely be in the volume of a BattleMech. (My KS Diashi is just under 50mm tall.)

That's WAY less that I have seen before, at actually would put it less than IWM's metal BT models. (Which mostly, I think, illustrates how bonkers expensive metal is getting and why CGL is absolutely right to be pushing the plastic and, I understand, using the same sculptors.) But that makes it a... Plausible price for the interested. I can't even say "but I wouldn't pay that for a model" because I wouldn't for an RPG figure, but I have bought IWM BattleMechs for that because I was interested enough and I'm a cheapskate...!

Interesting.

That said, I recall them saying that there was a minimum thickness of about 2mm, which I consider to be way too chunky (I work to half that and I wasn't sure even if the model they were going to do would actually work for them).

So I would posit, then, that CGL's coloured must be at least of a plausible cost for them to produce, especially at what would be very high volume.



(Still something I can't personally really look at for my own (business) models, since the other previous barrier was simply I am not (and I especially can't afford) a digital  artist.)

[General308]

So, it occurred to me in the fresh light of morning, I could of course actually LOOK what prices my resin print-house actually charges for pre-coloured models.
 
The cheapest I saw were around $13-14, for "25mm" (this for a lady standing on a pile of bones being quoted as 46mm tall; even accounting for the base and the skull pile, that's 28 or more like 30-35mm...), but that would at least be vaguely be in the volume of a BattleMech. (My KS Diashi is just under 50mm tall.)

That's WAY less that I have seen before, at actually would put it less than IWM's metal BT models. (Which mostly, I think, illustrates how bonkers expensive metal is getting and why CGL is absolutely right to be pushing the plastic and, I understand, using the same sculptors.) But that makes it a... Plausible price for the interested. I can't even say "but I wouldn't pay that for a model" because I wouldn't for an RPG figure, but I have bought IWM BattleMechs for that because I was interested enough and I'm a cheapskate...!

Interesting.

That said, I recall them saying that there was a minimum thickness of about 2mm, which I consider to be way too chunky (I work to half that and I wasn't sure even if the model they were going to do would actually work for them).

So I would posit, then, that CGL's coloured must be at least of a plausible cost for them to produce, especially at what would be very high volume.



(Still something I can't personally really look at for my own (business) models, since the other previous barrier was simply I am not (and I especially can't afford) a digital  artist.)

Well you are right about Pewter prices being insane.  Sadly nothing IWM can do about that.   But honestly the only reason plastic is that much cheaper is because they are making it in China.   If you look at the CGL Premium line (which has the worse quality control on earth) those are not that much cheaper depending on the model.  Yes they are cheaper but nothing like the force pack mechs.   

My real concern is can CGL keep the cost of the plastic under control.   A lance pack started at $20.    They are now with this kickstarter going to be $30 bucks that is a 50% price increase in a few short years.   If that keeps up you have to wonder of plastic is going to stay affordable.

[Prospernia]

Once, I found a plastic-pack of mechs at a drug-store in the '80's and got it.  If I'm shopping at one of the many mom&pop stores, and I find a pack of Robotech-mecha, in plastic, like army-men, I'm buying it and using it.

I found a ton of Star-Wars toys, the size of miniatures, for a dollar a piece at the 99-Cents stores, a few years ago, I bought the entire rack!  I want to use them for Interceptor; I haven't got around to making them out yet, but, I can if I want to!  And I don't even play Star-Wars that much anyways.

StarCom and Air Raiders? I think we can be friends. ;)

I've run both as RPGs at some point during my life using the West End d6 system. At one point, I even had a chart of all the rank insignia from the figures in StarCom, and I had worked out that the Thunderhammer in Air Raiders had a small galley and a couple of bunks inside the main body for the crew to rotate on long-duration voyages.

I was into StarCom and Air-Raiders from sixth-grade all the way to freshman in high-school; I think it had to do more with I was getting into astronomy at that time as we moved to the edge of the city and the stars were more visible. Now, I think of Airlandia as a hot-Mars.

[Aotrs Commander]

I found a ton of Star-Wars toys, the size of miniatures, for a dollar a piece at the 99-Cents stores, a few years ago, I bought the entire rack!  I want to use them for Interceptor; I haven't got around to making them out yet, but, I can if I want to!  And I don't even play Star-Wars that much anyways.

I got the majority of the Star Wars figures I use for fighter combst from discount from the Micromachines ranges. Heck, some of the vehicles we use for the 25/28mm ground combat for (then) Stargrunt II came from the Poundshop. But, like, you can't get that sort of stuff now, sadly, at least in the UK. (The slow decline of retail is a major factor.)

Well you are right about Pewter prices being insane.  Sadly nothing IWM can do about that.   But honestly the only reason plastic is that much cheaper is because they are making it in China.   If you look at the CGL Premium line (which has the worse quality control on earth) those are not that much cheaper depending on the model.  Yes they are cheaper but nothing like the force pack mechs.   

My real concern is can CGL keep the cost of the plastic under control.   A lance pack started at $20.    They are now with this kickstarter going to be $30 bucks that is a 50% price increase in a few short years.   If that keeps up you have to wonder of plastic is going to stay affordable.

Injection-moulded plastic is to my knowledge still far and away the cheapest way to manufacture anything; the barrier is the massive tooling costs which means its only any good for really large production numbers. 3D printing is basically the cheapest for (or on-demand) small production runs, but it is - at least currently, to my knowledge - still not well-optimised for massive production.

If the prices go up, that's because the prices of everything is going up, there's not going ever be a cheaper option now (short of outsourcing the printing to home printers and selling the files) - not short of a major change to the entire global economy and systems in place, I fear.

(I'm not saying the world we live is bad or anything, but I used to find BattleTech's lostech to be an unrealistic concept that I now realise is terrifiyingly real, and I keep having to get into an arms race with real-world corporations to keep my own lore Evil Corps actually worse than real ones...)

[klarg1]

Well you are right about Pewter prices being insane.  Sadly nothing IWM can do about that.   But honestly the only reason plastic is that much cheaper is because they are making it in China.   If you look at the CGL Premium line (which has the worse quality control on earth) those are not that much cheaper depending on the model.  Yes they are cheaper but nothing like the force pack mechs.   

My real concern is can CGL keep the cost of the plastic under control.   A lance pack started at $20.    They are now with this kickstarter going to be $30 bucks that is a 50% price increase in a few short years.   If that keeps up you have to wonder of plastic is going to stay affordable.

This is true to a point, but economies of scale also matter. They are producing literally three or four orders of magnitude more of each plastic ‘mech than they are premium minis. It’s probably closer to five orders of magnitude than IWM produces for all bi the most popular sculpts.

[Greatclub]

I think the Essentials box was a missed opportunity.  If Yen-Lo-Wang and Legend-Killer (or the others that came as cardboard standees) came pre-painted it may have increased sales even more.  I would be more than happy to pay for a lance pack with the four of them painted.

That is actually a good idea, and probably what started the process.

Personally I'd prefer to not pay a premium for pre-painted.

[Teejay75]

There are videos from the Forcepack manufacturer making colored Battlemech models.  Those COULD be fitted in to that realm.

I thought those were from that game that was streamed during GenCon. Dominions or Domination or something like that?

As for painted minis, I kind of like how they're doing them now. I enjoy painting my little stompy robots but I'm pretty meh when it comes to skill level. I like the idea of getting Victor's Prometheus already painted better than I could. Kerensky's Orion would probably be a lot easier given its simple scheme, but I'd like to get some of the iconic mechs from the history already painted up nicely without paying ungodly amounts for commission work. The rank and file mechs will have to suffer through my bad painting skills.

[Aresneo]

I thought those were from that game that was streamed during GenCon. Dominions or Domination or something like that?

The game that was streamed was BattleTech Command, the minis for that are Battleforce scale and do not include the units seen in the Liya international video.

[Teejay75]

The game that was streamed was BattleTech Command, the minis for that are Battleforce scale and do not include the units seen in the Liya international video.

I’ve seen a couple of games that had the colored models demo’ed, or at least my addled brain tells me that. One was Randall and another guy playing a game on a small board with the models perched on small card stock plinths.
The other was a larger board game. It put me in the mind of Risk for BT. I could be misremembering or they could be for something completely different.

[Aresneo]

I’ve seen a couple of games that had the colored models demo’ed, or at least my addled brain tells me that. One was Randall and another guy playing a game on a small board with the models perched on small card stock plinths.

That one is BattleTech Command.

The other was a larger board game. It put me in the mind of Risk for BT. I could be misremembering or they could be for something completely different.

That is Resurgent Empire, its a modern update of the old Succession Wars board game.


In both cases the pieces are much smaller then the plastic minis and do not include a Locust.