Plastics - Any truth to this rumor???

[Lordpappanqui]

Plastic ACTA ships?

Read this bit of 'news' through a friend via email.


Anyone?

 

[H]

Matt has advised repeatedly that their won't be plastci acta ships. Not that it means their won't be ;-)
but if the current range isn't financially viable, the startup costs for plastics probably make it a definate no!

 

[Burger]

There won't be any ACTA ships. Plastic or otherwise. Well, unless you count flat-pack cardboard!

 

[Court Jester]

/me begins to flex his scultping muscles...

 

[Sigmar357]

After the big news plastics would have been a great idea but ah well. Mayby the next company that takes ActAs up will.

When ever that'll be

 

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

could he have been refering to our talented sculpters here and the plastic resin models that they do?

 

[Blu_Majik]

/me begins to flex his scultping muscles...

well if it's anywhere near your painting skill, i hope you do some Narn!

 

[[Omicron]Urobach]

/me begins to flex his scultping muscles...

arrrr...an Competitor :lol: :lol: :lol:

would be really nice to see some other ideas.

but to come back to the question:
I don´t think wee see plastic ACTA ships in the future...Is my opinion

 

[Frohike]

Well, if the entire line is cancelled it makes it doubtful in the extreme. I seriously doubt mongoose will succesfully do miniatures again.

 

[Poi]

Well, if the entire line is cancelled it makes it doubtful in the extreme. I seriously doubt mongoose will succesfully do miniatures again.

Unfortunately, I agree. Even if they tried to restart mini production, what distributor would want to carry their product?

 

[Joe_Dracos]

Wow... you guys are so pestimistic its not funny. Mongoose still has the foundry and still wants to do mini games. Mini's may not be on the table at this time but that does not write off use of mini's for ever.

Can you trace where this news came from beyond where your friend got it, I would like to here more on this rumor.

 

[Court Jester]

I would like to here more on this rumor.

Initial speculation started when it came to light that Mongoose had been visiting the plastics production site at Wisbech in the UK. The site (used for tooling plastic molds) has been recently sold off by GW...

Link

We have closed our tool making facility at Wisbech, UK and this activity has been relocated to our Nottingham site.

Although we don't know yet know who has licesned the site and its staff.

Also a few weeks ago various CAD designs of the iconic ships in the series were leaked online before they were removes (although if you look around you will probably find them).

There is obviouls more going on here than we thought...

 

[Lordpappanqui]

Can you trace where this news came from beyond where your friend got it, I would like to here more on this rumor.

From what he stated, I gather that he had read it on some given website. That was about all I believe.

I have since emailed him, but he has yet to respond back to me. He is a bigger 'nerd' than I am, and I am certain he knows quite a few things more than the average gamer when it comes to certain bits of knowledge here and there. :wink:



[weekend upcoming, thus I am sure he will send an email back soon. I hope.]

 

[Jal]

going to be hard to justify the high startup costs for production of ACTA in plastic.

if they ever did get it going i can just imagine the feeding frenzy online (cue problems with availablity of minis) but i`m not too sure how distributors would feel about working with MGP again.

 

[Frohike]

Wow... you guys are so pestimistic its not funny. Mongoose still has the foundry and still wants to do mini games. Mini's may not be on the table at this time but that does not write off use of mini's for ever.

Pessimism is not a usual mood of mine but in this case yes your right. but after reading the 'state of the mongoose' article in S&P again (from the start of the year) Im even more gutted, how can things change so horibly in such a short space of time.

As for 'they still want to do minis' I think what Matt S wants and what actually happens are somewhat different, again, read the above article.

going to be hard to justify the high startup costs for production of ACTA in plastic.

if they ever did get it going i can just imagine the feeding frenzy online (cue problems with availablity of minis) but i`m not too sure how distributors would feel about working with MGP again.

And also all the abandoned gamers!

My negativity has now been excised

 

[SchrodingersCatBob]

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but I'm new to the whole miniature community. Has anyone tried using some of those rapid-prototype 3-d printers to make minatures? I'm not sure how the price comes out per unit or what size/detail limitations are but the printers are coming down in price. Plus, if molds aren't needed to maintained and the parts can be qickly produced, you would need to maintian less inventory.
Like I siad this may have already been tried/discussed, but it would seem like something that might work.

 

[Jhary]

The problem with Plastic Minis is that MGP don´t want them.

 

[Jal]

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but I'm new to the whole miniature community. Has anyone tried using some of those rapid-prototype 3-d printers to make minatures?

good question.

while some are coming down in price (not all rapid prototyping machines were created equal either as regards speed, detail level and ability to do complex items) they are nowhere near the level that would enable mass production of minis.

i know that some model builders are getting exited buy current developments but they are more into one off designs, prototypes and special parts.

who knows but maybe in the future those machines will indeed solve a LOT of todays problems but it`s going to take a while longer to get there. :wink:

 

[Star Ranger]

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but I'm new to the whole miniature community. Has anyone tried using some of those rapid-prototype 3-d printers to make minatures? I'm not sure how the price comes out per unit or what size/detail limitations are but the printers are coming down in price.

They are being used to make the masters for a several lines of minis and they can do great detail, but the resulting figure is still very fragile and it can take 8+ hours to 'print' a single mini.

Thus they are useful to make the master for making a mold but are not economical for printing something that goes directly to the table.

 

[ShadowDave]

going to be hard to justify the high startup costs for production of ACTA in plastic.

if they ever did get it going i can just imagine the feeding frenzy online (cue problems with availablity of minis) but i`m not too sure how distributors would feel about working with MGP again.

I suspect it would be similar to the problems Urban Mammoth had getting people to stock void minis after their 'takeover' from I-Kore it took a change of title for the game and still some places refused to stock them!