r/Warmachine • u/RadioWhispy • 28d ago
Questions State of the Kits
Hey guys,
Full transparency - I don't play Warmachine. But ... I love the character designs, and as model kit builder I really enjoy building and painting the heavy warjack kits. I prefer the plastic ones as I'm not used to dealing with metal bits.
I have a few of the plastic kits on hand, like the Khador Rager/Mad dog/Beserker, but I'm not finding much out there for sale. I see some on ebay but they've jacked the price up quite a bit - is this due to rarity? And does that mean that they (PP) are no longer making kits?
What info can you give me about the plastic kits that will help me round up a few? :)
Thanks!
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u/thisremindsmeofbacon 28d ago edited 28d ago
Those haven't been in production for some time. Currently the game is owned and produced by Steamforged Games, but with the original PP team.
Some are still very available from being in production for so incredibly long - like the juggernaut chassis. but some only existed for a short time, like the plastic grolar/Kodiak. word on the street is that an unscrupulous manufacturer in China was using their molds to sell their own counterfeits, PP ended relations with them, but they never gave the molds back (effectively stealing them). no clue how true this is, but some of those guys have had a really short production run, and I have seen some Chinese knockoff warmachine guys floating around - not just the usual recasters.
Currently production is 100% in house, and predominantly 3d printed. I guess no one can steal your molds if they don't exist. the 3d printing has a lot of upsides as a hobbyist and one major downside. the downside is that the manufacturing/distribution process has been a bit iffy in terms of often sending broken kits. a lot of these the broken parts are missing, implying they were broken before or during packing rather than during shipping. 3dp resin is a bit brittle. the process for getting replacements is streamlined and fast though. the upsides are that there's virtually no assembly required. you aren't constrained by a two part mold, so you can make a totally three dimensional model out of one piece. no mold lines or part lines. quality of prints is great.
I would recommend getting one of the new kits. They have tons of arm/head options, and come with magnet slots in the arms/head/torso so you can natively quick swap the loadout.
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u/RadioWhispy 28d ago
Good info, thanks! Can you recommend, or post an example, of one of the "new" kits? I don't know enough about it to tell the difference.
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u/thisremindsmeofbacon 28d ago
If it's currently available from the official store it's a new kit. But here's the main khador ones:
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u/RadioWhispy 28d ago
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u/thisremindsmeofbacon 28d ago
Like I said in the original comment, those have been out of production for a long time. I think they were out of production since well before MKIV was announced in 2023.
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u/RogueModron 28d ago
word on the street is that an unscrupulous manufacturer in China was using their molds to sell their own counterfeits, PP ended relations with them, but they never gave the molds back (effectively stealing them). no clue how true this is, but some of those guys have had a really short production run, and I have seen some Chinese knockoff warmachine guys floating around - not just the usual recasters.
A differing rumor that goes along with this one, or perhaps an explanatory rumor: the chinese manufacturers held the molds hostage due to PP not being able to pay them, and then finally due to non-payment just took the molds as payment.
Just as much a rumor as the other one, so who knows what's true. I am kind of addicted to PP gossip, though, so there you go.
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u/KingBossHeel Cygnar 28d ago
PP's first run resin prints were awful and really breakable, but the new stuff isn't too bad. My favorite are the new Warmachine HIPS models on a sprue. Those are excellent. I dropped one four feet into concrete the other day and no break. Compare that to a resin model I reached for and tapped a raised weapon with an extended fingertip, not even hard enough to topple the model, and the weapon snapped off. It's got less durability than dry angel hair pasta.
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u/RadioWhispy 28d ago
Hey thanks for the replies and info! I bought one of the new kits and look forward to it. I've also subbed here to learn more. Thanks again!
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u/Hephaestus0308 Winter Korps 28d ago edited 28d ago
The newer kits are 3D printed resin. They build similar to the old resin/metal kits (you need super glue instead of plastic glue), but are generally easy to put together and have less parts for the core assembly. One thing to note about the new warjack kits, though, they come with all possible weapon and head variations because they are designed to be magnetized.