Why?!? It is only marginally more difficult to do and marginally more expensive (due to sandpaper). I mean, I'd rather clean the metal, but... that's minimal difference!
It is an enormous difference: Apart from Infinity, I play Malifaux and I find Wyrd's hard plastic minis a pleasure to clean and assemble. Hell, many times I've done this specifically to unwind and relax after work. Compared to that, cleaning metal Infinity minis is a necessary chore, especially now that I have to be super-careful with pewter dust for health reasons. And if going from hard plastic to metal was a step down in convenience, going from metal to soft plastic feels like a step off a cliff, as in, I'd genuinely pay someone to clean this shit, except that nobody wants to do it at a reasonable price. And I already have a backlog of boardgame minis that mock me, so thank you very much. I'll give the soicasts one try, and if they prove to be as shitty to clean as other soft plastics, I'll pass.
No, it's not minimal. Both in results you can achieve (smoothness) and the amount of work it takes, the cleanup you will need to skip because you'd remove detail, etc. Even when CB allows a mold line across detail, like armor ribbing or some such, a soft scrape with the back edge of the knife will remove the line evenly, leaving detail intact. There's no real way to cut or sandstick the same stuff away, especially in depth of the sculpt. That fugly line will have to remain and be sore on the eyes. For a painter that's a dealbreaker. Now imagine you have to do 30+ minis for a commission and you have several commissions queued up, for example. It's not an issue with hard plastic or resin, it's a chore with metal. It's bonkers with soft plastic that crumbles when scraped.
Both cutting and wet sanding are relatively mild, when it comes to release of particles in the air. Cleaning the nylon will not have any loss of detail involved, unless your hand slips. Smoothness is a function of the grit that you use. The only issue will be time, I agree with that and yeah, I didn't think for commission painters that will have to deal with multiple miniatures in a short period of time. But apart from that case - I don't see much of a problem. Now the loss of details, that Infinity Gamer showed on the back part - that thing will probably be a bigger issue for some people, since it is not fixable, unless you have VERY precise hands.
Actualy cleaning the Vostok wasnt soo bad. Yes I would prefer metal (mostly because I am used to it, plus the weight has its own magic). But as long as there is only few models in Siocast per year per faction I dont realy care. (from tabletop point of view the cleaning to level you will not notice anything from 20cm is super quick. Yes if you wanna go super clean then it takes some practice and time, but i would actualy think it could be faster to clean Siocast than metal cast when yu get the tools and approach right.
I wonder if we will see more vehicles made out of plastic like the cars from the betrayal comic now that CB has the capability to produce plastic models
As scenery pieces? I wouldn't call that impossible, seeing the CB-made scenic bases - something they've so far left to other companies. Who were doing car and other vehicle models, too. As gaming pieces? I don't really think so. CB has repeatedly stated they don't want anything larger than TAGs and bikes in the game - and they had the technical means to make metal vehicles as well, several other companies did that back in the day (even if a full-metal vehicle would be quite expensive, if in terms of metal only). Please note: I do not think so. Which has nothing to do with what CB themselves think on the matter.
We have vehicles mentioned in the rules, but if they are introduced, they will be no bigger than a Maghariba, imho. Something like a TAG/bike crossbreed.
We had vehicles being mentioned in the rules since 1st edition. We still have no in-game vehicles today. We had Maghariba being capable to transport troops (back in 1 and 2 ed.), one of the more important vehicle roles that aren't otherwise covered in Infinity (fire support is done well-enough with TAGs, IMO). They got rid of the "Brace" rules for it since N3. We had Mechanized Deployment rule to simulate a troop transport deploying a squad in a forward position. No more (although it was a pretty clever way to eat cake and still have cake, I must admit). Seems like CB are moving away form having vehicles in the game, rather than moving closer to it...
Vehicles have been in the rulebook since 2nd edition (that drop pod thing) while CB has stated at the same time not wanting to do vehicles for a variety of reasons. The significant one I remember was roughly “How do you make vehicles without them becoming effectively mandatory for every player? You can’t, and that’s why we’re not doing them.”
This is the best news coming from Corvus Belli. So exited to get my hand on this new plastic. Conversions will be much easier now. Great move! The only minus.... is that you cannot use plastic glue. But what about Tamiya cement? Woudl it work?
Tamiya has glues for more plastics than PS (IIRC, ABS & PC), which could lead to confusion. But not for nylon, so CA (well, Tamiya also sells CA...).
Whith regards to recycling plastic. What is the Resin Identification Code? Will it be recyclable? To my knowlege only category 1,2,4 & 5 are currently recycled in the UK.
Nylons are usually not recyclable in terms of gathering from end customers and so on. The industrial waste, however, is.
On a separate note - this was extremely informative interview - https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1121733837 Bostria went into more details about their plans for plastic. Key takes: 1. They will decide based on sales numbers 2. No plans for S2 in plastic, unless there's another significant price hike for metal. 3. The chief of the production team has the last word about material.
Some additional news were dropped in the interview. 4. Changes to fireteams are coming next year, something in the line like different bonuses for pure and mix teams. 5. An OOP faction (let's speculate wich one) will make a comeback in 2022 and will get a similar treatment like MO did this year. Imo FRRM in april, Aleph v.s Haqqislam at gencon...or it will be the year of Tohaa..
That is excellent news on both counts. Mixing up the fireteams is great, worse bonuses for mixed or wildcarded ones and better for pure seems a good direction. And either the French or the Artichokes coming back in style is going to drain my wallet. Awesome.
