CB outsourcing some Infinity minis now? ~_~ Plastic resin... restic? And what price? I looked around and some material compatibility lists say it is fine, and others not. Does this depend on the exact type of nylon? Or maybe just a case of crap information? OTOH, ethyl alcohol and acetone can remove typical hobby paints.
Any evidence behind that claim? So far, we can compare Siocast to metal: Gator, a Siocast S7 TAG (and a pretty bulky one at that - I've just finished painting it) at 39,95 EUR Marut, a Siocast S7 TAG (and pleasantly slim - currently on my workbench) at 36,95 EUR Szalamandra, a metal S7 TAG (somewhere in-between the above two, as far as I can say based on the picture) - 59,95 EUR Zeta Unit, a metal S7 TAG (can't tell on the bulk...) - 54,95 EUR. That's two most recent S7 TAGs in metal vs two most recent S7 TAGs in Siocast. All prices cited from the offical CB online store. Siocast model is - in rough estimates - about 26% cheaper than a metal one (comparing the more expensive Siocast Gator to the less expensive Zeta). I have no reason to believe that whatever chinesium PVC reisin are the future models intended to be made of to be more expensive than Siocast, for it would be making little sense form CB's economical pojnt of view.
Ah, yes. Right. Metal TAG average price is X before Siocast, discounting the likes of Maggie. Siocast is introduced. When questioned about how it will influence pricing, CB says "price will not be lowered, we're doing this not to have to raise prices anymore due to metal costs". CB arbitrarily raise prices anyway, lol. Now a Siocast TAG costs X+15, a metal one goes up to X+30. ...? "Profit, Siocast is the better, cheaper option!" Nobody was a manipulated customer in this example :D
As if nothing increased in costs the last two years? or you assume companies raise the product cost just because?
@Muad'dib ís the expert on this. Also - on the topic of price increases. CB's price increases are higher than the inflation rates, but they depend on energy (that metal doesn't melt itself) and shipping (that metal also doesn't ship itself) and well, metal, among other things. And while all three prices are returning to normal, they are not normal at any rate. And volatile. That's not fun for what's basically a small-to-medium company. It sure sucks that the price of our favourite toy soldiers are increasing, but it is a part of the overall economic situation sucking in the last 3 years. It's not something that CB can be blamed for.
Well, for me it is a bad news. But I would stop my grumpy conservatism and wait the product itself. People are not happy about changes usually. But we should not hurry. Siocast isn’t what I would like to buy. I tried it. Now I am avoiding it... This new material... I don’t like “resin” in the name. But I would wait to touch and look it by myself. And I really worried, how would it feel during hot +35 summer (or may be a little bit hotter) We have a very abstract description of material. I remember siocast discussion. Lots of details were found by other forum dwellers x) I think, this news isn’t so shocking as it was with siocast also. At that moment we thought, that metal is forever and “nothing would move this monolith”. Now we know, that CB are in search for a new material. This is just next chapter of this situation. By the way, plastic like fireforge of frostgrave/stargrave (the last examples) looks ok for me, but I don’t know details, how it is producing and etc...
Metal is expensive, and keeps getting more expensive. CB has hung on for far longer than most minis companies operating at this scale. At some point they either need to diversify materials or price themselves out of the market.
Metal is not going more expensive. It is trending towards more normal prices, but is still 150% of what it was pre-pandemic (not adjusted for inflation). At least it is not 300% what it was.
^^ The price of Tin had a massive increase to almost $48k USD mid last year. It's back down to around $25k now - but it is trending back up.
Fair enough, the 10-year tin price chart doesn't look at bad as I expected. The last really big jump that pushed a lot of companies out of metal (GW finecast, Privateer PVC) was in the 2006-2008 timeframe.
Commodities markets go through surges of demand (pandemics didn't help here) - but they also follow larger financial trends.
^^Which if anything, makes them more messed up to model. You have to factor economics, finance, logistics and geopolitics on top of each other. Fun times.
Quoting myself from the Siocast announcement thread - CB never stated the specific grade they use so I tried to provide a generic recommendation
I dont like, that cb is going the resin route. Most hobbyists will tell you resin is "safe to handle" if you just cut it and not file it, but the dust/finer particles remain a problem. A health risk i dont think is worth taking when there are alternativs. Applicable proven alternatives in the case of cb products. So far i see no statement that tells me if cb deems it safe to file and the tightlip treatment when it comes to the chemical make up of the material doesnt help my confidence. I own most Tags from N1-current. This might be the first i wont buy, because i dont think even a minor health risk would be worth it.
