There's been a lot of talk in Bolt Action circles of late regarding the new material from Warlord Games. With a free sample miniature in my latest order, I was keen to make my own assessment of it. How does it compare to metal? Can it really be painted without primer? Lets find out.
The mini was a rifleman laying prone. The sculpt was very detailed, with only a couple of suspect areas around the ammo crate the rifle lay on and the gap between the man's chest and the ground.
The miniature was very clean, with minimal flashing and only a couple of imperfections on the feet and helmet. I was able to file the helmet using a standard metal file. It did an OK job, but the result was rougher than filed metal would have been. For the lump on the sole of the foot I decided to use a craft knife to remove it.
Bad idea! With only modest force part of the foot came off with the lump. In retrospect clippers would have been a better choice for this operation. I don't think it was due to the resin mix being brittle, more that the foot was suspended in the air so there was no support for it.
I decided to paint without primer as advertised. I paid little attention to authentic colour schemes, and tried out greens and browns from as many brands of paint as I own. Without fail, all of them covered excellently. The full list of brands tried are:
The mini was a joy to paint, with details nice and crisp. Even traditionally mushy areas on a metal mini, like the face, were well defined. In comparison to the platoon of metal winter US I have painted, this is a welcome change.
Washes went on without issue, and I could even lightly dry-brush the base without rubbing paint off. I would still prime my minis, as I often use black primer to aid definition of shadows or a coloured primer to match the predominant mid-tone.
The sky is not falling. This is a decent material to make miniature figures out of. Prep takes a little more care. Unlike metal there is some flex to the material, so breakages are less likely (good for rifle barrels).
I would happily buy miniatures made of this new Warlord Resin Plus, and would prefer it over a metal alternative. I'd still prefer hard plastic if given a choice, but this is not always possible.