While I'm waiting for money to magically appear so I can buy the game, I have a couple of questions about the models.

Are they the same soft plastic that most other FFG games use (Descent, IA, etc.)?

How is the detail quality? Most Descent figures look cool from 3 feet away, but the details are not great (or even downright bad) when you get close. How do these rate?

Thanks!

These are soft plastic, but the quality is pretty good. I haven't had a chance to look at Descent figures up lose, but the Runewars figures have an acceptable amount of detail, not GW standards of insanity, but you can still see facial expressions.

It's very flexible: quite a good thing as it doesn't easily break or unglue. But some weapons come not so stright.

The quality of the miniatures is just average. I think waiqar have a better miniature range. The best part of the game is the rules: very balanced, very carefully designed, quite realistic and in spite of all that quite simple and quick to play and learn.

Not too impresive individual unit, but excellent assembly and performance on the table (easy to deploy and transport). I recommend to take all those aspects into account, as far as the miniatures are not aestetically the best, but the game is worth

They are on par with the best of the Descent models. Some of those Descent models, especially the earlier ones, aren't nearly as good as these.

They have more than enough detail to paint.

I go into more detail in my blog post about assmbling the Daqan minis.

but there's some of what I wrote about the quality of the figures.

Quote

The material feels very much like the PVC used by Reaper Bones, but it seems to be cast cleaner without much of the softness of detail that some Bones suffer from. It appears that the minis were deliberately sculpted for easy painting and with the limitations of PVC in mind. Details are bolder and more raised and also somewhat sparse. There is no attempt at the hyper-detailing that is prevalent so many current miniature lines and this has the advantage of avoiding the pitfalls of many Bones miniatures whose sculpts were originally intended to be cast in metal, a material better suited for fine detail than PVC.

Basically, FFG cleverly sculpted the figs to get the best out of PVC, but they are still PVC minis and not as high quailty as contemporary Hard Plastic or metal figures. This doesn't bother me in the least as I like the look of the figs and I'm not particularly fond of over-filigreed miniatures. Also, I'm painting them to a tabletop standard via dipping and they are very well suited to that style of painting.

Like everyone said, it's the same soft plastic, but it's definitely better detail than Descent. I was actually surprised when I first held the minis - they were better than I was expecting.

I have lots of Imperial Assault minis and have painted them all. The Runewars minis are absolutely identical in every way to the IA minis - same plastic, same size, same level of detail. I love painting IA minis and I love the runewars minis too. I don't like the gw stuff at all.

The claim that GW's styrene based materials are superior is entirely subjective.

I've been hobby wargaming for the better part of two decades, and I prefer working with FFG's PVC.

The detail is good, moldlines minimal, they're nearly impossible to break, and they hold paint better than any other material I've worked with.

They aren't as super crisp with teeny details as other materials, but then that isn't a priority for me, given how details that small tend to disappear at average viewing distance anyway.

2 hours ago, Tvayumat said:

They aren't as super crisp with teeny details as other materials, but then that isn't a priority for me, given how details that small tend to disappear at average viewing distance anyway.

But it's not only for small detail that having nice crisp lines is important. You can get the same (low) amount of detail with good plastic as what we currently have, which I agree is just the right amount for this kind of game, but with a sharper cast that will shine through even an average paint job. For me apart from cost (which I respect) there is no good reason to lower the quality of the minis with soft plastic

1 hour ago, Corto said:

But it's not only for small detail that having nice crisp lines is important. You can get the same (low) amount of detail with good plastic as what we currently have, which I agree is just the right amount for this kind of game, but with a sharper cast that will shine through even an average paint job. For me apart from cost (which I respect) there is no good reason to lower the quality of the minis with soft plastic

PVC isn't lower quality.

People seem to think it is simply because some companies have, in the past, made low quality PVC minis.

It's not. Have you SEEN the figures from the IA Jabbas Realm expansion, or DOOM?

18 minutes ago, Tvayumat said:

Ha ve you SEEN the figures from the IA Jabbas Realm expansion, or DOOM?

Yes. So I think we'll have to agree to disagree there

2 minutes ago, Corto said:

Yes. So I think we'll have to agree to disagree there

Indeed. Almost as if the quality of an artistic endeavor is subjective, and we shouldn't categorically state the superiority of any base material when the application of that material is far more salient.

Yes, and we should continue to make airplanes out of wood

13 minutes ago, Corto said:

Yes, and we should continue to make airplanes out of wood

Are airplanes endeavors of art, or engineering?

Seems like comparing apples and... not even oranges. Apples and roofing nails.

Also, did gliders suddenly stop existing and I didn't realize it? I'm fairly certain hobbyists do, in fact, make planes from wood, as well as many lightweight modern materials, for a variety of reasons.

Im not sure if you have any, but if you have any of GW's "finecast" its pretty much as easy to cut/bend, but (atleast for me so far) it feels much more sturdy. I havnt felt like i was about to snap it and ive been pretty rough with them.

wood is a really good material! for the right application. aircraft plywood is an amazing thing. wood is still an important material for military aircraft especially now that drones are so popular.

i'm cleaning the flashing on my models still so i don't have a full opinion on them yet. but i think they will make for easy work that will look great when formed up on the table.

I consider GW's hard plastic to be far superior to PVC from a modeling and painting perspective. The details are better (and I like lots of detail), and cleaning mold lines is much easier. PVC doesn't break as easily, but that's something I've never had issues with. You have to really abuse your miniatures to see much breakage. It's good to hear that they are sculpting with the material in mind, though. That makes a big difference in quality.

It's about what I expected. I imagine it would cost a lot to change to a new type of plastic production.

8 hours ago, Corto said:

Yes, and we should continue to make airplanes out of wood

Why set your sights so low? We can make wooden SPACESHIPS!

Hard plastics and high detail require high parts counts and lengthy assembly. fine for a skirmish game but bad for rank and file. otherwise you end up with figures that look like the GW lord of the rings line, fine miniatures but terrible undercuts.

Softer plastics allow for more detail and undercuts with fewer parts. fewer parts makes for strong easy to assemble miniatures.

I have worked with lots of these plastics and once you have the right technique they are easy and good.

On the other hand, an advantage of the hard plastics with many parts is the possibility to have interchangeable parts, and/or round joins that enable you to decide which arm goes on which body and/or at what angle. This brings a lot of fun to the assembly task and enables a more custom and varied army

Show me a Victory Star Destroyer with an intact upper antenna, and I guarantee the owner has snapped at least three.

The spearmen would be horrible in hard plastic, even styrene.

You can repose pvc by simply boiling it. Reposing it and dunking it in an ice bath. You have too boil it heavy to reset the plastic's memory but it can be super effective. Lighter boiling is good for resetting bent elements.

also cutting and re assembling pvc is easier than hard plastics if the boiling is not working for you.

i more blame the storage for the antenna snap than the plastic.

Not many people (that i know anyway) use the perfectly shaped foam storage. That thing broke for me the moment i put everything back in the core box because i placed it on its side and it slammed against the antenna. My intention was to brace it against the wall so that DIDNT happen, but not enough stuff keeping it from jostling around when i moved it lol.

The antenna on my tau are almost all broken off or obviously patched up. And those are just as thick as the VSD antenna (i actually got to the point where i stopped even putting the antennas on my firewarriors lol)

17 hours ago, Tvayumat said:

Show me a Victory Star Destroyer with an intact upper antenna, and I guarantee the owner has snapped at least three.

The spearmen would be horrible in hard plastic, even styrene.

The trick is to just cut the antennae right off, it looks much better without them.



The soft plastic is fine, even if it means some bendy spears which will eventually just get bent again, not a huge deal imo. Sculpts are alright (not bad, not great, good enough).

1 hour ago, Darthain said:

The trick is to just cut the antennae right off, it looks much better without them.



The soft plastic is fine, even if it means some bendy spears which will eventually just get bent again, not a huge deal imo. Sculpts are alright (not bad, not great, good enough).

Awww, it's a baby ISD.

To the point - the mini quality is ok, you'll just need to straighten some weapons. It's exaggerated details instead of small detail. Sure is easier to paint.

I like the soft plastic as it's easy to drill and cut and as other people mentioned before - it doesn't break easily.

Though it could use more then 4 sculpt variations per unit.