27 replies to this topic

[joshuaslater]

Well now I've bought PPM's from Rackham as well as Reaper. I have to say, Rackham's models are pretty well done. I bought some of their troop boxes for the Confrontation Alchemists of Dirz. Now, I don't play Confrontation, but the prepaints are getting some tabletop time as the baddies in an upcoming Savage Worlds game, and I like the fluff and direction of them, hence the purchase.

I also buy a lot of Reaper, and have bought some of their new LE's for the same purposes, i.e. quick, playable models for a game.

The box sets for Rackham were around twenty five bucks from FRP, or thereabouts from Neil at the Warstore as well. Reaper plastics I'll buy from miniature-giant.com, and pay less than retail for those too, so either way, I try to stretch my gaming dollar.

Without going into a long winded breakdown, I've found I like both companies products, and will pay the prices they charge for their respective products. I think the paintjobs are better from Rackham, but the bits are more delicate; I've had to reglue a part already as the pin vice just wouldn't help the cause. I like the fact that Reaper's plastics won't break and you can throw them in a box like the D&D minis, and just bend something back if it goes askew.

I'm glad Reaper went the way they've gone with theirs, as I think that they are ultimately going to have a line that's in line with the Hasbro market, but not try to go over the top like Rackham.

Basic gist: Rackham will charge more for better quality, and more for the solos for a line of plastics dedicated to their game. Reaper will be less expensive, but I would stress to people the difference between "less expensive" and "cheap."

[morganm]

All of the Rackham plastics I found were more sci/fi. Is that true for all of the Rackham prepainted plastics?

[joshuaslater]

I don't have the Rackham AT-43 models, just the Confrontation ones, so it seemed a reasonable comparison between two companies putting out Fantasy plastic prepaints.

[DjinnWing]

I've had my eye on both Confrontation and AT-43 lately. Must...resist....temp..tation!

[joshuaslater]

Hey, they are nice. I like both Rackham and Reaper, so it's just a matter of supporting two lines!! Must. Drop. Models. Habit.

[DjinnWing]

I don't care to support more! Haha. I'm a collector of DDM and have 1 Reaper PPPM so far (Ogre Chief). Anxiously waiting the Ettin and future LE minis. If I get any AT-43 of Confrontation minis, I will feel like I have to get them all!

[joshuaslater]

I'm buying more plastics now, and trying to finish painting the tons of metal I have. I like the prepaints for gaming as they still look better on the board when you want to bring an encounter to life.

[Bruunwald]

The Rackhams are nice, but the collectibility thing does creep in to the detriment of the customer.

There are singles for unique guys at my FLGS that are in the $20 range. The quality is not so great as to merit the cost. It's good. But $20 for a single Medium-size guy (going by D&D terminology) that could only fit into a hyper-specific world is for you-know-what.

Obviously, many of the models were designed only with their own game in mind. But I wouldn't want to pay that much for a single even if I played AT-43.

On the other hand, I have paid that much for older, metal Confrontation singles, and have always been more than satisfied.

[joshuaslater]

The Confrontation ones aren't in blind, collectable, packaging. You get the ones you want, but the solos are priced higher, as some run pretty large. I can't speak for the AT-43 ones, as I'm not into sci-fi.

[Chrome]

AT-43 isn't collectable either.

[morganm]

OK I get it now; the Confrontation line is their medieval fantasy stuff. The Dirz guys I clicked on looked all sci/fi so I thought I was in the wrong section. I don't really like their fantasy line of stuff; just not the kind of stuff I'm into. No fault of theirs. I don't play any games that require guys in trench coats with pistols and rifles or wackjobs wearing funny green goggles. Some of the Griffin and Wolf army figures are neat but I won't be buying any of them.

[Vaitalla]

Both my fiance and I are huge Wolfen fans, so we picked up the box set and the first expansion box sets for the Wolfen and Griffons. We figure if nothing else the Griff figures make great Elite town guards or some such for D&D and the Wolfen I would buy just to re-paint (the sculpts are not as clean in plastic as they were in metal but they are still more than good enough to paint up nicely!). Other than that, though, yeah, Confrontation has a very specific world so unless you input a small part of that into your own game world a lot of the stuff won't be standard enough to fit.

Glad a lot of you like the Reaper PPM's, I am trying with every new batch's prototypes to find ways of painting our models which will make it easier for our suppliers to create a quality product for us quickly and at the low cost we are trying to bring to you guys! Painting prototypes for pre-paints is a very trying task; you must limit your colors while still supplying contrast and trying to make the figure interesting, and limit your techniques because some things just won't translate very well when you can't provide your supplier with a painting tutorial and they just have to "figure out" how you did it!!

--Anne

[morganm]

I am trying with every new batch's prototypes to find ways of painting our models which will make it easier for our suppliers to create a quality product for us quickly and at the low cost we are trying to bring to you guys! Painting prototypes for pre-paints is a very trying task; you must limit your colors while still supplying contrast and trying to make the figure interesting, and limit your techniques because some things just won't translate very well when you can't provide your supplier with a painting tutorial and they just have to "figure out" how you did it!!

--Anne

I can't imagine how tall a task that is and what gets lost in translation!

Is it just me or do those Rackham PPMs look airbrushed? Or are the images we see on the sites selling these models only showing us the prototype master models?

[joshuaslater]

Solid discussion, Anne, and thanks for sharing how you and Reaper are going about it. I know Rackham is not to everyone's tastes, but they did up the ante for the entire industry, and can't be ignored. I like the fact I can buy the Reaper PPM's and the Rackham ones. It's just more variety for me. :)

[Vaitalla]

The Rackham plastics you see on their site have been re-painted by their studio painters; I believe if you nose around you will find a statement to that effect. They actually took some flack over that when they first started releasing stuff, to the tune that their promotional models were painted way above and beyond the actual paint jobs on the plastics so people were not getting what they were expecting. That said, the first batch of Rackham pre-paints were cleanly done, quite nice. Just not quite up to a studio paint job from some of the best painters in the industry!!

--Anne