Primaris Customisation or lack thereof

[Robbienw]

The hypocrisy is staggering, Ishagu is accusing me of over stating my opinions. Pot kettle :lol:

 

I’ll continue as I see fit, I’m sure you’ll learn to live with it

 

The lack of customisation will always be a big problem in my opinion. If the models were better looking I would be more accepting of it, but in the case of Primaris they are not.

 

It’s suitable for some models though I’ll agree, stuff like the black stone fortress models and the rogue traders, and elite custodes units.

[Ishagu]

That's certainly one aspect of the hobby and one that means a lot to some individuals, and not a whole lot to others. I've been collecting for 20+ years. I paint and model to a high standard and couldn't care less about posing my miniatures in unique ways. My only concern it that they don't look un-natural in the way they stand.

 

I let the quality of my painted models set them apart from others.

 

IF converting poses is very, very important to you then this might not be the army for you. Ultimately, in the future GW might not be the brand for you.

[PeteySödes]

That's certainly one aspect of the hobby and one that means a lot to some individuals, and not a whole lot to others. I've been collecting for 20+ years. I paint and model to a high standard and couldn't care less about posing my miniatures in unique ways. My only concern it that they don't look un-natural in the way they stand.

 

I let the quality of my painted models set them apart from others.

 

IF converting poses is very, very important to you then this might not be the army for you. Ultimately, in the future GW might not be the brand for you.

 

Dont worry about me brother, Im up for the challenge, its going to make my stuff that much cooler. My point is people arent trying and that to me is sad.

[Marshal Rohr]

Primaris are certainly scaled well, but the monopose legs and bodies is a very difficult hurdle to overcome. Characters definitely need some work to look unique. I've seen a few conversions of the new calgar and guilliman models that fix the horrible posing of the standard models, and the guilliman one had a more appropriately scaled blade. Looked nice but it requires someone to give a :cuss about their models.

[Robbienw]

Converting poses is not that important to me. I don’t need to convert to do a variety of poses with the classic marine kits, I’m able to these things out of the box due to clever kit design.

 

So I guess I’m ok with GW being the brand for me in future. The relief is palpable :)

 

(Also because space marines aren’t the only thing GW make and I like most of their other imperial stuff going foward as well lol)

[Halandaar]

Something not really being considered is that we're comparing a range that has had essentially a single release wave against a range of plastic kits that has been built up over 15+ years. It's good and well saying it's nice to use Deathwatch legs with Black Templar tabards, Grey Knight helmets and Sanguinary Guard jump packs , but those things were not an option at the beginning. You had a single Tactical kit, and every pose was essentially the same.

 

Lack of customisation does hurt the Primaris range IMO, but only in comparison to the existing and long-established classic Marine range which has hundreds of compatible parts spread over multiple factions each with multiple kits of their own.

[Rik Lightstar]

The same "Lack of options" arguments were levelled at the Stormcast Eternals (Sigmarines) on release and for a little while after however they now have a well developed and versatile range that has lots of options avaliable by using bodies/legs from Kit A with heads/arms/weapons/armour plates from Kit B/C/D.

 

I understand the frustrations and my

Primaris re-Founding of the Mantis Warriors is on hold until the next Wave hits, but as mentioned above comparing the 20+ years of development in the OldMarine plastics to 18 months of Primaris releases is somewhat disingenuous.

 

Rik

[killersquid]

I think folks just need to give the line time to expand. I've seen lots of cool conversions with the primaris kits. At least with plastic it's easy to do so! When I eventually build a primaris army (after my mk3 army is done), I plan to make the models my own.

[Robbienw]

How is it disingenuous to compare the two? That doesn’t make sense. I think maybe you mean it’s unfair?

 

Obviously we know Primaris will get more stuff and they d haven’t had as much time as classic marines of course. But we are more talking about the way the kits are setup. Primaris kits are definitely less customisable, interchangeable and variable by the way they are setup. If they continue to be setup in this fashion then it will still be the case even in 15 years time when they have dozens of kits like classic marines.

 

Definitely not disingenuous in any way.

[Rik Lightstar]

How is it disingenuous to compare the two? That doesn’t make sense. I think maybe you mean it’s unfair?

 

Obviously we know Primaris will get more stuff and they d haven’t had as much time as classic marines of course. But we are more talking about the way the kits are setup. Primaris kits are definitely less customisable, interchangeable and variable by the way they are setup. If they continue to be setup in this fashion then it will still be the case even in 15 years time when they have dozens of kits like classic marines.

 

Definitely not disingenuous in any way.

The implication that it will ALWAYS be a problem is disingenuous. It's misleading, that's why I gave the Stormcast example, they had a very similar range on release and it is now much wider with a lot of the kits laid out differently.

 

How many Tactical Squad kits have there been? Each one became more modular and had more variety available. Over time this is likely to be true of the Primaris range kits too.

 

So yes, I do think that any absolutes about the future of the Primaris range ALWAYS being a certain way are disingenuous rather than unfair.

 

Rik

[PeteySödes]

For me though it’s not the lack of bits, a lot of them are interchangable after all. It’s the baked in poses with the legs/torso that makes things more complicated..

[Robbienw]

 

How is it disingenuous to compare the two? That doesn’t make sense. I think maybe you mean it’s unfair?

 

Obviously we know Primaris will get more stuff and they d haven’t had as much time as classic marines of course. But we are more talking about the way the kits are setup. Primaris kits are definitely less customisable, interchangeable and variable by the way they are setup. If they continue to be setup in this fashion then it will still be the case even in 15 years time when they have dozens of kits like classic marines.

 

Definitely not disingenuous in any way.

The implication that it will ALWAYS be a problem is disingenuous. It's misleading, that's why I gave the Stormcast example, they had a very similar range on release and it is now much wider with a lot of the kits laid out differently.

 

How many Tactical Squad kits have there been? Each one became more modular and had more variety available. Over time this is likely to be true of the Primaris range kits too.

 

So yes, I do think that any absolutes about the future of the Primaris range ALWAYS being a certain way are disingenuous rather than unfair.

 

Rik

It’s still not disingenuous. No one has said future Primaris kits will definitely stay that way, just that it’s likely in the near future based on the current GW kit design pattern. And if they had, they would just be making an assumption, not being dishonest. Like you are making as assumption the kit pattern will change in future.

[Panzer]

To be honest, even with the oh so great customisation of old Marines, most old Marine armies you see aren't that converted either. Most people are content with being able to build their models without screwing up and painting them to a decent standard.

Yes, there are more awesome army projects for old Marines on the forums, but there are also way more people having those old Models or having experience with building and converting those Models already compared to Primaris models. Also Primaris are new so there are more people being content with just having as they are for now. Things will change in time and we'll surely see some more extensive conversion army projects with Primaris as well.

[Captain Idaho]

To be fair on Primaris I actually think the lack of options and customisation, alongside the decline of kit bashing, is symptomatic of GW policy rather than the line. Look at much of the other models released in the past year - most follow the same trends of Primaris.

 

The odd part is the actual kits for basic troopers are more posable than characters. Everyone has a Captain who looks the same and the Gravis Captain has got to be my least favourite character for Primaris.

 

Look at the Genestealer Cult models. Beautiful and excellent but all the characters are monopose. It's a curious position to find ourselves in - the focal points for a miniature display all look the same yet the rank and file are more varied.

[MARK0SIAN]

It’s the mono-pose nature that annoys me the most about a lot of kits, not just Primaris. I hate having two or three squads who are all posed the same, particularly as they often choose quite unique/stand out poses so it’s really easy to spot.

[Robbienw]

Indeed, as already mentioned it is something that has affected most new releases in the last couple of years. 

 

I imagine it will be most upsetting if GW do new astra militarum infantry soon, and you want to make a army with a couple of hundred infantry.

[Jukkiz]

I think it´s the new way of GW.

"monopose" models with tiny options the choose from

[Halandaar]

The odd part is the actual kits for basic troopers are more posable than characters. Everyone has a Captain who looks the same and the Gravis Captain has got to be my least favourite character for Primaris.

 

Look at the Genestealer Cult models. Beautiful and excellent but all the characters are monopose. It's a curious position to find ourselves in - the focal points for a miniature display all look the same yet the rank and file are more varied.

 

I don't see how that's any different from before plastic characters, when every Dark Eldar army had the same Archon, Succubus, Haemonculus, Lhamean, Sslyth, Urghul etc. Every Eldar army had the same farseer and the same 4 warlocks, every Space Wolf army had the same Rune Priest, and so on. Many of those things are still the case now.

 

I do find it quite odd that people pine after the good old days of customisable character models, when there have only ever been two; the Space Marine Commander and the Chaos Terminator Lord / Sorcerer. Everything else has involved either a completely alternate, also monopose sculpt, or conversions.

[Marshal Rohr]

People pine for conversions. No one liked seeing the same four warlocks anymore than they like seeing the Primaris captains.

[PeteySödes]

I don't see how that's any different from before plastic characters, when every Dark Eldar army had the same Archon, Succubus, Haemonculus, Lhamean, Sslyth, Urghul etc. Every Eldar army had the same farseer and the same 4 warlocks, every Space Wolf army had the same Rune Priest, and so on. Many of those things are still the case now.

 

I do find it quite odd that people pine after the good old days of customisable character models, when there have only ever been two; the Space Marine Commander and the Chaos Terminator Lord / Sorcerer. Everything else has involved either a completely alternate, also monopose sculpt, or conversions.

To be fair the early monopose sculpts weren’t veritable puzzles to put together.

[RikuEru]

I think it´s the new way of GW.

 

"monopose" models with tiny options the choose from

*looks at his soon to be 20 year old LotR models of all kinds of armies*

New GW?

Really, this discussion brought this to my mind. 2 or 3 poses per Weapon Loadout, basically no posing possibilities for Characters. God-Emperor, THAT was horrible...

 

...not to be provoking anyone, but THAT now made me personally appreciate the Primaris and all Astartes models in general even more. Probably also explains why I am still happily building, converting and painting one 40k army (and a bit of extra actors) after all, instead of adding army after army.

[Panzer]

To think that back then in WHFB we were actually more than fine with basic infantry models all having the same poses because it made sense for regiments of soldiers to not be all over the place, and only really cared about our characters and maybe monsters to look unique. Unbelievable, how could we ever enjoy the hobby.   /s

[Jorin Helm-splitter]

I do think one of factors that hasn't been brought up yet is that Primaris characters aren't very good in general. Foot slogging beat sticks that move 6 inches a turn aren't very good.

[Jukkiz]

I do think one of factors that hasn't been brought up yet is that Primaris characters aren't very good in general. Foot slogging beat sticks that move 6 inches a turn aren't very good.

Eh, just you wait. Alot talk going on about mucho primaris units going on.

 

Also about "half" units in SM codex overall aren´t very good. That is, if hardcore/tournament players are to be trusted.

[Lord_Caerolion]

I think the mentality is that people who want to convert are going to do so whether it's monopose or not, as seen by the number of conversions from the days of metal, monopose models. If they make plastic characters in cool poses, then the players who don't want to invest much work can still have awesome, dynamic looking characters, and the people who want to invest time in making their own unique characters are already going to be putting extra work in, so what's an extra arm to be snipped off a shoulder?