September 2026 - Price Rises

[Captain Idaho]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, except Tau. Their little blue heads are gross.

 

And I'm not even talking about the miniatures. Just Xenos. 

[Antarius]

I think people tend to do a lot of squinting in these types of topics.

Personally, like I said earlier, I think 3D printing can produce good results and I'm sure the technology will continue to improve, but I also think it's pretty obvious that it's not quite there yet, in many ways. I have three friends who have 3D printers (and I know a couple of their friends who also 3D print) and while they probably have varying levels of experience with 3D printing, they're intelligent people who've been at it for a couple of years at this point and while I'm thankful for the stuff they print for me from time to time, it's not on the level of moulded stuff, as much as I wish it were.

I bought some PLA printed stuff on Etsy (Ork vehicle wrecks and tank wrecks) because it's a fun thing to have and it's not the kind of scenery I'm going to make myself. It's okay-ish, the designs are quite good, but the print lines are a problem. Sure, some people might not mind, but that can be said for anything and it's not really an argument that it's on the same level as GW products (whether it will be in the future is another story, I tend to think it probably will, but I honestly don't know enough about the technology to say with any kind of authority).
Resin printers obviously doesn't have this problem to the same degree, but again, from the models and bits I've seen, it's not like it's a non-issue, especially when it comes to certain shapes.

[Ahzek451]

On 9/4/2026 at 4:33 PM, Antarius said:

I think people tend to do a lot of squinting in these types of topics.

Personally, like I said earlier, I think 3D printing can produce good results and I'm sure the technology will continue to improve, but I also think it's pretty obvious that it's not quite there yet, in many ways. I have three friends who have 3D printers (and I know a couple of their friends who also 3D print) and while they probably have varying levels of experience with 3D printing, they're intelligent people who've been at it for a couple of years at this point and while I'm thankful for the stuff they print for me from time to time, it's not on the level of moulded stuff, as much as I wish it were.

I bought some PLA printed stuff on Etsy (Ork vehicle wrecks and tank wrecks) because it's a fun thing to have and it's not the kind of scenery I'm going to make myself. It's okay-ish, the designs are quite good, but the print lines are a problem. Sure, some people might not mind, but that can be said for anything and it's not really an argument that it's on the same level as GW products (whether it will be in the future is another story, I tend to think it probably will, but I honestly don't know enough about the technology to say with any kind of authority).
Resin printers obviously doesn't have this problem to the same degree, but again, from the models and bits I've seen, it's not like it's a non-issue, especially when it comes to certain shapes.

To be fair, its not exactly easy to fine tune resin printers to perfection. So in most cases, resin prints will have those layer lines if you look real close. Better than filament of course. But....I consider myself a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to that stuff. I spent a lot of time calibrating and doing various test prints and I have it so dialed in you can't see the layer lines after puting paint on. Point is, its possible, and its getting easier to do, but its no automatic thing. 

[kabaakaba]

Main issue with any printer is a quality of railing, motors and sensors. Friend of mine, who printing for life, spend insane amount of time calibrating his park of printers. In the end, he ordered new guides and drives from a local military plant with some completely inadequate tolerances - something in the nanometer range. And he spent a ton of money on very precise sensors. Only then did he get what he wanted. He prints mechanical parts, gears and pulleys, so precision was important to him. Iirc he reached 0,008-0,009mm layers. I asked him how much would be some minis. Let's say he looked at me very strange and said I should buy from GW if I wanna it cheaper...

 

Considering GW prices. I don't think there is much problem. Just check how fishing gear prices went up.  Fishing was my main hobby before Nurgle took last bits of my health. So I can say now fishing is pretty unaffordable compared to few years ago. 

Edited September 6 by kabaakaba

[phandaal]

12 hours ago, kabaakaba said:

Main issue with any printer is a quality of railing, motors and sensors. Friend of mine, who printing for life, spend insane amount of time calibrating his park of printers. In the end, he ordered new guides and drives from a local military plant with some completely inadequate tolerances - something in the nanometer range. And he spent a ton of money on very precise sensors. Only then did he get what he wanted. He prints mechanical parts, gears and pulleys, so precision was important to him. Iirc he reached 0,008-0,009mm layers. I asked him how much would be some minis. Let's say he looked at me very strange and said I should buy from GW if I wanna it cheaper...

 

Apologies if I missed this, but what is the connecting line between nanometer-tolerance, military grade precision machine part printing and workbench SLA/PLA miniature printers?

[Captain Idaho]

I don't do any calibration. It does it automatically and the results are superb. 

[Doghouse]

All I have to do to set the plate from time to time and occasionally clean it.

 

I am a bit sad I can no longer really afford the new stuff though, I'd love to make an Ork army with the new sculpts or finish fleshing out my Eldar.

[kabaakaba]

5 hours ago, phandaal said:

 

Apologies if I missed this, but what is the connecting line between nanometer-tolerance, military grade precision machine part printing and workbench SLA/PLA miniature printers?

Well, it's more like this is the only way to print stuff without visible layers at all

[Gamiel]

On 8/17/2026 at 10:07 AM, RWJP said:

Price increase comes in at an average of about 4% overall, or a change of roughly £1-£3 on many products. There are of course some higher and some lower.

I see that as affordable.

 

Must of my RPG book cost a lot, the US imported comic trade are often really expensive (specially Marvel what I have seen), icecream is going up, everything is becoming more expensive, my DVD:s have to be sent by mail since all the movie stores have closed and that increases the price (unless I buy a lot of them at one time), etcetera.

 

GW's stuff going up with £1-£3 is not really that notable for me that buy some boxes every secound to forth month.

[Arikel]

In regards to 3d printing: it can in  some ways, reduce overall hobby spend.

Cons: set up requires a fairly large investment (akin to starting a new army really). Need to have space, and resin needs good ventilation. Time investment for both learning hoe to use it and actually printing stuff is high. Essentially a “hobby within the hobby” like scratch building your own terrain from household scrap.

 

Pros: allows access to a wide (essentially unlimited) variety of models. Especially good for terrain and things like bases. Resin and the newer fdm printers offer near flawless printing in regard to layer lines. 

 

Print on demand services (or friends) can be cheaper and don’t take personal time, but not always easily accessible.

I don’t think it will ever take over the hobby fully, in that every one will have a printer. I could possibly see print on demand at the store replacing factory sets more and more but still I don’t think it will completely take over from plastic injection  moulding, similar to the way we still see metal and poured resin minis in the hobby. They have less presence sure, but they’re still there.

 

 

 

 

 

[Matcap86]

Another take I kind of agree with, from the Lords of War YouTube (they run a FLGS and give some business context on their YouTube): 

 

All the game companies do this, but GW is one of the most transparent ones when doing so. Most of the other companies just raise prices during restocks/reprints and don't announce it globally. 

 

So do price rises suck? Yes. But at least they're open and honest about them.