In Defense of Simpler Models

 Alright, I've been threatening to write this post long enough. It's time to discuss why "simple" models aren't actually as bad as people make them out to be.

First thing is actually establishing what a "simple" model is. For many this refers to a level of detail, but then they often use GW models as examples that are covered in so much greebly bullshit that you can barely make out what they're supposed to be. Necessary detail is more important than extra nonsense and a billion skulls on everything, and I think most miniature manufacturers actually do that to a similar degree. 

But here I mostly want to talk about construction, and ease of build. Because what detail is good and what detail is lying to you is largely subjective, I won't really be focusing on that too much. It'll be part of the equation, yes, but it won't be my main focus. My main focus is simple:

Why are models getting so complex?

It seems like miniatures just keep becoming more and more parts, and fiddly parts, and I just don't understand why sometimes. I've had this discussion with people before and they bring up posing and making your army more unique and so and and so forth, and I just don't get it.

Perhaps it's because I'm old? My very first miniatures were single piece, metal models.

Some of these beautiful bastards, to be exact.

12 year old me loved these god damn things. And I realize that was a long time ago, 1998 was not recent. But I've had people say to me "monopose models suck because then if someone else plays that same faction your guys will be in the same poses."

Is that really such a big deal to people? I mean, I guess for a skirmish game I could kind of understand it, but even then it's a stretch. At no point in my seeing these models, going to the game store, buying them, getting them home, cleaning them and painting them did I ever think "Oh man, if someone else plays Bauhaus we'll have the same models." All 12 year old Spencer was able to think was "These things look fucking awesome!"

And now, as I creep ever closer to 40, I find myself missing that design mentality. Obviously with new tech we can get more varied poses out of monopose models (see the new Venusian Rangers coming for Warzone Eternal), and probably some better detail, but the idea remains the same. I was able to get my first Rangers out of their blister, scrape off some excess and get to painting in no time flat. Now it sometimes takes nearly 20 minutes to build a single model (looking at you, Peace River). How is that better?

Maybe it's just me. I don't particularly care that my guy can have his arm tilted 10 degrees further up than someone else's guy. It's not important to me in the slightest. And it's certainly not important enough to make models frustrating and time consuming to build.

Take for example the Forge Fathers from Mantic Games. I'm using these space Dwarfs in Grimdark Future because I thought they looked really cool. I wish I had seen the infantry sprue before I bought them, though, as I maybe would have made very different decisions.

Not shown: legs, backpacks and some more guns.

Each of these stumpy little assholes clocks in at around ten parts. Now that's not terrible, really. The first run of Heavy Gear plastics were around ten parts each as well. The issue is in the execution.

The torsos? Two parts, split between front and back. And for what? So you can have a slightly different chest plate on a couple guys? I would have been happy with the torso being a single cast piece, hell, they could have cast them together with the legs and that would have been fine. The whole customization thing adds little of value when you consider those torsos will be obscured by various guns anyway.

But it gets worse. Giving them weapons is a hell of an ordeal. For a rifle that's three parts: two arms and the gun (with hands attached). Now, this might not seem too bad, but then the arms are ball jointed at the shoulders which accomplishes nothing since it's not like you can have them swing out at a wild angle because they have to be able to connect in the middle with the gun! Dry-fitting these guys is a huge pain in the ass, and again for something that doesn't add anything of value. I'd rather the arms be a single assembly, gun and all, that attaches via a flat surface than a ball joint that doesn't do anything.

But that's still not the worse part. You see those tiny little bits across the top of that sprue? Those are the shoulder pads that could have been part of the torso if they hadn't split the torso in half for no fucking reason. Those things are an absolute nightmare to get on, and I'm at the point where I'm just going to rip off the ones I did get connected because trying to get them attached to all my infantry will have me throwing the whole damn box in the dumpster.

Not as fancy, but way less stressful.

I also have some of the old, first run, Forge Father sprues and honestly? I like them better. The new design I think looks better overall, but the old ones go together easily and still look good on the table. 

And it's not even like you can't have more complex models without making the construction more complex. Look no further than none other than Games Workshop. They make a bunch of stuff that's push-fit and still looks great. The entire Warhammer Underworlds line is push-fit, and those models have every bit of detail and cool poses as you could expect. 

Even looking at a regular Space Marine and a push-fit Marine side by side, I can't really see any appreciable difference in design or detail.

Basically the same.

So what real value is there in not doing them all push-fit? I guess not having to listen to angry grogs bitch endlessly about it is a big one.

But practically? There's no real difference between those two models aside from one can look left or right.

"But what about arm posing?" I hear someone cry. Well, Games Workshop (and other companies including Mantic) have that covered too: peg and post system.

I was going to use the superior forces of Rohan, but they're all single piece.

These Warriors of Minas Tirith from the Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game (god I hate how clunky that title is) are a great example. Those spearmen have their arms separate, and the arm has a little hole that goes over the little pegs I've pointed out with the bright red arrows. Not only does this make dry fitting easier, not that it's a big problem in that game, but it allows the arm to move on the axis just like an arm would with two flat surfaces like most of GW's other mainline models.

Why not just do this for all of them? It would make assembly quicker, easier and still offer the same range of motion. It's a win-win. Mantic's Elves do the same thing, with the arms being a peg and hole system that made building a regiment of 20 dudes a breeze. Yeah, the fact that the legs, body and other arm were all a single piece didn't hurt in that regard, but compared to building old GW High Elf spearmen it was like a whole new world. 

And little, if anything, is lost by doing it this way. But I also don't recall any fans of MESBG bitching about their posing options.

The insistence on fiddly designs especially bothers me in games were the models are basically monopose anyway, but are still designed in such a way as to be stupid. Such as Malifaux.

Look, Malifaux is a good game with some cool looking models and solid, if complex, gameplay. I love the setting, the characters and the visuals of it. What keeps me from diving in head first, however, is that the idea of assembling the models gives me fucking panic attacks.

This is one character.

Look at that madness, and that's not even the worst one (Yan Lo's beard didn't become a meme for nothing). There's zero reason this model needs to be so complex, absolutely none. Her hair is two separate parts, the sword blade is separate from the hilt, her legs are split for no real reason.

And you can't even use the weak ass "my posing!" argument here. The model is cut and designed to be one pose. She can't turn her head, the hair will bang against her body and wings. The arms don't have much in the way of posing again because everything is cut to be in a specific pose.

So why is Nekima here so complex? No reason, really. Just some hateful designer at Wyrd, I guess. Malifaux stuff could be single piece, or push-fit, or at the very least made way simpler to assemble with no negative repercussions to the game. These aren't big chunky models, Malifaux stuff is often skinny and closer to true-scale than something like a 40K model.

I'm not inherently against multi-part models, not at all. I don't mind if they give us some posing options, as long as it's sensible. The first run of Heavy Gear plastics were great, they gave a good variety of posing options without being obnoxious to assemble or a billion parts with weird cuts. I don't even mind multi-part metal models, again as long as it's kept reasonable. Some Relic Blade stuff is multiple parts, but it's usually a hand or arm is separate berceuse it has a deferent weapon option, or the model is bigger so casting it as a single piece isn't possible.

I know some metals can be a real pain in the ass to assemble (hi Battletech Celestial Series mechs!), but some plastics are just as bad with their choices. 

So why the hell do we never say anything about this? Why do we insist on multi-part models when a lot of the time it doesn't do anything practical? I've had people say they would play stuff like Relic Blade, Bushido, Wargods and the likes if only they had multi-part plastic models. Even though that material is way mor expensive to get started with, and following the GW design philosophy wouldn't really do anything. 

I guess what I'm getting at here is that miniature designers and manufacturers really should take our time into consideration. I'm fine with models being plastic, or metal, or resin or siocast or whatever. I just don't want them to drive me insane when I'm just trying to get them to the point where I can start trying to use them. Multi-part is fine if you have weapon options, but keep the parts count as low as physically possible, for the love of god. The less time it takes to get a model from box to table the better, which means assembly needs to be as easy as you can make it. And as we've seen you don't have to sacrifice detail or some posing options (which again aren't entirely necessary) to make that happen.

I know the hobby aspect is a big part of this...hobby, but when people ask why it seems to take me forever to get some of the armies to the table I just point to the convoluted sprues and piles of parts needed to build one guy in a squad of five and go "that." 

So yeah, there's my big long whine about models getting needlessly complex over the years. I probably could have just said "keep it simple, stupid" and saved you all a read. Sorry.