Are These Games Workshop Tools Worth Your Time?
April 19, 2014 by brennon
Games Workshop have taken a break from making miniatures and instead have turned their hand to some Painting & Modelling Tools for you to use on your models. What do you make of these fairly pricey pieces of kit?
As you can see you can get it as it appears above, with a variety of different tools inside this fancy pouch or you can buy them all as individual pieces. Each of them is incredibly pricey for what they are however and I have heard some people talk about how they are more expensive than some of the big industrial pieces that craftsmen use.
They look nice but I'm fairly sure there won't be many people who pick these up.
Will you?
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I had to go over and see what the prices were myself. 90 pounds…which would mean they will end up over $100 for us Americans. Holy hell… I may disagree that GW’s models are worth the price but I will admit that they produce some nice kits (the Knights looks cool for example) so I can at least understand the perspective of a GW fan who defends the cost. I may disagree that the paints are worth the price, but what constitutes as a “good” paint is highly subjective. So I would not hold it against someone who likes to… Read more »
I think it’d be a fair bit over $100. My guess is that when it comes to these peripheral products, GW split their consumers into two groups, those willing to go outside of GW to get them and those who never go outside GW. The people willing to buy non-GW tools probably already are and the people who to GW for their every need will continue to pay even these prices.
They’re $150 on the US store.
Today I cant shake the feeling that perhaps GW are playing with peer pressure and a little bit of elitism here.
As a dad I can see my child being in the GW store and feeling somewhat left behind if they are not using the ‘Precision Citadel Tools’.
First time I’ve had this feeling about a GW release, and it has got me pondering. mmmm
I had that feeling 25 years ago when buying a box of Brettonian knights with plastic horses (the first GW plastics i had seen). The miniatures were three times the price of the historical equivalents sold by companies such as Foundry and Front Rank at that time.
These tools are not premium. I can tell by looking at those flush cutters that they’re crap. Just look at them. These have a premium price tag because of the anodized aluminum finish. That’s all. And the anodized finish doesn’t magically make them better tools. You want premium tools? Go to an art supply store, and get your stainless steel sculpting tools there. They’re cheaper and ten times better. Go to a model train hobby store and get flush cutters, pin vises and tons other high-quality well-constructed tools designed for working on tiny models. They’ll be better and cheaper. The… Read more »
GW knows there are suckers born every minute.
I think it’s more a case of having to pay a premium price for a small manufacturing run on a branded product. It probably cost GW a fortune to have these made because they will be made in such relatively small numbers. Yes, GW will have a big mark up on these but I also can’t help feeling that whoever is making them is probably over charging GW too. Personally I think it’s a big mistake. We end up with an overpriced product that just makes GW look bad. If only GW could get over the idea that everything they… Read more »
They’ve never had to charge so much for them before. Then you have companies like Army Painter who managed to sell mass-produced branded products at a fraction of the price. I’ve no doubt these Citadel tools have a higher per-unit price that Army Painter equivalents, but I’ve equally no doubt that in this case, seeing is believing and these tools have been priced well above cost.
I have seen micro bevel clippers for sale at 45 quid as well
You can pick up a lot of hobby tools at diy stores of your local Boyes. Clippers, 1mm drill bits and scalpels dirt cheep. Eg, 100 swann Norton scalpel blades for about £9 off of amazon.
I think that a lot of people are a lot more savvy with buying around now and I am sure this is just inteneded as a high profit margin/low turnover product. Again another product to laugh at, although these prices are still not as funny as the GW PVA glue. 😛
Come on GW, £95?!?
I think you have to be clueless to go out and buy that, I own a shed load more modelling tools than this and cost me roughly the same.
Maybe its aimed at rich kids with dingbat parents, who knows?
Having used some VERY nice modelling clippers/side cutters, I can tell you that a good pair is worth the 40-50 bucks you might end up dropping on them. Problem is, at that price, you are pretty much looking at specialist tools(I can’t recall the brand, as I picked them up in tokyo) that cut pretty damned well completely flat with hardly any force needed to cut. I’ve also got a set from Good Smile Company that can cut 8mm plastic stock(square, triangular, what have you) without deforming the material, and leaving the flat surface nearly entirely flat(I use those for… Read more »
What a rip off…. anyone who gets into the modelling past time only needs to start off with the basics. A good swann morton scalpel.. a couple of needle files, wire cutters as snips ( mine are 20 years old and still going strong) and maybe a pin vice.. an old toothbrush and some glue. I have over the years got lots of additional tools but still just come back to the basics.
i will happily drop money on Tamiya’s tools not gw
GW tools have always been pretty shoddy and I’ve found them significantly inferior to cheaper products. But once upon a time, before I found BoW, I was not aware of anything outside GW’s sphere of influence, so I can understand how many people will be duped into buying such items.
If GW can make more money from their faux quality brand than actually competing with other companies then one can’t fault them really. It’s down to other people, and other brands, to point out there are superior products at cheaper prices.
Price is bonkers – even with out see and working for them to judge quality you can tell that for the ‘mould line’ scraping tool – or the DIY fix to poor resin. Its a shaped bit of steel for £10 – as for the sculpting tools you can get wider range from any wholeseller selling dental tools or other hobby sites – as long as they are durable there is not an improvement that can be made to them. As @poosh said they don’t have a good historic record on delivering quality tools. While decent clippers can be expensive… Read more »
Sorry GW, my head does not zip up at the back.
A bargain at a tenth of the price
Xuron cutters cost less than the GW ones. There is absolutely nothing wrong with paying a lot of money for high quality tools if you use them a lot, I have 12 year old Xuron cutters that are as good today as the day I bought them, and they are used on metal as well as plastic and resin, well worth the cost. But that isnt what GW offer. The knife is just the swann morton retractable with a plastic shell around it, and they don’t even mention where you can get new blades from. The ebay version is £5.… Read more »
Other companies seem to let the quality/value of their products keep their customers happy, and returning to buy more.
GW plc seem to be intent on maximizing short term sales,because GW are not confident in retaining customers.
GW plc are so resigned to losing 80% of their new customers every 18 months.
They have given up on the idea of trying to offer enough value to increase customer retention.And just get as much cash as they can from people who are not aware of any alternatives yet.
Oops they’ve dun’ it again.
As a scratch builder and sculptor myself I own dozens and dozens of tools, and I’ve still not spent the £90 pound GW are asking for that kit, It’s a ridiculous amount of of money.
No one needs to spend that much on tools, for example one of the best pair of clippers I ever found cost £3, and my 18 piece (double ended) sculpting tool set was £12.
I hope anyone thinking of getting these shops around first, as their really not worth it.
well with the way their share prices are dropping they have to make up the shortfall somehow
And then you have companies like Dust studios who are largely fueled by a passion for games and miniatures .. And it shows .. the same goes for corvus belli, these actors should be steam rolling GW by now for having too much soul in comparison.
Wow. Crazy of GW! I’ve had their clippers, broke trying to get a terminator off a sprue, on its first use!
This guy makes a great point: http://tomschadleminiatures.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/games-workshop-has-recently-advertised.html?m=1