Plastic Forge Fathers to Conquer the Galaxy!
October 22, 2011 by beerogre
You read it right folks... the plastic Forge Father models for Warpath have been revealed.
Here's the painted image, in that blue colour scheme that everyone loves so much.
But more interesting is the shot of the sprue...
There's a couple of weapon options and head swaps, but once again, the torso sections are the same as the Kings of War Dwarves. Will this allow for some swapping of parts between the kits?
We'll have to get our hands on a set before we can try that, but we'll keep you posted.
So what do you think all you Warpath fans?
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I don’t think they’re too bad, they could have done with more head options but they shouldn’t look at all bad once on the battlefield, which is what counts. I’m also disappointed Mantic didn’t do entirely new sculpts, I can understand the reasons but perhaps they went into producing Warpath a year too early, it just feels very rushed to me and they’ve got a good thing going with Kings of War/Dwarf Kings Hold which perhaps they should have consolidated first into a truly solid system/product line. Still, what’s done is done and I’m looking forward to new releases. They’re… Read more »
Agree with you warspawned, Mantic should have finished their fantasy range, released another Dwarf Kings’ Hold, prepared additional releases of Kings of War to keep people excited, and then launch Warpath, when all was prepared. I recall reading KoW planned to have all of the armies out before the end of the year, now it’s all been pushed back. Not all that organized and, as you say, seems rushed. They’re no doubt working hard to get a faction or two more from Warpath out before 2012, but it’ll leave KoW and Warpath incomplete and fans of both having to wait… Read more »
You got to remember though… Fantasy doesn’t sell as much as Sci-Fi so if they can bring in money from people even buying a few armies of both, then they can SURVIVE as a miniatures company and continue to make these figures. I would happily wait 2-3 years for Warpath to have all the armies. If they spent all their money releasing Fantasy stuff and didn’t make it back, they’d be looking the same way Rackham did.
Looks promising enough.
People need to remember that mantic, although are making good progress, are still a fairly new company, considering their experience I am happy with these sculpts.
A fairly new company made up of people with quiet a bit of experience….
But, I do love these. Especially the full face masked ones. look like flattened storm troopers. Great stuff.
May get some of these for the office collection.
There’s nothing wrong with these sculpts in fact I think they look bloody brilliant!
having been very impressed with the first unveiling of the Stormrage veterans, I’ve not exactly found any of the other unveilings to be overwhelming =/
They are great…apart from the paint scheme 🙂
i think you’ll find its the legs that are the same. the torsos are completely new sculpts. i think they are awesome. dont forget that black templars, darkangels, emperors children and death guard are all kits that use the relevent existing marine legs (loyalist or chaos) and nobody moaned about that, and those kits havent been changed in at least a decade!
I think it would be more like if chaos marines used the same bodies as fantasy chaos warriors just with different heads etc.
I still quite like them though. The legs don’t look obviously ‘fantasy’, space marines have loincloths things anyway, so why not space dwarves?
Sorry, I don’t want to be rude but this is just an incredibly invalid statement. As littlejuror states. Space Marines of all types share common ancestry and are in the same universe. it’s the same armour. It’s troubling that people are actually saying what you said. A Space Marine is a Space Marine at the end of the day. What IS analogous to what GW did with Space Marines is when Mantic used the bodies of their fantasy Dwarfs to make their Abyssal Dwarfs. What we are seeing, here, is analogous to if GW used their EMPIRE STATE TROOPS sculpts… Read more »
I like them, havent pre ordered or anything, but I’ll likely be getting myself a few forgefathers at some point, if only to paint. I dont really get the fuss over reusing bits from the fantasy range to be honest, the overall effect is all that matters to me, and these work. The problem for the orx , for me, was the glaring gap in quality between the hero and the troops, so much so they look to come from different ranges, whereas I think these ones have a more unified look across the range which is more successful. Keep… Read more »
totally awful (and i love the fantasy dwarves). It is complete short-changing to produce scifi dwarves with fantasy legs. I agree with the first post: this is a rushed job. I would have preferred mantic to wait a year and get more money and experience and do sci fi right rather than throwing out this half-cocked attempt.
I was honestly going to buy some of these when i heard about them, but after what i saw on the Warpath weekend and with this, i’ll spend it on something else.
the blue is fugly
Again, hate the paintjob, but love the models. The sprue gets me more excited than the painted version.
But i do love those face covering helmets. I think it fits very well with the theme of the army. Defenitely going to want to pick up a box of these guys.
I really like those fully masked heads, sort of remind me of Killzone.
Shame about the legs though, would have been nice to have completely different legs but thankfully they aren’t too obvious.
Hey, I actually like these guys but please note on Mantic’s blog they allured to the fact that you CAN make them all using sci-fi legs, rather than the fantasy legs we see here. I assume this means one of the sprues will have “sci-fi legs” I quote directly: “For those of you who worry about the legs (and aren’t convinced by the photos!) there are many ways you will be able to build your army with only sci-fi legs.” I actually think, so long as the above holds true, then this is a great piece of kit. Two of… Read more »
TBH i dont think the whole ” the Orx and Forgefathers were intentionally produced quickly in order to test the water” argument makes sense, sorry. These arent miniatures that they are giving away. They expect us to buy them and so saying, these are just something to test whether there is interest, buy them and we promise to invest the money in better sculpts just doesnt make sense as a business model. They are a business and not a charity, so essentially saying ‘these are second rate, the best that we can do with what we have, but bear with… Read more »
Well here’s what Mantic said, hear ’em out and make from it what you will:
http://www.manticblog.com/?p=4464
yeah, i saw that. Its just insane. at least they are offering refunds, but in a way that makes it worse: saying that they are a new company, here are the minis for a new game, and if you have pre-ordered them and arent happy you can have a refund.
Which is an incredibly brave statement for a company to make, if you tihnk about it. Personally I think it’s cutting corners, but then, so do we when we re-use code from another module or somesuch. Microsoft have ‘cut corners’ since Windows 2000. Many of the files in Windows 7 are exactly the same as from NT 4, after all. If this helps them get a leg up then good for them. The Forgefather vehicles do look nice though – a battery of them would be interesting! Perhaps something Mantic could consider is pumping those out. Buggies, half tracks, mini… Read more »
Could it be possible, and slightly sceptical of me to say the reason mantic have done this rather than an entire new sprue, is because there are very few systems (or at least popular ones) that have space dwarves as a playable race? By putting in this level of effort in a plastic sprue (which I understand are quite expensive to produce initially) allows them to spend those additional funds, and time, on sprues for an upcoming race that will have a more common use in warpath AND other game systems? say something like sci fi humans?
I think you hit the nail on the head.
you mean like the corporatioin being released in january…………………..
The Corporation will be published in March.
Febuary will see Twilight Kin and Goblins for KoW, January probably another set for Dwarf King’s Hold.
Cheers!
I looked and the first thing that came to mind was “is the fantasy dwarves in this?” And lo and behold they are. Looking at them I was not turned off just because the legs are dwarf legs, I except them openly because they fit the look. The legs have knee pads and big boots, nothing that a sci-fi man wouldn’t have. The reason the Orx got such a back lash was that it just looked out of place. Come on chain mail on sci-fi really? I don’t want to dwell on the past so I will cast my hat… Read more »
These things remind me of the rogue trader squats. They look like 1980’s gw sculpts. I only hope they are priced like 1980’d gw sculpts.
Probably much cheaper….!
I think they are great. You people are trippen……………..
I like the models. These guys are your basic troops, they look like dwarfs in space. More specialist units and vehicles will add loads more character and the heroes will all be individual sculpts.
I spend a few hundred pounds a year on this hobby, the bulk of which goes to GW. I think mantic are doing a great job, but I really hope they are not over-stretching themselves. I guess if we all buy them they wont be.
I really like them, the space orcs are growing on me too. Don’t forget peeps these are gonna be cheeap 🙂
Looking good. Only thing I’d want different is that 1 head pre-attached to a body. I don’t mind the gun, but I don’t want half of my troop have same head in same position, when there’s 3 other options in sprue + any potential heads from other miniature lines.
If I wanted to play space pygmy-lizards, I should be able to.
Not liking this. Reusing Fantasy bodies is just lame and cheap.
People seem to keep missing this – Mantic have stated that sci-fi legs for these Forgefathers will be available. And that there will be a way of getting all your models to have sci-fi legs. Problem solved. Mantic have always been an economy company remember. They key is the pricing. When you have the model in your hand do you think “this is worth 90p” or whatever. The Orx were a fail in my view. A bridge too far. Failure to provide sci-fi breastplates to cover up the fantasy bodies, as seemed to be implied in their concept work BoW… Read more »
Making us buy sci-fi metal legs is not a solution, but rather a recuring problem with many recent Mantic releases. The plastic kits they have been releasing recently seem to suffer from both lack of planing and budget cuts. Examples ? Skeletton bows in metal, orc morax which need metal second arm, all fantasy machines that have a variant that requires you to buy the more expensive metal parts, the warpath orxs with re-used fantasy bodies, the forgefather legs and also the fact that these sprues don’t provide the gamer with all the BFG options… so yet again they’ll release… Read more »
This is not a recurring problem, you’re imposing that on a series of events from a false premise (i.e it’s a problem). Budget cuts? That sounds like the kind of stupidity you hear from people moaning about government budget cuts. The government does not have any money: it has other people’s money and that is finite. And likewise, Mantic have a fixed amount of money (indeed they may be borrowing a degree from a bank). What they invest in is wrapped up in risk. Think about how much effort went into making those stupid Dragon Cavalry – a great deal… Read more »
*now offering
Bah, the expression “budget cuts” probably did not accurately describe what I meant, blame that on the fact that english is not my first language, and that I do work for the government 🙂 Let’s call it “reduced investments”… Anyways, you make fair points about investment vs. risk (and yes, the drakon riders were epic fail *shudders*), but to me there’s that minimum line that you can’t cross without alienating the gamers, and they’ve crossed it a few times. Also, a trend that can be seen with most newer kits is that instead of offering us extra bits for the… Read more »
I think the Forgefathers were on thin ice, but I think the Orx totally felt like a violation of trust in some respects. I agree totally.
The key “dodgy” moment for Mantic was when they reused the undead warmachine to make an Abysal Dwarf warmachine. That was a warning sign.
I am still gonna give Mantic the benefit of the doubt unlike another company which shall not be named who have trampled doubt to death several times.