Daemons: Flamers of Tzeentch comparison

Now that Flamers have found a new place on the battlefield, and shiny new models I thought I'd set them up side by side and look a good look at them. I'll say this, I'm not as big a fan of the new plastics as I was at the beginning, but they still have potential in my mind.

From the get-go, the build is completely different. The metal flamer is three bits: Body and two arms. The new plastic is six bits. There's two halves of the body, two halves of the head, and again, two arms. The plastic is easier to clean & work with, but take a lot more effort to clean up those seams. There are five heads for three bodies, so there are some options there, but it just strikes me as a lot more work.

Despite being based around the same general shape & concept the two are so very different:

 

Just by comparing the silhouette, you see the metal is more slender, more compact, and a bit taller while the plastic is stockier & more spread out. It makes me curious how well they'd rank up for Fantasy. The individuals heads are more distinct on the plastic, but all three bodies have a triple-head look to them which takes away a bit from the individualistic feel of the metallic minis. Also, for me the plastics forfeit a bit of their organic feel to the casting process.

The stockyness of the minis doesn't quite fit for the Flamer. They're bouncing gibbering pillars of mouths & flame, not muscular powerhouses. Their abs used to be like Brad Pitt, but now they're more like Terry Crews.One bit I do rather like is that several of the middle heads look a lot like Angler Fish, just gaping alien maws.

The jury is still out for me when it comes to the actual flames and teeth. They're far more aggressive looking on the plastics, while the metallics look like they're being pushed back by the wind. On the plastics the flames all sit to one side of the mouth or the other thanks to how the mini is put together. I'd like to see them look like they're actually being spit from the center of the mouth, but again you can probably thank the casting.

Overall I feel like the Flamers got a bit of the Pink Horror treatment. The metals have a better feel to them, and are more characterful, but the plastics will still hold their own. I'll probably grab up a few more metals to fill out my army, but I'm not going out of the way to snatch them up in lieu of the plastics.

Also, it wouldn't be a Tzeentch mini without a little conversion, so I modified one a bit to serve as my Pyroclast. The box comes with 8 arms for 3 minis, so it would be a great disservice not to stick them all onto a superior Flamer.

He's tall, nasty & should look great leading the rest of my Flamer unit. Although the differentiate him even more I think I'll give him a Deep Red upper body, & green flames. We'll see how it pans out.

~Muninn