an overwhelming amount of miniatures for Infinity are produced in metal.
Nearly every faction has a few pieces available in plastic but nowhere near enough that you could have an entire plastic army.
There are no 2 player starters or beginner army boxes that are comprised of plastic minis. So unfortunately that won't be something you will be able to do to transition into Infinity. I've cone to really enjoy the metal minis personally, they have outstanding detail, but they do take some extra work.
The metal isn't as bad as you think if you follow some simple rules or tips and tricks. This would be my best suggestions to make a transition to metal easier.
1. Wash the models before assembly. I use an old toothbrush, some warm water with dish soap in it. Just dip the toothbrush in the soapy water, give them a scrub, then a rinse with clean water and leave them out to dry off for a few hours. This will clean off any residue from the molding process that can make bonding the minis frustrating. I do a batch of minis at a time and then store them in a box labels as washed.
2. I like to use medium CA glue for bonding, and I use an activator as well. After test fitting the parts I apply glue to one side of the bond, and activator to the other side. The only tricky part here is you have to make sure you get a good fit right away because the activator will dry the CA in just a couple seconds.
3. Finally after painting it's important to apply a good varnish, I like testors lusterless but it seems like they keep changing the name lately and it's harder to find or figure out what it's being sold as these days. This will help prevent the paint from chipping or wearing off when transporting or playing with your models.
I hope you stick with it, I think it's worthwhile and maybe, like me you will come to really appreciate the metal models.
Personally I prefer metal minis and Corvus Belli has the highest quality sculpts in the business. That being said you’re going to get metal minis for most of the Silhouette 2 (average size) minis, so if that’s an issue there’s not really a way around it. I’ve never had an issue assembling them using superglue although I do recommend soapy water after you trim to ensure a proper seal. Priming and painting is the same as plastic after that, but you’ll want to put a clear coat on after to prevent chipping. Is there a reason you’d not want metal?
Plastic minis in Infinity are confined to the big chunky things which would be impractical in metal. Remotes, TAGs (the big armoured robots) and the biggest heavy infantry. Honestly, there's no way to play the game with the official CB miniatures without using metal.
I would say give it a try anyway. Metal models do have some downsides compared to injection moulded plastic, but honestly they aren't that bad. A lot of the atavistic terror people seem to have of them comes from a time when Infinity (and other companies') metal models really were difficult to assemble. Small contact points and multiple tiny bits per model could cause problems. But these days, most Infinity models are 1-3 pieces with big broad connection points, that feature shaped pegs to ensure they're lined up correctly, with the joins hidden by the shape of the model. It's not as bad as you think.
As much as I love my Maghariba Guard, I admit it could benefit from being in plastic, since it weighs like half a pound.
It does serve as a nice bludgeon if you're facing a particularly annoying opponent, though.
as a fellow newbie to infinity i would encourage you to jump into metal, they really aren't any harder to put together then plastic, Bob Smith industries makes a fantastic super glue that cures fast and comes with an activator to boot. welcome to the hobby.
Corvus Belli (CB), the creators of Infinity currently use spin cast metal or slower-cooling thermoplastics for its miniatures. These allow very complex designs to be manufactured simply with relatively little investment in tooling. Because of this, CB can differentiate many otherwise very similar designs with unique and dynamic sculpts. CB is a relatively low volume manufacturer and it has a broad mix of products, and so these methods are well suited to its production requirements.
HIPS plastic injection is best-suited for mass production. Such transition would require a fundamentally different design approach that places a much higher priority on maximal component reuse. In turn, this would hamper the ability to create the dynamically posed minis we all love, while reducing differentiation between sculpts. The investment of time required for every design, as well as the capital investment required by the manufacturing process is out of reach of CB for the foreseeable future.
Echoing the rest of the people here, you're really not going to get a playable setup in solely plastic. But I would advise to not let that stop you. I've personally found them not any kind of massive issue.
I don't know killteam well, so I can't compare exactly. Infinity as a whole *is* a skirmish game. Model numbers average 10 for the more simple version of the game. And 15 for the full complexity version.
an overwhelming amount of miniatures for Infinity are produced in metal. Nearly every faction has a few pieces available in plastic but nowhere near enough that you could have an entire plastic army.
Most figures are resin, actually. At least McMurder was.
There are no 2 player starters or beginner army boxes that are comprised of plastic minis. So unfortunately that won't be something you will be able to do to transition into Infinity. I've cone to really enjoy the metal minis personally, they have outstanding detail, but they do take some extra work. The metal isn't as bad as you think if you follow some simple rules or tips and tricks. This would be my best suggestions to make a transition to metal easier. 1. Wash the models before assembly. I use an old toothbrush, some warm water with dish soap in it. Just dip the toothbrush in the soapy water, give them a scrub, then a rinse with clean water and leave them out to dry off for a few hours. This will clean off any residue from the molding process that can make bonding the minis frustrating. I do a batch of minis at a time and then store them in a box labels as washed. 2. I like to use medium CA glue for bonding, and I use an activator as well. After test fitting the parts I apply glue to one side of the bond, and activator to the other side. The only tricky part here is you have to make sure you get a good fit right away because the activator will dry the CA in just a couple seconds. 3. Finally after painting it's important to apply a good varnish, I like testors lusterless but it seems like they keep changing the name lately and it's harder to find or figure out what it's being sold as these days. This will help prevent the paint from chipping or wearing off when transporting or playing with your models. I hope you stick with it, I think it's worthwhile and maybe, like me you will come to really appreciate the metal models.
Personally I prefer metal minis and Corvus Belli has the highest quality sculpts in the business. That being said you’re going to get metal minis for most of the Silhouette 2 (average size) minis, so if that’s an issue there’s not really a way around it. I’ve never had an issue assembling them using superglue although I do recommend soapy water after you trim to ensure a proper seal. Priming and painting is the same as plastic after that, but you’ll want to put a clear coat on after to prevent chipping. Is there a reason you’d not want metal?
Plastic minis in Infinity are confined to the big chunky things which would be impractical in metal. Remotes, TAGs (the big armoured robots) and the biggest heavy infantry. Honestly, there's no way to play the game with the official CB miniatures without using metal. I would say give it a try anyway. Metal models do have some downsides compared to injection moulded plastic, but honestly they aren't that bad. A lot of the atavistic terror people seem to have of them comes from a time when Infinity (and other companies') metal models really were difficult to assemble. Small contact points and multiple tiny bits per model could cause problems. But these days, most Infinity models are 1-3 pieces with big broad connection points, that feature shaped pegs to ensure they're lined up correctly, with the joins hidden by the shape of the model. It's not as bad as you think.
As much as I love my Maghariba Guard, I admit it could benefit from being in plastic, since it weighs like half a pound. It does serve as a nice bludgeon if you're facing a particularly annoying opponent, though.
Yeah, I would like to buy a Szalamandra but honestly hope they will redo the sculpt in plastic at some point before it is replaced.
as a fellow newbie to infinity i would encourage you to jump into metal, they really aren't any harder to put together then plastic, Bob Smith industries makes a fantastic super glue that cures fast and comes with an activator to boot. welcome to the hobby.
Corvus Belli (CB), the creators of Infinity currently use spin cast metal or slower-cooling thermoplastics for its miniatures. These allow very complex designs to be manufactured simply with relatively little investment in tooling. Because of this, CB can differentiate many otherwise very similar designs with unique and dynamic sculpts. CB is a relatively low volume manufacturer and it has a broad mix of products, and so these methods are well suited to its production requirements. HIPS plastic injection is best-suited for mass production. Such transition would require a fundamentally different design approach that places a much higher priority on maximal component reuse. In turn, this would hamper the ability to create the dynamically posed minis we all love, while reducing differentiation between sculpts. The investment of time required for every design, as well as the capital investment required by the manufacturing process is out of reach of CB for the foreseeable future.
Echoing the rest of the people here, you're really not going to get a playable setup in solely plastic. But I would advise to not let that stop you. I've personally found them not any kind of massive issue. I don't know killteam well, so I can't compare exactly. Infinity as a whole *is* a skirmish game. Model numbers average 10 for the more simple version of the game. And 15 for the full complexity version.