Resin vs plastic miniatures (and basing bits): detail, durability, cost

Resin holds finer detail than plastic and makes whole ranges possible that would never get a plastic kit, while hard plastic is tougher, more forgiving to drop and usually cheaper per figure for popular subjects. For basing bits the same holds: resin gives sharper rock faces, crisper textures and far more variety, and plastic gives cheap, tough sprues that glue with plastic cement. Here's how the two compare on detail, durability, gluing, cost and choice, for figures and for the bits on their bases.

Finer detail

Resin

Tougher

Hard plastic

Glue

Resin: superglue. Plastic: plastic cement or superglue

More choice

Resin, especially for niche periods and armies

What's the difference between resin and plastic miniatures?

Plastic miniatures, usually called hard plastic, are injection-moulded polystyrene: melted plastic is forced into a steel mould under high pressure, and each shot makes a whole frame of parts, the sprue. The mould costs a great deal to cut, but once it exists each frame is cheap to make, which is why plastic boxes of 20 to 40 figures are such good value. Victrix, Perry Miniatures, Wargames Atlantic and Warlord Games all make hard plastic historical and fantasy sets.

Resin miniatures come two ways. Traditional resin is cast: liquid resin poured into a soft silicone mould, which suits small runs. 3D-printed resin, which is what we sell, is built layer by layer from liquid resin hardened by UV light, straight from the designer's digital files, so there's no mould at all. Every model in our shop is printed to order in our Perth workshop, then cleaned and cured before it ships. How resin printing works, and why we don't use filament for miniatures: resin vs filament for miniatures.

Plastic

Resin

Resin vs plastic miniatures side by side

Do resin miniatures have more detail than plastic?

Yes, as a rule. A steel mould opens in two halves, so every surface of a plastic part has to slide out cleanly. Designers work around that by splitting figures into more parts and flattening the deepest undercuts: the gap under a cloak, the inside of a shield strap, a hand gripping a spear shaft. A resin printer has no mould to pull out of, so a figure can be sculpted with deep folds, separate straps and fingers wrapped right round a weapon, and it prints that way.

That doesn't make every resin figure better than every plastic one. Good plastic kits are crisp, clean and very well designed, and how sharp a resin print looks depends on the sculpt and the printing. But at 10mm and 15mm, where a face is a millimetre or two tall, resin's fine layers hold faces, mail and shield designs that small plastic figures have to soften. More on the scales: 10mm, 15mm or 28mm: how to choose a scale.

Are resin miniatures more fragile than plastic?

A little, yes. Polystyrene is slightly flexible: drop a plastic spearman and the spear usually bends back. Resin is harder and more rigid, so the same drop can snap a thin spear tip or sword. Chunky parts like bodies, horses, shields and buildings are strong in either material.

In practice that means handling resin a bit more carefully: pick models up by the base, carry them standing in a foam-lined case, and keep them out of hot cars. Thin resin parts can also bend in the post; a few seconds in hot, not boiling, water and they straighten. Our resin miniatures care guide covers bent parts, breaks and pinning step by step.

What glue do resin and plastic miniatures need?

Plastic cement glues polystyrene by melting the two faces together, so the joint becomes one piece of plastic. It doesn't work on resin at all, because resin doesn't melt that way. For resin, use superglue (CA): gel to line parts up, thin to wick into a tight joint. Superglue also joins resin to plastic, so you can put a resin head or weapon on a plastic body, or resin basing bits on a plastic base.

Cost and choice: why some armies only exist in resin

A plastic kit only pays for itself if it sells in big numbers, because the steel mould is the expensive part. That's why the plastic ranges cover the popular periods and armies best, and why a big plastic box of a popular subject is usually the cheapest way to fill a unit.

3D-printed resin flips that. A model printed to order costs the same to make whether it sells ten copies or ten thousand, so designers can sculpt subjects that would never get a plastic kit: whole armies for medieval Georgia, the Nasrid emirate of Granada and medieval India, the command figures and characters a period needs, or a 10mm fantasy army complete with its monsters. You can see it in our own ranges: the 28mm Reconquista from Reconquer Designs, Ten Kingdoms Miniatures in 10, 15 and 28mm, and the 10mm fantasy range from Wakes Emporium.

Plenty of players mix the two: a plastic box for the rank and file, and resin for the characters, command and the troop types no plastic kit covers.

Resin vs plastic basing bits: are resin basing bits worth it?

For most bases, yes. Basing bits are the rocks, stumps, skulls, crystals and ruins you glue on a base to turn it into a scene, and they show the difference between the materials more than figures do. Real rock has sharp fractured faces and broken edges, and resin prints those crisply. Plastic basing sprues have to come out of a mould like any plastic kit, so rocks tend to be smoother and flatter-backed, and a range only covers what sells in big numbers.

Our basing bits are our own designs for 28mm figures (they suit 32mm too), printed to order in grey resin in our Perth workshop and sold in themed packs from A$15. They come unpainted on their print sprue: snip them free, glue them on with superglue, add texture paste around them and paint them with the base. Our basing guide walks through the whole method, and basing a dwarf on basalt columns shows one base from start to finish.

Plastic still makes sense for some jobs: cheap filler rocks on a big unit's movement tray, or when you want to weld bits onto plastic bases with cement. And for the ground itself, sand, grit and tufts beat either material. Resin earns its place on the pieces people look at: the stump a scout crouches behind, the skull at a hero's feet, the outcrop under a monster.

Resin or plastic: which should you choose?

• Choose plastic for big units of popular subjects on a budget, for heavy kitbashing, and for models that get handled roughly, like a club's demo armies or games with younger players.
• Choose resin when detail matters, for characters and display pieces, for 10mm and 15mm armies where small faces need to stay sharp, and for any period or army plastic doesn't cover.
• For basing bits, resin for feature pieces and scenes; plastic or natural materials for cheap filler.