Friday, September 7, 2012

Finecast status check...

I am a Finecast critic. I want to get that out at the very start. I think 'Finecast' miniatures were a failure from before they were released. I have gotten a selection of them since release and have been massively disappointed every time. The details are good, yes. But the flaws when present, which is often, are horrible, and releasing liquid green stuff for release at the same time shows a marketing plan where Quality Assurance was second to profit As a friend put it; Finecast & liquid green stuff is kind of like a cruise ship charging for life jackets after running aground. Suffice to say I have not been happy with Finecast and my purchases from GW have been lacking because of this...

Fast forward to today, GW announces new Finecast miniatures are available for pre-order and one of those miniatures is the 'Blood Angels Vanguard Veteran'. 


This miniature was the pinnacle of GW Metal miniatures. When I got mine it was flawless, an absolute gem of lines and details. It went together flawlessly and looked amazing. So much so, that I put it away, to paint when I happier with my ability to do it justice. Seeing that it will soon be available as a 'Finecast' fills me with dread. I can only imagine the number of bent swords (cough cough), bubbled torsos and chipped details that will come out. But I am willing to give Games Workshop the benefit of the doubt that they may have improved. Indeed, this release offers me the perfect chance for an evaluation of current Games Workshop Citadel Finecast products. Have they improved? Are they still willing to push faulty products?

I'm looking forward to the release in a couple of weeks, so I can photo both the metal miniature and the Finecast one straight from the box and compare them... This is basically the last chance I'll be giving Finecast miniatures... It should be interesting...

5 comments:

  1. I of course have had some pretty well publicized problems with Finecast. I still maintain that it isn't a nice substance for a modeler to work with, although I can see some benefits to gamers.

    Has it gotten any better? Yes and no would be my answer. I still have significant problems with the rubbery and bendy feel of the stuff. I don't like it. But as far as I can see less major faults are getting out into the retail network now. There are still flaws on the miniatures though like bubbles and the odd messy undercut.

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    1. Thanks for dropping in FLG, I've read most of your posts about the Finecast stuff, and my thoughts mirror your own. In all honesty I haven't purchased a Finecast mini in over six months; hopefully I'll be able to report a positive outcome... But I'm not holding my breath. I didn't even make a post regarding the shocking cost to NZ gamers for Dark Vengeance. No point, old news... ^_^

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  2. I have the distinct feeling you are going to be disappointed, I bought an Astorath a couple of months back and was missing large chunks of detail as well as having much of the existing detail be so fine as to crumble under normal handling.

    I am all for finer detail but these are gaming minis first and foremost, they need to be robust to a certain degree.

    And to be honest as an amateur caster I am still utterly confused as to why Finecast still suffers from so many bubbles and voids.

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    1. Exactly Blackhand. I've seen your molds and they are fantastic, GW could do with your expert eye and knowledge in the process. I too believe I will be disappointed. Yet I will hold on to my tiny, ever dwindling beacon of hope... ^_^

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    2. Maybe I can shed some light on the problems Blackhand.

      GW are using a polyurethane resin, nothing odd in that, but I believe the mix they are using release more gas as it sets. Hence the bubbles. Why use this mix? Well because they're actually spin casting their resin!!! Or that's what I've been told by people who quite frankly should know.

      In short they'll never get rid of the bubbles if they continue along this path. I'm still of the opinion that Finecast is going to be a stop gap for them as a company before they move most of their range to plastic.

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