Finecast Status Check: Part Two

A few weeks ago (Scratch weeks, insert months) I posted about GW releasing a new batch of Finecast Miniatures; I haven't purchased a Finecast Miniature for a very long time now due to my dislike of the abysmal quality, but figured since my favourite metal miniature is being released as a Finecast I would give it a go, and here we are; Has Finecast improved? Let's find out...

The Miniature that started all this was the 'Blood Angels Vanguard Veteran'. I love this miniature. I think it was the best metal miniature ever released by GW. It has a dynamic pose, and all the little Blood Angel Iconography is great.

Awesome as metal...

OK, I need to get the kicker out at the very front. The first Finecast Miniature of the Veteran I received was shocking. I'm not talking a little shocking, I'm talking outrageous. The sword was broken, the leg was warped and the jump pack was so misaligned that it wouldn't have fitted the miniature. I have no photos, as I honestly feel that the miniature was a Quality control problem rather than an accurate representation of GW Finecast. I took him back to the local GW straight away and was then subjected to a month long wait for a replacement. That by itself almost killed the review, but here I am... And here are the side by side shots.

Performance anxiety?

The first thing you'll notice is the lack of heads. The metal head was given away a long time ago, as all my marines go into combat with helmets on (Helmets are important people!), so to make this as "fair as possible" I'm not including the FC head as part of the review. Secondly, the photos are huge when clicked on, detail is important here so I have not yet shrunk them down. You have been advised. Both miniatures were assembled today. Aside from clipping excess flash or joins no work has been done on either to remove moulding lines.

The Front:
Performance anxiety aside, the sword is the feature of this miniature and it being bent is not a good thing. To correct it it'll need a little bit of heat and resetting. There is also small bubbles in the fingers and the wing / guard of the sword. I'm very concerned with the thinness of the sword. It will break very easily. Totally not viable for actually playing games with the miniature.

There is also a very large connector of flash in the central part of the jump pack between the two vents at the front. This is obscuring the detail there, and cannot be cleaned, It is physically attached. it would need to be completely removed & the detail put back in there with green stuff. No small job. Especially for those people whose GS'ing skills are limited (Which mine are). Some of the details on the legs are obscured on the FC mini. The Band / Ring on the minis upper right thigh is meant to have a BA Icon in it. The FC's one is misshaped.

So far I'm not impressed...

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...