Citadel Finecast review

The introduction of resin miniatures by the World’s largest tabletop wargames manufacturer is arguably the most significant event in the hobby this year, with over 100 resin miniatures released in a single day, it is certainly the biggest event of the year.

What is fine cast?

Finecast is the name Games Workshop has given it’s new range of resin miniatures.

Many miniatures that were previously produced in metal are now being produced in resin.

Why move to resin?

The reason given by Games Workshop is that resin is easy to work with. Being softer than metal it is easier to cut, and being lighter resin makes the need to pin parts together a thing of the past.

The other reason given by Games Workshop is improved miniature quality.

So what are the new miniatures like?

Citadel Finecast compared with metal
Left: Finecast – Right: Metal

Resin miniatures are most definitely easier to work with and the detail on the new Finecast miniatures looks very sharp indeed.

The image to the right shows a comparison between the axe handle of the new resin (on the left) and the old metal (on the right) Chaos Exalted Hero. The wrapping on the handle of the resin axe certainly seems significantly  crisper.

Is there any thing else I need to know about resin?

As mentioned, resin is easy to work with, but it is also much more delicate than metal and care needs to be taken during building and gaming to ensure that thinner parts aren’t broken.

There are also differences in the manufacturing process. Metal moulds come in two parts whereas resin moulds can come in may parts, this means more dynamic components can be created in resin but that there are often more tabs and mould lines on resin models. This means more preparation work is required.

Are there any problems with Finecast?

Finecast resin can suffer from bubbles
Detail lost to air bibble circled

Bubbles sometimes occur in resin models, these may be buried deep in the model but, if on the surface, they can result in loss of detail or small areas of the model.

The Chaos Exalted Hero we used in the previous example has suffered from this in a few areas, most significantly on his armour just near his head, see pic to the right.

Anything else I should know?

The price of these miniatures is going up. Many have voiced disbelief over this but while resin is cheaper than metal, resin moulds have a shorter life than metal ones, meaning they need to be replaced more often, pushing costs up.

Can I see a pic of the metal and resin side by side?

Yes.

Finecast Resin: Left - Metal: Right
Left:Resin – Right: Metal

Conclusion

Detail on the new Finecast range is certainly superior to metal equivalents, it is also easier to work with, although more delicate.

There are general issues with resin that impact these miniatures. More model preparation is required and the models are prone to suffering from air bubbles.

The miniatures are significantly more expensive, some up to 30% more so, but many have gone up by much less than this headline grabbing figure, and 2 haven’t gone up at all. The price rise is unfortunate as Citadel miniatures were already the most expensive in the tabletop wargaming marketplace. This rise can potentially be justified if the cost of replacing moulds outweighs savings in material costs. However, it does raise the question of whether consumers will pay this premium price and therefore whether the change to resin will work….

Giving a score to something as general as a whole new range of miniatures is very difficult and we were tempted not to do so. But, what the heck…

Overall, the move to resin is positive. Resin is easier to work with and has great levels of detail. Issues with bubbles etc are found in all resin models and results in the loss of a star as does the increase in price, so, all in all, Citadel Finecast scores….

7/10

7 out of 10

You can pick-up Citadel Finecast now from Big Orbit Cards at up to 20% off*:

Warhammer: Citadel Finecast
Warhammer 40,000: Citadel Finecast
Lord of the Rings: Citadel Finecast

*Price correct as of 28th May 2011.

Post update – 3rd June 2011

As requested, here is a photo of the undercoated metal Exalted  Hero. Note: graininess on model was caused by undercoat.

Metal Exalted Hero Undercoated
Metal Exalted Hero Undercoated

52 thoughts on “Citadel Finecast review

  • May 28, 2011 at 4:04 pm
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    It is untrue to say that “Citadel miniatures were already the most expensive in the tabletop wargaming marketplace.” It doesn’t take a lot of research to find out that, while they are on the upper end of things, there are other companies selling minis for a lot more money.

    I know that GW makes a good target for people’s ire but you really don’t need to make up facts in order to find things to be unhappy with them about.

    • May 28, 2011 at 4:51 pm
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      Hello Jay – Maybe I shouldn’t have used the word “most” on it’s own – I could have qualified my statement slightly. Maybe “one of the most” or simply “very” would have been more appropriate but the fact still stands that they are very expensive for mass-market mass combat wargame.

      Were the miniatures you are thinking of centre piece models or pre-painted?

      Do you feel that “Citadel miniatures were already the most expensive in the mass-market tabletop wargaming marketplace” would be fairer?

      Either way the use of the word “most” wasn’t the important part of that paragraph. I was basically trying to say that the price rise is unwelcome and then went on to explain that there is some potential justification, detailing why.

      I am in no way a GW basher – See my published works (on this blog) 🙂

  • May 28, 2011 at 5:27 pm
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    Detail on unpainted casting compared with resin is a bit false, resin has a matt finish making things look sharper while metal has a ‘reflecting’ quality that hides the detail, that’s why painters prime metal castings. As for durability Id say resin a lot more fragile myself, seems odd choice for a ‘younger’ on the whole audience.
    L

    • May 28, 2011 at 6:06 pm
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      I was going to mention that there is potentially an “optical illusion” that might make the metal model look less crisp but cut it so that the review didn’t go on too long, that said I still feel that the detail is crisper on the resin.

      Also a very good point about younger gamers, I feel that in general, the Games Workshop product is becoming more mature in terms of price, quality & complexity whilst GW’s target audience is young teenagers.

  • May 28, 2011 at 8:17 pm
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    Paul,

    Give us a fair comparison. Hit the metal mini with a gray primer, so it eliminates the “optical illusion” caused by the metal. Then we can really see how much “crisper” the resin minis are. A solid color mini will ALWAYS look sharper than bare metal.

  • May 28, 2011 at 9:15 pm
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    Aaaah.

    The price increase.

    I know GW have claimed it is due to replacing the moulds, but I highly doubt this. What is more likely, is that metal miscasts could just be re-melted, whilst the resin cannot.

    Now I wonder if the finecast range will force GW to make more multi-component models to cut down on the amount of these miscasts?

  • May 29, 2011 at 6:51 am
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    Generally agreed.

    Specifically regarding fragility of models and younger gamers tho, while resin is more brittle, it’s also much lighter, so often takes LESS damage from tabletop falls and mishaps.

    It’s also much easier to put together in the first place, requiring less tricky gluing and no pinning. Remains to be seen whether GWs claim that it’s non-toxic holds up tho. Never heard of a totally benign casting resin…

  • May 29, 2011 at 8:09 am
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    Chris – I’ll see what I can do, will either update the post or made a subsequent post. It will need to wait until Tuesday however as the mini is at the shop and it’s a bank holiday in the UK tomorrow.

    Ben – Aaaah indeed…. Only time will tell.

    Dukeleto – One cause of damage that I think the resin will be particularly prone to is “taking out and putting away again damage” . Catching the foam when taking models out of a figure case can be a real pain with spikey models, think Chaos & Dark Eldar, unless given masses of room in the tray and taking real care during removal, inevitably some model parts will snag and potentially snap off. I know my Kroot are a devil for this. In my eagerness for a game, and even in plastic, I’ve had knives snap… I’m sure younger gamers will show even less restraint when preparing for a game than myself…

  • May 29, 2011 at 8:41 am
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    It looks like the metal figure in the side-by-side comparison has had some clean up work on the horns (top and side). It would be interesting to see two “fresh from the packet” models to compare where we can see how much additional clean up is required.

    From this view it looks like the resin model has many of those fine “dusty/crumble” edges where the resin has flaked in the casting process. These need cleaning up which is not easy because when you sand resin it is very easy to also rub actual detail off.

    I would also grade clean up on resin as more difficult than metal, especially for younger players which might not have all the tools to hand.

    On the subject of casting resin, I recently visited the offices of Old Crow Models who make a range of 15mm and 28mm resin tanks and vehicles. I am sure the GW process is different to Old Crow one but moulds to reduce in quality through use, so you may find GW put out the odd “Dodgy model” which is borderline with regard to bubbles and rough details. It is going to be difficult to measure this because buyers might just fill these details themselves.

    So the result is something that is harder to clean up than the metal making the gamers spend more time on preparation.

    I think we will see them make a return to metal in the future.

    • May 29, 2011 at 10:11 am
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      Hello Robin

      Both models were cleaned up, pre-clean up the resins vary massively, some blisters show a LOT of flash but this comes off quite easily.

      In some ways you are right that resin is harder to clean up as it has it’s own particular issues. In the review I was simply comparing like for like the ease of working with the material, a bit of flash being easier to remove from resin than metal.

      It will certainly be interesting to see if resin stays the course, as a shop we are concerned that there may be an increase in returns, partly due to customers used to plastic & metal being unused to resin specific casting issues, some of which are common and can be cleaned up.

  • May 29, 2011 at 1:35 pm
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    Interesting to note, supporting my theory about Finecast being a rush job, if you look at the old metal entry on their website for Wood Elf Lord with Great Weapon and the new entry for Wood Elf Highborn with Great Weapon, from the stray grass on the branch you can see that they are the same photo, obviously they didn’t have time to paint some of the new models and thought/hoped that nobody would notice.

    • May 29, 2011 at 2:44 pm
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      Richard – I can also confirm that all the box art appears to be the same before.

  • May 29, 2011 at 3:28 pm
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    Sadly, you’re overwhelmingly generous to what is a total trainwreck on GW’s part. A visit to any of various forums will show you a horde of pictures of horrible miscast figures the best of which take much longer to model up all at a higher price to the clearly superior metals . The model you post here is one of the better ones I’ve seen yet and it has a 1/2 dozen blemishes the metal model doesn’t. Since bare metal detail doesn’t show up well in photos. You should prime the metal model grey for an accurate side by side. Finally to say “Finecast range is certainly superior to metal equivalents” is a sad sad joke. As the old adage goes beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

  • May 29, 2011 at 4:06 pm
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    So basically what you said was that Finecast has more quality issues than metal.

    Metal does not get bubbles. BUT, Finecast does get mold shift, flash, heavy mold lines and tears.

    So Finecast has all the issues metal has, but has the added issue of bubbles to fill AND is more expensive.

    And you gave it 7/10 stars?

    Here are some samples of Finecast models I bought Saturday. I had to go to 3 different GW stores just to get decent quality parts:

    http://s1106.photobucket.com/albums/h376/mechanicalhorizon/

    • May 29, 2011 at 4:39 pm
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      Sean & John – I did toy with the idea of giving Finecast either 5 or 6 stars rather than the 7 but chose not to as when models are not miscast I do feel that the level of detail is superior.

      Rather than rate the range based on miscasts (which you are at liberty to return) I rated the range on the quality of a good cast and knocked a star off for the increased likelihood of issues.

      To illustrate slightly tangentially – When reviewing a type of vacuum cleaner that had a high failure rate you wouldn’t base the whole review on one that doesn’t work, you would take one that does but mention that fact that there are issues that cause some to fail.

      We’ve taken delivery of lot’s of Finecast blisters and the model we reviewed was actually one of the worst, note that the end of the scabbard is also missing. Most are OK, although some do have a LOT of flash. That said I obviously can’t comment on the contents of the boxes as these cannot be viewed without opening…

      Sean – Bad luck with the purchases, the jump pack especially is truly awful – you should return it.

      John – As mentioned in a previous reply, I will prime the metal on Tuesday and make a follow up post, it is back in the shop and Monday is a bank holiday.

  • May 29, 2011 at 5:31 pm
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    No one seems to have picked up the fact that in the comparrison picture between the metal and resin Chaos champion (shown above) you can clearly see the bad casting….look at the bottom of the scabbard, where the metal miniature has a completed scabbard, on the resin model, the bottom part is almost completey miscast.

    If this is a sample of Finecast, I’d say it rates a lot less than 7/10, especially when compared to miniature ranges such as Studio McVey, Kingdom Death and others.

    • May 29, 2011 at 6:03 pm
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      Tony – I do mention it in my reply to Sean & John.

      Again, 7 out of 10 is a review of the range at large rather than just this particular model. Most are cast perfectly (from looking at the blisters), others are worse than this one see the link provided by Sean. What we have to remember is that a miscast is a faulty product and should therefore be able to be returned/exchanged for a non-miscast model.

  • May 29, 2011 at 9:30 pm
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    I bought a boxed model yesterday, a Pyrovore, and it was perfect in all respects. Crisp casting, no bubbles at all, almost no flash and the only really visible mould line was on the underside of the model. No missing parts. I’d say that if you could judge the range from examples like the one I got you really should add another star. The price is still a big issue, of course.

    • May 29, 2011 at 9:47 pm
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      Hello Olle – Glad to hear you got a good cast and are happy with the quality. That’s why I gave it 7 out of 10, when all’s well Finecast is a good product it just has a few issues is all.

  • May 29, 2011 at 11:05 pm
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    Yep – there may be some bad ones out there, but the ones I’ve seen have all been excellent quality, including the 2 blisters I bought (Draigo and Coteaz so far). Really a pleasure to work with compared to metals.

  • May 30, 2011 at 4:12 am
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    Finecast is made of win, not resin. This is the biggest scam in the history of miniatures! Shipping costs due to the lightness of the material, actual cost of resin, and the general stupidity of the GW consumer means that bank deposits will have to be carried in large dump-trucks. Ha!

  • May 30, 2011 at 4:54 am
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    Looks like your resin warrior is also missing a right heel.

    I was excited about Finecast…before I saw them. Unfortunately, all pics so far have had wildly disparate but glaring defects (equivalent to a typical resin model). Buyers with negative experiences will naturally yell the loudest, but even positive reviews such as this one always seem to depict models with nasty defects. I have yet to see photos without missing heels, obliterated scabbard ends and the like. Some will say this is just to be expected with resin (and it is, in my experience with resin) but I was starting to believe that this new super space-age plastic/resin hybrid was going to be better than that.

    • May 30, 2011 at 6:47 am
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      Jay & Jarret

      Some do come out absolutely perfectly. From the looking at the blisters we were sent the Chaos Warrior here, randomly selected, was actually one of the worst.

      That said, from previous experience of resin, I know that some will be much worse… It’s just the luck of the draw I’m afraid. All I can say is, if you get a bad one, return or exchange…

  • May 30, 2011 at 9:19 am
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    I was unsure about finecast before I bought one and to be honest i still am. It’s definitely easier to assemble and clean up – all you need is glue and a knife to trim off the flash. For larger models especially (trebuchets, big monsters etc) I’d say it’s a no brainer that finecast is superior just for the increased ease of transporting them without reducing them to their base components.

    For the smaller character models I think I’d still rather have metal. Everyone knows how fragile banner poles can be, and with a material more bendy than plastic I just can’t see items like these, lances and topknots surviving long. There are far too many miscasts too.

  • May 30, 2011 at 1:07 pm
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    Firstly, since all of this pertains directly to tabletop wargaming (hence the title of your blog), I will strenuously argue against your very first sentence. This event could not possibly be of less significance as the material that miniatures are manufactured from have absolutely zero bearing on wargaming. The merits of detail on the model are of negligible benefit as well, as long as the miniature is detailed enough for you to tell what it is. Slap a similar paintjob on those two models and I challenge anybody to tell the difference from four feet away. This event is of significance only to modellers, who like to look at pretty miniatures on the shelves, not the battlefield.

    Secondly, as to arguments of is Games Workshop the most expensive miniatures company or not, one must remember the economics of scale. This would be the basic economics where the more of a product you make, the lower your costs are because you can purchase materials more economically in bulk. Factoring in this, then yes, Games Workshop is indeed the most expensive as nobody else has the sales volume they do.

    Thirdly, the release of 100 miniatures in a single day is hardly an event, much less a big one, when considering how many of these were previously on the market in metal form. New is exciting, different is merely different.

    All the negativity aside, I’m very interested in seeing how well this new material holds up to the inevitable knocking about on the game table as I’ve heard some very good things.

    While I’ve never been a fan of plastic minis, what I’ve always really disliked is the assembly. Give me a reasonable one-piece mini and I’m quite happy, so if finecast lets GW put out more stuff that doesn’t require assembly then I’m all for it.

    • May 30, 2011 at 1:21 pm
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      Hello Paul H – I have to disagree with your comment regarding the lack of significance of detail on wargames models. Wargaming inevitably crosses over with modelling, many wargamers I know spend hours on indivodual miniatures and I’m sure they would appreciate any improvement in the quality of their models. You’ll note I say it is the most significant event in the hobby this year not in wargaming, the hobby is broader than gaming alone. The blog is called Big Orbit Games, as that is the name of the online shop that this blog belongs to, we make posts on other topics than wargaming, we also cover modelling, board games etc.

      Brett – I have to agree that any benefit gained from the move to resin will be felt to the greatest extent on larger miniatures. You make a fair point about smaller minis potentially being better off left as metal 🙂

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  • May 30, 2011 at 7:00 pm
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    Hello Paul.
    The only thing I do agree with you on is the potential for a great mini to be produced, but will GW`s quality control hold to the fair, good, or finest standard? I think we all fear what that will be. Also Paul you mention that you`ve been delivered lot`s of finecast minis, were those mini`s purchased by you or Big Orbit Games, or were they gifted to you by GW for review purposes? If it`s the former this is in deed good information. The likelihood of getting A good or better quality mini by mail is great, going to a store & finding the same. If it is the former, I feel that I will only be disappointed as GW will make sure they send out only their best quality minis to be reviewed. These kinds of facts are important. I`m not questioning your integrity here your review is fair and I agree with you from where you stand. I would only suggest trying to come at from the view point of the regular consumer?

    Please don`t mistake me for a GW basher, I`m a painter not a gamer. GW really does have some of the finest stuff on the market. They make alot of people I know happy, they are profoundly successful. I encourage them to try this avenue, if anyone can do it they can.
    Their success only encourages compitition, this is a great thing for us consumers. GW is a trend setter, if they trend poorly others will follow.

    ,

    • May 30, 2011 at 9:11 pm
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      Hello Ryan

      I’m not sure what GW’s quality control is like for Finecast, I can certainly tell you that I’ve seen models with huge amounts of flash in the blisters we’ve got, that said this should be easy to clean.

      As for where the blisters I’ve seen come from, these are out shop stock blisters so not ones specifically sent out for review by Games Workshop.

      I hope this helps.

  • May 31, 2011 at 8:28 pm
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    “I know GW have claimed it is due to replacing the moulds, but I highly doubt this.”

    I emailed them to ask why the price is going up, their response was basically “because these models are better”. Not even an attempt to make it sound plausible.

  • May 31, 2011 at 11:20 pm
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    Sick of GW increasing prices UNREASONABLY (note: not increasing prices with inflation – this is expected).
    If they’d brought this in at the same price – great.
    But the price increases to everything should bring in the profit they need.
    I hope someone somewhere in GW takes bloody notice and doesn’t get rid of almost all their customers in one fell swoop.

  • June 1, 2011 at 10:33 am
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    I know this is a place to review the quality of the finecast range, not a place to argue the merits/failings of GW’s ever increasing prices.

    The few finecast figures I’ve seen “look” crisper on the detail but as others have pointed out, this is more likely to be the fact of looking at matt resin vs shiny metal. Air bubbles and missing pieces make the word “finecast” seem rather out of place.

    I’m an old time gamer, old time collector but I’m not stuck in my ways enough to be afraid of change. I prefer GW’s plastic kits to metal kits for painting and I was really looking forward to seeing some amazing breakthrough in resin. However, I do feel this time, GW has moved to this product to primarily save themselves a packet on varying pewter costs, weight/shipping and having the disgrace of claiming it’s a superior product – even though it’s the same quality of metal with the added “bonus” of air bubbles – all in the name of increasing profit.

    In an age of recession and cut backs, rather than keep a large base of customers paying a reasonable price, they’d rather have a smaller customer base paying an enormous amount to keep the profits constant. Poor show imo.

    I’ll be e-mailing GW later asking if I can pay £50 for the metal Vampire Count Blood Knight box set rather than £60 for the resin “pig-in-a-poke” version.

  • June 1, 2011 at 5:56 pm
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    I’ve never worked with resin, so I’m curious about how it compares to metal and plastic for conversion work. Is it bendable like metal? Easily cutable and fileable like the hard plastic GW uses (hard compared to the soft plastic common with pre-painteds)?

    • June 2, 2011 at 10:52 am
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      Hello James – Resin is bendable but is more brittle that plastic. That said, it is softer than either metal or plastic so is easier to use for conversions than metal.

  • June 4, 2011 at 12:07 pm
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    Hey guys, I’ve had a mixed bag with finecast and thought I’d share an opinion based on it. Best to forewarn that I’m an aging and crusty gamer who still has his copy of rouge trader and RTB1 marines around, so I went into this new experience with a sense of foreboding.

    First off pricing :
    I have one recommendation for you complainers amongst us “If you don’t think it’s worth the money don’t buy it.” Games workshop produces a luxury you’ve got no need for in your life, so why care if it’s ‘expensive’? I remember when a mars bar cost 18p now they cost nearly 65, and if we make some nice comparisons here we’d remember that whilst the mars bar is the same as it ever was, the games workshop minis may have increased in price similarly but they’ve gotten bigger and come with a bucket load of extras if they’re plastics (and more so with the blisters too these days). Not saying it doesn’t make my wallet cry when i buy loads, I just know I’m choosing to and It’s not like GW have a gun to my head. Oh and don’t forget UK guys that we’re paying 20% of our toy prices in TAX (double what we paid in the 70s).

    Sorry, rant over, I’m just sick of my fellow crusty old gamers moaning.

    Bad experience:
    Ok, it has to be said I had awful luck on my first purchases. I bought 1 box of incubi and the empire captain. The incubi were mispacked and had flaws, and the captain had a fat hole in him! I was most put off, since all around me everyone else was excitedly opening pristine models with no flaws, or only minor detail issues.

    Good experience:
    I talked to my local GW and they kept cracking open boxes of incubi (2 in the end) until I had enough flawless parts to make the unit the way I wanted, and even slipped me a couple of the leftover bits in case i found anything else wrong (conversion ahoy). They also replaced my captain no questions asked and that was that. “How did this miracle occur?” you ask. I was nice to them, treated them like reasonable people (the amount of unpleasant behavior I see from gamers of my generation to GW staffers also gets my goat), and asked them to. This has been my experience of every GW staffer in every store I’ve been to since they went all corporate and ditched the rude, smoking, specialbrew guzzling biker crowd that used to permeate their stores anyway.

    The models:
    Once they were replaced I had decent chances to make comparisons, and I’m impressed, my incubi stood up admirably next to their metal counterparts being both quicker to build (even accounting for the oceans of flash on some of them) and noticeably better detailed and crisper to the naked eye. The captain likewise. It’s not revolutionary enough that I’ll be flying out and replacing all my metals, but I’m glad of the difference. On another note, my housemate (a fellow divorced old warhammer crusty), bought a Urien rakath and we had a good compare of my metal and his finecast unprimed. Not only is the detail level significantly greater but the Finecast is BIGGER! significantly so in fact.

    All in all a positive for GW, ok the prices have gone up and I’m sure their shareholder’s will be thrilled. But If you actually look at their published payscales (you can if you’re willing to dig on the net) they get paid bugger all compared to what people do in my industry and you can really tell that most of what goes in comes back out as new ranges and models.There needs to be a significant tightening of quality control to maintain the range though, the margins are still too wide with issues like mine sliding through the gaps. That said the minis ARE a significant improvement on all fronts and I look forward to the next hit with less trepidation and more excitement. And let us not forget, if it’s not as good as GW promises, as long as you can go into a store without making an ass of yourself, they’ll be good to their word and solve the problem.

    Hope this helped. Also sorry if I get all ranty, I have nerd rage issues.

  • June 4, 2011 at 12:09 pm
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    Just noticed I’m said rouge trader not rogue trader. Make-up for my inquisitors. HA!

    • June 7, 2011 at 8:59 am
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      Made the “Rouge Trader” typo enough times myself Tom 🙂

  • June 6, 2011 at 12:16 pm
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    Bought the Finecast Boss Zagstrukk yesterday. First impressions are that clean up and assembley, even allowing for the odd surface bubble of which there are a few should be easier and faster than with a metal model just because there’s no need to pin and removal of flash and mould lines are easy due to the softness of the material. So in hopeful anticipation of an easy build that’s a big thumbs up so far.

    Next, quality. Yes, there does seem to be a sharpness about the detail in the resin and what did strike me is how you can immediately see what every detail is supposed to be, however as to whether it really is ‘better’ than the metal cast models, I’ll reserve judgement until I’ve built and painted the same model twice, once in metal and once in resin. Fortunately I will get to do that on a couple of Tyranid models, so I’m looking forward to making the comparison.

    Quality of the release. Well that, unfortunately, is another story. What I would love to be talking about is how it did go together easily, how it doesn’t break when you knock it over etc. Instead, I have a model that includes 2, admittedly fantastic looking jet packs, but no left arm!!! Now for those of you who know the model you have to feel sorry for the poor guy as he’s already lost both his legs in an earlier battle but to deprive him of his left arm as well seems a nerf too far 🙂 Seriously though, blister pack = something you can look at to check everything is in it, boxed clam pack = lucky dip that it’s all there. So, back to the shop it will go. When I next get there of course, as it’s a 38 mile round trip and I’m not going to be spending that amount on petrol just to return something that ought to have been right in the first place (and yes, I know I could easily borrow a spare arm from a plastic nob or boyz frame, but given the price for what is a single figure, I’d like to have all the pieces I paid for!).

    So lesson number one for me is in future I’ll be opening the shrink wrapped box there and then in the shop as soon as I pay for it to check the contents and if there is something wrong or missing, it will be an instant return.

    Lesson number two is for GW. I think time will show that this is the right move if you put to one side the other issues around pricing. I have a fairly typical 11 year old son who has a bunch of friends who play differing 40k armies. They can all put together reasonably passable plastic models, but none of them can deal with metal casts. Yes, in time they would learn the necessary skills, but I believe Finecast gives them access to models that they can build today with the skills they are got from assembling plastic kits. And those models have a fighting chance of not falling apart during first use. So good luck to GW and I for one am happy, but honestly, I think they have to take a long and hard look at the quality issue – if you want to charge the prices you do and open up the character models, HQs and heroes to a younger audience where a single purchase is often a major event, the models need to be right first time. If the price for using resin is a general acceptance of miscasts and an expectation of a proportionally higher level of returns then that’s fundamentally wrong. The marketing and support in WD articles is using quality and ease of build as the key messages and this needs to be delivered.

  • June 10, 2011 at 10:57 am
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    I haven’t bought any of the finecasts yet, though I really like the idea for my Tyranids. A resin Hive Tyrant is much more appealing than a metal one (which is part of the reason I haven’t bought a Tyrant yet, can’t be bothered making another big metal model). I’ve always liked the detail on metal models, but hate working with metal, removing mould lines and dags, trying to carve details into it, gluing it, paint chipping off easily, etc.

    One question though, does epoxy glue (like araldite) work well on Finecasts? The GW guys are saying superglue, but I prefer to use epoxy on non-plastic models so that I can use it to fill gaps rather than greenstuffing gaps after gluing.

    • June 10, 2011 at 2:45 pm
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      Hello AllSeeingSkink

      No one here has tried, the general consensus is that it should be fine but I am a little concerned about the heat that epoxy will generate causing the resin to soften…

  • June 10, 2011 at 3:59 pm
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    I can’t believe there are people out there trying to defend GW on this really undefendable ground. They ought to be GW staff disguised as consumers!

    But the sad truth is that Citadel Finecast is really a huge fail, so big, in fact, that it would have meant doom for every other company out there.

    A 20% price rise with a less expensive material and with pieces full of bubbles, miscasts and no new sculpt? C’mon just face the truth: this is an insult to buyers! Really! And apart from the bubbles, the moulds are so bad that on some minis (like the Zagstrukk I bought) when you remove the model, you run serious risks of damaging the model, even if you’re an expert modeller like me. And one more thing: just look at the above photos and you’ll notice that even where the piece is not faulty, there’s some added material spilled from the mould that makes the detail a mess (just look at the helm, near the horns, on the bottom left of the pic).
    I feel cheated for having bought such a product. And mine was not the only one to be faulty, because all other Zagstrukk had the same exact miscasts mine had, so no use in having the piece changed with another.
    Were I in the US I would propose a class action, but unluckily, I’m in EU and such legal actions are not possible…

  • June 14, 2011 at 2:26 pm
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    So far I have only got a couple miniatures in the fine cast range, I can’t say that I noticed anything really in the way of bubbles or imperfections, but this may be luck more than anything (judging by the amount of complaints out there).

    Resin is much easier to work with than metal, less pinning is needed, and when you do decide to use it, the drilling is much easier than with metal. Also, the bond between resin and plastic sets much quicker.

    There have been some bent staffs, weapon hafts etc, which have needed straightening, but then this was also the case with metal parts too (though obviously they were less hassle to sort out).

    Obviously the price rise is outrageous, but then it’s up to each individual to decide whether they’re worth paying for.

  • June 26, 2011 at 8:09 pm
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    I went along and bought a model, more nostalgia than anything as i play other systems but still paint the odd GW mini – plus my son collects space marines (he is 10)

    The problem I had was also miscasting, airbubbles, excessive flash – the irony really is in the name.
    I bought the Emperors champion, as it was a figure i have in metal as well.

    Im with the poster who posts about the benefits for the mass collector – will you be able to spot the difference once it is primed, painted, varnished and leading 100 or more mainly plastic miniatures?

    As for the price rise – cant say im surprised. Have been collecting miniatures for over 20 years and Games Workshop stopped putting the customer before the shareholder when they stopped selling parts via mail order….

    One thing that no one seems to have mentioned, and a big consideration for me as i collect mainly oop metal figures – can you strip them like metal or do they just melt to nothing like plastic? The pessimist in me thinks GW would love to put a halt to the resale of figures via ebay etc as the money aviods them entirely.

  • August 6, 2011 at 5:38 pm
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    Its totally discrasefull that these models even made it onto the shelves, where the hell is the quality control, surley they must have tested it? Why place something on a shelf if its defective??? This is rubbish, when you’re paying top dollar for something you must get value for money and not something that is flawed and doesnt live up to the hype. Dont defend these manufactures at all, if you buy anthing these days and it falls apart or has a huge fault with it, you take it back and get your money back, Im sorry but most top rated companies test their products vigarously before making it avaliable to the public, as such placing these models on store shelves is totaly unexcptable, for the amount of money they are charging for these models I dont think I’m asking too much. This is only my view and everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but all I ask is stand up, if something is defective tell it how it is, otherwise as the old saying goes the rich will get ritcher and the poor, well you know the rest.

  • August 7, 2011 at 10:40 pm
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    I am truly dissapointed with the finecast quality, true it has more detail on the models, but the overall quality is not from a 30 year old company, well I wouldn’t expect that quality from a new compay either. I bought 5 models (boxed sets), the first one was Kurt Helborg It was going to need a lot of work to remove all the mould spills and to reform the gaps with green stuff, but what whas my surprise when I noticed that the horse was half Kurt Helborg’s and half the emperor’s champion.

    The other set was the Space Marines vanguard veterans and well it was supposed to have 5 models but no, it had only 4 models and those looked like they were chewed by a dog!!!.

    A Space Ork pain boy was missing a piece, a space marine chaplain with jumpack also looked chewed and the only one who I could acctually start painting without thinking I was working with garbage was the Empire General on foot.

    So I´m really dissapointed and I wont buy any other finecast product at least for a couple of years untill they raise their quality.

  • August 25, 2011 at 3:16 pm
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    I’m fairly neutral on the GW front; I use the models I already have, but haven’t purchased anything from them in a while. I guess I have made the decision about whether or not GW products are worth the money 🙂

    If you look at producers like Mantic, they are actually doubling the number of resin figures they are including in the boxsets – effectively halving the price of their models – why can’t GW do this? It does seem to add weight to the “rip-off” argument…

    Just a thought.

  • September 22, 2011 at 11:25 pm
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    I am disapointed in these new ones. I have bought 3 finecast so far and all 3 had entire parts missing from bubbles, huge detail loss, and looked like bootleg shoddy knockoff’s then real products. Seeing as I bought a lord of change ($65) only to have it’s wings broken with bubbles, his leg pocked by them, half his beak missing from one big bubble and the other 2 minis not much better, I’m pretty p’ed about this change.

  • September 23, 2011 at 10:09 pm
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    Dan:
    You could strip plastic models by using de-greaser without it melting the model. I’ve done it many times. Personally I liked the plastic better than metal ones… but these resin ones? Being softer, I’m not so about the stripping. I might try using a few pieces of the framing Sprue to see if they can be stripped just as easily.

  • October 27, 2011 at 1:53 pm
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    I have just purchased my first fine cast model, a tech priest and servitors and i can honestly say it is a bad model, i with bubbles flash and parts that look partly melted. i have been working with resin models from forge world for a few years now as well as casting my own models in liquid plastic. and can say they are bad even for resin models. if i had not bought them through a 3rd party seller i would send them back in disgust and the mold lines were more pronounced than any i had encountered on metal models, also friends have purchased models and reported the same problems.

    so i would say the new games workshop fine cast are some of the worse models currently on sale anywhere and until they sort out the quality not worth purchasing you are better off going to forge world.
    It looks like they have simply rushed the release of fine cast and made a right mess of it

  • November 12, 2011 at 7:49 pm
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    Just bought my first finecast today, vanguard veterans, at first glance they dont look too bad, but on closer inspection you can see all the bubbles and various imperfections. Im going to take them back tomorrow and see if GW will actually help me to either sort them out or replace them, the helmets have all drooped slightly on the left hand side. Overall though they are better quality than the metal models I have got which have often required a large amount of work to get parts to fit, obscured detail is also common with my metal models, and them just general use causes the paint to chip, damage etc. I hope that the finecast models will stand up to use in a similar fashion to plastic ( ie. only flismy banners, spikes etc fall off, no chipping to the paint). GW clearly havn’t got the casting process right yet and hopefully they are working to get it sorted. Price wise I think GW will hit a point where they realise that the have to bring prices down to attract new customers and retain old ones, it is beyond belief that every year the price increases and I do wonder where it will stop, will for instance it get to the point where we are paying £50 for a space marine predator? Prices and Finecast aside though GW have produced a range of high quality plastic minatures for use in their games, hence why I still buy their products. Essay over 🙂 Suggestions as to what I can do about the Vanguard Veterans appreciated 🙂

  • March 17, 2012 at 6:43 am
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    I live in australia and here games workshop products are apporx twice the cost of identical products sold in the uk (plastic land raider is $110 aus/73GBP). which means i pay double for the same shitty quality finecasts with all there imperfections. to make things worse GW has shut down almost all 3rd party sales to australia from their independent stockists outside the Australia new zealand region, so im stuck paying double for this pathetic product. bring back the metal i say.

    I’d like to add ive had the exact same probem with the vanguard veterans as alex ^ and promptly returned them never to buy them again. thought id have more luck with a terminator libraian blister so I could get a staff member to tell me if it was good quality, but as soon as i got it home and out the blister turned it over an the whole back section broken from being poorly, moulded :/

  • April 28, 2012 at 10:07 pm
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    I agree with hawkwinter, i would 2 rather buy the same cheaper metal figure than a more expensive rasin figure

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