Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Since there's a lot of anecdotal evidence around finecast, I'm interested in the wisdom of the masses on this one.

2-3 due bitz were missing. and one had a bubble in it's face runing it's details :/

To be honest, Finecast was terrible when it came out but recently it has been much better (not great, barely good, but not the level of crap it used to be)

 washout77 wrote:
To be honest, Finecast was terrible when it came out but recently it has been much better (not great, barely good, but not the level of crap it used to be)

^ That

Plenty of annoying bubbles and warped models that needed straightening out with hot water (as well as swords bending themselves in the army case after being painted...) as well as one Zoanthrope that broke where its tail joins the frond thing it stands on and needed to be pinned back on, but nothing that wasn't fixable.

Voted "only a couple". To be more specific, I've only had to send back one, and that's because it was an Astorath that had an extra set of wings instead of a jump pack :p
I have come across other defects, but nothing a little green stuff didn't fix. Though I can see others sending them back for the faults I had.

I had not purchased much fine cast. Maybe 4 blisters, two of which were the anniversary figure. They were all ok, so I took the plunge and purchased two boxes of Eldar rangers a couple months ago. One box was fine however the other had an extra fig added and that extra fig and its duplicate where both a mess. It also had a figure that had a broken rifle barrel. Maybe someone thought two miss casts equaled one good cast
I got a replacement box that was ok.

Talking about replacement and so on, Gamesworkshop got a good customer service when it comes to finecast models
When you first mention the word they directly ask what model and what's your adress

Finecast : 0
Plastic: 1
Metal: 0
FW: 5

I had issues with nothing. IIRC I had 4 Finecast models.

All 3 Finecast models I bought had issues and I had to get replacements.

Of those 3 replacements 1 had issues and had to be replaced twice more to get a good model.

I have received 2 and they were both miscast. The librarian was repairable, Eldrad looked like a mutated weasel and had to be replaced. Second Eldrad was just fine.

All Finecast I have so far is Stern and a box of Wracks and all of them had issues. Stern was missing his heraldry shield and got a pretty warped face (a giant hole through his nose and a big bubble on the backside of his head) and three of the weapon arms of the Wracks just broke into pieces, but as nothing happened to the Liquifier I could use other weapon options to replace them and I wanted to convert Stern anyway, so I didn't bothered at all with sending anything back to GW.

But those cases made me really cautious and I would only get a Finecast figure which was intended as such and not any of the old metal models converted into Finecast.

Both the blister and box set that I purchased had an unacceptable amount of miscast parts. In the many, many years of buying metal miniatures I have had problems with only the following:

1) A miscast warrior of chaos from 1983, pre-slotta base figure.

2) The second version of the flesh hounds from 4th-5th edition. These models were terrible the two body parts never matched up correctly and required substantial green stuf to make them look good.

Thats it out of hundreds and hundreds of metal miniatures.

We can't return stuff here . If you buy it at a shop , it is your problems and am not going to call UK about models , because the cost of that call will be like buying another model . So after 4 night goblin shamans , In stoped buying finecast stuff.

I find it...odd that 50% of people have had no problems at all with finecast, but 10% of people have had a problem with every single pack.

I mean, it's unusual for so many people to be that unlucky isn't it? Surely if Finecast were as flawed as it is for them, it would be as flawed for everyone else? So why do so many people have so few problems with it?

I don't know, It might be down to individual moulds.
I've had lots of finecast, CSM, Necrons, Dark Eldar, Orks.
Most have been fine, about equal amounts needed a little adjustment (minor bubbles, slight straightening), none have been so bad they warranted returning.

The worst I've had was a Cryptek with half his foot missing, but with a bit of green stuff and basing, it's entirely unnoticeable, even if you're looking for it.

I've had far more problems with metal over the years than I've ever had with finecast.

Krootox anyone?

 BryllCream wrote:
I find it...odd that 50% of people have had no problems at all with finecast, but 10% of people have had a problem with every single pack.

I mean, it's unusual for so many people to be that unlucky isn't it? Surely if Finecast were as flawed as it is for them, it would be as flawed for everyone else? So why do so many people have so few problems with it?

Perhaps some are merely more forgiving when it comes to flaws? I for one am quite intolerant of any cast issues. A bent sword of a few bubbles? Ok, i can fix that.
Damaged or "molten" details, even if it is just a relatively minor flaw, on the other hand are, at least for me, an imidiate reason to return the miniature.
GW charges top prices for their plasticcrack and i demand top quality in return.

The poll options are a bit meaningless. Someone could've bought 1-2 kits and have all of them returned, while another could've bought 20 and have 1-2 returned.

Me, I bought maybe 15 or so finecast, of which I had 4 exchanged. Two of the new ones were also a bit problematic.

I have built tonnes of models, and the only two I've had problems with the casting on were TFC. One was the metal one, and required extensive cutting and bending and modifying to get together, but its fine now. One was the fine cast one, which was the exact same only with a few bubbles in the tech marine. I took the tech marine into my local GW store, and they gave me the actual tech marine kit in exchange (they didn't have any TFC at the time).

I remember I used to have a way bigger issue with missing/broken parts, or missing sprues from the bigger kits, like the old battle force. I bought the old SM battle force, and it was missing a sprue for the gun for the razorback and a few parts for the command squad. I emailed GW, they sent me the gun replacement, a brand new RB in the box, a new command squad in the box, and a bunch of bits to replace what I was missing. I was happy at the end of the day.

*edit* I should mention I have bought several fine cast kits; two sternguard, two vanguard vets (lol at me now, I know), chaplain with jump pack, Lysander, tech marine with servitors (I got in exchange for the above bad TFC tech marine), the TFC, and I'd have to pick him up to check if my terminator chaplain was the fine cast I can't remember. Plus my brother who plays CSM and my buddy who plays Necrons I have bought a few kits for each of them that were fine cast (we joke that I sponsor them playing 40k). In all of that, the only thing we had to return was my TFC tech marine. Were they all cast perfectly? Heck no. But they were no better or worse than the metal kits they used to be, and took very little to get them to work.

i have over 20 finecast models, all bought brand new, I have had issues with 1 and that was Pedro Kantor which was missing a arm, replaced quick enough and got to keep the first model which was turned into a chaplain with powerfist

Of the 3 I've dealt with, all have been fine. Some minor bubbles in one, but otherwise OK.

I have tried to stay far away from finecast because of price, quality and the fragility of the material.
It also seems impossible to strip and therefore limits the second marked potential of the models.

The models I have bought have generally been pretty nice, and I would like to by more if the prices went down a bit. Especially for the older sculpts.
I did return a box of eldar rangers as their rifles were all really bent.

Well, being bent really isn't an issue, since you can just dip them in hot water and straighten them out. Almost all swords etc in the kits I've bought are/were bent.

Out of 4 or 5 boxes they all have problems - had an Archon's entire right shoulder just kinda snap off, every incubi sword and accessory is wobbly as hell (Just use hot water and it's totally ok that every single sword you buy ever is always bent! Just use a manufacturing method that doesn't blow instead!) etc.

The fact that threads and discussions about how much finecast is being returned actually exist in the quantity that they do goes a long way to indicate there's a problem. These are recent (several months post-Failcast launch debacle) purchases as well. Not buying any more.

 tvih wrote:
Well, being bent really isn't an issue, since you can just dip them in hot water and straighten them out. Almost all swords etc in the kits I've bought are/were bent.

I know that it's possible. But I'm a bit afraid that they will begun to bend again after they have been painted. I didn't feel it was worth it as the sculpts are pretty old and I could just get some second hand metal models instead.

I had a couple of issues early on, but with the new models that were direct-to-finecast (as opposed to metal-to-finecast transitions), I haven't had any issues.

I still don't trust the transition finecast sculpts and would not buy them unseen.

The material is pretty soft, though. GW, why you no make Plastic!?!

Bought 2 venomthropes, both were cast fine. They needed a dip in hot water to rearrange the tentacles and keep them above table level, but if anything I consider this a plus - I'd have to do the same thing with metal and would have had more chance of snapping them.

Bought a Techmarine + servitors. The only defect was a bubble on the inside of the marine's arm, that can't be seen once it was glued in position. The servitors were all fine.

And finally I got a bunch of 2nd-hand Tyranid finecast from ebay very cheaply. At the price I was expecting to have to repair it all, but aside from some reposing it was all perfect. It was probably first-wave finecast too, judging from the timing of it.

Maybe I've just been lucky.

I bought a Finecast Inquisitor Coteaz in person after inspecting it and it was fine. I ordered two Finecast SM Sternguard weapon/bitz packs and they were fine. I bought a Finecast Vindicare Assassin with pistol and rifle and it was fine. I ordered a SM Iron Hands conversion kit and it was fine.

Thus far I haven't had any problems with Finecast at all. At one point I did see a pretty jacked up Necron model on the racks at my local store, and had to point out the issues to my friend who was considering buying it, but aside from that everything has been good to go.

the chaos sorcerer I just put together was in poor shape and I *should* have sent it back, but I was impatient and just fixed what I could instead. looks great at table-top, but the faults are very clear up close. I have a termie librarian sitting on my desk unopened. if that model has the same issues my sorcerer did, I'll be exchanging him for a replacement model.