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It looks like GW is getting away from mentioning the word finecast and just using theterm resin models. Crap by any other name is still crap.

It's been all but removed from their site and stores. It hasn't been seen in the last two (or more) updates to my knowledge.

It certainly was a load of horse poopie when billed as a "cost savings" change that costed the consumer more.

The last few Finecast I saw were better than the first round.

I got my very first new-in-the-box Finecast models on Monday. They are so atrocious I don't think I'll ever give that particular fruit another bite...

I think it more than anything else has challenged the idea that GW makes the best miniatures in the world. Enough so that its actually broken through GWs little imaginary bubble and GW have had to take notice.

All Finecast taught me was that I should kit-bash my own Special Characters from the extra plastic bits.

 gnoise wrote:
All Finecast taught me was that I should kit-bash my own Special Characters from the extra plastic bits.

Ditto

I definitely think it has. After reading about Fine® Cast® , and all the problems it had (and is still having), I have never once bought it. With the wide range of plastics available, you can customize anything you want with no miscasts, no bendy, fuddly, or soft pieces of resin, no hassle, which probably looks 10x better and will be totally unique.

The first wave of Finecast was quite bad. But later waves they generally worked out the kinks. The few finecast models I have bought have had no more problems than my average FW models or even a majority of my metal models.

My biggest annoyance wih Finecast is how it spawned people using all sorts of "witty" variations to mock things, like Finecrap, Finecash, Failcast, ect. And now it has moved to the point of "Word® Word®" being used as if it is the height of satire, when it is just moronic.

I just like to leave it as quality™.
While I agree with failcast and such it just makes you sound childish. It's good to see they've toned down boasting about that crap really; that is precisely the reason why the talk back against it was so loud.

To be honest, the only gripe I've had with Finecast was with my Sslyth mercenary for my Dark Eldar. His sword snapped but was easily replaceable with one of the plastic ones. Other than that, Finecast has been pretty good for me

 MajorWesJanson wrote:
The first wave of Finecast was quite bad. But later waves they generally worked out the kinks. The few finecast models I have bought have had no more problems than my average FW models or even a majority of my metal models.

My biggest annoyance wih Finecast is how it spawned people using all sorts of "witty" variations to mock things, like Finecrap, Finecash, Failcast, ect. And now it has moved to the point of "Word® Word®" being used as if it is the height of satire, when it is just moronic.

No.

So how exactly is this the fault of the consumer? If GW had better QC from the get go then they would not be subject to this hilarious ridicule. Is it childish? Of course. But it's also incredibly fething funny.

The problem that I seem to be facing is that none of my finecast models are finely cast but rather crudely instead with a lot of edges and leftover plastic.

I've never had a perfect finecast model, I've avoided it as best as I can.

Of course when we learnt it only cost them 13 pence a gallon and the were using existing moulds it made us mad we were clearly getting ripped off.

The whole endeavour was fail of the purest kind.

The fact that GW have dropped the Finecast brand, and call it plain resin instead these days, tells the story.

Yeah, even though I had no problems with Finecast whatsoever, a lot of people did. I can understand dropping the name for its association with miscasts and low quality products. I'm ordering a resin bitz pack from GW this week, so I'll see for myself if the models listed as resin on their site are still Finecast or something closer to Forgeworld resin.

I personally felt the name just screamed of such...arrogance.

It was marketed as a cost-reduction plan, but then the cost of items didn't drop whatsoever...only the cost of production.

And then the necessary QA didn't materialize, so GW's return policy had to go into overdrive. I just don't like companies naming their products where the name literally says "THIS PRODUCT IS SUPERIOR." And, if they really have to name it as such, it better damn well be.

It just makes me feel like GW is effectively saying "this product says that it is the best right there in the name! Therefore you should understand that it is worth even more money."

While I love most GW miniatures, I feel Finecast was a very severe misstep, so bad in fact that even GW recognized the brand as tarnished.

I have mixed feelings on the material. Sometimes the casts are really nice and I enjoy working with the model, and other times it's a nightmare of air bubbles, weak or warped components, an hour of cleaning on the bigger kits between flash and mould lines. In any case, I prefer plastic and won't be upset when FC is completely a thing of the past beyond buying used and dealing with older minis.

 MajorWesJanson wrote:
The first wave of Finecast was quite bad. But later waves they generally worked out the kinks. The few finecast models I have bought have had no more problems than my average FW models or even a majority of my metal models.

My biggest annoyance wih Finecast is how it spawned people using all sorts of "witty" variations to mock things, like Finecrap, Finecash, Failcast, ect. And now it has moved to the point of "Word® Word®" being used as if it is the height of satire, when it is just moronic.

Two weeks ago I bought a new Finecast and it still had problems.
You're annoyed with the consumers gripping. I get that. But you have to understand that from their point of view, their gripes are more than justified. GW said finecast was going to be cheaper, but prices went up, not down. So, gripe #1. GW said the model quality was going to go up. In terms of detail, yes. But then the models came with holes, broke easily and sometimes looked melted or covered in flash and other weird problems. Gripe #2.
If the customers are complaining, there's probably a reason and its the business that needs to address that. Having customers just stay quiet doesn't help anyone.
Also, the word@ Word@ and other satire is also justified because of GW's more than aggressive business practices. The company has become so irrational, aggresive and bullying that its turning many veteran and would-be player away from their games. That's also a problem that shouldn't be ignored because if you ignore the problem, it won't be fixed and will only get worse and worse.

You don't like people complaining then too bad because it's going to go on until GW does something to solve the problems...which it won't.

It should be noted that metal miniatures are usually preferred over resin (and resin over plastic) for collectors/painters as they hold up better. It's why a real miniatures only company, like Reaper, offers the same models both in their metal collector lines and bones gameplay line.

GW dropping their metals to switch to resin and then failing miserably at resin due to cost cutting measures (trying to use resin in molds meant for metal) and then having the audacity to bill it as a top shelf product is what drew the most ire. The Finecast miniatures cost more than similar static posed pewter miniatures from competing game and model lines that have higher detail. As an overall product, it's a failure.

Or, as simply put above:

 Kilkrazy wrote:
The fact that GW have dropped the Finecast brand, and call it plain resin instead these days, tells the story.

PS: Necron Finecast models were/are the worst... those staves...

 gnoise wrote:
All Finecast taught me was that I should kit-bash my own Special Characters from the extra plastic bits.

Agreed.

 gnoise wrote:
All Finecast taught me was that I should kit-bash my own Special Characters from the extra plastic bits.

Yep. I love my kitbashed Vulkan, I was getting so sick of the spear breaking on my finecast model.

Definitely. Finecast was terrible when it first released, and it's not much better now. As a commission painter, I see a lot of finecast models. The vast majority are an utter embarrassment . I'd certainly never buy one for myself.

 DanielBeaver wrote:

 gnoise wrote:
All Finecast taught me was that I should kit-bash my own Special Characters from the extra plastic bits.

Yep. I love my kitbashed Vulkan, I was getting so sick of the spear breaking on my finecast model.

Haha, actual Vulkan was the first Finecast model I got and within an hour of painting him I accidentally broke the Salamander icon on his backpack. Fun times.

 TheKbob wrote:
PS: Necron Finecast models were/are the worst... those staves...

Amen.

Does not matter so much if brand improves quality in short term anyway, image damage takes longer to fix. Brand value once damaged is hard to mend.

I have assembled about 9 Finecast models. Never really had any major problems with quality. The amount of mold lines seemed rather excessive but other than that the detail was quite nice and any defects were very small or located in unnoticeable places. Certainly no worse than a FW model and significantly better than some non GW models I have assembled.

What I dislike about the material though is how insanely touchy and fragile it is. I assembled Shadowsun, and one of her legs broke off at the knee while I was sawing off that "ruined city" basing that is attached to the model, then when I started priming the model I dropped it on accident from a height of less than 3 inches and the communications antenna on her shoulder snapped off at the base.

I know resin isn't as strong as plastic, but with this stuff I spend all my prep and glue time in terror that if I breathed on it wrong my model would shatter into a million pieces.

For the Necron characters, I've had 3 staves break just by clipping off pieces on the other friggin end of the sprue...and its not like I was being rough with it.

The stuff is just cheap. When the model starts to get thicker, I suppose it starts becoming OK. But for any kind of thin stuff its absolute garbage.

I'd be happy with plastic everything...metal is good but makes way too many models way too top heavy.

Im glad Finecast is gone.

All of the finecast models I got had some issues with poor moulding. Also they tend to be too pourous and so the paint doesnt sit on them quite as well as the plastic models.

I really hope they re-do everything in plastic.

Recently bought some Tyranid in finecast and none of the 6 models had any issues so far, lots of moulding but that was easy to remove and left no marks.
So my experience has been good.
I have bought metal figures from GW that were poorer moulded anyway (parts missing etc).

Your in the lucky minority then, the majority got warped models with breaks and bubbles, my friend got a storm Lord with no ribcage just a bubble shaped hole, another got draigo with a shoulder so deformed the arm was unusable.

Fine cast was bad I'm glad it's dead.