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zinge wrote:I bought a bunch of skin wolves and enforcers for myself and some friends the enforcers are all fine - all the skin wolves have gone back.

My Enforcer was perfect too, it was cast in normal Forgeworld resin and was superb. The skin wolf was awful. It's annoying me at the minute that they're simply not replying to my emails anymore more than anything really.

I received an email from them today - says its only himself in the office all week. Give him a call - its what I did

I've been waiting for the problems to be sorted out with finecast and hoping they would be. I went into my local GW and the smiling red shirt assured me that the tales of miscasts and bubbles were exaggerated and anyway as I was considered a good painter I would have no problem fixing any defects. He went on to tell me all the virtues of fine cast. He then showed me some blisters. I pointed out the warped commissars sword and the bubbles. That's normal, heat it up to reshape it and we sell liquid greenstuff and thick glue for the bubbles. No problem.

Well perhaps not for me BUT why sell crud in the first place!!! I have never had these issues anywhere else. This is the problem. People who know what there doing will repair the crud. New players have no idea what it should be like put up with the crud. And although some of us on here kick up a fuss, the majority just get on and accept it. A few of us will change manufacturers and bemoan GW but ultimately the behemoth that is GW will continue to pass crud and the blind will happily consume it. Its such a shame, there plastic range is superb and their metal range was awesome. Problems with both perhaps but not a fraction of the scale of finecrud. So finecrud for me.......not yet anyway. If ever.

Ciaphas wrote:People who know what there doing will repair the crud.

Needless to say, people who know what they are doing shouldn't have to fix their new models either.

I bought my first finecast models the other day consisting of some flamers, a nurgle daemon prince and a lord of change.
I'm mid way through finishing the flamers right now and I have to say they are full of bubbles and generally pretty poorly cast.
I'm not looking forward to painting the DP and LOC in case they are also rubbish, although I guess the nurgle DP won't look much different with bubbles....
At what point do GW have to drop the 'manufacturer of the best miniatures in the world' tag , because right now it's an outright lie.

Don't paint them!
Return them and keep returning them until you get satisfactory castings. Doing this is the only thing that will change the way they deal with Finecast.

Daedricbob wrote:I bought my first finecast models the other day consisting of some flamers, a nurgle daemon prince and a lord of change.
I'm mid way through finishing the flamers right now and I have to say they are full of bubbles and generally pretty poorly cast.
I'm not looking forward to painting the DP and LOC in case they are also rubbish, although I guess the nurgle DP won't look much different with bubbles....
At what point do GW have to drop the 'manufacturer of the best miniatures in the world' tag , because right now it's an outright lie.

Or keep doing things like they have been and change their return policy.

Sidstyler wrote:Or keep doing things like they have been and change their return policy.

I think that falls under the "change the way they deal with Finecast" category. Not in the way that people want them to change it but it's still a change.

zinge wrote:I received an email from them today - says its only himself in the office all week. Give him a call - its what I did

An update on the Skin Wolf scenario... Called them just now and explained the problems. Apparently they've had some major issues with the way they've been casting the model (I assume using finecast resin and techniques) and are switching to a different method (again, I assume their "normal" resin casting methods and materials). Anyway he's going to send me a new bit of the old material and send me a complete new one when they sort out the castings this week or next. Let's see what turns up!

redbristles wrote:

zinge wrote:I received an email from them today - says its only himself in the office all week. Give him a call - its what I did

An update on the Skin Wolf scenario... Called them just now and explained the problems. Apparently they've had some major issues with the way they've been casting the model (I assume using finecast resin and techniques) and are switching to a different method (again, I assume their "normal" resin casting methods and materials). Anyway he's going to send me a new bit of the old material and send me a complete new one when they sort out the castings this week or next. Let's see what turns up!

Reports are that Forge World is not actually handling the casting on the Skin Wolves, it is being done by the same people doing the Finecast production line.

redbristles wrote:

zinge wrote:I received an email from them today - says its only himself in the office all week. Give him a call - its what I did

An update on the Skin Wolf scenario... Called them just now and explained the problems. Apparently they've had some major issues with the way they've been casting the model (I assume using finecast resin and techniques) and are switching to a different method (again, I assume their "normal" resin casting methods and materials). Anyway he's going to send me a new bit of the old material and send me a complete new one when they sort out the castings this week or next. Let's see what turns up!

Iv'e been waiting on replacement parts (not skin wolf) for close to 3 months now. They were also supposed to be promptly dispatched.

I must be the luckiest person here. Bought my 5th Finecast model (2 KFF BMs, Draigo, Crowe, Creed) and have not had a single issue with any of them. Didn't even go through the blisters just grabbed the first one in line on the wall at the LGS.

inquisitorlewis wrote:

redbristles wrote:

zinge wrote:I received an email from them today - says its only himself in the office all week. Give him a call - its what I did

An update on the Skin Wolf scenario... Called them just now and explained the problems. Apparently they've had some major issues with the way they've been casting the model (I assume using finecast resin and techniques) and are switching to a different method (again, I assume their "normal" resin casting methods and materials). Anyway he's going to send me a new bit of the old material and send me a complete new one when they sort out the castings this week or next. Let's see what turns up!

Iv'e been waiting on replacement parts (not skin wolf) for close to 3 months now. They were also supposed to be promptly dispatched.

That sucks, I've been waiting two months for mine now, so I'm not holding my breath on this one arriving any time soon!

Boss GreenNutz wrote:I must be the luckiest person here. Bought my 5th Finecast model (2 KFF BMs, Draigo, Crowe, Creed) and have not had a single issue with any of them. Didn't even go through the blisters just grabbed the first one in line on the wall at the LGS.

Iv'e actually been ok with some finecast purchases lately as well. Iv'e recently bought,

1. Commissar Yarrick. He has just a very small portion of the trim on the bottom of his coat missing.
2. Commissar Lord. He had a very small portion of the trim gone from the brim of his hat. It drove me nuts so I chopped off his head and replaced it with a suitable replacement. Something I never would have done with metal.
3. Inquisitor Coatez. Other than a very small air bubble on the bottom of his thunder hammer, this was a perfect cast.
4. Inquisitor Karamazov. I was very nervous about this large multi part model. I bought him at my local GW, so I could get an easy replacement if it came to that. No need, my first box was PERFECT. I actually just bought the kit for conversion pieces, after seeing the quality of the kit I am actually considering just building and painting the entire throne. This mini reminded me of FW before their quality went down the crapper.

Well I'm waiting for my first finecast model (Draigo). SO I'll see what he's like when he arrives.

inquisitorlewis wrote:

Boss GreenNutz wrote:I must be the luckiest person here. Bought my 5th Finecast model (2 KFF BMs, Draigo, Crowe, Creed) and have not had a single issue with any of them. Didn't even go through the blisters just grabbed the first one in line on the wall at the LGS.

Iv'e actually been ok with some finecast purchases lately as well. Iv'e recently bought,

1. Commissar Yarrick. He has just a very small portion of the trim on the bottom of his coat missing.
2. Commissar Lord. He had a very small portion of the trim gone from the brim of his hat. It drove me nuts so I chopped off his head and replaced it with a suitable replacement. Something I never would have done with metal.
3. Inquisitor Coatez. Other than a very small air bubble on the bottom of his thunder hammer, this was a perfect cast.
4. Inquisitor Karamazov. I was very nervous about this large multi part model. I bought him at my local GW, so I could get an easy replacement if it came to that. No need, my first box was PERFECT. I actually just bought the kit for conversion pieces, after seeing the quality of the kit I am actually considering just building and painting the entire throne. This mini reminded me of FW before their quality went down the crapper.

So what you are saying is that in 4 models you had 1 with no problems and 3 with varying degrees of issues?

Saying that a model has no problems when a part of that model is entirely missing is a bit misleading, the same as saying that a cast is perfect when it has a bubble in it.

Not really.

I had no issues other than the missing trim on the hat.

Some prep time is needed for any model you ever purchase. If it means filling in a small air bubble instead of filing away mold lines then so be it.

As far as saying the Coatez was perfect, if you look at my statement again you will see that I said OTHER than a small air bubble. What's so misleading about that?

inquisitorlewis wrote:Not really.

I had no issues other than the missing trim on the hat.

Some prep time is needed for any model you ever purchase. If it means filling in a small air bubble instead of filing away mold lines then so be it.

As far as saying the Coatez was perfect, if you look at my statement again you will see that I said OTHER than a small air bubble. What's so misleading about that?

You don't have to remove mold lines from Finecast miniatures? And you don't have to remove those infinite number of vents as well? Or how about all the flash?

Trying to pretend that all that you need to do is fill up bubbles is disingenuous at best. I think what you mean to say was that in addition to filing away mold lines (and vents, and flash), you also need to fill up bubbles as part of your miniature prep work (and apparently replace entire body parts in the case of the Commissar Lord, or ignore missing parts in the case of Yarrick).

But truly these are reasons to be OK with your purchases. These really are superior casted miniatures and well deserving of the high price you paid for them.

You know its funny. Because I am also working on a Vostroyan army. All metal. Guess what? Every single lasrifle (66 of them to be more specific) is warped. Is it a killing point for me? Nope. I just get my pliers and straighten them out. Removing mold lines from the hard metal is so much more challenging than finecast. Normally with finecast I can just use the back of my knife for mold removal, instead of a file.

I was very disappointed with GWs decision to release finecast. I never minded working with metal minis. Prepping has never been an issue for me.

Because of the release of Finecast, I found myself at a crossroads. Do I continue with a hobby (I know GW isn't the end all be all of the hobby, I just prefer their stuff to other manufacturers) that I have an extreme passion for, or do I throw up my hands and walk away? In the end I decided to stay with GW.

I know that finecast has flaws. I accepted that quite some time ago. I do protect myself by buying directly from GW stores. If I have an issue I will either get an immediate replacement, or an immediate refund. Do I really like playing that game? No, not really. But, it is what it is. In the end I am happier staying into the GW end of the hobby.

I am also really starting to appreciate all of the conversion opportunities that resin offers. That Commissar Lord would have been near impossible to remove the head and replace it, if it were still in metal. The cape gets in the way of a razor saw. I was so happy with the head swap that I ended up cutting off both of his hands and replacing them with the weapon options I wanted on the mini. The Cortez was also awesome to convert as well. He also had his head removed and replaced, as well as both weapons.

It's important to note. I never once said that others should share my viewpoint. Nor did I ignorantly mock someone elses different opinion. I reported what I bought, the issues at hand, and what I did to correct them. That's my choice, and one that I'm happy I made.

Ok so i didn't have time to read ALL 87 pages here, but my main concern with GW is their Quality Assurance, there must surely be people inspecting casts as they come off the production line, even a cusory glance to a keen eye will pick up major problems, thereby necessitating closer investigation?

Doofry wrote:Ok so i didn't have time to read ALL 87 pages here, but my main concern with GW is their Quality Assurance, there must surely be people inspecting casts as they come off the production line, even a cusory glance to a keen eye will pick up major problems, thereby necessitating closer investigation?

You pays yer money, you takes yer choice, as they say. The options are:

a) Someone is inspecting stuff and the low quality casts are deemed acceptable to be sold by GW.

b) No-one is inspecting at all.

c) Whoever is inspecting isn't very diligent.

You decide

Personally, I plump for answer A. Several people have emailed GW customer services and asked them directly and have been told several variations on the theme that GW considers minor flaws and bubbles as acceptable. Whether they deem it acceptable because they know a fair proportion of their customers either a) won't realise the cast is duff or b) won't bother to return it, well that depends on how Machiavellian you think GW corporate are. I expect they have calculated in certain factor of how many returns they will get in a given batch and have decided it is economically viable.

Would inspection be more of a "here's a box of fincast models we are about to ship, check the top row and if more than half are acceptable the box is deemed acceptable" sort of thing?

jonolikespie wrote:Would inspection be more of a "here's a box of fincast models we are about to ship, check the top row and if more than half are acceptable the box is deemed acceptable" sort of thing?

Or here's a pallet of boxes, pick one at random.
If its ok, ship the pallet

Bought two big meks the hands were so warped you can't tell where the fingers end and the fingernails start. I won't be buying anything else finecast. My chaplain with jumppakc bubbled so bad hald his jumpp ack was missing my draigo is missing like half his sword right out of the pack just all in all a terrible experience. I know finecast is supposed to be the next big thing and if I read it correctly the reason for a price increase for 66$ to 82$ for ONE stormraven...I'm just over the whole mess lol

87 pages later and they still can't spell shenanigans right.

Why will this thread not die? It serves no purpose! So you got a duff cast? Well boo-freakin'-hoo! Most of these "unacceptable" miscasts are so easily fixed it's absurd to go to the bother of returning the model when all it takes to fix it is a quick blast from a hair dryer. It's like buying a car, and something non-vital is screwed on a bit loose, so rather than just breaking out the screwdriver and fixing it yourself you return the whole car. It's insane.

Squigsquasher wrote:It's like buying a car

Except for the fact that it's not at all like buying a fething car.

I also like how I'm apparently supposed to fix holes with a fething hair dryer. How does that work again?

By the way, if you want the thread to die, maybe you shouldn't post in it. Yeah, bump the thread up to the top and keep drawing attention to it, that will get rid of it. And this thread does serve a purpose: it warns people new to the hobby about what a gakky product Finecast is so they don't waste their money on it, or they do so knowing full well they're taking a big risk.

Squigsquasher wrote:87 pages later and they still can't spell shenanigans right.

Why will this thread not die? It serves no purpose! So you got a duff cast? Well boo-freakin'-hoo! Most of these "unacceptable" miscasts are so easily fixed it's absurd to go to the bother of returning the model when all it takes to fix it is a quick blast from a hair dryer. It's like buying a car, and something non-vital is screwed on a bit loose, so rather than just breaking out the screwdriver and fixing it yourself you return the whole car. It's insane.

Clearly the thread does serve a purpose otherwise it wouldn't get to that many pages. Feel free to ignore the thread if you don't like it and wish it to die, especially as your own contributions have frequent mod edits and warnings placed in them. As for fixing chunks of missing detail due to gas bubbles or extra globs of flash due to previously torn molds with a hair dryer, you'll have to explain how to do that a bit more clearly. Your car reference is also a bit off as the main purpose of these minis is simply to look nice on the tabletop; the lack of quality control at GW interferes with the central reason people buy these things. It's more like you bought a car that was simply missing cylinders in its engine and either doesn't run or misfires making it a jolting and uncomfortable ride. While I'm glad that you personally haven't gotten those types of casts (yet), that has not been the experience of your fellow gamers.

Squigsquasher wrote:87 pages later and they still can't spell shenanigans right.

Why will this thread not die? It serves no purpose! So you got a duff cast? Well boo-freakin'-hoo! Most of these "unacceptable" miscasts are so easily fixed it's absurd to go to the bother of returning the model when all it takes to fix it is a quick blast from a hair dryer. It's like buying a car, and something non-vital is screwed on a bit loose, so rather than just breaking out the screwdriver and fixing it yourself you return the whole car. It's insane.

Really?

Okay, now I remember why your on my ignore list.

"Buying Finecast is like a Car."

Yeah, but if you where to buy a Car would you replace the wheels if they where all missing when you got it? Or the gear stick, or the engine, or the exhaust pipe....etc.

Troll harder.

loki old fart wrote:

jonolikespie wrote:Would inspection be more of a "here's a box of fincast models we are about to ship, check the top row and if more than half are acceptable the box is deemed acceptable" sort of thing?

Or here's a pallet of boxes, pick one at random.
If its ok, ship the pallet

The problem is I think this is the method they're using, which is fine for a process that produces consistent results (Like plastic injection). In those cases, barring something terribly wrong with the injector or plastic material, the quality of one kit (Or a limited selection of the pallet) should be indicative of the quality of the pallet as a whole.

However, Finecast is such a poor process that the quality varies from perfect/don't-even-care air bubbles to oh-my-god-what-happene-to-his-face/head/arm/torso, and while the tested kit(s) may be fine and dandy, the rest of the pallet may be of completely unacceptable quality. Really, the only way for them to actually effectively prevent the deluge of returned sub-par casts is (barring improving the casting process itself) to screen essentially every box, which would likely be prohibitively expensive.

Squigsquasher wrote:
Why will this thread not die? It serves no purpose! So you got a duff cast? Well boo-freakin'-hoo! Most of these "unacceptable" miscasts are so easily fixed it's absurd to go to the bother of returning the model when all it takes to fix it is a quick blast from a hair dryer. It's like buying a car, and something non-vital is screwed on a bit loose, so rather than just breaking out the screwdriver and fixing it yourself you return the whole car. It's insane.

Maybe you settle for less then you deserve, many of us dont-

If the car has a problem, when I buy it, it needs to be right. I'm paying a crap ton of money to a dealership, so it needs to be right or fixed. Dont care if its a screw, a scratch, or a part is falling off.


If GW is going to claim to sell a premiuim product, then it needs to be, No matter how "minor" the problem, if your expecting me to spend that kind of money, then it needs to be perfect.

My thousands and thousands of metal models I own, less then 10 were miscast. Finecast cant make that claim, and they charge even more for them.