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I've made it no secret the past year that while I'm still a Warhammer hobbyist I'm definitely in a new mode of not going too crazy on the expenditures, especially since last May 28th and the new price structure that includes Finecast. As the styrene kits have gotten more expensive the Finecast models in some cases are truly exorbitant as well as fragile and I find myself avoiding most blisters and non-styrene GW models more than ever. Here are some thoughts for avoiding spending too much on the new Finecast models when you could be getting whole unit box sets for the same money:

1) Convert a Cyberwolf out of one of your plastic set Fenrisian Wolves. The cyber-bits from the Thunderwolf kit or Necron bits should be helpful along with some scratch converted parts from plastic rods if you're up to it. 5 Fenrisian Wolves are about $25, but the single Finecast Cyberwolf is also about $25. You can do the math, 5 for $25 is a better deal than 1 for $25.

2) Arjac Rockfist (pronounced Ar-yak just like Bjorn is said Bee-yorn or the word fjord is fee-yord, "j"s are like "y" in Nordic languages). He's not much different or any more spectacular than the regular Space Wolf Terminators, so buy yourself a whole box of 5 for only a bit more than the price of 1 Arjac and convert him yourself. Give him a cool custom converted hammer and or shield to have some fun with this one.

3) Space Wolf Lord On Thunderwolf. Again, this model is not all that much more special than the new multi-part Thunderwolf unit models, so buy a box or two of those and convert one to look "special" to be your Wolf Lord. There are enough cloaks and other cool bits in other GW kits both Space Wolf and otherwise to help with this one.

I started working on Ogre Kingdoms last fall and except for the Firebelly a friend got me for $25 at a flea market I converted my Tyrant and Butchers from plastic Bulls plus cool bits from other multi-part sets and some "Green Stuff". Since Ogre characters start at $38 each, it saved me a ton of money.

Relapse wrote:Does Spartan or Privateer have these kind of issues? I ask because I've seen some of their resins and they look really good.
I would imagine they must have some problems, just not to the degree GW has, since I've not seen any real complaint threads for them.

I've never had a problem with Spartan minis, neither my own or any my friends have bought. PP's minis are injection moulded plastic, just not the same as GW plastic.

George Spiggott wrote:

Relapse wrote:Does Spartan or Privateer have these kind of issues? I ask because I've seen some of their resins and they look really good.
I would imagine they must have some problems, just not to the degree GW has, since I've not seen any real complaint threads for them.

I've never had a problem with Spartan minis, neither my own or any my friends have bought. PP's minis are injection moulded plastic, just not the same as GW plastic.

What company have you been buying the spartan minis from then? I've never seen one that wasn't mismolded in some way. Maybe it's unique to firestorm armada though.

George Spiggott wrote:

Relapse wrote:Does Spartan or Privateer have these kind of issues? I ask because I've seen some of their resins and they look really good.
I would imagine they must have some problems, just not to the degree GW has, since I've not seen any real complaint threads for them.

I've never had a problem with Spartan minis, neither my own or any my friends have bought. PP's minis are injection moulded plastic, just not the same as GW plastic.

I recently bought a Throne of Everblight from them and there was only 1 major large bubble on the Throne's tongue. That's it. I've never had any miscast issues with PP.

I'd only ever bought one Finecast model before - a haemy that had an horrendous amount of flash on it but once cut free was OK.

Foolishly, I relaxed my guard and bought - without checking - a box of Wracks. Big mistake. Three of the sprues looked like they'd been designed by Salvador Dali.

'Dear customer services ... '

Sidstyler wrote:

Can you check these models with your customers as you sell them to ensure they are happy with their purchase and offer modelling tips for cleaning up flash/mould lines and filling bubbles.

Yeah, couldn't have expected any different from the almighty GW. "If they're not happy with a model, tell them to fill all the holes, because there's nothing wrong with Finecast and clearly they're just inferior modelers."

feth you.

A staff member once told me to stop complaining about them, as I had the skills and ability to remove any minor upsets.......I'm not entirely sure he was joking about it either. Grumpy sod, the models face was half metled, bad enough I had to pay a minor fortune for it.

Earthbeard wrote:
A staff member once told me to stop complaining about them, as I had the skills and ability to remove any minor upsets.......I'm not entirely sure he was joking about it either. Grumpy sod, the models face was half metled, bad enough I had to pay a minor fortune for it.

Remind the fethwit he works in retail and the customer pays his wage.

The GW miniatures are among the most expensive range around, they converted to a cheaper casting material and raised the price further into the bargin and the quality fell through the floor, seriously, how the hell does a GW retail employee get the bloody audacity to tell people off for complaining about that? ESPECIALLY when they've just bought the model (ie, paid his fething wages!!).

This company dwells in fething la-la land sometimes.

What a fething douchebag. But yeah, can you imagine what it would be like buying product anywhere else and getting that kind of treatment? lol, can you imagine some car dealer trying to sell you a car missing a fender and a rear bumper, covered in rust and dents, for the same price as a new car, and telling you not to complain because you can fix it?

Sidstyler wrote:What a fething douchebag. But yeah, can you imagine what it would be like buying product anywhere else and getting that kind of treatment? lol, can you imagine some car dealer trying to sell you a car missing a fender and a rear bumper, covered in rust and dents, for the same price as a new car, and telling you not to complain because you can fix it?

"Why yes, it does have corrosion in the chassis and bodywork, but Mercedes make the best cars in the world, so you should shush and buy our Mercedes metalwork filler and respray kit, it's all part of the 'Ownership Experience'. That's why we switched from metal to swiss cheese for our manufacturing and then raised our prices by 12%. Are you not entertained?"

Is there a way to confirm this email actually exists?
Or just a fan trying to make GW look more caring?

If it is this fan has failed greatly since it doesn't make them look any more "caring" than they were before, lol. The whole "Show these noobs how to fix their gak so they'll shut up" thing that I pointed out, because you know, that's obviously the reason why there are so many complaints, we just don't know how modeling works.

Sidstyler wrote:If it is this fan has failed greatly since it doesn't make them look any more "caring" than they were before, lol. The whole "Show these noobs how to fix their gak so they'll shut up" thing that I pointed out, because you know, that's obviously the reason why there are so many complaints, we just don't know how modeling works.

But they have a no quibbles exchange policy!

LunaHound wrote:

Sidstyler wrote:If it is this fan has failed greatly since it doesn't make them look any more "caring" than they were before, lol. The whole "Show these noobs how to fix their gak so they'll shut up" thing that I pointed out, because you know, that's obviously the reason why there are so many complaints, we just don't know how modeling works.

But they have a no quibbles exchange policy!

Right. . you exchange your money for their 'Finecast repair kit'.

Never thought I'd see the day where a hobby company sells you a repair kit for something you haven't even opened yet.

But the problems are easy to fix, and its part of hobby fun!

I really wish they'd get their stuff together on this. I love Finecast as a material, in theory - presupposing they can get their QC together. Which they can't, or won't, do ("Either? Pick one.")

PP's minis are injection moulded plastic, just not the same as GW plastic.

Hmm, that's something I didn't know. I haven't done much PP stuff since the very beginning (MK1), so I didn't really look into it. Injection molded would make me more confident in buying them, and want the new Warpwolf figure for my Confrontation PPP army. Thanks!

Sidstyler wrote:Yeah, couldn't have expected any different from the almighty GW. "If they're not happy with a model, tell them to fill all the holes, because there's nothing wrong with Finecast and clearly they're just inferior modelers."

Except that's not what they said, is it. They said that faulty models should be replaced, as usual.

Sooo.... I havent bought a GW model in... oh about 26 months now.

Decided that put aside my haterade and throw a few bucks at the FLGS while I was there on some LotR stuff.

Its been almost a year since Failcost has been released and figured they HAD to have their ducks lined up in a row by now.

The model in question was Gulyvhar.

Its a boxed model so I was not able to open prior to purchase, but again assumed GW had their crap together by now.

Yeahhhhh... I have bought some pretty dreadful resin casts from FW, but this model put the stinky cherry on top of my rather not-so-hot business relationship with GW.

As a former fanboy wanting to be at least a peripheral returning customer in some small way, this was an incredibly poor showing. Not a great example of what to expect QC-wsie for the price paid. It wasnt worth 1/10th of the price.

Full refund requested.

Oh well, I'll check back in a few years.

Tailgunner wrote:

Sidstyler wrote:Yeah, couldn't have expected any different from the almighty GW. "If they're not happy with a model, tell them to fill all the holes, because there's nothing wrong with Finecast and clearly they're just inferior modelers."

Except that's not what they said, is it. They said that faulty models should be replaced, as usual.

After telling the customer there's nothing wrong with his model and he can fix it himself.

Ok, for the experts out there see if you can help with this.....

I have problem with my purchase

- Its not finecast.
- Its majorly warped plastic
- I have hinted that I want a replacement.
- They responded that a new one will not guarantee to not have same flaw so no replacement
- They say I should just fix it, i made it clear I dont know how
- There were attempt to fix it, but its still warped like WTF IS THIS

Honestly, Im really agitated, I felt the model is expensive as it is, and now despite my frustration,
IT STILL LOOKS LIKE POO.

What do I do now?

You know what, i dont mind it... if i bick up a box of failcast and the local store, and its miscast, know what I do? I call up GW and get them to send me a new one. Then I go back and use the modeling skills that I have developed after years int he hobby to repair the damage to the initial product. Voila, two for the price of one, and you often cannot tell that there was an issue to begin with.

chaos0xomega wrote:You know what, i dont mind it... if i bick up a box of failcast and the local store, and its miscast, know what I do? I call up GW and get them to send me a new one. Then I go back and use the modeling skills that I have developed after years int he hobby to repair the damage to the initial product. Voila, two for the price of one, and you often cannot tell that there was an issue to begin with.

And they have no incentive to fix the issues, because you're still a paying customer that will settle. They don't care about sending you another one, as the cost to make both of them was probably cheaper to make than one of their metal counterparts.

LunaHound wrote:Ok, for the experts out there see if you can help with this.....

I have problem with my purchase

- Its not finecast.
- Its majorly warped plastic
- I have hinted that I want a replacement.
- They responded that a new one will not guarantee to not have same flaw so no replacement
- They say I should just fix it, i made it clear I dont know how
- There were attempt to fix it, but its still warped like WTF IS THIS

Honestly, Im really agitated, I felt the model is expensive as it is, and now despite my frustration,
IT STILL LOOKS LIKE POO.

What do I do now?

Plastic model from GW? Which one?

ShumaGorath wrote:What company have you been buying the spartan minis from then? I've never seen one that wasn't mismolded in some way. Maybe it's unique to firestorm armada though.

I don't own any Armada stuff it's all Uncharted Seas. I've only ever seen one starter set (I think it was a starter set) in the 'flesh' it was all moulded ok IIRC.

I bought some kublewagens from Forged in Battle (15mm WWII) that were mis-moulded. They sent me out some replacements by post. All the other stuff I got from them was OK.

chaos0xomega wrote:You know what, i dont mind it... if i bick up a box of failcast and the local store, and its miscast, know what I do? I call up GW and get them to send me a new one. Then I go back and use the modeling skills that I have developed after years int he hobby to repair the damage to the initial product. Voila, two for the price of one, and you often cannot tell that there was an issue to begin with.

!
That's what I did. Wooooooooo free stuff!

LunaHound wrote:Ok, for the experts out there see if you can help with this.....

I have problem with my purchase

- Its not finecast.
- Its majorly warped plastic
- I have hinted that I want a replacement.
- They responded that a new one will not guarantee to not have same flaw so no replacement
- They say I should just fix it, i made it clear I dont know how
- There were attempt to fix it, but its still warped like WTF IS THIS

Honestly, Im really agitated, I felt the model is expensive as it is, and now despite my frustration,
IT STILL LOOKS LIKE POO.

What do I do now?

Don't hint, tell them flat out that the product is defective and you want you want a replacement or a refund. The "we can't guarantee the replacement won't have the same flaw" argument is bizarre on it's face, this isn't a lottery. You paid for X and you want X or your money back and the fact they keep churning out flawed versions of X is their problem, not yours.

If you went to Mcdonalds and your burger had no bun, and upon taking it back they said they couldn't promise you the next one wouldn't also be missing a bun, would you shrug and eat it? Because, in both cases, you shouldn't be eating it.

Will the staff lose anything or be put in disadvantage if they give me a replacement?

I cant really think of any reason why they would go so far for me to try to fix it if they can do the easy way

No, they already made the sale in the first place. If a product is defective a company is required to replace it with a passable product.

LunaHound wrote:Ok, for the experts out there see if you can help with this.....

I have problem with my purchase

- Its not finecast.
- Its majorly warped plastic
- I have hinted that I want a replacement.
- They responded that a new one will not guarantee to not have same flaw so no replacement
- They say I should just fix it, i made it clear I dont know how
- There were attempt to fix it, but its still warped like WTF IS THIS

Honestly, Im really agitated, I felt the model is expensive as it is, and now despite my frustration,
IT STILL LOOKS LIKE POO.

What do I do now?

Necron Monolith? Depends on how badly its been warped, ive had success with rubberbands during assembly to hold the pieces tight to one another while the glue sets. If you're using CA and have a cure accelerator that will work as well.

Hm. While I initially despised Finecast, I've had good luck with it lately, which has softened my distaste for it. And the email is sincere and doesn't scream "evil corporation!" to me. So I'll head down to the local GW store and see what I can see tomorrow. Fingers crossed, maybe I'll find some good casts of Arjac and Lukas.

I definitely still prefer plastic, though.