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I wonder if their quality was better than that of Forge World itself.

 BrookM wrote:
I wonder if their quality was better than that of Forge World itself.

From the couple of people I was chatting with at a GW shop (heh, it was an all nighter Iron Painter thing; things were pretty loose) it sounded like they tend to be just as good. One guy was saying he bought some and the darn things came with cleaned up mold lines. Now that's just a second-hand anecdote so I wouldn't make a major purchased based on that, but if I ever stumble across a recaster with a decent rep I may experiment with my luck.

Having an original contemptor here, and having seen a few of 'theirs' some time ago, I couldn't advise you to buy original, TBH.
and that's on one of the newer sculpts, on which FW casts are generally quite acceptable - but even then the FW original had more defects to fix.

guy with the bootleg contemptor basically told me that's constistently the quality they deliver - seems only their packing material is abysmal, and sometimes that will make components break during shipping. aside from that, seems they deliver superior casts.

it's a bit like buying an original DVD and being forced to watch the stupid unskippable anti-piracy messages, only here you get shafted with inferior quality casts, all for 'doing the "right" thing' and buying original.

 Bat Manuel wrote:
It sucks they got shut down.

They'll be back next month with a new website.

Why couldn't they shut down Forge World while they're at it for their criminal prices?

 Surtur wrote:
Why couldn't they shut down Forge World while they're at it for their criminal prices?

If you just don't go to their site or buy their product, it's effectively the same thing.

 BrookM wrote:
I wonder if their quality was better than that of Forge World itself.

The quality of casts are all on par with GW injected plastics. I've not come across a single bubble or defect.

The ONLY qualm I had was with the shipping time, but that has more to do with Chinese shipping than it does with the company. The parts where sent out in a timely fashion. After it was all said and done it took about 2-3 weeks to arrive.

The few possible recasts I've gotten (normally rhino doors from ebay) have been better quality than the ones I purchased directly from Forgeworld.

I bought one of those big FW Ork Dreadnoughts from them and it was pretty detailed. I also bought a bunch of resin space marines because I just can't pay GW's $4 for a tac marine when all I want to do is make a special weapon guy for squad swaps. The quality on looks good.

Can someone post the new site here? I want. o_o

 Monasou wrote:
Can someone post the new site here? I want. o_o

That's not really something DakkaDakka endorses...

 Shandara wrote:
You can't compete with free (in this case no design costs or marketing).

Well, I'm not seeing any difference in marketing budget between the two entities...

 Monasou wrote:
Can someone post the new site here? I want. o_o

Sorry I don't have access to a time machine...

The website in question is in the OP, the new one which will inevitably spring up does not exist (yet).

I also don't generally share my sources for recasts, lest "the man" catch on to them too quickly.

The best prices are from China, but Russia generally has a larger selection, although I've not found a Russian seller outside of ebay.


And sharing such sources publicly is not allowed here, nor should it be.

From what of them I've seen, quality is about the same as forgeworld.

Wouldn't the easiest way to find out where they are setting up shop again be to contact them through their current website that has no GW products and ask them about it?

In email they have not announced a new site or any plans to make a new site.

They mention doing business by email, but not sure how well that would work without having a visual catalog to go throught.

This thread title is a bit misleading then, isn't it? Cool Cast is not shut down and is still operating, they just removed all their FW product from their website, ostensibly sell it via email, and still have a wide variety of other hobby kits.

 Pacific wrote:

The problem for GW is that they always seem to have a grace period of 3-4 months (at least) when they are selling stuff.

No, I think the biggest problem for GW is that the quality of this guy was WAY better than the quality of product being pushed out by Forge World itself (as a number of others in this thread have said).

The fact of the matter is that Forge World charge an ever more ridiculous price for something they tout as premium, luxury, high-quality product. It's not. Forge World's products frequently arrive with:
- parts bent so badly they don't want to go straight (ork flakk gun),
- slip moulds leaving mould lines that are near impossible to fix (almost every model I've ever bought from them, though the worst offenders may have been gretchin crew)
- shrunken parts for one side of a model that don't fit with the matching part on the other side (storm eagle right side, looks like someone sat on the mould before the piece inside had hardened)
- "sweaty" resin that doesn't appear to have been mixed properly (storm eagle, ork stompa)
- pieces that look like the mould was only partially filled and later filled in with more resin (grot tanks).
- bubbles, shrunken parts and bendy elements that are completely unfit for purpose (SM character conversion kit - especially the sword which was also slipcast, chainaxes - even with a replacement I got six usable weapons out of twenty)

I've lost track of the number of products I've had to ask for replacement parts on. The latest was Angron, who amusingly enough was missing his arms - and of course came with the usual plethora of slipped mould lines. I hate dealing with the problem. I had sworn off FW until foolishly giving them another chance with Angron, but now I find myself regretting giving in to temptation.

Compare this to Coolcast, whose recast parts are:
- mouldline free
- solid, not sweaty
- excellent castings that fit together like FW's product is supposed to
- and it's actually possible to wash the mould release off them in one attempt instead of about three.

Hell, even the recasts of plastic bits are better than GW's plastic mouldings, not a few of which I've had with unacceptable mould lines.

To be honest, the only reason I don't buy from the recasters is that their resin smells something terrible. It's probably going to give you cancer if you fill your house with the stuff. I'd happily keep throwing money at FW to avoid that worry if their products weren't frequently such a load of crap.

TL;DR Forge World needs to get their act together because the recasters' products are not just cheaper but they're MUCH better quality too.

 frozenwastes wrote:
This thread title is a bit misleading then, isn't it? Cool Cast is not shut down and is still operating, they just removed all their FW product from their website, ostensibly sell it via email, and still have a wide variety of other hobby kits.

Well the recasting of GW products has been shut down, and their email says the site will be down at the end of the month, presumably when the registration is up.

Yeah, well you can get a lot more labor for a lot less when you own a sweatshop in China.

 Kanluwen wrote:
Yeah, well you can get a lot more labor for a lot less when you own a sweatshop in China.

I really doubt that they were doing the volume to facilitate a sweat shop. They could produce their entire GW line in 2 days with only a few people running molds.

Now if they had the entire FW catalog available, that argument could be reasonable.

Yeah, give them a few weeks and they'll be back up. I bought a whole GK army from them for about 1/4 to 1/2 what it would have cost from GW.

I'll be getting an email from them sometime next month with the new site I imagine.

Hooray for seedy underworlds and black markets!!! brought to you by the convenience of the internet! No more sewers and moldy taverns!

LOL.

The Taco-34 in their Ma.K line is a really great model as well. It's a recast of a Junk Tank Rock model that is only sold within Japan.

Here's a great series of blog posts about building, converting and painting it:

http://fichtenfoo.net/blog/tag/junk-tank-rock/

I didnt even know that these sites were available, i thought gw would trample on all who defy them.

I know what they do is wrong but some of the fw stuff is just plain expensive.

If they drop the price people would buy more stuff, well i would anyway.

Are there anymore site like this?

The site is not shut down, nor are the FW products gone.

Boys and Girls, expect to see Revenant and Phantom Titan dropping in 3 weeks from now.

*Edit, actually the next wave are already out, just not on a private owned website .

 leroy233 wrote:
I didnt even know that these sites were available, i thought gw would trample on all who defy them.

I know what they do is wrong but some of the fw stuff is just plain expensive.

If they drop the price people would buy more stuff, well i would anyway.

Are there anymore site like this?

Thats what GW fans want you to believe, they tell you the quality is bad, which is actually superior.
They tell you the shipping is slow, but its 3 weeks and free shipping.
They tell you its cheap because sweat shop. Well if you call 3 people in a kitchen sized room a sweat shop.
They tell you why GW is expensive, yet I can tell you the recasters are making high % of profit still, even at a fraction of FW price.

However....... I don't like pirates and recasters, and that link still links to recasts, which is still not ok.
Reporting link.

 Kanluwen wrote:
*point and laugh*

Couldn't happen to a more deserving bunch.

Don't know what to tell you.... there are at least 10 other re casters I can find.

But does any of those on Tabao etc. cater to non chinese customers?

They'll be back.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
They'll be back.

They always are.

I wonder if they'll move into the recasting of finecast and if so, whether they will have a better quality control than GW?