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I just thought I'd share my recent FW experience. Maybe you care, maybe you don't.

Anyway, I got home tonight eager to inspect my resin crack.

One of my hellhounds has a broken hull but I'm too worried they are great at fixing issues. Same goes for a broken GL from a weapon pack. The real gripes are warped pieces. I can sort of understand the Hydras, but my earth shaker cannon. Really? Next on the Armageddon Basilisk there is no option for just the conversion kit so you have to buy the Chimera as well. It's the old Chimera which I'm not too thrilled about and you don't get a turret sprue. On the plus side they do give you the Guard accessory sprue.

As always it got here fast. I'll post again to update the resolution on the broken peices.

Your gripe is warped pieces.

Really? Then you shouldn't be working with resin, because warpage is pretty common in all forms of resin.

And it's easy as all hell to fix with a pair of butterfly clamps and a bowl of hot water.

Well, no. I hate resin because it's super easy to mess up on the tabletop. I bought some extra armor (for a land raider) off a friend who didn't want it after he bought it. Within a couple days off tabletop wear it basically cracked in two! It's too delicate.

iv never bought from FW. I always hear about warped pieces, lots of clean up (really bad mold lines) etc.. It seems to be fixable but for the price you would think they would be in a better condition. Bought my first 2 Warmachine mini's and Reaper mini and they had nearly no mold lines at all.

But meh, lots of people seem to like em so...

Kanluwen wrote:Really? Then you shouldn't be working with resin, because warpage is pretty common in all forms of resin.

Not on fully half the stuff you sell.

FW is quite notorious for its miscasts Kan. Not even your vehement chest-beating defence of GW can go against that.

Compared to say, Scibor, or Antenociti's Workshop or MicroArt, all of which have yet to arrive warped. Flash, certainly, and that's to be expected on everything, but no warpage or miscasts.

Then I must be damned lucky considering I've bought at least $2k worth of Forge World stuff, ranging from Chimera Interior Kits to Armor Skirts to things as simple as the respirator kits for Cadians.

I've yet to have any miscasts or any real warpage that would cause me to get pissy enough to complain about it on a forum, and this is over a five year period of purchasing stuff.

Oh, and "fully half the stuff you sell" is a load of crap, and you should damned well know that.

The population posting on Dakka, Warseer, etc is a drop in a bucket of the overall population that's doing gaming. With no actual sales figures or open customer service records where we get to read complaints, we go off of word of mouth of people who for all we know screwed the pooch assembling their models then decided to badmouth FW for "screwing them out of their money".

What's that old saying about word of mouth? For every person being truthful about their good experience, there's ten making crap up to damage a reputation?

I concur with Kanluwen -

I recently got a whole lot of FW stuff - Reaver, Dreadclaw, Dreadnough several weapons and upgrade kits ... the only real warpage is in the long side panels and fins of the dreadclaw - even the barrels of the titan gatling blaster are pretty straight (only very minor warpage).

All in all in several shipments there was never any part missing - the titan even has some excess pistons which seem to have been miscast (they are far too short) and were left in the package. Also, I can't complain about excess warpage.

The more recent the item, the less problems there are with it (I've found). I've got three Machariuses (Macharii?), and each one was a dream to put together. I've also got a resin Baneblade and Stormblade - the original ones, not the plastic/resin hybrid that came later - I damn near sent that Stormblade into the wall from across the room twice it was so hard to put together, and that was after spending over 2 hours bending the main gun housing back into shape. And don't get me started on those fething tracks. You thought the old plastic Russ/Chimera kit tracks were a pain - try ones made of resin that do not go the whole way around.

The Manticores I have were a nightmare as well, but they did force me to learn how to use green stuff. By comparison, the much newer Bombard kit fit like a dream.


But none of this changes the utterly shocking quality control that FW has. I've never had a piece missing, but the pieces I've should have, in some cases, never left the warehouse they were so bad.

I had a set of Tau BFG Wardens from Forgeworld arrive miscast as Castellans

That's really unlucky mate.

FW can be a bit hit and miss it seems from the regular feedback they get on here, and you would expect a lot better from the prices they charge, do they not check all the products before posting them? But hot water can correct most minor warping which does happen to all manufacturers. And resin is serious material, it's not for the amature modeller so the extra work is to be expected. Having said that, if the part arrives irreprably miscast or damaged then it's "not fit for purpose" which means you are entitled to a refund or replacement by law.

I had a slightly miscast powerloader sentinal (I forget the proper name). It had obviously suffered from the moulds being misaligned meaning some parts had a large step in them. I could have made a fuss but I went with it and it looks ok now. My DKOK packets were just fine, no problems at all apart from a few swords needing to be straightened.

Samus_aran115 wrote:Well, no. I hate resin because it's super easy to mess up on the tabletop. I bought some extra armor (for a land raider) off a friend who didn't want it after he bought it. Within a couple days off tabletop wear it basically cracked in two! It's too delicate.

Well it is fragile, you'll just have to take more care.

I havent had any really warpage problems from the stuff I buy at forgeworld.

Perhaps its just a mishap nothing common they'll fix it up.

With the price you pay for FW stuff they are happy to help

Kanluwen wrote:

The population posting on Dakka, Warseer, etc is a drop in a bucket of the overall population that's doing gaming. With no actual sales figures or open customer service records where we get to read complaints, we go off of word of mouth of people who for all we know screwed the pooch assembling their models then decided to badmouth FW for "screwing them out of their money".

Actually, given the cost, complexity and specialist nature of FW's stuff, I'd bet that the 'internet population' makes up a much higher percentage of FW's sales than compared to GW's 'normal' stuff.

And really, it is very, VERY difficult to seriously defend FW's 'quality control' and 'editing'...

Kanluwen wrote:
Then you shouldn't be working with resin, because warpage is pretty common in all forms of resin.

No it isnt.

I have over 400 resin vehicles from a host of different wargame companies, and have only had one item warped.

Wouldnt say it is common at all.

Now air bubbles is a different matter...

To the Original Poster, soaking them in hot water can help you with the warped pieces. I would certainly call them about the broken pieces, though. And let them know about the warped pieces. They need to work on quality control if that many problems got out on one order. That sucks that your overall experience was bad with this order, though.


I've only used a few Forgeworld pieces. A Black Templar Venerable Dreadnought and a Dreadnought plasma cannon.

It was harder to clean the flashing than regular plastics, and it took a little more finess to get the pieces to line up and assemble, but it just took a little getting used to. I'd buy from them again. The pieces look great!

I've had nothing but good experiences with Forgeworld.

The few items I've received that have been really damaged in some way, or that have been mis-shipped, have been corrected, no questions asked. In several cases, I've been allowed to keep the mistake as well (I ordered a Mega Dread, CCW and Gun arms, got 2 gun arms, they said keep the wrong gun arm, and sent me the CC Arm as well - for example).

Yes, sometimes stuff gets warped. Well, that's what a hair dryer, or hot water, is for. This is a known attribute of resin which is actually used in some of the kits (Bloodthirster's Whip, Keeper of Secret's hair).

Sometimes (rarely with FW, more common with other resin, actually) there are air-bubbles. These are filled with gap filler. Sometimes there are molding lines - these are addressed with a file, a dremmel, and/or greenstuff.

They don't sell these in stores for noobs. They put, in big letters, "for experienced modelers" on the packaging - and on their catalog. If you can't handle having to use perfectly easy techniques to compensate for the medium they produce miniatures in, then don't buy their stuff.

It's like people with no concept of pinning complaining about how their metal models keep falling apart. Working with resin is a skill like any other - and it's not that hard.

First off I am an experienced modeler I worked with resin in all stages to include casting. Anyone who says I shouldn't expect quality with the prices I paid can go suck a lemon.

In my experience warping mainly comes from demolding too soon. As far as straightening pieces in warm water, the thicker the piece the harder it is to do. You need to heat the item all the way through to release internal stressors. Its gona look pretty strange when a bald guy is buying a hair dryer at Wallmart.

Anyway just want to post mainly because I thought the use of the old Chimera kit may be useful information for some.

Cheers.


Edit* I think Im gona go the heat gun route at the hardware store.*

On the warping easy fix... Heat gun or paint removal heat gun.

On casting , general rule of thumb with FW...
Newer the model the better the cast.

the casting techniques in the past 3 years have drastically improved. The Vultures and recent Ork stuff are crisp and clean ( of course they are coming from the Shanghai facility not the England shop), while the very frequently ordered Hydra, Thunderhawk ( in to 1000's of casted now), and some of the IG tanks ( before the Updates for the new kits) were horrid. The MK IIB LR may have the most consistent cast defects reported along with the Thunderhawk.

Another one to watch out for are LR/R/RB doors, some times the cast way to big, some times to small, it comes down to the cooling time and the quality of the materials used to cast.

The Reavers and most of the big Tau and Eldar stuff are fairly good casts, but on longer parts it's almost a given that the will be warped, so just accept the fact of that ( rail guns, Earth shakers, LRBT Cannons, Auto cannons, Thunderhawk main bodies...lol) when ordering.

I've never had an issue with warpage or miscasts. Insane ammount of flash, my last batch of nid wings tho.

As has already been stated, warping comes with demolding too soon.
This is a quality control issue. They're hurrying things along too much in an effort to get more done (or gt out on time @ the end of the day LOL).
Anyone saying that you should expect warping has resigned themselves to accept inferior quality control, IMO.
On my personal purchases, I've had a lot of luck with FW. Never received anything with missing parts and only my FW streets have any warping (easily remedied).

@Kan

No disrespect intended, but your $2000 -while substantially more than many people spend over the course of 4 years (myself included) is just a drop in the bucket, itself.
One of the guys in my regular gaming group drops taht much every year or 2. This year alone, I'd imagine he's bought in excess of $3000 worth. I'd say there are problems with warping, missing pieces or wrong pieces on fully 25 to 33% of what he receives.

As a brief example, he bought the (largest available) Anphelion Project last year. Quite a number of the pieces were actually the wrong piece. It was like they casted one kit and, when a piece didn't come out, threw in a similar piece from a different kit (doorways come to mind).
Also, the roof sections didn't all fit right.
Some of the decorative windows along the tops of the roofs were so thin at some points that they didn't completely fill the little arch shaped cavity. On other parts (of the same roof), the resin was so thick that it would need a dremel to remove. Even within the same piece, there was no consistency.

Eric

H.B.M.C. wrote:

Kanluwen wrote:Really? Then you shouldn't be working with resin, because warpage is pretty common in all forms of resin.

Not on fully half the stuff you sell.

FW is quite notorious for its miscasts Kan. Not even your vehement chest-beating defence of GW can go against that.

Compared to say, Scibor, or Antenociti's Workshop or MicroArt, all of which have yet to arrive warped. Flash, certainly, and that's to be expected on everything, but no warpage or miscasts.

This I heartily agree with as a loyal FW customer. FW has a bad track record when it comes to casting quality and the quality of the materials used.

Forgeworld does have it's share of issues, I know a guy who picked up a great unclean one and it's sword and some horns i think it was were snapped off. They sent him a brand new one asap with no issues. my only real gripe against forgeword is their lack of instruction in the bigger kits. They need to put in some diretions especially with the more complicated models. I think of the Tau Manta and shudder

Within a couple days off tabletop wear it basically cracked in two! It's too delicate.

So how does the nid bio-titan stand?
On 4 pointed talons, which ive seen one go through over 10 apoc battles and not even blunt the tips of the talons.
Its not delicate, your just have to be careful with it like everthing else.


more OT: Resin isnt the best quality material in the world due to constant warping with products made from it.
But its something you need to accept if you plan on using resin.
If the parts were mis-moulded or smashed then fair enough, but warping is too common and now-a-days, its common place.



Doubled, if you need kit instructions just post on dakka
Quite a few people on here have instruction sheets for everything FW saved lol.
If they dont, someone will have made one and could help out.

while i'm not a big time televisions package consumer of forgeworlds (*in my best russian accent*), i've bought a few items and each one has had minor problems. some of them could have been caused en route and were entirely reasonable to fix (bent swords/antenna/etc) while others should have been caught at the quality control step but weren't (like cloaks on figs that got miscast so thin they're moth eaten and i had to fill them up with green stuff). from the internet scuttlebutt, it seems like they're good at fixing their mistakes (customer service), but not in preventing them in the first place (quality control).

i've yet to have a great experience with Forgeworld's casts...
i go into it know it's gonna be a pain to prep and build...
once all that is done, then i can sit back and enjoy bringing all the beautiful details to life...
it's definitely a love/hate relationship...

in the end, if it's a unique mini that i can only get from Forgeworld, then i'm into it...
if i have a choice between building a plastic Baneblade or a resin one, i'll go for the plastic kit everytime...

on the plus side, Forgeworld is good about replacing problematic items...

cheers
jah

I have never had a problem until I bought the new Raven Guard Captain. His Jump pack was broken. I am converting around since I do not want to fight it. Love their stuff, hate their prices.

I got the Keeper of Secrets (still waiting for Apocalypse Chaos Daemons 40k rules, guys..) and it arrived the next day and was absolutely perfect, though the fit requires a lot of greenstuff work, I'm heavily converting it anyway so it wasn't really an issue.

Would still like to see the link they have on their FAQ for working with resin actually be a link, though.

I only buy forgeworld items at the Battle Bunkers, this way I see the merchandise before I take it home, this also means my items aren't damaged during shipping. (plus it saves on shipping)

Wish I had that luxury Jim. No BB around for me so I've gotta brave the internet. Credit where credit's due, I think a Warp Spider made my last delivery. I think it shipped within 24 hours and was here LONG before I expected it.

Trust me the nearest battle bunker is a 6 hour drive, and I make the trip 2-3 times per year. I really don't trust internet transactions, other than e-bay. Even then, I am a little leary.