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So i just got Castellan Crowe, nice finecast model.. super cool. TONS AND TONS of flash FLASH FOREVER. not a big deal, gives you time to get to know the details of the model before base coating. OK.

sword is bent. not even bent, CURVY. its not even like at a bad look angle its at more than one bad angle. ALRIGHT i'm not that picky about that stuff, ill straighten it out as best i can.

now i go to basecoat (by hand, chaos black very slightly watered down ) and the paint just DOESNT STICK to certain parts. and im not talking like.. the raised parts or the crevasses. the paint just runs off of totally random sections, crevasse and raised point alike.

anyone else have this problem? i honestly dont see an upside to finecast. costs more, takes more cleaning and effort and is usually not in perfect condition (oh but its so DURABLE! lol they dont break when you drop them but resin snaps easy like frozen rubber) and now the paint wont stick?? LE SIGH

ok so i stopped typing for a minute to put a light second coat on some parts and now that its dry the texture of the previously smooth parts is just.. lumpy. why not just go all plastic? the new plastic stuff they make is far superior.

In a lot of ways finecast acts a lot like, and has similar problems to its predecessor, metal mini's. However, the solutions can be a bit different.

a) yeah, lots of flash, though you get this on some metal models too. No big deal, like you said.

b) Yeah, bent things happen. Happens with metal too, but it's easier to fix. Heat it with hot water to make straitening take hold.

c) did you...prime? You didn't mention it. You have to prime with metal or fincast. You really should prime plastic too, but it isn't nearly as important as with metal and fine cast.

Did you prime the mini before painting the undercoat?

Might need to wash it first with warm soapy water to remove mold release if you havent already....bit like you do with resin.

T-M

I can feel your pain. I have painted Crowe in metal and finecast. The finecast was more difficult. The finish on the lower legs was a bit rough. The sword was just plain bad. None of the chaos runes were cast well enough to paint. I ended up using a cut down Bloodletter sword instead. The metal fig was easier to paint and looks way better. Too bad I painted that one for a friend.

Heh, welcome to Finecast.

More seriously, it does need washing (soap and water and a SOFT toothbrush).
It will probably want cleaning up; lots of flash is usually a good sign that enough resin has been forced into the mould, and you'll have less voids occuring.
Next fix warped parts - dip in hot (tap) water to soften, straighten it, then dip in ice water to harden the resin work. You may need to repeat the process a few times to 'train' the piece not to bend.
You will probably want some sort of surfacing putty (Liquid greenstuf is actually good, as is a milliput milk, or vallejo's plastic putt) to smooth out dodgy surfaces.
It also needs priming (a good spray primer is a great idea.


THEN you're ready to paint.

Generally you should do these steps on any model, that you're after a good result with. Finecast really does need it.

As for the 'upsides' to finecast:

Finecast holds details the same way metal does, something plastic cannot do. It sounds like you are coming from a metal background.

The PAINT JOB is more durable in finecast. No one ever said the mini's were more durable. That's just silly. They are durable enough, but not as tough as metal.

They make modifications much easier.

Plastic molds are crazy expensive, and can only be used for high quantity items. Metal and finecast molds are cheap and are appropriate for niche items like characters.

And finally (the biggest reason) resin prices are predictable, whereas model metal varies in price drastically depending on the year, and even the season.

Long story short, you can't make the same, high detail models in plastic as you can in resin and metal, and GW is sick of being at the whims of the tin market, so they have moved over to finecast for their high detail models.

People whine like metal minis were perfect and finecast looks like something made by nurgle.

flawless finecast minis I've owned: 0

flawless metal minis I've owned: 0