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Not another finecast bitchfest.
Ultimately I love the plastic models above all other mediums. I used to really hate the metals for the PITA that was preping them but once all the mould lines and drips and drabs had been cleared they looked quite nice. I am not a big fan or resin when the peices are small or flimsy but I do use resin models for a few rare things like drop pod dread or warboss biker. I have tried a couple finecast models and my experience was negative. Bubbles, broken thin parts, warping, and cracking. Both models I called GW on complained, gor replacements then traded them in unopened for store credit at my LGS. If you don't like finecast what do you do about it? I do conversions of plastic models primarily like my necron crypteks and lords making them out of lych guard, warriors, and deathmark bits. With my heavy destoryers I went to ebay and purchased the old metal/plastic hybrid kits. For other models like my ork wierd boy I actually purchased an Orc Shaman from another company i wish the name did not escape me now. Any how what do you do? I know a local guy that does spin casting and he will actually make metal models for you out of a finecast, resin, metal or even plastic source.

Well i chose to accept my fate with finecast but thats not really a fair answer i dont think, my finecast experience has been very good and gw returns and exchanges well imo. Personally i love resin over other mediums, the detail and ease of altering the piece is nice also it takes paint very well imo. im not a huge fan of metal models though they piss me off while painting them cat knocks it over while i get coffee or something and bam his elbow needs repainted or some*!@#!%$! so aggravating but the detail isnt to bad. Plastics are ok the detail isnt always the best though and it isnt as easily altered as resin it does take paint well though.

over all for me resin>plastic>metal

edit- thin pieces of resin i do think are too thin and i do think gw resin is weaker than most resins, the changelings staff for example when i say i like resin i mean good resins like FW's nice hard solid resin that doesnt break cuz you breathed on it

If the metal/Finecast model is really cool or would be too hard to convert from plastic, I'll get it. If I can easily convert one from plastic that will look as cool or cooler than the metal/Finecast option, I'll do it.

If I did Necrons I would definitely convert up Crypteks though - even if you got perfect Finecast casts of the Cryptek model, you'd be spending a lot of money for the same pose over and over again. Fortunately I don't have that problem for my IG as there have been lots of Commissars to choose from.

The cryptek was one of the models i purchased and his staff had such a large bubble in it while was scraping the mould lines off it snapped in two. The bubble was so large as to prevent pinning without taking maybe 3/16 inch off the staff.

I hunt ebay all the time for old metal models, so long as they are reasonably priced. I only own one finecast model, a painboy. The more metal my armies have the more valuable I feel they are.

If a finecast model gives me room to customise it's fine with me. For example when I got Szeras I swapped one of his arms with a spare Cryptek arm and made him look like this.

I go for metal when i can, as a local FLGS carries many of the old special characters in metal blisters from 3rd and 4th edition. I've scored some really cool (and not to mention cheaper) models this way. For example, I have an awesome old metal commissar with a power axe and a handheld flamer unit. I have no idea how old he is, but he looks cool, and was brand new in box for 8 bucks. The store still has a couple of him, which I need to hurry up and buy before someone finds them. I also picked up an old metal painboy for half the cost of the resin one and an ol KFF mek for cheaper as well.

When I cant find what i need there, I convert my own from plastic. I made a commissar this way and fully intend to make all of my lootas this way as well. It's saved me a lot of cash on my officers, and lets me make ones that are cool and unique as well, since I hate owning more than 1 of any monoposed model.

If I dont have anything in my bitz box, I'll order it from a 3rd party company and get what I need. The nearest official Gw store is a couple hours away, so no one cares about not have a 100% official Gw model, which helps.

I refuse to buy finecast, and I'll do everything I can to circumvent it in the meantime. If it ever got to where I HAD to buy finecast in order to play (however unlikely) I'd either find a new place to play or sell my models.

tgf wrote:The cryptek was one of the models i purchased and his staff had such a large bubble in it while was scraping the mould lines off it snapped in two. The bubble was so large as to prevent pinning without taking maybe 3/16 inch off the staff.

I hadn't had a bad experience with finecast until the Cryptek model. I bought 5. One of their staves was so bent I just took it off and gave him a hyperphase sword. 3 of the others staves are kinda bent, but not enough for me to want to try to fix it with the possibility of making it worse.

I go for other suppliers now, I found Wargames Factory great coat troopers and I've started a new DKK army with some pig iron system troopers making a nice storm trooper option for my regular IG. All up for over a hundred models I spent about 150 dollars, I try not to think about how much I've spent on cadians over the years.

GW aren't as militant over here about using different models in their shops...mostly....

Jihadnik wrote:I go for other suppliers now, I found Wargames Factory great coat troopers and I've started a new DKK army with some pig iron system troopers making a nice storm trooper option for my regular IG. All up for over a hundred models I spent about 150 dollars, I try not to think about how much I've spent on cadians over the years.

GW aren't as militant over here about using different models in their shops...mostly....

Sounds like somebody isn't doing their job

Are these official GW stores, or are they independently run ones? the latter wouldnt surprise me, as thats how mine are. But if you're bringing in Wgf Greatcoats by the truckload, I'd be amazed an official GW store would even let you in the door. They either don't realize they're third party models, or you've spent so much there they dont care. either way, I'm still confused haha.

ALL of the above EXCEPT "buy finecast".

As for the Aussie GW stores ...
Depends on the stores. If it's large enough to be a "battle bunker" then the tables are away from the main store area, and you mostly won't get pestered by the staff. I miss my battle bunker (I moved).

If it's like my local store, then you can't even swing a cat unless the cat wants a concussion - and breathing out gets you the attention of a store serf.
OTOH, the local FLGS is HUGE compared to it, and has tables and doesn't care what you use (he even sells the alternatives).

I really just wish everything was plastic. When I see the detail in the Grey Knight Terminators, I know that can do Arjac and the like in plastic too.

Accept my fate, buy Forgeworld, AH!

MrMoustaffa wrote:

Jihadnik wrote:I go for other suppliers now, I found Wargames Factory great coat troopers and I've started a new DKK army with some pig iron system troopers making a nice storm trooper option for my regular IG. All up for over a hundred models I spent about 150 dollars, I try not to think about how much I've spent on cadians over the years.

GW aren't as militant over here about using different models in their shops...mostly....

Sounds like somebody isn't doing their job

Are these official GW stores, or are they independently run ones? the latter wouldnt surprise me, as thats how mine are. But if you're bringing in Wgf Greatcoats by the truckload, I'd be amazed an official GW store would even let you in the door. They either don't realize they're third party models, or you've spent so much there they dont care. either way, I'm still confused haha.

Oh yeah, its a battle bunker, actually, I didn't even know about it until Chromedog mentioned it to me, but they're pretty cool there. Don't get me wrong, I've only just started using some of the alternative models, I've still got a huge legit army and I don't flaunt them at all either!

As for the pig iron stuff, I just use some of the heads so its a bit less obvious at a distance!

Gaiash wrote:If a finecast model gives me room to customise it's fine with me. For example when I got Szeras I swapped one of his arms with a spare Cryptek arm and made him look like this.

i've killed that guy many times with my blood angels. but he's killed many of my tau (;_


Automatically Appended Next Post:

TheCrazyCryptek wrote:

tgf wrote:The cryptek was one of the models i purchased and his staff had such a large bubble in it while was scraping the mould lines off it snapped in two. The bubble was so large as to prevent pinning without taking maybe 3/16 inch off the staff.

I hadn't had a bad experience with finecast until the Cryptek model. I bought 5. One of their staves was so bent I just took it off and gave him a hyperphase sword. 3 of the others staves are kinda bent, but not enough for me to want to try to fix it with the possibility of making it worse.

if they're bent you can take a blow dryer to it on warm for about 20 seconds and bend it back. hold it till it cools down for a couple of seconds and BAM it's fixed. painting finecast is HORRIBLE though. i hand prime and it's a pain to get primer to stick.

I usually buy my models from a small FLGS in town, they have a lot of old stuff hanging about, so when I buy a new model, there's a big chance it's going to metal, and if its not, then I'll buy finecast. Otherwise I sometimes convert plastic models.

For the most part, when GW changes models from metal to Finecast, I either get the metals off Ebay, or in the case of certain figures, I use plastics to make my own "version".

Like the metal Lukas the Trickster for the SW. I can make just as good a version out of the available Space marine plastics from bits from the Warstore for less than the Finecast model is priced at. And that's including a set of 5 Assault marine running legs just to get the one stance that looks like the original model's.

For other models like the Necron Lords and such, I will either convert a couple for my own from Lychguard models, or just say "oh well", because frankly my buddy and I still play games of 4th edition, so i can still use the old Codex- having no use for the new lords anyway.

For everything else, it
's a mad scramble to get models directly from GW before they change over and rape me on price (like I'm surprised Wraithguard haven't done), go onto Ebay to get the old metals, or just directly proxy from other sources, like using my old Dark Eldar Incubi for my "new" Eldar Striking Scorpions, and using the new plastic Wyches in place of Harlequins.

I like plastics due to the variety and availability now and the simple ease of converting them and when using styrene cement the join is as strong as if the pieces were one piece. Much better than converting metal models, especially multi-part conversions that then accidentally get knocked or dropped off of a shelf or table and shatter into all of their component parts. Ack. I haven't bought a lot of finecast yet, but haven't had any problems with the things that I have purchased. Being used to working with highly detailed 1/35 scale military kits with lots of small and fraglie pieces I don't have issues with the thinner finecast pieces either so far. Ultimately, though, I prefer plastic on plastic conversions and have so many bits around the hobby room that I can do whatever I'd like most of the time. I do know some folks who have completely metal armies and prefer to buy older metal minis on ebay than buy any plastics at all. Because the plastics are so light compared to the metal they don't feel like they are getting their proper money's worth...hahahahahaha

Skriker

What are some common alternates. I know many people are using Warfactory Graycoats as IG.

tgf wrote:What are some common alternates. I know many people are using Warfactory Graycoats as IG.

The wargames factory greatcoats are good. They are in the same 28mm heroic scale as GW minis. If you can find an old Warzone boxed set on ebay or on a trade site it had plenty of minis to make 2 different armies that could stand in as IG figs. Only caveat being I've looked at a lot of different 28mm historical plastic lines for conversion fodder, but none of them really work. They are all true 28mm scale so the proportions and size of the figures are very different from the GW heroic 28mm scale. There are new plastic kids in the Warhmachines and Hordes lines that can be useful for 40k conversions depending on what you are looking for.

So many companies are making 28mm plastic historicals now and it is a shame that they aren't really compatible in scale...:( I'd love to build an IG force built off of WWII British Paras or something...

Skriker