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I placed a special order for a Tau Krootox from my local store, as I needed one for a conversion idea and thought it would be a great idea to order one of the new Finecast models as I had not worked with one before. Unfortunately, there are no pictures of this redone model anywhere on the internet that I could find, so I wanted to post how this kit turned out for anyone who may be interested in ordering one. The original metal model came in a blister that contained one Krootox and one rider. There were two different Krootox heads and two different riders, and the blister was random with its contents for which head and rider you would get. Immediately, I was very pleased to see that this kit came with both head and both rider variants, including a total of two Kroot guns which was fantastic for me as I need a total of four of them for the conversion I had in mind.



Now, the second important difference between this finecast kit and the original metal model is how the pieces are cut in order to assemble the model. The older model came as two halves for the krootox main body, which never fit together properly and required a lot of putty to smooth out. Thankfully, the krootox is now one whole piece, with an arm and leg as separate pieces which glue right into the body with little need for putty. This is a huge improvement, and greatly increases the quality of the model.

I then thoroughly examined all the pieces after hearing the various horror stories about miscasts. Thankfully, there was no fine detail missing from the casting process whatsoever. The only flaws that I could find were a total of six small bubble-craters in the resin that were easily filled in. If I were not specifically looking for these flaws, I don't think that I would have found them all. Clearly this model does not suffer from the many mishaps that occurred when finecast models were first introduced to the market.



Overall I am very pleased with the new finecast krootox, and am looking forward to working with the new resin in order to complete a conversion idea that would have been a huge pain if I had to use the original metal model.

GW has recently changed their QC policy on finecast, and actually re-called and re-cast a whole load of their kits, including sternguard etc.

I expect that within a year there wont be any issues with finecast.

Just a shame that they didn't perfect the medium before releasing it upon the world.

How much is the krootox now??

 AG. wrote:
GW has recently changed their QC policy on finecast, and actually re-called and re-cast a whole load of their kits, including sternguard etc.

I expect that within a year there wont be any issues with finecast.

Just a shame that they didn't perfect the medium before releasing it upon the world.

One of my biggest problems with Finecast (after the missing details) which is evident even in that model, long skinny things aren't straight! It seems even after heating them to try and get them straight, they still have a memory of their old form and will want to go back to their crooked ways. Since a gun barrel or spear handle is something that should look perfectly straight, it doesn't take much or a warp for it to really stand out to me.

GW just went wholesale resin on all their models that used to be metal, but IMO there's some models which simply work better in metal, even if all the other flaws in resin were resolved.

And at the end of the day, the models still have bubbles and still have crookedness that even if it can be fixed, you should not be having to spend hours fixing models that cost up to $25US for a mansized model, or if you happen to be an unfortunate Australian, up to $40 for a man sized model.

Did you ever try and straighten a bent metal lance? Or even worse a pike...

There was no way you could ever get them perfectly straight. People seem to forget.

 AG. wrote:
Did you ever try and straighten a bent metal lance? Or even worse a pike...

There was no way you could ever get them perfectly straight. People seem to forget.

Yes, I have, it wasn't that bad. Took a couple of minutes to get them straight. The downside was they were hard to transport without getting another bend in them, but if you were careful with them they wouldn't self-bend back into a warped position.

The best solution with wonky shafts, barrells etc. is to replace them with brass rod. This isn't just something required with Finecast, it's quite frequently necessary with metal models too.

Anyway, that is a beautiful cast. Quite a bit of flash, but still excellent.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:

 AG. wrote:
GW has recently changed their QC policy on finecast, and actually re-called and re-cast a whole load of their kits, including sternguard etc.

I expect that within a year there wont be any issues with finecast.

Just a shame that they didn't perfect the medium before releasing it upon the world.

One of my biggest problems with Finecast (after the missing details) which is evident even in that model, long skinny things aren't straight! It seems even after heating them to try and get them straight, they still have a memory of their old form and will want to go back to their crooked ways. Since a gun barrel or spear handle is something that should look perfectly straight, it doesn't take much or a warp for it to really stand out to me.

GW just went wholesale resin on all their models that used to be metal, but IMO there's some models which simply work better in metal, even if all the other flaws in resin were resolved.

And at the end of the day, the models still have bubbles and still have crookedness that even if it can be fixed, you should not be having to spend hours fixing models that cost up to $25US for a mansized model, or if you happen to be an unfortunate Australian, up to $40 for a man sized model.

It's not the same resin that you get from Forge World.

You have to gradually bend the piece straight, you can't just do it in one go.

Yes, I did forget to mention that the two gun barrels are warped quite a bit. I am hoping this will be easy to fix with a hair dryer like most resin. I was looking back at the old metal guns, and they all came out very nice and straight, so this is definitely a negative and I could only imagine it is much worse with models that have pikes, poles, lances, etc.