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Pre-warning, probably the same notes as other whinges you've heard elsewhere.

I started playing 40k back at the end of 2004, with Necrons. Got into Eldar, then Blood Angels, went to some good tournaments in NZ, all good, enjoyed it. Moved to Australia, kept on playing 40k with a new group, 6th Ed came, like quite a bit of it but got bored with the simplicity of the game and the spam lists, so started playing Warmachine with another group. Really enjoyed the rules, tournament I attended and started amassing a Cryx Collection.

Anyhow, come new shiny Eldar codex release, lured me back to 40k Eldar. I've always liked my Alaitoc Eldar, have a bunch of the updated models in metal from the previous codex, Fire Dragons, Harlequins, Striking Scorpions, Rangers, Warp Spiders, plus Dire Avengers, converted Guardians, etc. Really liked painting them. Have played about 20+ games with it, built and painted the Wraithknight, Nightspinner and Aircraft, all good. Out of the 40k background/fiction, models, and gameplay, I prefer the former two, the gameplay is still a bit of a drag, but random powers and funky gear combos keep it interesting.

Before I started Cryx I was going to revamp my Necrons, so I'd picked up a few of the new character finecast sculpts. Some holes in the bottom of Imotekh's cloak, and seriously flimsy Overlord, wasn't really impressed with the quality, heard it got better from somewhere.

So that brings me to now. I'm liking the new Firedragons (5 or 6, usually with Exarch/Firepike/Fast Shot) in a Falcon, and decided I wanted to play around with a full unit in a Waveserpent/Divination Farseer combination. FLGS tournament on Saturday so went into the local hole in the wall GW store to pick up a box. They have bugger all, but there are some Finecast Firedragons.

First annoying thing is it's $65.00 for the box of 6. I picked up the old metal ones for half that price, sure that was years ago, but whatever. I could have picked up 6 Blackbane's Ghost Raiders for less than 50 bucks, and got metal models out of the deal. More annoyingly, come home and assemble them, and it's a real pain in the ass. Covered in huge amounts of flash, bubbles and holes all through. Seems like they didn't fix Finecast at all! And I'm paying top dollar for this gak.

Now I'm depressed, because I had my sights on getting some Dark Reapers, Swooping Hawks, and possibly Banshees, now I really don't want to deal with finecast, yet for Aspects, I have to. So out of the background, models, and gameplay for 40k, only the background is keeping me sucked in, which Black library can satisfy. Furthermore, the 40k scene here (SE QLD) outside my FLGS seems to be full of abrasive good ol' boys and obnoxious powergamers, as opposed to the one Warmachine tournament I attended which was great, some of the top Aus players also playing Cryx were really friendly and full of good advice.

I don't want to throw in the towel on 40k AGAIN because I do love my Eldar (and Blood Angels which 6th ed screwed over) but those overpriced crappy Finecast Firedragons really soured me even more on Games Workshop, so much so that now I'm ranting on Dakka.

Anyone else had a purchase that was a turning point for them or just disillusioned? Or maybe a recent positive 40k experience that can reaffirm what's good about this hobby/makes it worthwhile?

Try returning them, or giving GW a ring. Their customer service is known to be pretty reasonable about this sort of thing. Of course, you're still bound to be extra-cautious when buying the other Aspects. I would suggest checking sites like Ebay for the metals.

I don't think it's so much of a "turning point" but what convinced me to never buy Finecast direct only again was a set of 4 Broadside upgrade packs I bought. Though I could use most of the parts all of the railguns were bent and some snapped when I was trying to fix them. Fortunately for me, the new Tau book cam eout and I decided I wanted missile Broadsides instead, but I know what you mean, sometimes you make a purchase that changes the way you buy. I now only buy Finecast when I can inspect ti beforehand.

By the way, I contacted their customer service department and was given a gift voucher for the value of the damaged parts, so sending an email or making a call is worth a try.

Go on ebay and buy the metal models from an auction. You will pay about 50% of the price.

If you need to strip the paint from them use purple power.

Earlier this week a mate of mine turned down my offer of 5 metal, warp spiders inc exarch (with only an undercoat on the models) because he wanted to buy them in failcast. I couldn't believe my ears.

Also as Fezman said, ebay is the way to go dude. Particularly the UK and US stores.

Oh and in terms of what makes 40k a worthwhile experience... My recently-painted guardsman marbo killed himself with his demo-charge in his debut game last week, whilst the entire club was watching. I'm still laughing about it.

Not a purchase for me as I entered the hobby a couple years ago, just the price points being charged. Competitors offer similar quality (some better, some worse) for much better prices so GW doesn't get much of my money. What they do get is due to large overseas discounts at something like 50% of Aus retal.

If you do feel the need to buy GW products, buy them from Discount Games Store in the US. They're great for Aussies. Great prices, great shipping rates and excellent service. THey've said they send ~20 orders to Australia a day so they get a lot of business from us. Never pay Aus retail. Even discounted Aus retail is too high imo.

I actually prefer fine cast to metal... The models have always been in good condition and it is easy enough to clean off some flash. The models are extremely light and do not require pinning.

There are many times I've tried to assemble metal models and they just don't fit right... you then have to get your files out and go to down. With fine cast I just do a few flicks with the knife and the figure goes together wonderfully.

Depends on your preference I guess.

Just email GW. they will send out replacements 9 out of 10 times.

If you get sick of it though. you can look for metal ones and just acetone them clean.