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Hey, the other day i purchased a dragon locally through kijiji. Met up with the guy and he ended up being someone i used to see around the local GW store. I got an alright deal, but when i met up it was in a ziploc and with no instructions which had me think. But seeing as they are people i kind of know i trusted them and seen that all of the parts where there. Upon getting home i had a closer look at the contents and the plastic components had no marks where the sprues would be and there are tabs on the end where the piece would join with another, same with the resin parts. Then i decided to take a look online to see where the tabs/sprue connections would be and compared to what i have. Now im second guessing myself saying "maybe this batch from FW was different?", but the more and more i stare at the components the more i do believe it isnt genuine.

So now.. what should i do? Or, what could i do..

I'd contact FW customer service and see what they say and do. Heck they might even replace the forged items for turning in the folks.

Haha that sounds great, but thats doubtful. I bet theyd say buy from us next time. But has anyone done something like that?

Recast FW stuff and sale it of course people do. There is a company that remains undground (mostly some guy recasting a huge inventory of it) until they have a huge inventory and sell it on ebay.

I saw some articles about fake forgeworld/gw stuff a while back. I think if you googled it you could find some guides for spotting fakes. I wonder if the guy who sold it to you knows if its fake. I think people are starting to resort to fakes because of the price difference. Good luck!

Um...build it? Does it really matter?

I have TONS of genuine fw stuff (ordered it myself, my group does a free shipping order about every other month) and I have seen a lot of recast stuff, either from china or russia.

To be honest, the quality of the recast stuff is usually the same or better as the genuine fw stuff, and is usually less warped.

Missing instructions, or not a fw bag are other ways.
At this point, I can tell by just the resin (most re-casters use a slightly more rigid resin).
Another way to tell is if there is a missing batch number on the label.

There was one chinese company that used a resin that was bit too brittle, but it worked fine (I am kind of the local resin kit expert...so people get help from me all the time).

I try to buy from fw personally (got an order in last week -they need to remake their barracuda mold) and have to return one or two things a year.

I remember the thread, if i remember right some of the guys said the recast stuff was of better quality than the originals.

Ok, living in china here, so lots of fake forgeworld stuff available.

Methods to tell if it is fake, to my knowledge.

i) Different qualities of plastic - Some are more flexible than genuine models, others are tougher but more brittle. Either way if you compare 2 unpainted models you can often tell the difference through either texture or shade. There is often not a discernible difference in the quality of detail.

ii) As the op stated, some mold lines/spruces will not be present, or will be in different locations.

iii) I've heard that using warm water on a forgeworld model will help to remedy warping in the model. Due to the different material in the fake models this should not work on them. I haven't used this method so cannot verify it.

As to your situation, I guess it depends on the quality of the pieces and how much you paid for them can do.

Be happy? All the recasts I ever got were better quality than Forgeworld casts.

There are many nock offs around these days, as mentioned most aspects to tell have been mentioned already.

The way I know if it is a fake is by these tell tale signs :

1 Harder resin more rigid no flexibility to it (although there was some coming out of the US a couple of years ago that was very similar to FW only it was slightly darker grey).
2 Sprues with no markings or information present, also the layout of the sprue tabs FW always use the same set up.
3 Resin colour if it is a pale green or yellow/cream it is not FW, there colour is always grey which may very slightly but not by much I have also seen fakes in white.
4 More than one mould or mould lines in different positions to normal models, also sprue connections in different places to normal.
5 Packaging and instructions most come in plain Ziploc bags, plain boxes and without instructions (although I have seen some with photo copied instructions).

I hope this helps some, as to contacting FW I can guarantee you will not receive a replacement , well only if you buy one they will ask for as much information as to the where and how you purchased it though.

I have had some copies from ebay before and to be honest most have had crisper detail and no warping, but if you buy something in good faith it should be what they say it is.

 lone dirty dog wrote:
3 Resin colour if it is a pale green or yellow/cream it is not FW, there colour is always grey which may very slightly but not by much I have also seen fakes in white.

This is not actually true. Current FW stuff is all-gray, but they used to use other colors. So if you're buying a kit that's been sitting in the closet for a few years it's possible that it would be a different color but still real.

5 Packaging and instructions most come in plain Ziploc bags, plain boxes and without instructions (although I have seen some with photo copied instructions).

Again, not necessarily a bad sign. Not everyone keeps the bags and instructions, so I wouldn't be surprised at all to see a real FW kit sold in a random bag/box.

 Peregrine wrote:

 lone dirty dog wrote:
3 Resin colour if it is a pale green or yellow/cream it is not FW, there colour is always grey which may very slightly but not by much I have also seen fakes in white.

This is not actually true. Current FW stuff is all-gray, but they used to use other colors. So if you're buying a kit that's been sitting in the closet for a few years it's possible that it would be a different color but still real.

5 Packaging and instructions most come in plain Ziploc bags, plain boxes and without instructions (although I have seen some with photo copied instructions).

Again, not necessarily a bad sign. Not everyone keeps the bags and instructions, so I wouldn't be surprised at all to see a real FW kit sold in a random bag/box.

True but I was referring to current releases as to colour, but yes if it is an old OOP model it could be of the creamer pale colour.

Once again as to packaging if you are buying it second hand there is this possibility, original packaging may have been discarded and replaced with an alternative, but I was aiming more at a new buy rather than second hand.