Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

So I've recently (ish) purchased a new tau army. Because I loved the look of the models, (I haven't played in years) specifically Farsighted.

However I have finished painting him (I'm not a terrible painter) and he just looks awful because of finecast. The model itself is just woefully disappointing and it's sort of put me off wanting to bother painting the rest of the army.

I know that Tau have no HQ plastics and I don't have the skill to scratch build one plus I think the stock crisis suits look lame.

Has anyone else had similar experiences on flopcast? Did it ruin things a bit for you?

What did you do to get round it?

Are there any models that would be better for farsight?

Well, you could always try and find the old Farsight, which was a metal add-on to a stock crisis. Additionally there is nothing preventing you from using a plastic XV8 as a commander.

I did mine by breaking up some of the barricades in the resin GW barricade set, dynamically posing them and using leftover broadside heads.

Forgeworld makes some nice Crisis variants.

 Krellnus wrote:
Well, you could always try and find the old Farsight, which was a metal add-on to a stock crisis. Additionally there is nothing preventing you from using a plastic XV8 as a commander.

I did mine by breaking up some of the barricades in the resin GW barricade set, dynamically posing them and using leftover broadside heads.

This, pretty much. Crisis bodies are made of plastic so if you can somehow bear to use the farsight-only stuff and attatch it to a crisis suit, you should have a mostly plastic Farsight.

"he just looks awful because of finecast"

How exactly?


Edit: finecast came in handy for my inquisitor conversion, as i hate the empire witch hunters one poofy pants leg.

But then i got 2 bad casts of pedro and telion which was disappointing.

probably will convert them into something later.

 Desubot wrote:
"he just looks awful because of finecast"

How exactly?

I'd like to know as well.

Was it because of missing chunks? Was your model warped?

 Krellnus wrote:
Well, you could always try and find the old Farsight, which was a metal add-on to a stock crisis. Additionally there is nothing preventing you from using a plastic XV8 as a commander.

I did mine by breaking up some of the barricades in the resin GW barricade set, dynamically posing them and using leftover broadside heads.

Just remembered I have a pic in my gallery.

I dunno something about him looks rubbish. Might be me being overly critical or my choice of paint job.

The pic does nothing to help. Lol

Woh ether your paint contains cottage cheese or your model was sent through a stone tumbler.

iv never had issues like that on smooth pieces. and usually i will sand it down with some sanding sticks

Looks to me the issue is more with your white paint than with Finecast. The black stuff looks smooth from what I can tell though it's not quite in the cracks which makes me think the black was just primered on and you didn't go over it again with a brush to fill in any cracks the spray might have missed.

Personally all the finecast stuff I've painted, I found it was a lot easier than painting plastic. Not sure what the difference was, either, other than it just seemed to go on smoother.

My Farsight had a similar look after painting. My ShadowSun was decent. Commander was bad. Ethereal was superb.

Dude that ain't finecast fault. I've painted a decent bit of fine cast. 18 Striking Scorpions and another 10 Dark Reapers then some HQ choices as well. None of them looked like the paint stippled like that. Get new paint or thin yours down. Not trying to be insulting here just don't think that is a fine cast issue.

yeah, I've had that experience twice actually. I've painted up both a chaos sorcerer and vulkan he'stan. casting issues aside, the biggest thing that puts me off about it is the texture. you don't get smooth surfaces like you do with plastics. everything is every so slightly pitted and rough, so no matter how smooth your paint job is (I use an airbrush), it just looks meh up close.


also, while you do (in theory) get more fine detail with finecast then with plastics, the quality of that detail is pretty poor. almost every rivet has a bubble in it, fine edges are warped and/or have bubbles, or they're so thin that they literally fall apart when trying to clean them up. very frustrating.

finecast is just a sub-par material if you're trying to paint up to a high standard. can it be done? yes, it can. is it worth all the extra effort you have to put in just to prep the model up to the level of quality that we get from (cheaper!) plastics? hell, no. finecast is the biggest thing keeping me from starting a DE army.

I had a problem painting my FC Shadowsun, the white primer I usually use on my plastic and metal didn't adhere properly. Maybe strip, clean up and try again with a different paint? I ended up abandoning my FC Shadowsun when a cheap metal one came up, sadly the metal Farsight isn't nearly as dynamic and the FC version.

Looks to me like painting white over black primer made you put too thick a coat of paint on there because it wasn't covering well.

I pretty much had the exact same experience painting my Barracuda a while back (the air caste symbol on the top, painted almost identically to the color scheme you put on Farsight's shield actually).

I was amazed how much white paint I had to put on my black primer for it to get a solid coat, and I had a few panic moments where I wet my brush and spread the paint out because I put it on too thick.

Next time I'm totally putting down a coat of foundation grey first then white over that.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Alternatively, did you wash the sprues with dish soap before putting the model together? Sometimes mold release agent will stick on the model and cause paint to do wonky things like not apply properly.

I do that with every kit I get, even though I'm pretty sure it only actually matters with resin. I'm pretty sure Finecast is some kind of resin derivative so that could be a thing.

At first I just thought the paint wasn't thinned properly but then I saw the black fin behind the head and now I see what you mean. He just looks like he's started to rust or something and someone gave him a fresh paint job.

Yeah not gonna lie I think my farsight looks crap too. So I don't take insult at the painting thing. It's one of those times I'm seriously thinking of buying a new model and trying again.

My painting is not usually this bad, but I do feel that had the model looked good from the off and not broken and gone south like mine has I would be more enthusiastic.

Look at my bonesinger.

I like conversions, so I prefer Finecast to metal.

As a side note, I think you mean 'effect,' not 'affect.'

Ive always absolutely hated Finecast, in most cases non-fincast models look a lot better then well…fine cast.

I recently bought a Count Drago model just to have a bit of fun, and it was the worst 40k experience I've ever gotten into. A total to get together, to sculpt, to paint, and to generally do everything. I quit with the model and i keep away from fine cast whenever i have to.

In my opinion Finecast is

I've recently had the misfortune to have a desire for a light-weight army where non of the models bumping into each other will do any real harm....had I known finecast was such absolute garbage (and I think I'm actually being pretty reserved here) I'd have said in a loud declaration *CURSE WORDS WHICH SCAR THE EARS OF CHILDREN AND SAILORS AND THEIR CHILDREN* noise, I'm going to buy old/used metal models.

(At a significant price discount no less GW are truly rewarding masochists with their garbage product...ugh)

Specifically any sort of finecast troop of 5...has had serious flaws.

My Kommandos are riddled with bubbles.

I cant even being to imagine starting an Eldar army with any aspects in it. It just seems like asking for trouble.

The Farsight model (above), ignoring the questionable paint job, went from standing to lying down all by itself, every bit of the model was bent. The details were hard to distinguish and the finish was uneven.

Anyway... makes me feel a bit better to know that I'm not completely incompetent, and other people have had similar experiences.

Is FW resin better quality, I haven't had any experience with it?

The only Finecast models I've painted look every bit as good as my plastic and metal models. Unless your model was woefully miscast, in which case you should have called GW customer service for a replacement, I don't see how or why it would look any different.

I sort of know what you mean. the Tau models all seem a little off in some ways. I have seen some serious warping on guns that should be straight and even on drone models.

I have a Finecast Daemon Prince. His sword used to bend too far to the right. Now it bends too far to the left.

*sigh*

Boniface wrote:


I know that Tau have no HQ plastics...

They do, the Fireblade is a plastic kit. There's no customization, but it is there.

I think the paint was just applied too heavily in too few layers. The farsight would look much better if you watered it down and applied twice the number of coats - it's your HQ so it is worth it

There is a problem with Finecast in that it is known, regardless of heat, to be "softer" resin and at small joints will warp over time.

Buying ANYTHING in Finecast that, like Farsight, is top heavy and then also connected by a small joint, will sag.

I too primarily shop on ebay for metal models.

I've noticed that the finecast models I've seen in P&M showcase tend to have a grainy finish. I only ever bought one model in finecast, the 25th anniversary model, which had quite a lot of flaws and ended up being ebayed, so I've never painted one. However lots of people have complained of this grainy paint problem. Solution? Buy metal.

Well, I hardly bought finecast stuff. Just a few models. Only new ones like Eldar Ranger HQ.