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, there doesn't seem to have been any finecast releases for 40k in a while. Guard haven't had any. Knights didn't have any. Tyranids didn't have any. Can't remember if space marines did, or eldar or daemons. Last one I can think of for sure was Tau.

Eldar did I can say that for certain (Spirit Seer)

I do not know what this Finecast you speak of is. Care to link up a GW webstore page that mentions it?

I shudder at the thought of a knight made of Finecast.

Say it right guys it's failcast, and I'm glad it's dead it was a gak idea poorly implemented and I never once got a perfect model out of it.

As far as I know, some of the Chaos models are still resin.

I don't see them dropping existing finecast in a hurry, but it does seem they are going away from it, though there has been some recent resin releases, mostly Hobbit I think.

Honestly, I'm not sure it's a good thing though. Yes, finecast sucks, but you just can't make a wide range of models in plastic, you can't have the same variety.

They now offer two limited edition models in plastic, so I doubt it's such a heavy investment anymore. It's merely a matter of time before all units and HQ's are in plastic.

Hobbit got finecasted because nobody buys it and resin molds are dirt cheap. No point in spending money on steel molds for plastic Hobbit boxes, and FC allows them to come through on their New Line obligations.

Wyrd with their Malifaux plastics seems to be doing all right on the variety front.

From what I heard GW is going to go straight plastic. They were in the process of selling their finecast and pewter molds to FW. They are going to stick with plastic and let FW recast the other stuff in the tougher resin they use.

Yeah I believe that this is the direction that they want to take. Personally, I like it. Now, I do have an all metal IG army, so I do like metal. Still, plastic is so much easier for conversions and what not. It's a smart move on their part. The quality of the plastic casts is just mindblowing nowadays.

The new Space Marine, Tyranid and Imperial Guard releases haven't had any new models released in finecast, and I'm quite sure Eldar didn't either (Pretty sure the new Spiritseer is a plastic model).

New releases are easy to manage, it's the older models that are still Finecast that will take time to switch over. At the end of the day it will come down to whether GW deem it financially viable to start making the finecast models in plastic (buying the new molds etc). For example are people buying enough 'Chaplains in Terminator Armour' to make it worthwhile switching that model from finecast to plastic.

I would hope that everything eventually goes plastic, even if it does cost a little more. That's my personnel opinion though

 -DE- wrote:
They now offer two limited edition models in plastic, so I doubt it's such a heavy investment anymore. It's merely a matter of time before all units and HQ's are in plastic.

Maybe, but I still don't think we'll have the variety we once had with metals while using plastic. Things like 3 completely unique Commissars, or having several different IG regiments represented, I just don't see that happening in plastic like it did in metal and could be done in resin.

I don't think they've replaced all the finecast for any army yet? If it wasn't a big investment, I imagine they would have done that.

Recent armies I can think of, Lizardmen still have FC, Eldar still have FC, Tyranids still have FC, IG still have FC, I think all or most of them still have some metal as well. Maybe the next generation we'll start to see them phasing out the metals and resin. Dwarfs are quite heavily plastic, but still have some FC.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Spuj wrote:
I would hope that everything eventually goes plastic, even if it does cost a little more. That's my personnel opinion though

Plastic still lacks the fine detail IMO. It's a lot better than it used to be, but it just doesn't have the nice sharp details that metal or resin has.

Resin can be done in the old metal molds. Plastics are computer generated models.

Basically, in order to redo something in plastic, they have to redo the model from the ground up.

With finecast, they just pour the new goo in the old mold.

So while they will keep some of the old models around for a while as finecast, I'm assured everything new that is to be released will be released as plastics. I'm assured of this.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
Plastic still lacks the fine detail IMO. It's a lot better than it used to be, but it just doesn't have the nice sharp details that metal or resin has.

I disagree to the point of "wtf"

Metal looks like plastic that has been soaking for too long in acid to remove the paint. All the details are terrible in comparison to the crisp and clear plastics.

Metal skavenslaves vs plastic clanrats

GW have for a long time had the ambition to go to all plastic because it is cheaper to produce models in large quantities.

Finecast was always a stopgap that allowed them to drop metal while still making models out of the same kind of moulding equipment. Unfortunately it wasn't a good process and lots of bum models resulted. This, combined with GW's claims about Finecast being awesome, and price increases, annoyed a lot of users.

GW's plastic models are actually rather "lumpen" compared to high quality kits form Tamiya, etc, however they are made for use as toys so that is a good thing.

 Purifier wrote:

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
Plastic still lacks the fine detail IMO. It's a lot better than it used to be, but it just doesn't have the nice sharp details that metal or resin has.

I disagree to the point of "wtf"

Metal looks like plastic that has been soaking for too long in acid to remove the paint. All the details are terrible in comparison to the crisp and clear plastics.

Metal skavenslaves vs plastic clanrats

Spoiler:

The pictures you've shown of the metal slaves are too small to see how sharp the detail is on them. Also, one model does not make a trend, I'm sure GW have plenty of chunky looking metals and resins and plastics.

But most plastics I'm seeing lack the sharp edges and fine detail you can get in metal or resin. Even the ones you've pictured there, the details look soft to me. That's not to say all metals GW makes have sharp edges and fine details... but all plastics do lack them, lol. All the plastic character models I've seen, to me, look rather flat and don't have nice fine lines.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Kilkrazy wrote:
GW's plastic models are actually rather "lumpen" compared to high quality kits form Tamiya, etc, however they are made for use as toys so that is a good thing.

What sort of Tamiya kits are you meaning? Because I've actually felt GW's non-vehicle models have always looked sharper than those I get in other plastic kits. GW's vehicles compared to other plastic kits I have all look rather, umm, "blobby" for lack of a better word, but I think that's more a design choice than anything.

Finecast was always a stop gap until GW could go full plastic, but Eldar [light and dark] have to rely on them to make a good army.

I for one like the idea of full plastic with some brass etch parts.

Well just because they haven't released new finecast in a while (other than the Hobbit range which is apparently going to be all finecast) doesn't mean they are going to stop producing it.

As of the new website all finecast and metal models are direct only from their website.
I actually hope that they do change them over plastic models though. How I would like to buy some Skaven Jezzails but $62 for 3 finecast models worth a whopping 60 points is not worth it.

Even metal models (lots of them remaining in Fantasy) should be redone into plastic they don't have to be completely new kits though.

Maybe if they switched over to all plastics it might boost the amount of sales they get from those models (big MAYBE though).
Here is to hoping they switch to all plastic in the coming year/s

 chiefbigredman wrote:

I actually hope that they do change them over plastic models though. How I would like to buy some Skaven Jezzails but $62 for 3 finecast models worth a whopping 60 points is not worth it.

I actually like the model a lot, so I went on ebay and got myself a handful, but metal. Like I said, I love plastics, but while metal is also fine, finecast (ironically) is not even close to fine.
They're fantastic models though. Some of the easiest metal I've worked with. (Half my Skaven army is metal. Some if it just makes me cry.)

 Purifier wrote:

 chiefbigredman wrote:

I actually hope that they do change them over plastic models though. How I would like to buy some Skaven Jezzails but $62 for 3 finecast models worth a whopping 60 points is not worth it.

I actually like the model a lot, so I went on ebay and got myself a handful, but metal. Like I said, I love plastics, but while metal is also fine, finecast (ironically) is not even close to fine.
They're fantastic models though. Some of the easiest metal I've worked with. (Half my Skaven army is metal. Some if it just makes me cry.)

Finecast models are fine... their fineness is just covered in bubbles, lol.

I was hoping GW had fixed their finecast problems, but I ordered a Lord Commissar from them and got it yesterday and there was a bubble on his nose, part of his hat's brim was missing and there were small assorted bubbles on edges of things. They're sending me a replacement so we'll see how that goes.

 Purifier wrote:

 chiefbigredman wrote:

I actually hope that they do change them over plastic models though. How I would like to buy some Skaven Jezzails but $62 for 3 finecast models worth a whopping 60 points is not worth it.

I actually like the model a lot, so I went on ebay and got myself a handful, but metal. Like I said, I love plastics, but while metal is also fine, finecast (ironically) is not even close to fine.
They're fantastic models though. Some of the easiest metal I've worked with. (Half my Skaven army is metal. Some if it just makes me cry.)

I agree I like the models a lot as well. I just don't see the point of spending so much on the finecast model although everytime I see them I am tempted to get them (but I want 9-10 so you know that is $180-190 dollars almost for 180-200 points of models so it is just price that is preventing me from buying them)

I think if they could just keep the same models but make them in plastic that would be ideal.
Could they not just get a 3D scanner of some sort and scan the current models (or the molds) and bring it into a CAD file and make some tweaks to the model to make it into plastic? I don't see why they couldn't just do that.

 chiefbigredman wrote:

 Purifier wrote:

 chiefbigredman wrote:

I actually hope that they do change them over plastic models though. How I would like to buy some Skaven Jezzails but $62 for 3 finecast models worth a whopping 60 points is not worth it.

I actually like the model a lot, so I went on ebay and got myself a handful, but metal. Like I said, I love plastics, but while metal is also fine, finecast (ironically) is not even close to fine.
They're fantastic models though. Some of the easiest metal I've worked with. (Half my Skaven army is metal. Some if it just makes me cry.)

I agree I like the models a lot as well. I just don't see the point of spending so much on the finecast model although everytime I see them I am tempted to get them (but I want 9-10 so you know that is $180-190 dollars almost for 180-200 points of models so it is just price that is preventing me from buying them)

I think if they could just keep the same models but make them in plastic that would be ideal.
Could they not just get a 3D scanner of some sort and scan the current models (or the molds) and bring it into a CAD file and make some tweaks to the model to make it into plastic? I don't see why they couldn't just do that.

The tweaking would be as much work as buillding them from the ground up.

 chiefbigredman wrote:
Could they not just get a 3D scanner of some sort and scan the current models (or the molds) and bring it into a CAD file and make some tweaks to the model to make it into plastic? I don't see why they couldn't just do that.

It'd be a lot of work I think similar magnitude to just making a whole new model. Can't have any undercuts on plastic models, need some sort of draft angle so the moulds can be removed, and some details may be too much for plastic and need to be simplified.

Perfect Organism wrote:Guard haven't had any.

Guard still has tons of metal minis, including all of the old Tallarn, Steel Legion, Vostroyan, etc. guard lines. None of those have been swapped into finecast or plastic yet.

 Ailaros wrote:

Perfect Organism wrote:Guard haven't had any.

Guard still has tons of metal minis, including all of the old Tallarn, Steel Legion, Vostroyan, etc. guard lines. None of those have been swapped into finecast or plastic yet.

I'm talking about new releases. Not stuff which is still available; obviously there's loads of metal and resin figures still being sold. But they don't seem to be designing any new ones any more.

 Ailaros wrote:

Perfect Organism wrote:Guard haven't had any.

Guard still has tons of metal minis, including all of the old Tallarn, Steel Legion, Vostroyan, etc. guard lines. None of those have been swapped into finecast or plastic yet.

I do think GW are still willing to make failcast models where they are necessary, Lizardmen got quite a few finecast kits because they had several characters who needed models, I don't think it was practical to do an additional 3 or 4 plastic clamshells to account for them. An army like Imperial Guard is already fully stocked for its characters.

Though that was several months ago now, so maybe they're changing their stance to have no new finecast at all.

Oh, then no. GW hasn't made a new metal model in years. As in, since finecast first started.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:

 Ailaros wrote:

Perfect Organism wrote:Guard haven't had any.

Guard still has tons of metal minis, including all of the old Tallarn, Steel Legion, Vostroyan, etc. guard lines. None of those have been swapped into finecast or plastic yet.

I do think GW are still willing to make failcast models where they are necessary, Lizardmen got quite a few finecast kits because they had several characters who needed models, I don't think it was practical to do an additional 3 or 4 plastic clamshells to account for them. An army like Imperial Guard is already fully stocked for its characters.

Though that was several months ago now, so maybe they're changing their stance to have no new finecast at all.

Do you mean this guy?

Because he was metal before he went resin.


Or this guy?

because he is Forge World.

I am not an expert on them by any stretch of the mind though, I just can't seem to find one that started off as resin? Besides, even if they did, they could very well have been projects that were well under way when they decided to go away from resin where they just didn't want to throw away all the work.

Was Tetto'eko a Forge World model before? I never noticed if he was, thought he was more recent.

But Gor Rok and Chalax are new resin models from the latest release.

I think at least. Despite my username I took about a 5 year hiatus from Lizardmen and didn't really follow either of the past 2 releases for them, lol.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
Was Tetto'eko a Forge World model before? I never noticed if he was, thought he was more recent.

But Gor Rok and Chalax are new resin models from the latest release.

I think at least. Despite my username I took about a 5 year hiatus from Lizardmen and didn't really follow either of the past 2 releases for them, lol.

No, you're right, I was wrong.

I know Nids and Guard for 40k, and Dwarves for WFB didn't have any finecast releases, but the Hobbit models that came out last month were almost all finecast ($50 for one human character and a bear...)