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I dropped one of my FW dreadnaughts once and it landed on the gaming table without breaking and I considered myself very lucky. Resin can be fragile and I would definitely follow some model care guidelines. I'm by no means an expert so anyone please feel free to correct me or add to my ideas:

Do not let just anyone touch the models when they are on the table (without your permission and more importantly your trust). If they drop them from gaming table height to the ground they will almost certainly break. Possibly into more than a couple pieces.

Get a proper case. GW cases have been good for me but I'm sure battlefoam or another suitable substitute would be ok. Don't dump them into a tackle box or shoe box. Don't overload them or bunch them up in the case and pack them gently. Watch for pieces sticking up or out of the squares and don't put too much weight on them. Don't store the Imperial Armor book in the storage case with them.

Be careful not to apply too much force when gluing a limb or weapon to the main body as it may snap. Pinning would be ideal.

Learn to hate people who lean over the game table or try to scoot past you and bump the table. Hate them like heretics who must be burned and purged. Hate people who throw dice like untrained animals. Guard your DKoK like they are your children.. you know.. if you love your children.

Yes, resin is more fragile than plastic. But there is a up side to this. Plastic bends, resin snaps. This is a good thing as it will usually be a clean break. A little super glue and paint, and it goes right back together.

They need to make a pinned thread for FW and other resin pieces care and handling

Well my forgeworld bits arrived today

all seemed pretty good to me. I ordered mk3 and mk 5 armour

only real problem was alot of solid resin within the chestpiece (where it joins the legs) but a modelling knife/clippers solved that.

I didnt file them at all due to all the paranoia about dust! but tbh I didnt actually need to!

so not bad so far as a first experience!

Yeah, I found the bit inside the torsos a bit fiddly to remove too

Forge World is ok for anything but the Titans.

Stay away from the Titans.

Goddard wrote:Forge World is ok for anything but the Titans.

Stay away from the Titans.

this might sound stupid, but why?


(apart from the obvious reasons like they're hard as hell to assemble and they're super duper expensive.)

Not even their titans are safe from bad casting, missing parts or slow part replacement.

Salted Diamond wrote:Yes, resin is more fragile than plastic. But there is a up side to this. Plastic bends, resin snaps. This is a good thing as it will usually be a clean break. A little super glue and paint, and it goes right back together.

IMO this is what makes FW unacceptable for game play pieces. For the modeler, (painting competition entrant, display guy, painter etc) they are great subjects, but if a player is looking to handle them and or transport hem, they are just to fragile. Especially the infantry models, many of which wont even survive the pressure of despruing with a razor knife. I had this issue recently with the space marine Sargent conversion pack, the sword for which is just so teeny as to be unworkable, even for modeling.

Building a display? GOLDEN
Building a play army? TROUBLE

BrookM wrote:Not even their titans are safe from bad casting, missing parts or slow part replacement.

personally i love the titans, they are great models to build, id gladly build another now if i had one.

as for resin the only thing i really hate is when it warps, i have 2 fw hydras and the barrels where warped like mad. as said before resins snaps and glues together beautifully. its an easy material to pin, glue and magnetize and for limited run pieces or large pieces with limited sales its a far more commercially viable material

and as for the thread topic i think FW is worth it, the pieces that are comparable to GW plastic kits are only a few pounds more generally, no more than the extra sprue or 2 would cost, and for making ur army that little bit more unique/special it worth the money for the odd bit

fox40 wrote:

BrookM wrote:Not even their titans are safe from bad casting, missing parts or slow part replacement.

personally i love the titans, they are great models to build, id gladly build another now if i had one.

as for resin the only thing i really hate is when it warps, i have 2 fw hydras and the barrels where warped like mad. as said before resins snaps and glues together beautifully. its an easy material to pin, glue and magnetize and for limited run pieces or large pieces with limited sales its a far more commercially viable material

and as for the thread topic i think FW is worth it, the pieces that are comparable to GW plastic kits are only a few pounds more generally, no more than the extra sprue or 2 would cost, and for making ur army that little bit more unique/special it worth the money for the odd bit

Exactly how easy did you find it to be when you were pinning the models? Is it better than using super glue, or should super glue and pinning be used together? Is it a good idea to use on smaller models?

personally i only pin if its a part i dont want to glue i.e i can take it apart (my titan bodies are pinned so i can pull apart for painting. the rest of the titans are glued or magnetized) i also use pins for weak parts to add strength as well as glueing.
if you use magnets be sure to sink them in as it holds so much better than surface mounted.

how do you go about sinking the magnets in?

Drilling/filing?

Oh god, don't ever magnetize titans or other huge resin models that need balance.

I know this one guy who magnetized his warhound arms and torso to transport it easier. However, one time while he was assembling it, the torso fell off and split in two. Pinning is far the safer option, especially with huge resin models.

Also the best option for magnetizing IMO is drilling to the size of the magnet, if you try to file it, well it gets messy.

"nods" i will go with that if I decide to magnetize anything!

currently its glueing in place all the way lol

Goddard wrote:Forge World is ok for anything but the Titans.

Stay away from the Titans.

Actually I think Fragile Resin is probably more dangerous for breaking thinner bits (about 2-3 mm) on smaller play pieces and ok for larger thick pieces on titans, but I have seen it with some deformities that are tough to correct in large models too, especially the Thunderhawk kit, where the thick wings and flaps, and the U channel of the main hull don't fit quite right and there's not much that can be done except to sand out a chunk and clamp it down.

Also, sorry for the OT but your Avatar Goddard, well it totally looks like Vanilla Ice in Blood Angels Armor, sorry, no offense but it made me LOL, see?



Werd to your mother!
Checkout the hook while Blood Angels Revolve it...

I think the hair is to strange for a space marine, but the rest works, that's from Dawn of War 2 right?

htj wrote:Don't forget warped long bits! The little FW stuff I've bought that's been the major annoyance for me, standing in the sink, carefully bending resin under the hot tap.

I'd say that FW is probably too expensive for what you get, but does it ever look nice. An utter decadence, but a satisfying one.

I could not have said that better. Exactly what I though and was about to post.

doubleT wrote:

htj wrote:Don't forget warped long bits! The little FW stuff I've bought that's been the major annoyance for me, standing in the sink, carefully bending resin under the hot tap.

I'd say that FW is probably too expensive for what you get, but does it ever look nice. An utter decadence, but a satisfying one.

I could not have said that better. Exactly what I though and was about to post.

So heres a question, i just got my dozer blades today and one looks perfect. The other is a little warped so how long does it take for the resin to warm up enough under hot water for it to be set straight and once i do that will it warp again?

^
Depends how hot the tap is, i'd give it a minute to heat up initially, test how flexible the resin has become (gently)
its hard to explain but you can feel the resin bend smoothly with very little resistance, if its still rigid, give it another 30 seconds etc etc
When you have reworked the dozer blade straight, just hold it for 30 seconds or so, and it should stay in its new form
Word or warning though, dont shove it under a cold tap to try to cool it quicker, it can cause the peice to crack if your unlucky.


Back OT, from a gaming perspective, I dont think FW stuff is as user friendly or worth the money you pay for the fragility that comes with it.
But form a modelling perspective i think they are, if I were to sum up the amount ive spent on FW models i'd cry, but the amount of enjoyment from building my dioramas out of their models more than justify the price

Dan

misfit wrote:

doubleT wrote:

htj wrote:Don't forget warped long bits! The little FW stuff I've bought that's been the major annoyance for me, standing in the sink, carefully bending resin under the hot tap.

I'd say that FW is probably too expensive for what you get, but does it ever look nice. An utter decadence, but a satisfying one.

I could not have said that better. Exactly what I though and was about to post.

So heres a question, i just got my dozer blades today and one looks perfect. The other is a little warped so how long does it take for the resin to warm up enough under hot water for it to be set straight and once i do that will it warp again?

Use warm, not boiling, water and just keep feeling the resin to see how soft it is becoming, but it could be a matter of seconds for the smaller parts like little guns. If the resin becomes too soft you're in danger of deforming the piece in a manner which won't be easy to correct. But as long as you take your time it'll be fine, this is why I say not to use boiling water.

I've never known resin to crack after being dipped into cold water but I've never handled really large pieces of resin, maybe it's a risk with them. If you use warm and cool water, rather than hot and cold there shouldn't be a problem.

if you are going to put FW stuff together i suggest using epoxy and not superglue, i would rather have the super strong bond especally for large models and titans.

Don't go from hot to ice-cold.
Thermal shock is what kills it (too great a difference in temperatures).

Cool/tepid tap water should be fine from warm (NOT boiling) water, though. If it's cold enough to raise goose bumps, it's TOO cold.

I think it is... Mind you, I'm more into painting, competition painting, and general use for D&D as opposed to warhammer.

So for me, I only care about cool looking models. I've even started selling some old ral partha models, etc to replace with better looking reaper, GW equivalents, or other company resins (ie. sold an old griffon, and chimera as got the maelstrom chimaera and a CMON griffon which look miles better).

Regards,

Sanjay

misfit wrote:

doubleT wrote:

htj wrote:Don't forget warped long bits! The little FW stuff I've bought that's been the major annoyance for me, standing in the sink, carefully bending resin under the hot tap.

I'd say that FW is probably too expensive for what you get, but does it ever look nice. An utter decadence, but a satisfying one.

I could not have said that better. Exactly what I though and was about to post.

So heres a question, i just got my dozer blades today and one looks perfect. The other is a little warped so how long does it take for the resin to warm up enough under hot water for it to be set straight and once i do that will it warp again?

Don't bother, send it back as defective, it will never be right. That doesn't work, the hot water thing is a myth, once resin has cured it is in the shape it is in, it's an exothermic chemical cure, heating it up after it cures to make it bendy doesn't work because it's resin, all it will do is cure it more in the messed up shape, then when you try to bend it it will snap.

It might be a little churlish to bring this up but for a supposed 'premium' product with premium prices, I sense very little annoyance here that people have to bend warped resin to fix it. Surely for the price paid, the end consumer should not have to faff about with kettles and taps to fix FW's quality control? It surprises me that so many are willing to put up with it. I mean, I wouldn't pay £100k for a sports car and then be expected to bore the pistons or something...

Forge rip off is not worth it because for the price you pay their quality control is horrible and there not much reason to buy their stuff unless you play Apocalypse.

There are enough 3rd party stuff like maxmini, and bitspudo making stuff for 40k stuff there is no GW model for that you can get by without buying forge rip off. These companies often have better sculpts and better quality control then forge rip off as well for less money.

Augustus..

it does work. I put a punisher cannon into VERY hot water and it was quite 'soft' after. I was moving it quite a bit before i decided what angle to set it at (the guns were bit crooked)

Sanjay

i find it totally worth it and worth the time to put them together.

filbert wrote:It might be a little churlish to bring this up but for a supposed 'premium' product with premium prices, I sense very little annoyance here that people have to bend warped resin to fix it. Surely for the price paid, the end consumer should not have to faff about with kettles and taps to fix FW's quality control? It surprises me that so many are willing to put up with it. I mean, I wouldn't pay £100k for a sports car and then be expected to bore the pistons or something...

In their defense, I think the resin problems tend to cluster around the big pieces. They should still be better, but I'd give them a small pass as the large shapes may have a warping problem. It'd be even less of an issue if their customer support was better.

In all honesty, I don't find warped resin(whether it be from Forge World or anywhere else) an issue.

I have to clean the models anyways. If I use warm water to clean it, I can fix the issue then.