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Ivan Isaaks wrote:The store I went to had a 50% off sale on all of their left over metal figures (15 euro for a box of plague marines is not a deal I can ignore) so I blew all my money on those hehe.

A sale caused you to blow all your money? 50% is a lot, yes, but I'm wondering if there's a message here for a certain company...

I am debating on seeing if my FLGS has metal models I could snag before its too late..

Ill put some pics up of the following when they arrive... before any returns.

imperial guard commissar yarrick
imperial guard lord commissar

ork warboss with attack squig

space marines librarian in terminator armour
space marines vanguard veteran squad

space wolves canis wolfborn

tau sniper drone team

tyranid hive tyrant
tyranid lictor
tyranid zoanthrope

From what the manager at my GW told me the price increase combined with the new finecast was just terrible timing on their part. He said the prices were going up anyway so if the finecast came early they would have been cheaper and then gone right back up due to the price increase. He said GW would have been better off holding off finecast for another couple weeks as it would've made more customers happy.

Grimtuff wrote:They may be using different moulds but the masters are exactly the same ones, so the "extra detail" being seen is purely an illusion caused by the dullness of Resin.

We've already covered that one several times now as well. Using the same masters (and even using the same moulds, if they were doing so) does not mean that the resins can only be as detailed as the metals.

Grimtuff wrote:
They may be using different moulds but the masters are exactly the same ones, so the "extra detail" being seen is purely an illusion caused by the dullness of Resin.

I dont think that is strictly true, afterall, the metal does shrink slightly when it hardens, therefor making some parts stand out less.
Im not sticking up for them though !
It seems the general consensus among people i know is that these slight defects would be ok on the introduction of a new line, if they were run of the mill models.
But, these are more expensive, and they claim to be the best models there are !!!

We don't know enough about the physical properties of the metal alloy, the resin type, or the mould types, to definitively say that metal yields less detail than resin in the same mould.

All I know is that I am very happy with the detail on both the Infinity and the Studio McVey models.

Kilkrazy wrote:

All I know is that I am very happy with the detail on both the Infinity and the Studio McVey models.

True... Im going to push it now, but my last purchased miniatures are superior in casting they are metal with almost invisible mouldlines and are tons of fun... No stress no faulty stuff just clean and paint... and they are 15mm miniatures. Color me happy

I bought a Farseer and warlock set in my Local GW today, and the guy who sold me it (I know him pretty well now) insisted on opening the box to check the contents before selling it to me, as he himself had bought the same box and had some major miscasts. True enough, the Farseer was missing a whole arm (a seperate piece), and half his head (ouch). One of the Warlocks also had some serious bubble damage (in about 3 places). So he grabbed another box, opened it. The farseer in this one was fine (1 minor bubble which i can fill with glue or putty) and one of the warlocks was again damaged by bubbles (though a different pose one this time).

The box contains 1 farseer and 3 warlocks. GW guy actually let me walk away with 1 farseer, and 5 of the warlocks for no extra cost. So in all, i got the full box which i bought (all good condition) plus 2 slightly bubbled warlocks for free.

Seems that certain casts especially have alot of issues, whilst others are completely fine. If you buy a boxed set where you cannot see the contents before buying, i suggest you open it in store.

I'm going to wait on finecast for a few months, and see if things have gotten better by then or if Finecast has been discontinued

If neither of these happy events has taken place i'm sticking to plastics and converting.

RaptorsTallon wrote:
However, some prices, such as 5 Blood Knights £61.50, are absurd. How can 5 knights, even in finecast, be as expensive for GW to make as a Baneblade?

Well, they aren't. of course!

GW has been using a inversely proportional formula of amount you need/can have to cost for a while now...

Sort of!

Look at Casket of soul, CHEAP in points , CHEAP in materials.

But why so expensive? because its one of the most point efficient unit in Fantasy atm.

I hate you GW ! i wanted 2 or 3 of those

Actually i dont hate GW , if i truly hate them i would buy 1 fine cast, and perhaps it would multiply into 3 ... from what we have been seeing

Oh and they also fine cost Spear Chukka. who on EARTH makes resins of that!?

Droma wrote:From what the manager at my GW told me the price increase combined with the new finecast was just terrible timing on their part. He said the prices were going up anyway so if the finecast came early they would have been cheaper and then gone right back up due to the price increase. He said GW would have been better off holding off finecast for another couple weeks as it would've made more customers happy.

As far as I know only some of the plastic kits got a raise, and none of the metals, so it looks like he told you a little bs story there.

Can I ask a question, a lot of people through this thread have been commenting that lead is harder to paint or chips easily.

As I refuse to help prop up GWs overpriced mental sales policy, I stopped collecting much of their stuff years ago and switched to WW2/WW1 etc which means the majority of what I paint be it rank and file or characters is metal, If anything I find metal easier to paint and more robust, is this just me? (sailing off topic I know, but "I gots to know")

Kilkrazy wrote:We don't know enough about the physical properties of the metal alloy, the resin type, or the mould types, to definitively say that metal yields less detail than resin in the same mould.

The Carnosaur pictures someone posted earlier are a definite hint, though. The difference there definitely wasn't just down to the different photographic properties of the materials... The detail on the resin was noticable clearer and sharper.

Zathras wrote:

htj wrote:

Temujin wrote:

Ehsteve wrote:Can't wait to see Inquisitorial assassins in finecast, I need a new vindicator...

Wouldn't a vindicator make a rather conspicuous and unsubtle assassin?

Reckon it'd get the job done, though.

It'd put a whole new meaning to the term "BOOM....HEADSHOT!!!!"

Does your tank have a 4+ dodge save?

And I need a vindicare (yes vindicare) since the silencer on the rifle snapped off, after seeing the kind of punishment resin-plastic can take, I think it would be a welcome change seeing all the times both I and other people have managed to knock that top-heavy model from a building.

On a different note, the omniscient axe on my Techmarine is bent and i've heard throughout this thread hot water is the way to fix this. Are we talking boiling water or just hot tap water? I just don't want to damage the resin after I got such a good cast.

How did you snap the silencer off? What were you doing to the model that caused that to happen?

Don't fool yourself.

The "NU METAL" resin is garbage. snapping off weapons, miscasts, and bubbles are looking like the norm, rather then the exception.

As to the material?

Its low grade resin, I've seen better in the hobby store. Only reason they are getting rid of the metals is so people can't start showing them up and casting thier own for 1/4 or less the price.

One thing I can say that is a plus about the Res-bortion.

Expect GW to be able to increase those C and D letter influx of funds to offset the loss, and the competition of third party companies to be able to upstart them and give you a better selection for less.

At this point, the "Discount " would be to sell those crapsicles at thier REAL production price.


!@#$ing gak reminds me of the toys that you get in europe out of those chocolate eggs, with the same consistancy of the plastic that the eggs come in.



"And I need a vindicare (yes vindicare) since the silencer on the rifle snapped off, after seeing the kind of punishment resin-plastic can take, I think it would be a welcome change seeing all the times both I and other people have managed to knock that top-heavy model from a building.

On a different note, the omniscient axe on my Techmarine is bent and i've heard throughout this thread hot water is the way to fix this. Are we talking boiling water or just hot tap water? I just don't want to damage the resin after I got such a good cast."

Hey, buddy.

Someone should have told you...

Those models only get the +4 save IN THE GAME. In real life, they are brittle as !@#$. (NO SAVES FOR YOU!!!)

Ehsteve wrote:On a different note, the omniscient axe on my Techmarine is bent and i've heard throughout this thread hot water is the way to fix this. Are we talking boiling water or just hot tap water? I just don't want to damage the resin after I got such a good cast.

Hot tap water. It turns flexible pretty quick so dont overdo it.

pixelpusher wrote:

Ehsteve wrote:On a different note, the omniscient axe on my Techmarine is bent and i've heard throughout this thread hot water is the way to fix this. Are we talking boiling water or just hot tap water? I just don't want to damage the resin after I got such a good cast.

Hot tap water. It turns flexible pretty quick so dont overdo it.

Boiling water resin turns it back to liquid. Remember when you boiled your mouth-guard for football? SAME thing, but... worse.

insaniak wrote:

Kilkrazy wrote:We don't know enough about the physical properties of the metal alloy, the resin type, or the mould types, to definitively say that metal yields less detail than resin in the same mould.

The Carnosaur pictures someone posted earlier are a definite hint, though. The difference there definitely wasn't just down to the different photographic properties of the materials... The detail on the resin was noticable clearer and sharper.

I agree, it appears that when they get it right, they get it very right.

I've seen good ones, and they're pretty good

The rest though, not so much..

insaniak wrote:

Kilkrazy wrote:We don't know enough about the physical properties of the metal alloy, the resin type, or the mould types, to definitively say that metal yields less detail than resin in the same mould.

The Carnosaur pictures someone posted earlier are a definite hint

, though. The difference there definitely wasn't just down to the different photographic properties of the materials... The detail on the resin was noticable clearer and sharper.

How do you factor in how old the metal carnosaur mold was , compared to this new finecast ones?

There are too many unchecked variables to make that conclusion.

The conclusion that the detail on the resin was clearer and sharper was based on the fact that in the pictures provided, the detail on the resin was clearer and sharper.

GW have historically been pretty good at keeping the moulds for their metals in good condition.

Well, seeing as how I dicked around all night lastnight I never got a chance to go the store and check out the Finecast stuff on release day, so I took a trip up there today and checked it out.

Turns out it was pretty slim pickings...if my store did get a few blisters, they were all gone by the time I got there. All I saw was 40k stuff, no WHF or LotR Finecast at all (both seem to be less popular at my store so it makes sense that they probably wouldn't have gotten any at all, or very few). They had Lelith and Urien for DE, two Eldar autarchs, one Castellan Crowe, two Astoraths, one Dante, one Abaddon, two jump pack chaplains, and a Logan Grimnar. They also had a box of incubi, a lictor, and a hive tyrant (almost $60? good god man). I took a look at Abaddon immediately and I have to say I do think the resin one looks much better...even though the model is ancient I found myself tempted to buy it just because. I never noticed how much detail the model had until now. I was hoping I could just pick up a succubus blister or something since I already had an unopened metal one I could compare it to, but they didn't have any so I was looking at the Lelith models...and passed on both of them. One of them had an obviously miscast right foot which would have required me learning how to sculpt toes, but other than that the model looked fairly clean, and the other one was slightly messier and her left foot wasn't even attached to the pole on the base. Didn't want Urien, didn't need Abaddon (strictly buying what I need for DE and taking a good long break from GW), so I took a gamble and bought an incubi box.

I mentioned the fact at the register that I had read about Finecast models online (to which the guy said they were supposed to be really good), but I told him I hadn't heard that and that I was pretty worried about what I was going to get in said box since I couldn't inspect it beforehand...I told him that I'd heard of people getting shorted a whole model on the incubi boxes in particular and that there were a lot of miscasts. They only had one box of incubi, so if I got a bad cast then I was screwed and would have to put in a call to GW customer service (seriously, if they try to tell me I have to ship the gak back to them on my dime, because of their* screw up, I'd have probably given them a piece of my mind over it). Anyway, after I paid I went out to the car and opened the box, and I think I must have just gotten lucky because I had all five models for one, and a look at each individual model didn't show anything real terrible. There are some holes here and there, the worst one being the edge of a shoulderpad not formed right/broken off, and one of the horns on the helmet is a little bit shorter than the other one because the tip appears to be broken off, but other than that they seem pretty decent. A lot of flash, which as others have said comes off with almost no effort so no big deal...some mold lines that look kinda intimidating but I'm taking everyone's word for it that they should come off easily. One thing I find concerning is that some areas look kinda rough or porous, instead of being completely smooth and crisp.

I happen to have a box of the metals that are still unassembled, so I compared the two directly. In my honest opinion, after looking very closely (and possibly straining my eyes a little too much), I have to say that some details on the Finecast models did look a little sharper or crisper than the metal counterparts, but I'm not entirely sure if that's just a trick due to the way metal reflects light or if the resin really is better-detailed.

So, final verdict: while some details do appear finer than the metal counterparts, I think it's probably offset by the fact that I now have certain things to deal with that I didn't before, like holes/air bubbles in flat surfaces that must be filled, and the fact that the new material just feels weird holding it in my hand...it just feels brittle and like if I'm not careful with it I could end up breaking something, especially fiddly bits like spikes and horns, so if you're a Dark Eldar player then keep that in mind when handling the models. Other than that I don't really have anything scathingly negative or fanboyishly positive to say about them, other than the fact that the sculpts themselves are still as badass as they looked before. When I first saw those blurry pictures leaked back around October I knew I'd have to have them.

If I did have one negative thing to say though, it'd be the god-damned PRICE. I can't tell you how mad I was when I walked up to the register knowing full well I'd have to spend an extra $6-7 on the same damn models I bought in November, especially when combined with the fact that buying them in the first place was a huge gamble considering all the negative things I'd heard about Finecast here on Dakka. However I'm happy to say I wasn't disappointed and that I won't need to call GW for replacements...assuming I didn't miss some glaring flaw in them that I'll discover later on when assembling them. Well...disappointed in the models, that is, the price is still infuriating and it's only going to get worse year after year.

Also, sorry for the lack of pictures, I don't have access to a camera so if you're interested in comparison shots it'll have to wait until at least tomorrow...going to my parents house for a barbeque and I might borrow theirs since I need to list some things on eBay.



*I guess when putting emphasis on a word it helps if you spell it right.

Yes, please post the comparison pictures.

I think you did not see much difference because the metal Incubi came out of brand new molds. That is something i learned over the years: buy the metal stuff the day it gets released, because as the molds age the detail becomes less sharp. I am looking forward to seeing people post 1 to 1 comparisons of primed (preferably gray) models so that we can see if the change in detail is actually there.

Glad you got lucky with the box.

thebadabwar wrote:Yes, please post the comparison pictures.

I think you did not see much difference because the metal Incubi came out of brand new molds. That is something i learned over the years: buy the metal stuff the day it gets released, because as the molds age the detail becomes less sharp. I am looking forward to seeing people post 1 to 1 comparisons of primed (preferably gray) models so that we can see if the change in detail is actually there.

Glad you got lucky with the box.

Molds running metal don't loose detail overtime, except as a result of tearout. I've seen the same mold for a shield in service for years, and it was only retired because it had been over-vulcanized enough by the heat of the metal being run through it so much that it was no longer sealing properly, so that the parts were always flashy. The detail itself was just as good as the day it was made.

What I've seen with GW metals is that it seems they often pay a bit more attention to quality and running the molds hot and fast enough to ensure crisp fill with new releases, then let it slide for restocking. If the mold is too cool/not spun fast enough, it doesn't quite force the metal into the fine details of the cavity enough, leading to a more "washed out" appearance. Having talked to people that have worked doing casting for GW, they do tend to a "grab off the shelf and run" set-up, expecting to keep castings from the very first spin, and not needing to worry about keeping a mold hot, which is why you see such generous venting on their metal models.

What is the heat tolerance on the Finecast material? Summers here get pretty hot (45C/113F), would there be a risk of coming home to a Raider of the Lost Ark-style mess on my model shelf?

My one FC model thus far, looks really nice. Sorry the pictures don't show more, out of town with only my camera phone.

Ehsteve wrote:

Zathras wrote:

htj wrote:

Temujin wrote:

Ehsteve wrote:Can't wait to see Inquisitorial assassins in finecast, I need a new vindicator...

Wouldn't a vindicator make a rather conspicuous and unsubtle assassin?

Reckon it'd get the job done, though.

It'd put a whole new meaning to the term "BOOM....HEADSHOT!!!!"

Does your tank have a 4+ dodge save?

When she hides behind a wall, rubble or trees, yes she does.