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Greetings,

Looking through the Imperial Armor booklets recently, I have been very tempted to order from Forgeworld. Seeing that prices were very high I decided to scope out reviews and youtube video unboxings before I made an order. What I have found is that there are more than a few people who say that resin and casting quality is terrible. Pitting and bent pieces made from low quality materials.

My question: Is there any truth to this? What is your experience?

Yep, its almost always awful. If you finish their job for them, then they look great. Just you have to pay a lot and do their job to get it.

So if you enjoy heating up your models in warm water to bend them straight, shaving model joints to get them to fit and cleaning all the lubricant whatever stuff off them. Then go ahead

Once all thats done the models are amazing though. But it will take effort.

I've had significantly better quality from garage resin kits than I have had with forgeworld... And with better customer service too.

Yes, for large and complicated models the assembly can take some time (Storm Eagle, I'm looking at you), but it's not really hard. And complaining that you have to wash the resin pieces before assembly is a bit unfair I think. I don't think you should ever try to assemble or paint a resin model without washing.

I think the FW customer service is great, I got a replacement part within a couple of days (international delivery) when I sent in a complaint.

Yeah FW customer service is excellent.

 SilverMK2 wrote:
I've had significantly better quality from garage resin kits than I have had with forgeworld... And with better customer service too.

I doubt that, given any issue I've had has been fixed next day, special delivery. Once six months after purchase, when other half was slow at building.

95% of the parts I've had have been fine. Generally only long thin parts, like gun barrels, have issues with warping. Not had any pitting. Mould release you do have to clean off, but that takes about ten minutes for a war hound...

ive only had afew of things from forgeworld (tank,10 cataphractii and some world eater pads). Only ever had few problems, on the tank 1 of the outter hulls was warped, and had a slight bit missing (air bubble) both easy to solve and werent major. Cataphractii needed of cleaning of flash (nothing new with resin). Then theres the cleaning of the releasing agent this i can never seem to do so great but thats my problem not forgeworld. Only real problem i had was with my world eater pads, they sent some weathering powder instead . but the costomer service was great, (tho i sugest ringing as email can take some time) my problem was solved right away and pads disbatched next day and i got to keep the weathing powder

all in all i think if you dont mind paying the price and these minor issues that take all of a 10 mins to fix for the amazing models i think its well worht it

The only thing i have heard of that is highly problematic are their realm of battle tiles. Read several reports of different people that had the paint come off although they washed them intensively.
Other than that the kits that i have worked with were all fine. I have build caestus, thallax, GK Dread and some GK Special characters so far.

I've bought a few things from FW, mostly they've been good, unfortunately the only bad things I've gotten where some Aeronautica Imperialis aircraft right before they were dropped, so I couldn't get a replacement for them anyway.

They are a bit of work to put together, bending things to try and be straight and I find cleanup is more of a hassle than plastic (I think Peregrine will disagree with me ).

The quality control is poor for the price you're paying. Though I guess good quality control is tricky because you'd have to spend a bit of time examining the models, it's not always clear at first glance that a model has flaws.

I have tons of FW models over the years.

I have had a few missing parts and in one case a board that was cracked.

They immediately shipped me new/replacement parts without question.

Their Customer Service is amazing and the model quality is amazing. I have read about these horror stories but i literally have bought more than 400 models from them over the years and they are top notch.

now.. many are VERY difficult to put together and require a lot of patience! that much is true

Terrible, considering the money you pay for them. but they are very cool, which is what matters,

I've built my entire SM army as the Red Scorpions, the only problems I've had with their kits was the ones with symbols and purity seals, they tend to have an excessive amount of flashing. Other than that, the quality is high and very good. I did have them replace the Rhino Doors Kit two times, since they didn't fit the front, but I've always have good experiences with their customer service with quick responses and quick postage.

Currently I'm making my IG army and I'm using these as veterans, 25+ torsos and special weapons, not a single bad cast.
http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Warhammer-40000/Imperial_Guard/Cadian_Shock_Troops/CADIAN_HOSTILE_ENVIRONMENT_TROOPS_CONVERSION_SET.html
http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Warhammer-40000/Imperial_Guard/Cadian_Shock_Troops/CADIAN_HOSTILE_ENVIRONMENT_TROOPS_MELTA_SQUAD.html
Overall though, I'll agree with that even though the quality is fine, one could expect better from such premium prices.

I've only bought a few forgeworld models (arms for Dreadnoughts, Deimos Predator), but I have found the quality to be unbelievably bad for how much you pay. Warped barrels, un-flat hull sections, flashing, missing detail.

Everything I've gotten from them has been totally fine. That being said, if you have a problem, ring them up and they'll send you a replacement at no extra charge. Their customer service is every bit as good as GW prime's.

Hmm... so they do have bad casts from time to time then? That's unacceptable. I have built a number of tamiya models and revell kits and I have never had pitting or warping. Bad quality control is inexcusable at those prices. I bought a Chinese Gundam fake Deathscythe years ago from aliexpress that had bad casting, but the whole kit was around $7. This is unsettling news...

Hardly, when they send out replacement parts at no cost very quickly if you ring them up.

Forge World quality is decent. Certain fiddly bits will often be bent, but thats a failing of resin itself and not Forge World's issue. Any resin piece thats thin will have problems.

Their larger kits don't have the problems that smaller kits will have.

I have gotten a few things from them and never personally had a problem.

ImAGeek wrote:
Hardly, when they send out replacement parts at no cost very quickly if you ring them up.

This doesn't seem to be a good company practice though. Sending out faulty products, but replacing for those who complain. Im sure a lot of people just dont bother to complain at all. It seems to me that a better practice would be to upgrade quality control.

Well maybe but it's clearly working for them.

nosferatu1001 wrote:

 SilverMK2 wrote:
I've had significantly better quality from garage resin kits than I have had with forgeworld... And with better customer service too.

I doubt that, given any issue I've had has been fixed next day, special delivery. Once six months after purchase, when other half was slow at building.

Yeah... If you can ring them... And if they are not at one of the GW events (or about 3 weeks after one). Or it is around Christmas, new yeah and most school holidays.

If you email? You may as well resign yourself to a couple of months before they bother to answer anything. And all of the issues I have had with the several fw kits I have are issues which should never have occurred in the first place, especially given the price of their kits and the volume of sales and experienced cadsters they must have.

I noticed my Titan was missing a very small little piece. I email'd them and got the part 5 days later.

 Grey Templar wrote:
Forge World quality is decent. Certain fiddly bits will often be bent, but thats a failing of resin itself and not Forge World's issue. Any resin piece thats thin will have problems.

Their larger kits don't have the problems that smaller kits will have.

I have gotten a few things from them and never personally had a problem.

Same here. The only issue I had was an accident where they double packed the front cockpit window for the Avenger instead of one front and one rear. They sent out a replacement for both free of charge.

Seeing as I've had a mispacked CSM Battleforce (they missed the entire champion upgrade sprue), something like that wasn't so bad in comparison.

I've had missing parts, bad casts, excessive flash, all the usual.

They get replacement parts to you quickly, but my ONE GRIPE is that they don't actually check the replacement parts. They just ship what they have around. A few times I've had the replacement be worse or be bad in a different way.

That and I wish they'd stop shipping their stuff in what is basically a garbage bag. Without enough bubble-wrapping often enough.

That said, their customer service is good (contrary to some posters in this thread I always get a reply e-mail in a few days max). But with their prices, their QC should be better.

I've got a full Death Korps army and my Minotaurs use a lot of forgeworld as well.

1) Multi-part kits don't fit well together. I used a fair bit of greenstuff to make the Death Korps fit together properly, though their character models don't seem to have this issue, and it's minimal on tanks. My Leman Russes went together without a fuss, as did Asterion Moloc. Squads are the issue primarily. Once, I would have said this is just an issue with resin being more prone to changing shape between casting and final delivery, but having now built several other resin infantry squads without a fuss, it's definitely a FW thing.

2) Warping. While nowhere near as severe as it once was, most big kits will have some slight warping (but then so do GW's big plastic kits, I'm looking at you Baneblade). Forgeworld's resin is quite soft, so while it's easy to reshape things, it's all too easy for it to be warped in the first place. Doesn't crack or break like Finecrap or other cheaper resins, but requires a fair bit of maintenance.

These are minor issues, out of 75 Death Korps from varous kits, Moloc and Enkomi, Hekaton Aiakos (special contemptor dread) and 3 Death Korps leman russes, I've only had one actually ruined model; the vox caster from the Death Korps command squad was partially melted, which was replaced by FW within a week, and that's traveling to the other side of the planet.

I would say, however, overall that their prices really are too high for the quality of the product for most kits, especially if you're doing a FW army; their art design is fantastic, much better than GW prime, but their resin just doesn't hold up for the price. It's a running joke that the Chinese and Russian recasts are often a higher quality; and having seen a Sicaran and Macharius recast, I'd say its pretty accurate (though more prone to breaking as they use a harder resin).

nosferatu1001 wrote:

 SilverMK2 wrote:
I've had significantly better quality from garage resin kits than I have had with forgeworld... And with better customer service too.

I doubt that, given any issue I've had has been fixed next day, special delivery. Once six months after purchase, when other half was slow at building.

You get that he was just offering his opinion based on his experience right? You also realise that his experience may vary wildly from yours?

You have absolutely no right to "doubt" anything he offers on that basis. Unless of course you have some sort of evidence he's lying?

Good lord, it comes to some thing when people get told their own experiences and opinions are wrong.

As for the OP - it's pretty much all been covered. Yes, the quality can vary, but if there is an issue it will generally be resolved with little questioning. Whether a company that charges such a premium for their product is really justified in conducting things in this way, and not simply ensuring a much higher percentage of their product goes out of the door in A1 condition, and whether you're prepared to indulge in the necessary to-ing and fro-ing should you get a bad cast, only you can decide.

 mitch_rifle wrote:
Terrible, considering the money you pay for them. but they are very cool, which is what matters,

your an aussie are you serious about the price of FW? its cheaper than GW. the price is rather reasonable by comparison.
iv had a few models, and things about putting them together, thunderhawk had a couple of warped panels.... they are huge and flat.. it happens, and i got some of the palantine blades. the swords were warped a bit. but thats thin flimsy swords, fellblade (had a barrel wtih an errection)

now to add to the list of other stuff i have got, i have armor kits for pred/rhinos, rhino doors cataphracti terminators, warhound, glaive, fulgrim, nurgle marines etc etc, and they are MINT....

customer service is pure GW, which is to say, some of the best without having a best mate behind the counter.. a problem is solved that day..

 SilverMK2 wrote:

nosferatu1001 wrote:

 SilverMK2 wrote:
I've had significantly better quality from garage resin kits than I have had with forgeworld... And with better customer service too.

I doubt that, given any issue I've had has been fixed next day, special delivery. Once six months after purchase, when other half was slow at building.

Yeah... If you can ring them... And if they are not at one of the GW events (or about 3 weeks after one). Or it is around Christmas, new yeah and most school holidays.

If you email? You may as well resign yourself to a couple of months before they bother to answer anything. And all of the issues I have had with the several fw kits I have are issues which should never have occurred in the first place, especially given the price of their kits and the volume of sales and experienced cadsters they must have.

False, I've had multiple emails to forgeworld from things on legality questions to checking up on delivieries, they were mostly answered in under 24H.

And in any case, none of my models have had even a tiny warping or bubble so far. a bit fleshing, but that's it.

(and the extreme amount of excess resin you get with your models can be used for bases and terrain, so that's nice)

I've had a mixed bag in terms of quality, but they've replaced everything I complained about in short order.

I've gotten worse kits from other manufacturers, but their QC could definitely warrant some work.

 BoomWolf wrote:

False, I've had multiple emails to forgeworld from things on legality questions to checking up on delivieries, they were mostly answered in under 24H.

Good for you. The multiple issues I've had with different FW models which I've attempted to email FW to resolve have all resulted in lengthy periods of time before they even bothered replying, let alone actually doing anything to fix things.

The first FW model I bought they shipped 2 of the same hull component (so I could not even start construction on the model as it was a large, single piece) and it took them over 3 weeks to reply to my first email - I eventually broke down after about 2 months of not hearing anything for weeks after each email and phoned them a couple of times; despite what people here have been saying about their phone support being excellent in my case, they were singularly unhelpful.

After a few more issues with a few more models (strangely I've had significant issues with every model I've had from them - perhaps they just don't like me ), I've stopped bothering with them.

As mentioned in my original post, I have found that garage casters have better products, at better prices, with better service than FW.

So, there may be people who have been pleased with FW... in several instances I have been extremely displeased. And have no problem with stating that.

Their email can be inconsistent. Sometimes you'll get a helpful response within a few days, sometimes you'll never hear from them. It's worth trying I guess if it isn't a serious issue (rule questions, etc) but if you've got a defective kit you're probably better off calling them just to be sure. Every time I've called them I've had the problem fixed without any questions.

Of course it would be much nicer if they had better quality control and I didn't have to constantly request replacement parts, but that's pretty much wishful thinking. They've been getting better about it recently but it still seems like every time I order something I have either a missing part or some small but important piece is miscast.