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 Buttery Commissar wrote:

willb2064 wrote:
Most newer non-plastic releases just say resin, no 'Finecast' branding.

For me, Finecast was the worse thing they have ever done - pretty much destroyed their reputation for quality within a month of launch.

Pretty much, I was under the impression that they're just calling Finecast items "resin" now. If you check out some of the site listings on GW, they say "resin figure" where they previously said "Finecast resin figure".
Combo boxes that contain resin and plastic don't always mention Finecast on them. It seems the F word is being scrubbed.

Manager in a local shop was showing us the "new" resin that is being used. It's uncannily similar, albeit slightly more bendy.

This was my impression of the situation. Same problem, but with new improved rebranding.

edit: at least when they called it finecast, it was easier to avoid.

Fail-cast is being discontinued?!?


PRAISE THE EMPRA-- I Mean, BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! lol

This is FANTASTIC NEWS IF TRUE!!!

Fine cast dead? GOOD. Drag it's body through the streets, then mount it's head on a pike outside the city as a warning to others.

Wow - that's a lot of relatively recent sculpts being tossed in the bin if it's true.

Many of the ranges are already hurting badly for character models after they got rid of the non-converted metals.

 stanman wrote:
Fine cast dead? GOOD. Drag it's body through the streets, then mount it's head on a pike outside the city as a warning to others.

I laughed harder than I probably should have at this, exalted!

I can't wait to see the new plastic options! (Maybe, just maybe, we'll get an awesome new Tau Commander Battlesuit that matches the original concept art?)

I haven't had too many issues with Finecast, but I've only gotten like three models with it. I avoid models that are metal and finecast because I like the options that plastic gives you to convert cleanly and easily.

Anyway, for anyone following this, it's no news that Finecast was a stop-gap material. That's been known since shortly after it hit the scene. The move to plastic is strong and real, and we haven't seen any new kits in Finecast for several codices and army books.

With Games Workshop redoing Fantasy, they can kill off everything that's metal or finecast in those ranges, and make fresh new armies that are totally plastic. Since they started the End Times, no armies have been released, just kits for End Times. That in and of itself is telling.

But, even if they do manage to redo Fantasy such that no finecast needs to ever be bought, there's still large finecast gaps in the 40k ranges, particularly in Chaos Marines, Tau, and Eldar, and to a lesser extent in Orks and Space Marines as well, with a few one-off models in other codices...

In order to get rid of finecast completely, they'd have to stop supporting lots of special characters. I could see them doing that, honestly, since any characters that don't sell via finecast weren't selling anyway, and they can just write them out of the next book.

What's curious is their lack of new IC's in the latest Codices. The Dark Eldar HQ range went from pretty big to tiny, with almost all special characters disappearing from the range! The only characters we've gotten in plastic have been very generic Lords and such, which is good, since those are needed, but could Games Workshop be doing away with these special characters as they continue?

Could characters like Astorath, Rakarth, Lucius, and all the rest just... disappear as finecast stocks go low?

Honestly, I could see GW doing it. If they were going to do an End Times for 40k, this is how they would do it, by making an excuse to kill off as many characters and finecast leftover units as possible.

Part of the killing off of special characters was in regards to the chapterhouse debacle and whether or not those characters had minis in production. As to the rest, who knows?

I hope they don't kill off my Special characters for chaos and blood angels...
Please GW, don't kill Dante, Mephiston, Kharn, Typhus, Abaddon, Ahriman, Lucius, or fabius bile... Please don't kill them!

It would be good if they did do away with the finecast garbage.

I only have ever bought 1 finecast product and funny enough it was the last thing Ive bought from GW.
It was a Belial that has holes in one side of his extremely thin hood and edges of his robe. And he has a flaccid powersword to boot which wont straighten no matter how much I handle it.

Don't worry, they'll move the characters to dataslates (pay to win and all that), and the weekly release will let them release character models as they complete the resculpts.

This is said with no sarcasm, BTW.

 stanman wrote:
Fine cast dead? GOOD. Drag it's body through the streets, then mount it's head on a pike outside the city as a warning to others.

I would also add what the Byzantines would do, cut the nose off.
But with finecast, chances are the nose is already gone.

I can only think of 2 new sculpts of named characters in the last couple of years.
Emperor Karl Franz (on a huge griffon) and Logan Grimnar (on the santa wolf cruiser).
And recently, some limited edition, new, not-codex, named characters in campaign boxes (4 new characters).

Perhaps a hint of their priorities when it comes to named characters these days.
(also remember they just killed of a huge chunk of fantasy heroes).

All in all, I thought this was news last year. Kind of obvious once they stoped releasing finecast with new releases.

 Fayric wrote:
I can only think of 2 new sculpts of named characters in the last couple of years.
Emperor Karl Franz (on a huge griffon) and Logan Grimnar (on the santa wolf cruiser).
And recently, some limited edition, new, not-codex, named characters in campaign boxes (4 new characters).

Perhaps a hint of their priorities when it comes to named characters these days.
(also remember they just killed of a huge chunk of fantasy heroes).

All in all, I thought this was news last year. Kind of obvious once they stoped releasing finecast with new releases.

Good point. It could be that they've known that these specific character models aren't making them money, but generic ones can be moved to plastic because they'll sell well since they represent any kind of HQ. I wouldn't be surprised if we saw fewer special characters and more of GW trying to hock 'forge the narrative'

 PlaguelordHobbyServices wrote:
I hope they don't kill off my Special characters for chaos and blood angels...
Please GW, don't kill Dante, Mephiston, Kharn, Typhus, Abaddon, Ahriman, Lucius, or fabius bile... Please don't kill them!

i don't see why they can't just decide to do these iconic characters in plastic...
Dante builds beautifully with the Sanguinary Guard box...
they can do one (like the last two years of HQ's) or two (like the new Khorne Character) sprue special characters in plastic if they want to...

Finecast is horrible...
even though there are bent FW parts, they seem to be far and few in between...
the actual casting is warped on all the Finecast pieces i have for my current commissions...
one in five guys isn't full of holes, but he is still warped, and has a very saggy sword...
the material is also very rubbery...

FW is not the best example of resin available...
some companies, like Studio McVey, do an excellent quality cast for their LE's in resin...
the Rackham legends line in 2009 was beautifully cast resin...
garage companies, like Figuralia in Spain, do amazing resin sculpts...
the thing is, these guys only get 50 to 75 casts out of each mold...
they aren't trying to stretch the molds out like FW does...

i hope Finecast goes away, and is not just a rebranding, like what we have on the site now...
they may just say "resin" on the GW site now, but as soon as you see the sprue, you can see nothing has changed but the name...

bring on the plastic special characters!!!

cheers
jah

I'm concerned that special characters will become a thing of the past as more generic archetypes are done in plastic instead.

 Fayric wrote:
I can only think of 2 new sculpts of named characters in the last couple of years.
Emperor Karl Franz (on a huge griffon) and Logan Grimnar (on the santa wolf cruiser).
And recently, some limited edition, new, not-codex, named characters in campaign boxes (4 new characters).

Perhaps a hint of their priorities when it comes to named characters these days.
(also remember they just killed of a huge chunk of fantasy heroes).

All in all, I thought this was news last year. Kind of obvious once they stoped releasing finecast with new releases.

Not that I disagreew with you, but the new characters in campaign boxes are nice. Frankly, I prefer buying a $120 box that's good (modelling) value, and having a nice $20 solo miniature thrown in.

Also, to add to your list -- the current Nork Deddog model was released less than a year ago, wasn't it? April-ish 2014, at the same time as Bullgryns?

http://www.games-workshop.com/en-CA/Militarum-Auxilla-Nork-Deddog

 jah-joshua wrote:

 PlaguelordHobbyServices wrote:
I hope they don't kill off my Special characters for chaos and blood angels...
Please GW, don't kill Dante, Mephiston, Kharn, Typhus, Abaddon, Ahriman, Lucius, or fabius bile... Please don't kill them!

i don't see why they can't just decide to do these iconic characters in plastic...
Dante builds beautifully with the Sanguinary Guard box...
they can do one (like the last two years of HQ's) or two (like the new Khorne Character) sprue special characters in plastic if they want to...

Finecast is horrible...
even though there are bent FW parts, they seem to be far and few in between...
the actual casting is warped on all the Finecast pieces i have for my current commissions...
one in five guys isn't full of holes, but he is still warped, and has a very saggy sword...
the material is also very rubbery...

FW is not the best example of resin available...
some companies, like Studio McVey, do an excellent quality cast for their LE's in resin...
the Rackham legends line in 2009 was beautifully cast resin...
garage companies, like Figuralia in Spain, do amazing resin sculpts...
the thing is, these guys only get 50 to 75 casts out of each mold...
they aren't trying to stretch the molds out like FW does...

i hope Finecast goes away, and is not just a rebranding, like what we have on the site now...
they may just say "resin" on the GW site now, but as soon as you see the sprue, you can see nothing has changed but the name...

bring on the plastic special characters!!!

cheers
jah

I should clarify, I want them to live, but finecast can jump off a cliff.

Plastic SCs FTW!

I am looking forward to the release of FinePlastic!

 Laemos wrote:
But characters did not get released in plastic other than huge model ones in fantasy.

Skaven warlord and grey seer
Gutrot spume
Skarr bloodwrath
Dark Eldar succubus, archaon, haemonculous

 Azreal13 wrote:
Just taking the 9/10 figure at face value.

That's awful.

Imagine if we lived in a world where one in ten iPhones were faulty out of the box, or one in ten new cars wouldn't drive off the forecourt? These are immensely complex machines, what we're talking about is filling a mould with some liquid so there are no bubbles and not taking it out til it's set properly.

They probably are, but they don't sell those. That's what QC is for.

 ClockworkZion wrote:
A time will come when GW makes great kit options with the intent of giving customers a series of options at a low price.

Today is not that day.

Haha!

 ClockworkZion wrote:
Tell that to my order of Krieg where the lasguns were curled to the point they were basically hoops.

That was just a variant pattern Lasgun.

 ClockworkZion wrote:
Or my Avenger Strike Fighter I got that was missing the gunner's canopy.

You ordered the drop-top version!

 ClockworkZion wrote:
Just because FW makes it doesn't automatically make it good.

Resin is a material that has a lot of problems. It's fragile, it's prone to casting issues, and it can shrink when it cures creating so many gaps it's not funny. Sure Finecast was worse thanks to the filler material they were using and rushing it out the door before knowing how to fully work with the resin.

You are of course correct. That said, the newer the FW kit, the better it usually is. I mean I look at their Thunderhawk with dread, but their latest batch of 9 dozen Contemptors, they're probably ok.

Does anybody know who actually came up with the finecast mix?
Seriously, Matt Ward and Gav Thorpe had to face the hate just for rules, why does this shadowy weasel get off?

So.... Not back to metal then???

:(

MB

We've been told that the sales directives are responsible for pushing the direction of practically everything else within GW, from what gets new rules to new miniature releases. I'd hazard a guess that the brief was to keep production costs as low as possible, and that's why it ended up ultimately as a poorer quality resin.

So.. I would blame the managerial/executive level, rather than the guys who actually carry out the practical side of things, as no doubt they were just following the brief.

I do think it's very unlikely that the company will move back to metal though, given that the primary reason for moving away from it was material costs.

The finecast Noise Marine conversion parts I bought in December were good. After getting an Astorath who wasnt (lots of bubbles) I had decided to not buy another FC model - but I needed the parts and luckily those were a positive surprise. Won't buy anything else in finecast though. I have seen way too many miscast Finecast minis others got sold. No quality control department worth its name would ever allow the crap Finecast is to be sent to the customer. Hopefully they change back to metal until they have plastic kits for all the models currently without

I wouldnt be surprised if they tried getting in on the lasercutting scene by replacing all finecast models with highly detailed laser engraved silhouettes. They could market it as FineWood while its actually cardboard.

They could tank another financial report or two by doing this!

BeAfraid wrote:
So.... Not back to metal then???

:(

MB

Don't worry, there will be Limited Edition Collectors Vintage FineMetal for 3x the price - and comes with a fancy special clamshell graphics!

Question, does anyone else in the buisness use anything like that? I'm no expert on other systems, but when I look around I see either plastic or metal. FW stuff and Failcast are the only products that spring to mind as resin-based by design (and not by recasters).

Resin is extremely common, since it's the best way to do smaller production runs, so basically anyone who isn't one of the big dogs. No need to look further than the front page of this very forum to see several companies who produce resin stuff!

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
So, d'ya reckon they could do a combined Banshee/Fire Dragon/Scorpion box and a combined Reaper/Warp Spider box and then... a separate Hawk box?

And yes, I realise that I am derailing my own thread.

GW really, really should put Eldar in a starter box, just to get 3-4 cheap plastic Aspects out there ASAP, even if they're monopose.