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With the release of Gathering Storm part Deus I decided I should finally get my eldar up and functional. I bought some fire dragons thinking 'eh, last time I bought finecast it wasn't THAT bad'. That's not a thing anyone should be saying to rationalize your garbage product.

The fire dragons were AWFUL. At first glance they didn't look so bad because they didn't have a lot covering their bodies to the sprue, but the ENTIRE model was covered in little finecrap bits. Every soulstone was surrounded in them. Their lower back was a big fused blob of resin. Places literally impossible to file down well. After hours of getting them 'clean' of these bits they looked terrible. I now know why most eldar armies use plastic jetbikes and wraiths.....because the alternative is a nightmare.

Now, call me an idiot for buying finecast, sure. I rolled the dice and failed miserably on that one. But how is it acceptable for a company as big as GW to keep peddling this garbage? Every single employee, Duncan included, HAS to know how terrible this stuff is. And I know about the customer service being 'good', but I don't want to sift through boxes of fire dragons until I find ones that are the least horrible. To me, that's an even worse thing to expect your customers to have to go through. As someone who likes aspect warriors I'm very dissapointed.

Go find some of the old metals. They're so much better.

Yup. I specifically shopped Ebay and the Toledo bitz guy at Gencon for metal Banshees, Fire Dragons, and Dark Reapers for my army. Accept no substitute for 2nd edition metals. More than two decades old designs, and still better than the modern alternative material.

The only thing finecast has over metal is if you plain to convert. But yes metal is better than finecast

Oldmike wrote:
The only thing finecast has over metal is if you plain to convert. But yes metal is better than finecast

Even in that case I still prefer metal. Nothing a good set of clippers, a file, and some GS can't handle!

Not all finecast is born equal.

I never bought finecast, and the only ones I have due to bulk deals are impeccable.

Not a bubble, not a bit of flash, and they are easy to heat and bend to add some variety to the poses.

Why they had such piss poor quality control I wonder though...

I have limited experience with Finecast and I've not been too dissatisfied. I bought Belakor and a Cockatrice direct and they turned out very nicely with no air blows or excessive flash, only complaint would be a tiny bit of warping on Be'lakor's sword. Most people I know tend to order them directly to the local GW and then open the models in the store. That way they can check the quality is okay and immediately return and reorder them if it's not. Also, ordering from the store terminal counts as a sale for their stats so helps to support the local store.

I only have three, two from the earlier days (but after some increase in quality reported by others, so maybe a year after its launch?) and one from 2016. The old ones were okay, some bubbles, flash, but some very annoying mould misalignment on Astaroth's skull shoulder pad. The Chaos Hero last year was good as a cast, zero bubbles, hardly any lines, most flash could be simply pushed from the bits. A few solid blocks of resin that were not details but solid mould channels connected into the mini were the only outrageous part, probably showing what happens when you take minis meant for metal casting and do some version of spin-cast resin moulds.

It was all manageable, so I wasn't feeling too hesitant about buying older stuff that might be finecast instead of metal...now I am, OP sounds like an experience from the early days of Finecast melting in glass cabinets. Please tell me the Regimental Advisors, Sanctioned Psykers and old IG regiments (Mordians especially) are still metal

I like finecast, its quite superior to metal, or even plastic in some cases in my opinion.Just do not expect it to be plastic or metal, it is a different technique, and material with its own merits and flaws.
If you don't value the positive sides of fine cast you shouldn't be buying finecast really especially if you expect it to be plastic, for it isn't.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
@Op

Did your fire dragons look anything like this ?



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 AegisGrimm wrote:
Yup. I specifically shopped Ebay

Be wary of ebay "finecast" for a large portion of them are just extremely low quality recasts.

I only have one miniature in finecast and also own the same model made in metal, which is the OOP ork warboss with attack squig, I pick them on ebay in the same lot. The finecast model has actually a tiny bubble but other than that the quality looks superior.

 oldzoggy wrote:
I like finecast, its quite superior to metal, or even plastic in some cases in my opinion.Just do not expect it to be plastic or metal, it is a different technique, and material with its own merits and flaws.
If you don't value the positive sides of fine cast you shouldn't be buying finecast really especially if you expect it to be plastic, for it isn't.

Might be good to say some of the positive sides then?

While I don't have such hate as most seem to have toward finecast I don't have particular love either. Detail wise loses to metal and while weight is about as good as plastic more work to do and more prone to breaking.

It's been passable so far. Luckily haven't had bad miscasts yet.

Be wary of ebay "finecast" for a large portion of them are just extremely low quality recasts.

Well he wasn't ebaying finecasts anyway

I have one finecast model.
It was a fantasy chaos named character (fabulous hair and a rapier) - he was the only one in his batch at the store that wasn't completely munted. We went through THIRTY blisters to find one that was "saleable".

I'd rather spend that time scouring 2nd hand tables for early/mid 90s metals than buy another finecast model. I have nothing against resin (I have a ton of resin figures from half a dozen different makers, all of whom have superior quality of casts to GW's failcast.). I prefer metal, though.

When it comes to converting, if you can convert a metal model, you can convert anything. It just takes more skill to do it and some different tools.

I despise Finecast.
I got a few characters in the stuff, and every one of them has warped and bent in the case. Staves are wonky, my Librarian is hitting himself in the face with his axe, and the models fall over more often.
I drilled down the shaft of the axe to straighten it, and it just bent at the hand, instead.
This is all on top of bubble holes, which they sell you LGS to fix yourself.
Avoid and complain. Buy metal.

Finecast seems to have two factors affecting the quality:-

-How early the model was cast in the production process, and
-the complexity of the model.

Quality was much poorer near when they first introduced the material, so if you get something from thbat period, it is more likely to be flawed. They tightened up on things after they got so many returns, so later runs tend to be alright.

Certain models though, possibly due to the shape, are always bad casts. I suspect it's something to do with the undercuts.

 oldzoggy wrote:
positive sides of fine cast

Just what would those be, exactly? The fact that the 100% miscast rate and terrible material even if you, by some miracle, manage to get one without casting flaws makes it easier to say "this is too expensive" without feeling like you're missing something?

The only issue I ever had with the finecast models I bought where a bendy power sword on the Space marine Sternguard assault squad. It just would not stay straight after using the hot water treatment so I just replaced it with a plastic one laying around in my bits box. As for bubbles only tiny ones on occasion nothing a little super glue or milliput could'nt fix. My local GW would just replace any faulty ones If you returned them to the store. The Dark Angel captain I got was perfectly fine.

Finecast has its pros and cons, but if you take advantage of gws good service you should be fine.
Bag up and warped bits, mail em off to gw and demand a replacement.

Once sent back one warped head and got an entire replacement kit.

I have 1 finecast figure. The changling, I replaced his staff with 1.5mm stainless rod (because it looked fragile). Other than that perfect.

 Peregrine wrote:

 oldzoggy wrote:
positive sides of fine cast

Just what would those be, exactly? The fact that the 100% miscast rate and terrible material even if you, by some miracle, manage to get one without casting flaws makes it easier to say "this is too expensive" without feeling like you're missing something?

100% miscast rate is "bit" exaggeration. I have had 6 FC models and only one had miscast issue(I think). Small hole in skaven trousers. Could be actually intentionally ragged trousers but filled it anyway.

So for me it's been 20% miscast rate. IF that even was miscast.

On popular demand the positive sides of finecast:

Compared to metal.
-less need to pin due to the lower weight and closer fits.
-Paint doesn't chip away from it as easy as it does from metal.
-Easy to paint. Paint just doesn't like to stick as good to metal as it does to fiinecast resin.
-It doesnt stay bend if you bend it by accident.
-Easy to cut
-less weight to transport

Compared to Plastic.
-More flexibility in the sculpt. This is a big one for me but might be hard to explain, plastic injection moulding has some serious limitations on how the edges of things can be shaped. This creates some ugly "2d to 3d transformation" style artefacts. GW is getting better in hiding this by making complex multi part kits but it is still there and once you see it you can't unsee it
-Higher detail, the different is less in the modern kits and to be fair I do not really use the extra detail but some love it.
-Low runs are possible.

For quite some time I avoided Finecast due to the bad press it received plus not having experience with resin. However recently I got asked to build and paint Lelith Hespherax an Lhamean for a friend's army and I was pretty impressed by the quality of the material.I then ordered a bunch of inquisition resin casts from GW an they came out nice too. Maybe the material when they begun was different? Or they have changend something in the production process?



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 oldzoggy wrote:

-Paint doesn't chip away from it as easy as it does from metal.

This is THE thing I hate when working with metal minis.

hypnoticeris wrote:
Maybe the material when they begun was different? Or they have changend something in the production process?

The first runs had some start-up issues, and became a meme quick, and internet users just love memes.
I have had some air bubbles in some my finecast Inq and warriors of choas mini's but they where all minor and easy to fix.
I'll take small air bubbles all day every day over the disadvantages of metal, or the ugly design artifacts of plastic. However it does suck that you just can't use plastic glue on finecast and that it is prone to break.

Complaining about getting free replacements until they get it right? So what is wrong here? Maybe you shouldn't have bought in the first place since it does seem you have done your homework and yet you still complain?

If you know better then why did you buy? After all as you said, Customer Service is great and will keep getting you a replacement until it's done properly. So what is your point?

Since you are informed, you buy or not buy. To buy and still complain, I can't understand. It's just like farting into the wind and complaining it smells. Either don't do it, or accept the consequences of your actions. Knowing you are buying an inferior product speaks more of you than anyone else trying to sell it.

After all they don't need to sell it, you are buying it. This speaks more of you buying it than it does of them for selling it. Don't blame people for selling it, blame the person who bought it knowing better otherwise.

*edit*

GW does have a 100% money back guarantee as well. So if you really are not that happy, return it and get your money back.

I own at least 1 finecast biovore. Came out perfect and went right to paint after a quick wash. Some batches are bad, you can even see it in plastic sometimes, I know I have. Worst case scenario, send it back. Best case scenario, you get free extra models with a little work needed. Just relax, and take it slow.

They arnt and GW knows it, there is one really nice thing about GW and finecast though. All you need to do is call them if you got a crappy mold, and they just ship you a new spru/bit. Happened to me with the Vulkan HQ, just said the hand flamers was broken and it was finecast, dude just asked for my address and sent me a new one.

In my experience things designed for finecast are much better than the crap they gak out into a box that is old metals converted to finecast. The initial runs were really rough though and the damage was done to the brand, hence why they seem to not use it as much and just say "finely detailed resin" more now.

While it may be warped as any resin, it's incredibly easy to fix, and your models don't just fall on their face every other move as with metal models.

I have personally avoided buying finecast due to the bad rep it had, but honestly, the finecast that I have that have zero problems were a lot better than the equivalent metal models for many reasons.

What you should do if you get a really bad cast:

keep it,

don't repair a single flaw,

paint it up to a competition level,

enter into Golden Demon

???

profit

I've only had two Finecast models (Illic Nightspear and Belial). Illic came out fine, Belial had a bit of a wonky sword and there's a small missing bit of shoulder pad trim. Nothing terrible, but notably worse than the quality of the metal models. I'm happy I got my Aspect Warriors years ago.

It's still miles ahead of Forge World's resin quality.

For recent army projects, I plan ahead to keep them all plastic.

 Asmodai wrote:
I've only had two Finecast models (Illic Nightspear and Belial). Illic came out fine, Belial had a bit of a wonky sword and there's a small missing bit of shoulder pad trim. Nothing terrible, but notably worse than the quality of the metal models. I'm happy I got my Aspect Warriors years ago.

It's still miles ahead of Forge World's resin quality.

For recent army projects, I plan ahead to keep them all plastic.

Just... no. My Forgeworld stuff is usable with minor fixing, the same sort of stuff you'd do with plastic. I've never had a Finecast model where I didn't have to spend an hour fixing weird random finecast bricks.