Well now its my turn, I just purchased ten Dark Eldar Wracks, and Urien Rakarth, to get me one stage closer to 'finishing' my Dark Eldar at 1750 points. I was a little hesitant about buying them over the interwebs from an independent retailer , as I've heard many horror stories about having to return them and the hassle that goes along with it.
Anyway, my order turned up Friday, and I set about checking for casting errors. The Wracks appear to be faultless, yes there is the odd air bubble, but they wont take two seconds to get rid of with a brush of Liquid Green Stuff, so a big thumbs up for them, 10 models and no defects.
Urien on the other hand, well he had no chin! I didn't take a picture of this, I admit it, I forgot. Anyway I called up my local GW and advised of this problem, and they agreed I could swap it for one in the store, which I did. This model was much better, his missing chin had been replaced with one that Jimmy Hill would have been proud of but a quick snip and tidy with a knife and he's done.
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| Urien Rakarth, built and ready to go. |
Now Finecast itself.
Yes there is a lot of flash, which you'll see below, but most of it just falls off with a light brush with a knife, so is a lot less scary than it looks. Mould lines are minimal and once again are very easy to remove, much easier than on metal models of old. The actual building is easier too, with the parts joining with a minimal amount of super glue, even the larger parts hold in place in seconds and there is no worry about the weight of an arm or weapon pulling the joint apart as Finecast is extremely light. This lightness takes a bit of getting used to, as does the bendyness of some of the bits.
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| Five Wracks, straight out of the box. |
Good review buddy. Most of the Empire re-release stuff is in finecast so this is really helpful
ReplyDeleteI had my first finecast experience (Gorbad Ironclaw) a few weeks a go and it falls somewhere between Binx and Elliot's reviews!
ReplyDeleteSO easy to clean up the flash but you have to be careful not to take off some of the actual model.
As I was marvelling at the lightness of the model I was considering the durability when *pop* off came the boars tail!
Several of the parts where clearly misaligned in the mould and there were air holes and one BIG hole in a recessed part.
These are all fixable with greenstuff though and the lack of need for pinning does go a long way to forgive these issues.
I have a theory that metal models that have been converted to finecast are going to be worse than models created for finecast. Thats based on pure speculation though!
As a material I think it has a future and will have good and bad points, just like plastic and metal.
I still remember the "it'll never catch on" mutterings when plastic was first introduced now look where we are!
Since Ive started to build my Wracks, I have found some faults, most will be easy to sort with a little bit of Green Stuff, but should we be fixing them, shouldn't they be near enough perfect out of the box.
ReplyDeleteLuckily for most of us we have the ability to fix these flaws.
I agree, you have to be careful not to 'clean up' some of the actual detail parts, and some of the thin bits do fee like, and sometimes do, come off or snap.
I know where you're coming from on your comment about old metal models, but the Wracks were not out in metal, although they were some of the 1st to be released in this new medium.
Like you've said, its still early days but should an imperfect product be on the shelves?
I agree 100% that the Finecast models have better details than the metals. Also, they go together so much faster than metal models its ridiculous- I love how fast I put together my Wracks.
ReplyDeleteThe only problem is that the Mandrakes I bought were awful- warped and bent (and one was broken- glue repaired it, but still).
I hope that the Finecast gets better from here on out...
The fact that they have increased the prices of most of the stuff now it's in fine cast annoys me. Ask Neil about my firebelly and the HUGE gap that was left when gluing the arm on. Sure it's a quick fix but for £20 that I spent I shouldn't then have to invest MORE money to make it look acceptable!
ReplyDeleteAs I read on a forum somewhere "I'm happy to pay premium prices for premium product, at the moment finecast is not".
ReplyDeleteForgeworld are also casting some (not all!) of their products in finecast resin now.......