June 27, 2011 by dignity
Video Sponsors: Infinity - Battle Foam - Wayland Games
Darrell opens the Finecast, Njal Stormcaller. How do you think the model turned out?
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second that….I too am not a fan of the finecast models. Astoraths axe head broke as well as his ankles and dante’s weapon also broke. I have been able to repair them fortunately but would have preferred plastic or if not then metal.
Can’t see me investing in any more finecast if I can help it.
the only finecast i have brought is castellan crowe, but i can’t put him in my case. his blade just bends and it looks stupid when i take him out. i think he needs a female henchman warband nearby 😉 .
I dont know what to think about this criticism of finecast anymore. The thing here is its a pretty easy question – are the details better (crisper) than the model made out of metal or not ?( besides any casting problems, and to be fair I had -metal-models that where completely displaced along the mold-line ..so that the back of the model was about half to one mm askew [and not only the GW miniatures have/had this problem], in the end I had to remodel the whole silhouette, so I dont see were this would be any better )
I personally think its better in every way, its lighter, better for conversions, the parts stick together very well ( using the right glue), the details actually ARE way crisper , only down-point is the price but thats actually nothing you should consider when talking about the QUALITY OF A FIGURE ( I know wasnt mentioned this time ) because this is GWs price policy but its actually not in any way part of the actual miniature
this actually sound very fanboish …so and add to that : the model I am talking about was the Champion of the Emperor for Black Templars and yes I do hate the prices of GW and a few other things they do right now ( mostly how they manage their licenses for computer-games and “films” [ I emphasize: ” films ” ] )
Really sorry to disagree but I do think cost plays a part in reviewing or assessing quality of any product and to say otherwise is a little bit disingenuous. You asses products in a ‘value for money’ way. For instance I would expect the same level of detail on a 50p plastic Orc say from Mantic as I would a £90 Chimera from Bane Legions. Both are fine products in there own right at their alloted price points but one is clearly far superior in terms of quality but I’d expect it to be at £90. Finecast is a pretty poor product right now and quite frankly I don’t think its worth the money at all, and the ‘jump’ in quality of metal is so minute its not even worth mentioning.
As for the annual price rise having nothing to do with the product GW sells, if that is truly the case then their business plan needs a serious rethink, or most gamers need an education in basic economics. You sell a product at a price point to ensure a profit and at the very least running costs are covered. The starting point is understanding your base unit costs of the product and the overheads and charge accordingly. If GWs cost keep going up so much year on year they need better accountants and CEO’s, because I must have missed Sony’s, Microsoft’s and everyone else’s annual price rises.
The really sad thing is that GW gamers just accept it now like its inevitable and because of that GW will continue to scalp the consumer. Finecast as it stands right now is a shambles, I’ve yet to see a perfect piece and for the money they want for some of the pieces, perfection is expected. I’ve drifted away from GW wargaming for some time now, but Finecast has certainly closed that door for the foreseeable future, there’s just way better product out there at a more reasonable cost.
“only down-point is the price but thats actually nothing you should consider when talking about the QUALITY OF A FIGURE” If they can make it cheaper to make models, which they have, they should pass on the savings to us. Not increase pricing, its a joke.
first of all the price increase has nothing to do with Finecast ( in addition I always HEAR that its cheaper but nobody ever provided more than its common believe to actually confirm that ) , secondly I still think if you talk about a miniatures quality “price” is nothing that has something to do with the actual quality of the model, but then again I am not defending their price policy as I mentioned before ( and got minus karma for that ^^ ) its even more expensive over here in Germany and I hate it
Ronnie from Mantic confirmed that the resin plastic they’re using is considerably cheaper than metal and was the main reason for putting some of their models out in that substance.
No offence please. Im not a model maker, none of us are so tecnically none of us are qualified to say that much. All we can say is what we think and feel about the final product. that said I LOVE the fact that they are moving to resin. But I HATE the resin compound that they are using.
Ive seen some perfect ones. But I have seen some terable ones too. Ones that I wouldnt even try to repair. Nor should you when you pay so much for a model that GW claimed would be “The BEST in the world.”
As for price. Resin has been commanly accepted to be a much cheaper material to cast models with. There are videos on here showing how you can get 10 cavelry in resin for the same price that you used to pay for 5 metal ones. That company is now changeing all models to resin eventually.
There are many reason why Gw’s prices have gone up. There usually “Anual” rise, or Anal rise as I like to think of it, is the first thing factor. Gw knew when they were going to relise these Fine cast models. So when they came out, they came out with the new price rise attached to the models. However. The amount that the finecast rose, is MORE than the pricerise allowed for. Hence the finecast have had there prices raised higher as a passing on effect for things like new machines, changing over to resin, trial and error and so on.
My final opion. When you raise the prices of something, a person expects to get something extra for there money. Even if its just the garentee that twhat they are now paying for meets a top quality standard. If every model was absolutly faultless, atlease people could say yes, we pay shitloads for these models now, but they are perfect in every way. At the moment they are not perfect. Maybe they will get better over time, alot of us think they will. But for the price they want us to pay in Australia for finecase, and GW products in general, which is twice as much as the UK, its just not werth it. We have gotten nothing new. And im not seeing the any consistantsy here.
It looks like the wolf headress is missing half an ear. Did Darrell say he used plastic glue? You’re supposed to use superglue. Either way it’s a duff version. Also fix the walls in the background you silly fools. 🙂
lol we know Darrell set up that day 😛
BoW Justin
Wow, GW, that model is embarrasing.
Yea, im glad i never picked up any finecast.
Well, i tried two GW stores to get wracks for my Dark Eldar. In total i opened six boxes and all looked like someone had taken a blowtorch to them or worse. One guy was actually missing nearly half of his head. Most had their Vision slits miscast or large bubbles all over them.
In the end i got a Legion of Everblight Warpack from the small FLGS instead. Those models may not fit together as well as plastics, but at least i am not missing out on details and i would bet i could get them prepped faster than the pile of rubbish that were the wracks.
It still keeps amazing me how bad quality control GW has with these Finecasts. Its like they don’t even care.
I like this series of finecast reviews from Darrell, because hes just showing them as he received them.
That first one, commisar I think, was nice, this ones is poor, the vast difference in quality is the problem with finecast.
They simply cannot be doing any quality checks at all, which is simply unforgivable for a professional company.
I think the main problem is that they are to big of a company to keep an eye on everything. Also with the quantity of casts going out you will come across some errors. But over all because this is the first batch going out to ALL stores they more than likely rushed the order out the door as fast as they could to fill all the shelves. Because of that quality control most likely was lower priority as well as letting the casts cool right so they don’t have warped swords and such.
Then again it might be they have some goofs not doing what they are paid for and letting bad stuff go by. I really think over time it will get better, after all its GW’s name thats on the line. Time will tell.
second this, I would just say let some time pass by, put the pitchforks and torches ( finally ) back into the shed and wait , this “angry mob” mentality became kind of annoying as its only repeating itself right now, if in a year from now nothing has changed than go on , it will be torches and pitchforks again .
Nonsense – QC has nothing to do with the size of a company – if they were seeing a slight reduction in quality you might be able to excuse it but over 50% returns is unacceptable.
@kane I agree, not too sure the return rate is up at 50% but its clearly at unacceptable levels. I just think GW have bitten off more than they could chew, quite frankly they should have introduced Finecast slowly so they could ensure things went smoothly. Personally I think they’re too small a company to have pulled off such a big switch. We all think GW are huge but they’re not in the grand scheme of thing they’re small fry.
@partisan its quite clear you are partisan!!! lol. No pitch forks from me, but I do think people have the right to voice an opinion on what is clearly a substandard product. Will Finecast get better? Only time will tell but it certainly needs to. However to accept substandard and quite frankly poor product now on the off chance GW might get it right in 12 months time is just a little bit too silly for words.
Did people accept faulty Toyota’s because we all knew they’d get it right eventually? No they didn’t they demanded action and got it. Some GW gamers will just bend over and take anything that GW foists on them. Get a little bit savvier people GW aren’t your friends they’re a company after your cash and that’s all they want and currently their product doesn’t deserve anybodies cash.
ok two things. So Everyone has the right to voice an opinion eh ? And when I voice mine you call me partisan? …very cool dude.
(” uhhhh I love GW so much I cant see things as they really are, because actually finecast is shit but I wont admit it”….hogwash! I said what I think about finecast and I did mentioned what I dont like about GW as well )
second thing …. bitching around how bad it is over and over and over and over and over again ..wont do shit to GWs quality, write them a letter let them know what you think, but this endless ” OMG its failcast ” on the beasts of war blog wont do anything to better it its just annoying and repeating itself ( and thats my opinion I just voiced ) …
Oh get over yourself the Partisan comment was a joke hence the lol, have you had a humour bypass?. I have also contacted GW about my concerns with Finecast as well, in a reasoned letter. Also where in my post above did I refer to it as Failcast or indeed my other post in this thread? That’s right I didn’t did I? Also the comment about everyone having the right to an opinion was also aimed at your opinion but ho hum I take it you’re another person on the internet incapable of actually debating any points rationally and want to turn everything into an argument in the hope you can win a ranting match rather than a thoughtful debate. I’ve answered your points without giving you any negative hits, I see you’re too childish to do the same.
yeah right man, thats the best part about peeps like you you actually say things like ” all that you want is to win a ranting match rather than a thoughtful debate” and actually YOU do exactly that but try to disguise it …or the always popular ” I see you`re to childish ” posts ^^ – very funny thing here is …you need this to make yourself feel like you are a smarter or more mature but actually its once again just an example of how you try to attack your “opponent” rather than thoughtfully debating with him. But here is the thing with people like you – its impossible to get to you …guys like you will always think that they are right or that they have ” won” even when its not about winning but about debating. And also guys like you will always get pissed and try to affix ridicule to your counterpart in the conversation because you are just to immature to actually see that you are the one who started to change a debate into an argument ( btw well chosen name ) … so actually every word one addresses to you is wasted and therefore this will all Ill have to say to you.
P.S. minus karma isnt from me actually, but yeah its so much easier to think it is if you spoil for a fight, isnt it ?
I see you still actually haven’t answered any points. Did I call it Failcast? No. The fact is you haven’t actually debated anything. You are being childish and you started demeaning other peoples points mine included without actually answering them. Still you clearly think its OK to avoid answering points or even coming up with some others. I’ll ask you clearly this time, do you think its ok for the GW to sell substandard product now because in 12 months time they’ll finally get it right? Which is what you said in a post above. If you do then fair play to you, you’ve obviously a very successful person with loads more money than the rest of us mere mortals.
If he had 3 wounds, he would be great. However, he doesn’t, so 2 rune priests it is. Nice vid, Darrell. Keep it up.
Nightwing? My sweet patootie, that is a pigeon.
The Njal models in GW when I went, not one was unusable, you wouldn’t even have been able to cherry pick bits out of the three or 4 on display to get a decent model, cos something had cracked the mold and taken a chunk out of his face right down the middle like a flash line, probably one sold before had a chunk of the yellowy stuff they make the molds of stuck to it and whoever got that had the last one of the batch with a face.
The QA on the finecast is supposedly improving but no way in hell would I ever buy it without seeing it, or at GW’s prices, which really limits the chance of me buying any in the near future.
This was the first finecast I bought. It glued fine, no problems. No pinning. The quality was great apart from one side of the feathers of the bird thing. The detail at least seemed very crisp. But there were 7 bubbles, 2 of which were not that great. You can tell bubbles because they leave some sort of liquid/shiny residue. I think this review is a bit harsh!
Hang on the quality was great apart from the 8 faults you found ….. odd use of “great” there, it’s llike saying the quality of the last cd you bought was great apart from the 8 tracks that wouldn’t play
No I take your point ha ha. When i say quality I mean the detail. The bubbles are mostly very small though. I think I was just glad there wasn’t a massive hole in it. The bubbles are “easily” fixed but that’s small comfort.
That’s the most annoying thing about finecast, the bits that aren’t miscast are really crisp, which feels like it’s taunting us with what it could be.
There is only one reason for getting rid of metal that was cost saving.
Which, let’s face it, is fair enough. Everyone is struggling with the commodity market.
Just a pity GW didn’t see fit to pass the savings on.
I like this new Njall (I think it is pronounced Niall Darrell btw) and don’t mind it being in resiny plastic so it would be nice to have one. (In good order that is)
But Sorry GW you is banned! Will make do without Njall til they get sensible people in charge! 😉
PS Darrell
Poor Nightwing was looking a bit worse for the wear, I don’t think Njall has been looking after him properly, Neglecting his faithful Raven for ice-cream! tut tut!
Please take him to the Runevet and I hope he gets well soon.
Njall’s Ice-cream Rhino could be an interesting conversion.
Would be popular with vanilla amrines
Knee Al might be the correct pronunciation, but I always think of him as Stormin’ Nigel… 😉
I think that Finecast is twice the cost it should be to allow for getting 50% returns! Maelstroms recent QC exercise showed that the level of expected returns should be about that and GW must have known the likely number of miscasts before releasing the product!
oops meant Wayland games of course not Maelstrom…doh!
Given that Mantic doubled the quantity of Revanant Cavalry when switching to plastic resin for the same price, The price could have been halved! lol
Another reason GW ain’t getting my cash! 😛
I don’t know if anyone else has seen this but…First time I’d been in my local since fiencast came out and I thought I’d check out the space marine chaplain with jump pack. The model that seems to have had the most noticeable defects. Anyhow there was 2 there and both looked fine with no noticeable defects other than a little flash, but what did stand out was the marine himself was of a darker grey than the other bits (and other finecast models). Does this mean they have changed the recipe for the resin or the process (longer hotter etc) ?
Could this be considered Darrell’s first ever fluff video?
No offence please. Im not a model maker, none of us are so tecnically none of us are qualified to say that much. All we can say is what we think and feel about the final product. that said I LOVE the fact that they are moving to resin. But I HATE the resin compound that they are using.
Ive seen some perfect ones. But I have seen some terable ones too. Ones that I wouldnt even try to repair. Nor should you when you pay so much for a model that GW claimed would be “The BEST in the world.”
As for price. Resin has been commanly accepted to be a much cheaper material to cast models with. There are videos on here showing how you can get 10 cavelry in resin for the same price that you used to pay for 5 metal ones. That company is now changeing all models to resin eventually.
There are many reason why Gw’s prices have gone up. There usually “Anual” rise, or Anal rise as I like to think of it, is the first thing factor. Gw knew when they were going to relise these Fine cast models. So when they came out, they came out with the new price rise attached to the models. However. The amount that the finecast rose, is MORE than the pricerise allowed for. Hence the finecast have had there prices raised higher as a passing on effect for things like new machines, changing over to resin, trial and error and so on.
My final opion. When you raise the prices of something, a person expects to get something extra for there money. Even if its just the garentee that twhat they are now paying for meets a top quality standard. If every model was absolutly faultless, atlease people could say yes, we pay shitloads for these models now, but they are perfect in every way. At the moment they are not perfect. Maybe they will get better over time, alot of us think they will. But for the price they want us to pay in Australia for finecase, and GW products in general, which is twice as much as the UK, its just not werth it. We have gotten nothing new. And im not seeing the any consistantsy here.
Some of actually are model-makers/sculptors 😉 thank god my ranges will be all-plastic though…
Oh and I love Darrels videos. LOL. Very cleaver, dont change a thing Darrel 🙂 Just a question, what happened to the other guy that used to do whats in the box :)?
he left for university ( if your talking about John )
love the comments on the icecream!
i think BOW should do a heat test for finecast. would clear up alot of rumours.
I wonder what Eldrad’s favourite ice cream is? I’m going cookie-dough with raspberry sauce 🙂
I like Nigel, I like the mini but my experience with finecast has been 40/60 good to ‘bad’ so far. I’ve been able to fix things to an acceptable standard (for me) but I shouldn’t really have to – no one minds a few air bubbles with resin, but GW shouldn’t have said they are the best quality, highest detail minis they’ve ever made…because they aren’t, in fact they are the worst quality models they produce at the moment and the jury’s still out on the detail for me.
I wouldn’t use a hair dryer to help speed up the drying process Darrell – just try it on a sprue for 5 seconds 😉
Dunno about Eldrad, but apparently Blood Angels like raspberry nipple best.
The way I see it with GW’s new policies, Another huge price increase and very poor quality control over the “finecast” GW is no longer the No. 1 gaming company in the world.
I can see GW folding if this trend continues. Very disappointing. I have played since Rogue Trader first came out all the way through the editions for all their games. It is not even about loyalty to the gamers for me. That stopped along time ago. I firmly believe the bean counters are making poor choices more often as the older hands leave the company. Fresh ideas can be great but not these ones. Finecast should also be much cheaper dammit!
At least when I could buy from the UK and get it shipped to Australia I could almost justify most of the prices. I am done. I will play with what I have but cannot even see myself buying new editions of 40K or WHFB. Storm of Magic is $83 here is Australia. Big Pass!
Great Video and thanks for showing me the one model I had considered buying in finecast but will not now. Thanks for all those who have posted comments on their experiences with finecast. It really helped me to make up my mind.
Above all Happy Gaming!
Cheers,
Allan
Am I going mad or did Darrell say he used plastic glue on this? The resin mix doesn’t work with plastic glue it’s meant for superglue in small amounts