Old Elrond. The major problems with this model--misaligned sword, warped detail on the face, mold line through the face, lots of flash on the model, ecspecially on the cloak. I mentioned earlier that his sword snapped off very easily. It did. I lost it, but randomly found it a day later and glued it back on.

Old Gil-Galad. The major thing I wanted to showcase in this picture was the terrible misalignment of the spear. His face is also warped, with detail lost and head almost blending in to his torso. He had a lot of flash as well. When I tried to put him in the slotta base, his slot snapped off. I tried to reglue it and put him in the base. Overall problems with the blister were that it was not included on a sprue, and was missing a base (both things I didn't care about to be honest). They are not good looking miniatures, but they are paintable and usable, so I'm glad GW let me keep them.

Replacement sprue. Sooo much better than the one I bought in the store. Except, if you can see, Elrond's blade is completely missing. It just wasn't there. I may take the blade from the old Elrond and give it to the new, and make the old Elrond a blade out of the large random thick chunk of sprue in the middle.

Wow, this is pathetic. If any other company did this they'd lose all hope of future customers. Imagine if Apple released iPads this bad... I was going to pick up some uruk xbows (my son wants another 3 or 4), but I think I'll wait, or at least if I go to the store I'll demand I get to open the box before purchase.

Which reminds me, whafrog--There has been a lot of talk over the years that GW has been gradually marketing more and more to younger audiences (having started at around 12 or 13 years old myself). I don't know how children or young teenagers are expected to work with the Finecast material. Even if you get a perfectly good looking model, there will still be a lot of flash to remove with an xacto knife. And I haven't removed the new blister from the sprue, but it certainly doesn't look as easy as clipping out plastic models.

On the point of youngsters not getting on with these minis, another point is that resin is more difficult to work with anyway. I cannot speak for the finecast series as I'm yet to see them for myself let alone paint one, but I know for a fact that FW minis are more difficult in the fact that they require much more preperation. The majority of children won't have the patience to do the preperation required to make the most of these finecast minis, they'll get the mini and want to put it together, paint it and game with it as fast as possible.

Reading through everyones comments about the finecast series here and on external website, I really think GW have shot themselves in the foot with this. I will wait untill experiencing the finecast minis firsthand before making my judgement, but this is the impression I get reading what everyone else has been saying.

Then again, GW lost me as a direct customer around a year ago now after their 1 billionth price raise. I only buy from eBay now, or our trusted Wayland of course.

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Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast.
Jake

Generally there's no need to 'demand' something like that Whafrog- GW staff are customer service focussed and will exchange, let you check stuff or give refunds etc after a polite request.

Jamros- the models are far easier to remove from sprue and clean up than plastic. Much of the flash will come off when you rub it and mold lines can be removed using a sculpting tool (GW one sharp enough to remove flash/mold lines but not enough to damage model- also safe for kids!).

Corsairs- comparing Finecast to FW doesn't track: FW resin is so very very different. Finecast can be prepared and finished in a fraction of the time.

I've had a mixed bag with the Finecast I've bought- Lord Comissar model was simply astounding, whilst SM Sternguards were pretty wrecked. Have purchased 5 other kits with similar mixed quality. Local GW is always happy to keep exchanging til I'm happy though.
It's frustrating really as the level of detail and the material is so superior to anything else I've ever seen. But the quality control doesn't seem to be up to much. I want these models to be great- they have the potential to be truly astounding. But the inconsistency is killing the line for me.

Also the thread title is misleading- Wayland want to and will be stocking Finecast- they just want better quality control before they re-stock.

My apologies. Like I said I have no experience with the finecast range, I was just making an assumption based on the FW kits. That's good to know though

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Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast.
Jake

Oh, I've had no problem removing the flash, just there was a LOT on the first blister. Before this week is over I hope to have one model painted to test Finecast reaction to paint.

With clampacks look at the back and you can see the quality of minis. I would recommend to anyone concerned about finecast quality go into a store and have a look. If your happy with it buy some, if not then don't.

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Compulsorily acquired? You know what this means don't you, they're acquiring it compulsorily. - Darryl Kerrigan

Even with the clampacks, I was not able to see all of the problems with the miniatures I purchased in-person at GW Maryland. You don't have a 360 degree view of the model, and I think the fact that they weren't sitting still on a sprue made it harder to assess the quality as well. In addition, while I was there, there were only two Elrond and Gil-Galad blisters. From what I could tell through the clampack, there was little difference between them, except that one had both bases included, while the other did not. Having received a much higher quality replacement from GW through the mail, I can actually say that probably both of the in-store blisters I looked at were very poor quality miniatures (I was disappointed by the way the faces looked, but I actually didn't consider that a problem until I got the new blister, as I had nothing good to compare it to).

Besides personal experience, Wayland Games is so hesitant about this product that they are choosing not to stock it until these issues have been sorted out. I think Finecast warrants some serious hesitation. I'm totally not trying to attack you, its just, based on what I've encountered, looking at the models through the clampacks is not helpful enough to determine the quality of the miniatures, especially if the miniatures happen to not be on a still sprue. It's certainly easier to assess the quality verses looking through the old blister packs however.

No need to over-interpret my post. My local GW manager is very helpful. In my usual polite way I will 'demand' to see them.

"demand" is a strong word. Gives me the image of angry man slamming fist onto till counter. lol

I yet to hold and feel finecast in my hand yet, but from what I have seen I have no problem with the material or its flexibility, plastic snaps pretty bad now so I don't see how finecast is any worse, the detail is great, the prices don't bother me becuase I don't buy from GW, the only thing that does bother me are the miscasts, I would never order finecast off the internet, I would have to see the product before buying it. The only reason I havn't bought any finecast yet is because I either already have the LOTR minies or don't need the ones that are up on the web.

By your definition a Quaker can not demand obedience of his children.A demand limits your options to yes and no. Of course you can demand to negotiate.

There are no consequences for refusing a request.
It was very clear to me Warfrog was not going to do business under different circumstances.I have no problem with that.

I feel the fine cast issue is a dead horse. No need to beat it any more it is not going any where different.

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But none were more dangerous than the Great Willow: his heart was rotten, but his strength was green; and he was cunning,

I did end up buying the finecast uruk xbows. No flaws visible from the packaging. It's a weird material. I'd say it takes longer to clean up than the metal dwarves I was working on this weekend, but less effort overall because the flash is easy to remove. There were a few odd pits I found while cleaning, but luckily always under something hidden (feet, back of xbow, etc).

One thing I did appreciate is how well it glues together. They are selling a new "thin" super glue that comes with a brush and applicator and the xbows went on very easily, with a solid bond in seconds. (In contrast, gluing the metal xbows was a serious PITA...) When I was the at the store, the GW manager explained that the resin is more porous than metal, so the bond is better. He demonstrated this by grabbing his recently painted new Gulavar by the feet waving it around wildly. "See?" he says. "The wings just won't come off."

^When you went to buy your Uruks, did you storm into the store, kicked over the work table where the GW employee and some random kid were painting while taking an exacto knife to the kid's throat, and demanded "I want to see those finecast models upclose and out of their package, and they better not be warped or else the kid gets it! Do ya have a problem with that bub!?!"

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My Lotr backlog: 305/952[][][][][][][][][][]32% completed
Painting Lineup: Mumakil x2, Rohan Heroes x8, Haradrim, SKoDA

My very words

That was a great picture, especially as I know the GW.

Haha! Nice.

ahahaha

the one finecast mini i own is absolutely flawless and i'm very happy with it, but it's worth pointing out that i examined every one of them on the rack as carefully as you can through a plastic pack and i noticed a good 1/4 of them had some pretty serious issues.

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Talaan-u rûk-ir tor Urûk
Nauru-ir agh kragoru nûrsu grishûrz
Nork-ulu furtun agh goð
Mordor-ob bot-tuk

1/4!?! You're serious!? These guys better get their act together by the time they make the Hobbit miniatures.

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My Lotr backlog: 305/952[][][][][][][][][][]32% completed
Painting Lineup: Mumakil x2, Rohan Heroes x8, Haradrim, SKoDA