My Finecast Review

I popped into my local GW on my way home from work yesterday and picked up my first 'finecast' miniature.  Now I've not been as sceptical bout this as a lot a people, I have no particular attachment to metal and see no problem with change if its for the better (I've seen alot of changes in this hobby over the last 19 years and I think it's in a brilliant place now with a huge variety of awesome figures and games), but I've also been a bit dubious of the hype that GW have tried to surround the launch with.  Anyway without further ado here is the blister (sorry clampack) of my new wood elf highborn with great weapon.

I like the new packaging, the pretty pic of the painted model on the front and the fact you can turn it over and still have a look at the product, this covers both bases and I have no issues with it at all.  I think it just looks better and more modern somehow compared to the old packaging.

One of the first things to note is that these 'finecast' models come on little sprues like plastic kits.  Mine contains a lot of flash as well and took some triming to get it all sorted, the bit in the middle between the tree and his groin was a particular pain.  Now we come to the big problem with this change though, quality control.

Theres a big hole in the base on my sword, no amount of filling with superglue (as suggested in this months white dwarf) is going to fix that, I had been warned about bubbles in resin, but thats the first time I've seen it and boy is it annoying.  From reading around the internet this seems to be a very common problem that a lot of poeple seem to be having.

This is him stuck together. The resin does have a lot of positives compared with metal, first and formost the detail is definately far crisper than anything I've ever seen on a metal model, its also very light which will make painting easier, especially for the larger models.  It's also very flexible and cuts very easily and will be good for conversions.  It took the glue very well, and I did a test drop from a metre high with no discernable effects, this is a big plus we've all dropped a model at some point (in my case normally my newly painted metal character) and the added chance of survival in a gaming piece is a great plus to the material.

And here is the finished painted model.  It came out really well I feel the extra crispness really does add to the finished effect, however I feel that damage to the sword will be winding me up for years to come.  

Overall a big meh, nice crisper detail runied by the worry of bubbles and price rises that are never welcome. I won't be going out of my way to particulary buy finecast miniatures until they get their quality control issues sorted, which is a shame as I feel there is a lot of potential here.