My First "Finecast" Experience

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I will soon be starting up a WIP log for my Chaos Team but until I get the pics ready I thought I'd offer a review of my first citadel finecast miniatures. I know I'm a little slow on the uptake with this one but I figured with so much negative press there may be one or two of you out there who, like me, have put off trying it out.

The finecast miniatures are really, really exceptional. I went with the GW Chosen command set due to the badazz claw on the champion and most importantly, no cloaks. I could have got the metals on ebay for a tenner, but I'm so glad I shelled out and extra 15 rips for finecast. Never has there been an easier weapon-snip job. My modelling knife is on the dull side at the moment and it still went through it like a dream. As such you want to be careful around the hands of course. And the flashing is easy as pie to remove. There were also no casting imperfections to note, although the bloke in the store was kind enough to let me open em up to check.

The resin seems even lighter and a little more flexible than plastic. As such I could even cut around curves with ease. What I would say is that I could see it being a bit tiresome having to use warm water to straighten weapons but for blood bowl they get the snippety snip so that's not a problem. Every time I was trimming something away (especially the champion's weapon which runs along his whole arm) I was just thinking how hard it would be to achieve with metal miniatures. Then there's the fact that there's going to be so much less paint chipping ontop of that, and the details really are that much sharper.

Overall, I think the biggest compliment I can give finecast is that it was worth paying £25 for instead of getting the metals for £10-£15. I want this team to really look the business so it was definitely worth it.

I hope this helps someone, somewhere and I'll try to get my first beastman finished soon so I can get this WIP rolling!

[ChenZhen]

Good to hear a positive experience with finecast. I've not worked with it myself, and have heard "less than glowing" reviews.

(I still have so much metal and plastic backstock that I don't think I will purchase any FC minis anytime soon, but good to know that the option may not be the worst thing ever).

[nazgob]

I sense that many of the fone cast problems were related to it being a new product, rather than them being an inherent issue with the concept. I have not yet bought fine cast (many models to.paint), but it's.nice to know that GW sorted at least some of the problems.

[spubbbba]

I've bought 3 finecast models so far and have not been that impressed.

All of them have had air bubbles and on 1 out of the 3 they were pretty major, though that was the only model I wasn't able to see before I purchased it.

Whilst the flash is much easier to remove and the material much easier to convert the extra time needed to fix the bubbles countered that. I do prefer the lighter weight and the paint chipping less easily, especially when used for Bloodbowl models.

Price is an issue, less so for Bloodbowl compared to doing a fantasy army but still adds up considering how expensive GW's metal models were.

So I'd only use it for star players or big guys really and if I coul check the model 1st.

[Da Crusha]

the owner of my FLGS wasn't carrying finecast models and so the GW representative asked him why. he said "because my customers don't want to deal with air bubbles and, models melting in sunlight and excessive flash." the GW rep said " oh, the flash and mold lines can be taken off by just scrubbing them with a toothbrush". the owner replied " they (the customers) have a problem with the structural integrity of the models and you're telling me I can remove mold lines with a toothbrush?! that's not helping."

[Digger Goreman]

nevermind....

[fanglord13]

Have to agree with the OP as I recently bought the 2013 White Dwarf and Festus the Leechlord (both as display pieces) and they were a treat to clean, assemble and now even paint

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I would still always pick up a finecast model at the store, in fact I purposefully went in and ordered it in store rather than online so that a.) my money goes into the store till and b.) I can check for cast issues when it arrived. I think that's the best way just to be sure. But perhaps the major mis casts were just a consequence of a new technique, or less stringent quality checks, who knows.

As for being able to scrub away the flashing with a toothbrush, not so sure about that. The material doesn't crumble at a slight breeze it's just easy to clean up and cut through with a modelling knife. I've got no worries whatsoever having felt the material about it's suitability for being constantly knocked over and picked up in Blood Bowl.

I'm glad this thread was actually useful for someone, I figured there'd be people avoiding finecast like the plague due to all the horror stories.

[Da Crusha]

another resin horror story (not finecast by the way, but listen up and save a figure). a friend of mine was unhappy with his paint job on a kremloch orc buggy part so he soaked them in rubbing alcohol. one part he cleaned after a 30 minute soak and it worked fine. he left another part of the buggy submerged in the alcohol over night and the next day they were just melted goo. we were told at a miniature seminar a few months ago not to use simple green or brake fluid to clean models and that rubbing alcohol was a safe and effective alternative. it melted kremloch resin miniatures.

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Noted. I use dettol to strip miniatures which is an anti septic liquid, I may just test it on a piece of finecast sprue for future reference. Thanks for the tip.

[spubbbba]

For all the hatred Finecast gets I've had worse experiences with non-GW fantasy football miniatures.

I've had several different models from a variety of companies and half of them have been worse than the 3 Finecast models I have bought. I didn't get that issue with metal models from larger companies but the smaller ones seem to use the moulds for longer.

So quite a few of them lost detail, had mould slips or there were large lumps of metal where part of the mould had come away in a previous casting. There was also an issue with multi-part models needing a lot of filling which finecast does seem to avoid.

Of course GW really didn't help themselves by using the new material as an excuse to raise prices when the metal versions of their models were usually better.

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Update: this morning I accidentally dropped one of my chosen on hardwood floor and there was no damage, so any fears about them crumbling at a bug fart have been put to rest. However I've cocked up the paint job so we'll soon see how they strip after all!

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Just thought I would add to this as I discovered another negative with Finecast as it seems to be... I'm sure some of you are aware as I've already stated occasionally you'll have to straighten out mis shaped bits with warm water, the resin becomes bendy in the heat. Well it turns out soaking the figure in Dettol in order to strip a paint job kinda makes this effect permanently!

The figure I stripped a few days ago now still feels somewhat rubbery and the horns etc. are bendy to the touch. The figure I suppose is still usable, but luckily I had a spare. Long story short, I don't think you can strip finecast models. A negative certainly, but the pros are still out weighing the cons at the moment.

[Darkson]

Oh, finecast Slann with proper jumpy legs...