I have a small interest in Warhammer Fantasy battle, I have an Empire army as well as the start of a Dwarf army. I dont do a lot with these models and have never even played a proper game. The new Finecast line of miniatures and the claims being made about them did interest me some. I am currently in Illinois on vacation and found a GW store local, We don't have a GW store anywhere near my home town so I took the opportunity to check out the finecast line. I picked up 3 models, an empire leader, a dwarf leader and a dwarf gyro. I have only opened the Gyro, the smaller ones will wait until I am home.
Having looked over the gyro I will say That I do not currently think that these models are the high detail that GW claims. I believe all of the current finecast line are repops from the current metal molds (though I am not greatly familiar with the GW line and could be wrong). Going back to Flames of war for a comparison I once looked at Old glory minis at a convention and was not impressed, they looked awful compared to what I was used to from Battlefront. I now own few platoons of Old glory as once you prime them they suddenly look as good if not better than BF infantry in my opinion. I think this is what GW is going for, in the light grey resin they look like a freshly primed metal mini, thus compared to a metal mini they do look more detailed in the package.
I wrote the above while out of town and had not gotten too deep into the models yet. I am now back home and have assembled the Gyro. I have seen a lot of talk about bubbles and miscasts in these minis, I could not find a single problem with the Gyro. You can have miscasts in any medium, and I have seen some 15mm Resin tanks that looked like they had a serious acne problem and required serious filling and sanding to be saved, it happens either work with it or return it for another model. Another issue I have been hearing is that this stuff is overly heat sensitive. I will be taking a piece of left over sprue and putting it out in the 80 to 90 degree heat we have been having and see how it reacts tomorrow. The materiel is very soft compared to normal resin / plastic, I am able to bend the rotor blades just more than slightly and though I can see where this may possibly be an issue in heat, it could also be a good thing as a lightweight model with some give to it is less likely to be damaged if knocked over.
Finecast is too pricy in my opinion. The detail is better. I am fairly certain they took an original metal cast (probably locked away in a vault for years) and made resin injection molds for them.
ReplyDeleteRe: Old Glory - their quality has improved. You have to be careful though, getting some of the older stuff - its usually not a pretty picture. Eureka's 15mm figures are actually better quality than BF's and cost about the same but has a much more limited selection. (I got Soviet partisans and US Marines through Eureka.)
everything GW is too pricey, they are in my opinion getting to the point where they are selling over priced minis to be painted not played. The finecast line only seems to be a couple of bucks more than metal on average however and in the case of larger models I do like the materiel enough to suck it up if I want the model bad enough. As far as old glory goes I do think they have some great minis for the price, I am only referencing infantry however as vehicles in my opinion are not anywhere near BF quality. BF infantry has become far too hit or miss and the price is beginning to put me off.
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