Tuesday, 19 July 2011

Finecast - first impressions

I got my first blister with minis produced using GW's new technique yesterday so I'm finally able to write something about Finecast.
First of all, I really like the packaging. The transparent plastic is pretty neat and it lets you see the minis. Good thing, especially for those who buy personally at a store as it allows you to see if there's anything wrong with the contents. Another good thing is the printed picture of painted versions that you get. It makes sense, in particular for those who like to stay true to codex's color scheme. For those who don't do that, well, I guess it still helps with painting.
The first thing you notice after taking the minis out of the blister pack is their weight. They're very light and they feel completely different than the metal ones in hand.
The overall quality of the cast is very good. The details on the clothes, cloaks and weapons look very nice and I was pleased to notice that these two actually have eyes (something I wasn't able to say about metal versions I've encountered so far). There are practically no mold lines and the small bits that need removing can be scrubbed off easily with fine sandpaper. So basically, preparing these for painting is easier than metal ones.
And that's it for the good things. The bad things now. Fortunately, there aren't too many of these. First of all, you might have notice in the pictures that Balin's index finger is one joint too short. Also, the blade of his axe will need some work with Green Stuff. Other than that, there are tine holes left after bubbles of air that got caught in the form during casting. They are spread randomly in several places. It's hard to say at this point whether they will cause any problems but my hope is that they are small enough to disappear after basecoating.
I was initially put off by very negative reviews of Finecast I read online but having seen one in person, I am hopeful that despite a few issues with it, GW will improve the casting process. I'm now looking forward to painting these guys but this will have to wait until August as I have a few other things to deal with first.


  1. Maybe Polish? :) I wait your recension on mitril.pl. Regards

  2. There's already one ;)

  3. Above all, the image on the package lets you see what the hell you're buying instead of assuming you already know the name of every model there is.
    Something I found especially annoying since I am more of a collector who buys whatever minis I think look nice to paint and the actual usefulness in an army is very second hand.
    Made it more or less impossible to browse through the minis in a store just hoping to find something fun :( (wasn't very easy to find them even if you knew what you were looking for at that, I can't imagine why they didn't do this earlier).

    As for the quality, I bought a fine-cast elf, he had some bubbles but nothing that couldn't be easily filled in, though I got the feeling they're kinda fragile. Maybe it's just because I'm used to metals.

  4. Thanks for the comment and good point about the softness of the material - it may be a problem with longer and thin elements.
    I also forgot to mention one thing - if a finecast mini is bent in an unnatural way it's easy to fix it by putting it in hot water and then bending it gently back to the desired shape.



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