While nattering at the lads in the City store on my lunch break yesterday the 'Whats New' stand caught my eye and I broke my no new mini's at Australian retail prices ban.
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| Very cool but bloody expensive - this is reserved for treats only |
Marshall Helbrecht of the Black Templars had been released in Finecast. I've loved the mini for a while now and have been getting sniped far too often trying to get the old metal version on eBay. When I saw it had been released and I could see no discernible flaw through the packaging I figured I might treat myself and pick it up - I've been getting on well with the Orks so figured I could have something as a bit of a reward.
I'd seen some real horror storied about this Finecast experiment and would have tried my hardest not to pick up any of
these types of minis, but nearly everything these days is being made in
it so its going to be pretty hard to stay away from.
The other issue
I have with it is that my preferred choice of retailer - the Internet kind - is kind of not an option for Finecast in my opinion -
a) due to the Australian embargo, b) you can't see what you're getting
before you get it and I don't fancy sending things back through third
parties - seems like a bit of hassle.
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| Nothing suspect looking through the packaging |
$33 (ouch - the metal was $28 from memory and that was steep in this humble bloggers opinion), some Black Primer ($26 ouch again - I was sure that used to be $22 - need to find an alternative - particularly given what follows) and a pot of Liquid Green Stuff (LGS) later I had the mini at home and ready for assembly.
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| Looks good - all the pieces are there at least |
Out of the packet it looks pretty good. There are some very minor blemishes on the underside of some of the parts - not sure if that's the way the mini sits in the mold so that's where it fails to get too fully, but it was so minor I wasn't put off by it (ie, didn't feel the need to take it back - I had had such blemishes in metal minis before) and it gave me a chance to have a crack at using the LGS.
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| Some odd bits of flash but not really much worse than the old bits of metal hanging off a mini |
Unfortunately this is where pictures cease for the time being as my camera went Kaput and the local Tech Priest (AKA the missus) is out of town for a week.
After cleaning up the mold lines and such, and giving it a quick wash, I opened the LGS and got stuck in. The LGS worked like its supposed too. Its quite thick in the pot but I'm not sure if this is normal or a result of the heat. I thinned it with water to a paint like consistency and layered it on - letting layers dry before reapplying. This filled the minor issues not a problem.
I then built and based the mini and took it outside to prime. Now this is where the fun starts. The first prime went off without a hitch, nice and smooth but there were some spots I missed on the underside of the mini. After letting the first coat dry fully, I hit it from the underneath with a second spray. Same (new) can, same ambient conditions, same shaking of the can, but this time the primer powdered on contact with the mini and then crackled as it dried leaving me with a smooth coat from the top down, but a crackled, powdery coating from the underneath.
Not really sure what that's all about as its never happened before - is it a bad can, or has something changed between first and second applications?. I have just given it a light wash with thinned down Chaos Black from a pot to see if that can smooth out the finish but if not - it might mean a stripping and re-prime (with another can). Anyone have any ideas how you strip Finecast - will Simple Green melt the resin?
So final thoughts on Finecast - expensive, and no real benefit in my mind. I don't see the 'crispness' they had Jervis banging on about - it looks pretty much the same as any other metal mini I have picked up over the years. Its about as 'crisp' as a FW mini - comparing it to my Hector Rex, there wasn't a huge difference in level of detail achieved. My stuff from Studio McVey is 'crisper'.
It has its flaws, but so did metal. Although this had minor flaws, some of the other stock I looked through had some real issues - the Dark Eldar Ur-Ghul with no shoulder, the Necron Overlord missing parts of its leg and tabbard.
Its light as buggery, I miss the heft of metal. Did I mention its expensive too (yep, I'm cheap and fondly remember entering the hobby with $12 character miniatures - now they're all $28+).
I don't know what to think really. I think at the end of the day I will try and away from Finecast where I can - eBay still has plenty of old metals available and I know how they react to stripping agents. The problem is future releases. With any luck GW get on top of QC before I feel the need to enter the Finecast market again.
Anyway, that's all for now - need to get back to the Orks, and then see how this primer is looking. Maybe a bit of Google research is in order to see if anyone else has tried stripping these yet.
Happy hobby all,
Pom
Good, not too bad then :)
ReplyDeleteSG should be fine, just work it with a cotton bud, taking off what you need, no need to strip a part that does not need stripping, if you can help it. Put a bit of sprue in SG, for a few days, if you want to check.
Just stay away from alcohols, for extended periode i.e. more than a day or two, for resins.
WM
Thanks Col. Will try out the SG route then if my current attempts of sanding back etc doesn't produce results.
ReplyDeleteThe more I've thought on this Finecast thing the more I've brooded about the cost and quality.
Whats really bugging me is the cost of the mini - recognising this is an expensive hobby and the old metals had an annual price increase pushing up prices.
This guy set me back $33 for a 25mm base size character. $33. Thats a lot for something that is a) cheaper to produce which was the stated reason for moving to this medium to stop those annual price rises which were blamed on the blow out in costs of tin. b) this mini is not exactly new - been around since 2004-5 (?) from memory. Any initial deisgn costs would have been recovered by 2012 you would have thought so short of current manufacturing costs - what else is justifying the cost of this model? Profit?
I talked about in the post how I remembered the first character mini I had bought had set me back $12. That was the old metal Terminator Librarian - also on a 25mm base.
e current range looks loads better. Yes there is inflation etc.
But the more I dwell on this the more it feels like a massive price gouge to me - captive (to an extent) audience and all that sort of thing.
What's it all mean - I'm slightly put off buying more Finecast or new release minis - a) cost pressures, and b) quality. Where I can, I think I will stick with eBay to track down left over metal versions of some of the more current sculpts and just plain stay away from the newer stuff that was never in metal - which is a bit of a shame.