Finecost? Nice, I thought the new name was Failcast >:D

How about the best of both worlds

Failcost

i'm quite happy with calling it finecast. one merely has to understand that fine is a noun.

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Got a $25 Finecost Zoanthrope yesterday. Many of the other net observations were confirmed:

Perceived an increase in 'sharpness', but until someone can show primed Finecost vs metal, this is still a subjective issue.
The resin has very low shear strength - it is easily cut.
Feed and air channels are easily removed.
Paint can be directly applied - no need for priming. This aspect is really weird.

Currently ongoing - Simple Green stripping experiment.

The results of this will be most interesting. My internal cynic tells me that part of the switch to resin was to make it harder to strip miniatures and put them up for 2nd hand sale.

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More of a current misconception which seems to be that every army in Rogue Trader consisted of 2 squats with toughness 15 force fields and homing autodestructive 50" blast vortex missiles on jetboards...

My (rarely) updated hobby blog

No unusual interactions between simple green and FineCost material.

Nah, GW did the switch to save money. They even said as much. Then they raised prices.

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I'm fuming as much as the next person about GW's price raising antics and the spin they're putting on Finecost.

BUT, it's practically rule 1 of retail: an item's price is not based on what it costs to produce, but what customers are prepared to pay. This of course does include competition, which normally is affected by production cost in some way, but in GW's case their IP is strong and thus they can limit comparison to other brands' prices. The reality is that customers are prepared to pay increased prices if they believe the product is better quality.

I personally think the jury is still out on whether consumers will consider resin better than metal. At first I thought "no way", but having looked at some of the metal minis I got recently (epic shining spears) I can imagine people might believe it after all (not me - I hate the fragility). The one issue I do think may crop up is that a more direct comparison can be made with Forge World's prices, because the IP and materials are now both similar. But this still only really the case for Epic and a few special cases, because most of Forge World's mainstream product is vehicles and squads, to which the natural GW equivalent is good and cheap plastics, whereas Finecost is initially covering character-type models.

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I don't get the impression 'metal' holds the same charm for the younger generations as it did for mine. As silly as it might sound, we looked forward to 'growing up' so we could be trusted not to eat the lead soldiers! Plastic soldiers were toys, lead ones were for games.

Resin seems to be the 'holy grail' amongst gamers. Just look how much Forgeworld products go for on Ebay. Personally, to me, the Epic 3rd ed. minis and the E/A minis are much more visually detailed than the Forgeworld ones (with the exception of the Naval assets) I like that the modelers added putty detail to the plasticard constructs they made. I also like the deeper details, they take painting techniquies better. Finally, I just really appreciate the weight in my hand. But the players go crazy for the resin.

At least the 'finecast' resin appears pretty rugged, and the fact that it can be bent a little when your painting might come in handy. I was almost tempted to buy one just to check it out.

Considering the price of tin has risen like 200% to 300% over the past ten years the price increases overall haven't been that bad. Perhaps more of a problem is that our paychecks aren't really keeping pace. Perhaps that's in part because everone wants to save a buck and the companies want to make a killing so all the jobs are where things get made cheap through the 'magic' of forced/child/low paid labor, disregard for the environment, and manipulated currency exchange rates.

I have a package containing TWO Ork Bubba Chucka from 1994, the label states the price as $7.99. Packs of FOUR new Ork battlewagons or gunwagons cost $20.00 so I really can't complain (that doen't mean I'm thrilled, but who says luxury items should be cheap)

My point is, GW has always been kinda pricey, guess the internet just gives a place for people to instantly complain and follow the pack of complaints and complain some more. After looking at PP prices I really don't see why some are viewing them as a great alternative, they are priced pretty close (and made in China).

The old Citadel package says made in the USA, the new Citadel one says made in the UK. I'll GLADLY pay more just for that.
I'd rather rather pay more for manufacturing than pay slightly less and just line the companies and retailers pockets for some mini from a third world country made by low paid/forced labor out of materials that you should probably pass through a geiger counter before touching. At least GW has some corporate ethics and does manufacture in the countries where they are based and their customers live.
(not to mention provide stores to play in, free shipping, fast service, cool story line, minis and games that match the story line, etc.)

If the 'new' resin slows the price increases guess it will be a good thing, but I think I will always appreciate the metal more.

Thats good news at least, thanks for running the experiment.

I went out and bought one of the new Citadel Finecast models this weekend.
I'm not sure whether or not I prefer the new material to metal, I am a traditionalist at heart, but as the resin appears to be here to stay I've got to say that it's nice for what it is.
I spent about 20 minutes looking at all the pieces that they had out on the table for review as well as flipping through the blisters looking for blemishes and errors and I've gotta say that I really didn't see anything I'd consider to be too horrible.
I've seen the photos folks are posting online of the sheets of flash, the bits of mold in the casts, and the bubbles of missing material. But given that people are much more prone to post photos of negative issues over positive ones, and considering the sheer numbers of models shipped out and the relative scarcity of such negative photos I'm thinking that the incidence of bad casts is well within what is to be expected in a mass production scenario.
Well, I think that we've all had bad casts in metal as well, mold offsets, big moldlines or pieces of flashing, and I've had several models with bits of mold stuck in them, it's part of the hobby.

Here are the photos of the kit I bought.

Packaging:


Front of the blister has a nice color photo of the studio paintjob while the back lets you inspect your fig.
I don't know why GW didn't go for the clamshell blisters everyone else is using, these must be cheaper I guess.

Sprue:

The models now come on a full sprue.
Overall I think that this is a pretty decent way to get them, the only issue I found was where a couple of the attachment points were placed too close to some of the smaller detail, made it kind of tricky to remove the model cleanly.

Flash:

My model only had a little bit of the sheet flask we've been seeing around it's waist and the tops of the boots, and this cleaned up quite easily with nothing more than my trusty x-acto.
In fact overall, barring the attachment points for the sprue, I'd say that this is one of the cleaner models I've gotten from GW.
The only real moldline was around his right knee/obligatory skull and on his pauldrons.
The material is quite soft and easy to scrape away with a knifeblade, I only broke out the round file for a couple of small areas near some fiddly detail. In fact the material is soft enough I'd caution against files wherever possible.

Mold Release Agent:

After I did the cleanup on my fig I THOUGHT my fingers might have felt very slightly greasy, so I went ahead and gave it a quick scrub with some dishsoap.
Compare to other resin pieces I've had over the years this one isn't slick or dusty at all, but for the small amount of effort required to wash it up, why not to save yourself the hassle of peeling paint and ruined paintjobs.

Detail:



The detail is much better than you get with plastic kits, however, I am not convinced that it's any better than it would be in metal.
I've heard the arguments regarding metal shrinking as it cools and loosing definition on smaller details, but as I don't have this miniature in metal in order to compare I can't confirm that it's any better.
I will say that the details are very sharp and quite fine, I'm very happy with it.

Assembly:

GW claims that with this new material pins are a thing of the past.
I found that the resin takes CA glue very well, but I don't know about entrusting a large piece to simple super glue.
As with the mold release issue, why wouldn't you take the time and resolve the issue in your favor when you have the chance?
The material is quite soft and I can't imagine it's hard to drill into at all, a couple of minutes effort and your model should be quite indestructable.

Overall:
I like the new material quite a bit, and I won't put off buying any other models I require because of it.

@Westside - glad its not just me that has a natrual adversion to anything that doesn't have a good heft in the hand !

Guess i just missed the whole growth of plastics in GW during my time out of the hobby, and i have to say each time i see a new range of plastics the quality and inventive use of steel moulds does take my breath away - but theirs still a little voice in my head that says "starter set" when i pick them up ! And paying £5 per trooper in plastic !! Just couldn't do it. Now the metal terminators - that was a model that could do some damage !

As for "fine"cast. Not really decided myself. I'm taking my guidance from a long time buddy (professional sculptor - GW and runs his own co - plus 12 times Golden Daemon winner) who says its "ok" - some pros, some cons. I'm particularly impressed by the crispness/flexibility combo. Interestingly, on price he reckons that there is little to choose between metal and resin - the material is cheaper but it eats molds (chemically) and so on long production runs GW needs (rather than the limited ed collectors pieces that resin has usually been used on) the process works out similar due to increased mold replacement. He's interested to see where the range goes when the sculptors start working specifically for resin rather than just using the old molds.

Personalty, from a marketing point of view i think GW has come close to dropping the ball on the launch. If you promise the moon on a stick and then put the price up significantly you've got to deliver, and there seems too many miss-casts out there. I feel like they may have over stretched themselves trying to replace every metal model, worldwide (!) on one day, while keeping it all under wraps - and quality may have suffered as a result. When you think about the shear number of minis that must have been stockpiled somewhere the mind boggles ! I'm thinking Raiders of the Lost Ark, somewhere in Nottingham...

Given the lightness and softness of the material, you shouldn't get an 'impact shockwave' the way you'd get in a metal model - the piece'd just flex a little and the CA bond would remain firm.

it's the long term creep/deflection i'd be worried about

My concern regarding the resin, like Blip stated, is that resin destroys molds pretty quickly. One of the guys on Dakka did a Finecast review, and on his Njal, there is part of the mold stuck to the model (in addition to missing the psyber raven.) I'm hoping GW is quick to replace these molds after a certain number of casts, otherwise, we're going to see quality control issues like we've seen in the past with FW - bad mold fit, heavy flashing, loss of detail, etc.

I am curious as to the detail argument with resin. I know resin is a less viscous material than liquid metal, so I would assume it can pick up finer detail and flow better into smaller areas. All the reviews I've seen so far on the subject though are "Look at the awesome detail" when not taking into account that white resin is going to view and photograph a whole lot better than a shiny metal. I'd like to see two of the same model base coated and stood next to each other to see if there is any perceptible difference in quality.

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I'm curious as to why the sprue runner system appears to have points for ejector pins to assist/push the casting out of the mold.