*RANT COMMENCES* Why exactly - I hear you ask - are you bothering to do an Out Of The Box review of the Finecast Plague Marines, which are just reproductions of the Death Guard models from all the way back in 2002?
The reason is that I thought it was about time that we revisited the whole Finecast story now that these products have been around for a fair old while. Doing this with Plague Marines, who are I must admit rather messy by their very nature, might be seen as a cop out. Fair enough. I also happen to have a batch of Space Marines sitting on a shelf too, and I'll talk about those when I do a companion post to this. But back to Finecast…
Resin is here to stay. Or is it? The rumours are that GW would love to go all plastic in the future. When you see the very high quality plastic clamshells that are coming out right now - the new Daemonic Heralds for instance - it isn't hard to believe that this may well be the direction they'll take. It is possible. The trouble is, as far as I can tell they make huge profits from Finecast: it's cheaper than white metal and they used the switch to bump up prices.
Plenty of people noticed and were pissed off with this. But as I seem to say all the time, show me a manufacturer who produces comparable quality models at a more competitive price? No one can, because there simply isn't anyone out there as good as GW. There. I said it. Am I a blind fan? Hardly. But I accept that all companies are out to make a profit and that's the deal we have to swallow. Again, it's worth stating that you don't have to follow the buy-an-army strategy that GW promote with their codex and army book range - it's your game so play it however you want!
These Plague Marines are great. Much, much better then their previous metal counterparts. You can see all the detail. You can see all the flash - and there's plenty, but it's ok because it's simple to deal with. Mould lines are quickly dispatched. Drilling to pin is super easy, as is matching up the pins and holes.
Finecast had a bumpy start and miscasts are bloody annoying. Yet GW have changed all miscast stuff I've had from them, no questions. And the ease of working through the early stages of a model means it's a far superior medium to white metal, where casting issues often doesn't come to light until a mini is primed or even base coated.
These smelly chaps will form part of my Armies on Parade display - hence why I purchased GW after converting the Avatar's of War Corruptors. I am at a slight risk of becoming a Nurgle completist however... *RANT CONCLUDES*
My overall stance on GW as a whole is illustrated by the story of Finecast. When it first came into use off the back of an extensive test programme it produced great results. They really nailed it. Mis-casts were at less than 1%. Unfortunately, the guys who unload the moulds couldn't hit their targets (x minis unloaded per hour) with the top quality resin due to it taking slightly longer to harden. Breakages were running at an unacceptable level after they got pushed to work faster. Result? The board insisted on switching to an inferior but faster setting resin. Miscasts shot up and only recently have they been brought below 3%. It irritates people that GW makes penny pinching decisions like that, but really most of the people at GW are good guys who cringe at what the board get up to.
ReplyDeleteThat's some good background that I didn't know, thanks very much for commenting. It just goes to show that GW unfortunately have a split personality.
DeleteNo problem! Enjoying your blog.
ReplyDelete