Citadel Finecast - Initial thoughts

I ended up over at UU&A for some comics and paints, and ended up filling up a UCard. While I was browsing, looking for something that I could get, I came across a few of the Finecast minis, and since I had some money I could throw at it and not have to technically pay for it, I decided to get the Dark Eldar Archon Finecast mini.

While I was looking at it before getting it, I notice that it does seem that the details are pretty sharp. I cannot really tell all that much difference between it and the metal minis, at least with the amount of detail, as I've got a couple of metal minis that have about as much detail, but, again, it is at least a bit sharper than the metal. The Inquisitor Lord Hector Rex from Forgeworld that I have still way out strips the sharpness of detail that I'm seeing on the Archon, but it still seems to be a small improvement over the metal.

I got home and decided to assemble him. Cleaning the pieces up seemed to be pretty easy, though the amount of flashing on it was a bit annoying. Once clean though, the pieces glued together very easily. I do like that part of it. When using normal super glue, it only takes a few seconds for it to get tacky enough to where you don't have to hold it together anymore. With metal, sometimes it takes FOREVER for the glue to set, especially if they are big pieces with large areas that come together. Very similar to Forgeworld in that respect! When I built my Warhound titan, the Mecharius, or even Hector Rex or the Ork Warlord on Warbike that I've assembled and painted, the super glue held pretty quickly (though, with the warhound, I had to reassemble it using epoxy glue because the super glue couldn't handle the weight).

There was one thing that I noticed that I'm probably not going to like: there are some thin areas that are going to break when some pressure is put on the thin spot. I went to put the archon in the slotta base it came with, and the text for it's name and the GW name on the sides of the slotta portion of the mini kept the mini from going into the base. I put a little bit of pressure on it to get it to go in (like you would with a metal mini), and it bent and almost buckled the ankles of the mini! Not a good sign for it's durability! Also, comparing to some of the portions of the Hector Rex (which also has a bunch of places similar to the Archon), the finecast material seems a little less dense, and seems to be will break more than bend, as Hector does. Maybe that's my imagination... I've had no issues with the thinner pieces of Hector, and I've not worried about the durability while transporting it or his retinue, but I've got some concerns that Archon may not hold up well to being handled and transported...


Anyhow, I haven't started painting yet, so when I do get to that, I will put my thoughts about the painting into a post as well.

So.... is FineCast nice? For the most part, it seems, yeah. The details are crisp and it looks like it will be fun to paint. But, unfortunately, I don't see that the FineCast is a better value than Forgeworld, and you will be paying more than Forgeworld costs for similar number of minis, for the most part, and they are definitely not in the same realm quality-wise to Forgeworld. I will be waiting to see if they improve the formula before spending a bunch of money on these minis, or if they end up dropping the prices some. Maybe once it's painted I'll change my mind...

I've been following this with interest, since at some point I'll probably be forced to buy a new Finecast mini for one of my 40K armies.

A few things I've read/noticed. First, people are claiming that there is more "detail", but I think it's just easier to see on the finecast products because of the primer. People have posted pics of the two side by side, and while I can usually pick out the metal, there's no difference at the distance most minis will be viewed on the table top. Heck, it's hard to tell on the close up! Since the masters are identical I find it hard to believe there's a significant amount of difference. Once they switch to new masters there maybe be a huge difference, we'll see.

I've also heard a number of people claim that it's easier to assemble. This may be true, I suspect that the glue sets just as quick, but with a metal mini, the weigh breaks the very weak bonds, while Finecast doesn't suffer from this problem due to it's freaky lightness. Honestly, not a biggie IMHO, since I plan on enjoying an using the mini far longer than I will spend assembling it. OTOH, I know a lot of people just put together the mini cause they want to play, and that's as far as it needs to go.

The durability is also worrisome, particularly with reports of people leaving it in the sun or other hot spots, and having things warp. And on to that potential weaknesses caused by air bubbles, and it's a concern. Having recently left something in the car, in a black minis case, and have a plastic counter tray warped to heck and back, I'd be very careful about leaving my Finecast minis anywhere hot. (I believe people have had issues with the normal plastics as well....)

Anyway, sounds like you got a decent mini, hope it works out well for you.

Yeah, I've heard that heat does not do nice things to them. I haven't had any issues with my plastics (some even sit in direct sunlight in the afternoon), but I have read that if you use a hair dryer or warm water to straighten pieces out that it can melt the filecast mini. I lucked out with the archon, as there weren't any deformities, so I didn't have to reshape it.

I do agree with you on the detail, though. The little bits and such do tend to stand out a little more, but it seems to be mainly because you can see them easier, and metal minis the details don't pop out until you at least prime them. I haven't primed it nor painted it yet, so it may or may not retain that sharpness when it's painted... we'll see...

I'm still scratching my head a little with the decision to go to this, though. It could be a boon for their sales, but it also seems like there are some things that have the potential to really hurt the company in the long run, like the durability and the heat non-resistance. I know that personally, if I have a mini that melts or breaks really easily after a short period of time, and no way to fix it easily, I wouldn't be replacing it in any hurry. Hopefully they don't go the way of the electronics world and do the planned obsolescence, cause that'd kill their product.

It's pretty clear this is a business decision. The old metal minis cost a lot in materials, they've moved to a new material that is less expensive. On paper I would hope that they expected to keep quality the same, or increase, in reality this doesn't appear to be the case.

Maybe things will turn around, I like playing 40K, but right now this seems like a price increase and a quality decrease. Very hard sell in the best of times. What impact it will have on sales or people's involvement in the system is hard to say. I know people have been grumbling about stuff like this since the RT days. Ex: friend played orks and was upset about the requirement to buy 2 hardbacked books. The original 30 marines/$30 only had 2 heavy weapons 2 specials and not enough bolter arms for 3 squads of 10 marines. Despite all this, they've flourished.

Personally I've got a number of other things I can be spending my time on, including working on my house, playing Warmachine, hanging with friends, etc. If 40K disappears tomorrow, I won't be broken hearted.

Thanks for the review Bojesphob. I've been waiting on someone to do that on this forum. You hear all the complaining on other forums, but you got to wonder. Can't wait to hear more. Anybody else out there have a Finecast experience to share!

I just got done painting it, and I think I should have gone with one of the Orks that Kendall had, I don't think I like painting Dark Eldar...

Anyhow, I'll have some pictures later, but painting the mini was about like painting any of the plastic or metal minis before. Not really sure I could see much of a difference with what I've painted metal-wise, or even plastic-wise, compared to this. Some of the details got a little blurred, even though I watered the paint down, for example, there are a few tassels that seemed to have lost the fibers once the paint went on. Not to say it looks horrible, it doesn't, and most of the details show quite fine, so it seems like it was just the tassels that you really can't make out what they are, and I've had issues with some of the finer details when doing metal and plastic, so I guess that really doesn't end up being good or bad.

Thanks for posting your thoughts Joe

I have yet to get my hands on any of the Finecast minis.. trying to avoid until I have NO choice

I've been holding out also, kind of want to give them time to refine the process.

i cant wait to see them!

Ok, so, here is the Archon painted. This is one of the few times where I really feel that I didn't really enjoy painting a mini. I couldn't come up with a color scheme that I liked, and what I did come up with really doesn't make me feel like I did a good job with it.... Maybe that's colored (pun intended) my dislike of the mini, who knows...

Anyhow, the front: