Why I think Finecast is mostly awesome, despite its flaws

 

The first I heard about finecast was recently on bols just before the GW announcement, I have to say it was a fairly well kept secret from GW in the grand scheme of things and considering how badly they seem to be able to keep the secret of the rest of their products. 

Sure quite a few months before that there were rumblings of getting rid of metal, its obvious that someone in GW does not like secrets, that or they think its good to build up hype, either way I made the decision a few months back to hope the rumors were true and not purchase any further metal models.  So this weekend was the launch of finecast, I popped down to my local GW which is something I don't do very often, I try and avoid the place like the plague purely because its always full of kids and I hate kids.  

One of the Finecast tag lines is 'what will your first finecast model be?' which did make me think, yeah, what WILL it be? So clearly the marketing worked on me for that one.  Problem I have is there actually anything I need? Sadly no, there isn't.  Currently, besides the new dark eldar range coming soon which I do want a fair bit of, I do have everything I currently need.  That of course does not mean I have everything I 'want'. 

I'm sure there are many of you out there that this happens to, you have your army, its all good, you need nothing more, but somewhere in there is an addiction to buy more 40k, be it a new conversion project, new army in general or just something different to try.

So what was my vice? I went for a Tyranid hive tyrant and Tyrant guard.  I always liked the unit and the models, it was the one thing I feared the most going up against my mate’s nid army back when I started playing and I just had to have one.  Nids have been a painting project for me for a while now, back when I started this blog they were the first things I put up first (baring a few BA guys).  My plan was to paint 1 of everything, on my sideboard I currently I 1 hive guard, 1 gaunt, 1 zoanthrope etc you get the idea, so tyrant it is.

Now the important bit you probably want to read most, what is the good and bad things about the hive tyrant and tyrant guard Finecast kits and why.  To begin with, why is it bad, well it’s the same as it was in metal and this does mean some of the fitting is as poor as a lot of the multi part metal models were, the main bit I had issues with was the tyrant torso, you essentially get a central piece and then sides that glue onto it, well they don’t sit flush and require bits scraping/cutting/hacking off them to fit, thankfully this is made extremely easy with Finecast.

Next up is the feet, they don’t sit flat and flush against the base on either kit, meaning I had to use a bit of green stuff so it was stable, not the end of the world again, compared to the metal one it was a dream to put together.  A bit of green stuff and some magnets on the tyrant (in the arm sockets to switch weapons) and the model was essentially done and I’m quite happy with it.

To glue the model is of course not as good as plastic, the plastic glue is amazing however super glue does handle Finecast quite well, you can even use the utterly terrible games workshop glue for it if you want, though I’m going to ‘stick’ with my Loctite gel.  Here are some pictures.

People will bitch about the price and with good reason, they are silly expensive for what they are but I have to say, the models are such a joy compared to their metal cousins that its completely worth it, for the time you save not having to mess around with the metals (especially if you are very anal about mould lines) its more than worthwhile paying a bit more and getting it in Finecast.  A final comment on Finecast, spiky bits on a model (like dark eldar or chaos) don’t draw blood if you are stupid enough to grab it too tight while trying to make the glue set, that alone has to be worth the switch.

One negative I will say however is the tyrant horn was a bit bent out of shape and not just something you can bend back, its genuinely looking like it has been cast wrong, I don't know if the metal ones were like this but its a pain as it looks poor, hopefully the paint job will hide it well enough.  Also many people have been noticing air bubbles on their models, I did not see any personally on this tyrant but then I wasn't really looking for them, there is a large one on the end of the tyrant guard tail however which I will have to disguise.

I have considered taking it back but have heard they wont accept them and just tell you to apply green stuff or a bit of glue (even says to use glue on them if you see them on the gw website) so in this case I have but anymore will be returned, if you notice any more in the pics please let me know though.

More to come on my progress of painting these monsters as it happens!