It occurred to me, not infrequently, during the whole Citadel Finecast publicity fiasco that just maybe the resin models only had different weaknesses than their plastic and pewter brethren. That just maybe the haters decrying the new material were being simply resistant to change and unwilling to accept new model limitations as different but equal to the problems already inherent with plastics (less detail and mold lines, for example) and the old metal figures used to have. I didn't think it was a stretch to assume some wargamers could be stodgy, grumpy inflexible types, but I kept my mouth shut because I had yet to find an occasion to get a Finecast model in my own hands and experience the figure for myself. That injustice has been corrected and today I bought a Finecast Coteaz and I can report my experiences and compare them to what I presumed was my calm, reasonable, level-headed pre-assessment.
Firstly, the model is light as a feather and I have to say I was truly impressed with the clarity and level of detail on the front of model that I picked up. The Inquisition symbol as Coteaz's belt-buckle was gorgeous, as were the chains wrapping around the various books strapped to his belt, his facial features were sharp and the fur along the model's shoulders were surprisingly clean (only one area on the left pad looked a bit indistinct). I've noticed sometimes with my pewter figures that some areas of detail look a bit smudged, as if someone had pressed down on them with their thumb too roughly and the front of the Finecast figure didn't have any of that. There's some flash, but it's on the edges of the model and the armor looked clean and the whole thing seemed like it would fit together nicely.
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| Coteaz's good side |
The back is a different story. This was where I kind of "got" the whole Finecast-rage thing. There was nothing really smooth about the Inquisitor's flowing cloak. It looked a bit like some poor teenager's pot-marked face. There were quite a few little 'knife nicks' as I called them, perhaps intentional creases in the cloak toward the bottom but looking rather haphazard and accidental.
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| Don't get on his bad side |
The biggest failure, though, was a too thin part of the cloak that was actually partly translucent up towards the edge of the back directly up from where the right foot would be. It probably doesn't show up well in pictures, but it's the biggest major failure on the Finecast model that I purchased. It signals what many people have been talking about: a lower level of production quality then GW had previously been known for putting out there. Simply put, they hadn't perfected their technique yet before hyping and releasing the new line.
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| I sense a hole in your plans... |
But ultimately? None of the issues are anything a half decent paint job won't fix. An unpainted Finecast model can look pretty bad, warts and all, despite the really laudable level and clarity of most detail. The thing is, when it's painted most of those problems disappear. I think the excess flash on the model is a non-issue. Seriously, it's limited almost entirely to the extreme edges of the figure and although an individual line of flash might be bigger than on a pewter figure, the metal models still had them and Finecast flash is no harder and no more inconvenient to remove. The number of markings... (the pits and lines and scrapes that look like whoever inspected the figure had razor blades for fingers) these are disappointing especially for a model called Finecast. But again, these will mostly dissipate under a decent coat of paint.
Finecast models have problems but they're only different then the weaknesses of models in other forms. Plastics have mold lines; pewters were heavy and could come with the metal warped (I hear Finecast can have this too, but haven't seen it yet). Games Workshops biggest Finecast failure was its release. The P.R. campaign they rolled out along side it. They claimed it was the most amazing thing to ever come to wargaming and they threw in a price increase to boot. Price hikes are always going to upset a part of the player base and trying to tie one in to a new, unperfected product line was a double bad call.
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