Venomthropes Painted

Nick speaking,

These Finecast bad boys were a lot more fun to paint than they were to build! Hope you like them...

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Venomthropes Problems!

Nick speaking,

Along with my two Ghost Arks, I also purchased two Venomthropes with the money I had from my birthday a while back. I can't even begin to tell you how much of a pain they were to build, and I now find myself with a real hatred for Finecast! Maybe I have just been unlucky, but it actually took me longer to prepare the two Venomthropes for painting than it did my two Ghost Arks! So many air bubbles, miscasts, bent sections and missing bits! I even had to make one of the small fins on one of their backs out of green stuff because one was missing. I really didn't enjoy putting these bugs together, which is a real shame, because the Venomthropes are actually nice models.

I know I could have taken them back, but at first glance they looked OK, it wasn't until I was about halfway through cleaning them up that I realised how bad they were. I am now also convinced that it wouldn't have made any difference anyway, as the replacement would probably have been just as bad, if not worse! So much for FINEcast, the name just doesn't match what you get. Somehow, I was also supplied with an extra tentacle arm, which was the only good thing I have to say about them, as I am going to use it as a lash whip for my Tyranid Prime. Anyway, here they are, all built and primed ready for painting, which should be a lot more fun...

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New Necron Wave - My Thoughts!

Nick speaking,

Just a few of my thoughts on the new wave of Necron models...

The HQ's look cool, shame they are Finecast! As the cloak of my Stormlord has broken off three times already, I can see no hope for the cloak on this dudes arm at all!

The new Spyder does look sweet, but I already have six old ones already! I still haven't decided if I should splash out for three new ones or find three old ones on eBay for the last unit, I think I will wait and see them in the flesh before I make my mind up. Not sure why they have put them on small flying bases though? I see the Tomb Blades are on small bases as well? I think I will up size all mine to match in with the rest of the army. The Tomb Blades look exactly like everyone has converted them to be, which is great all round.

Same for the Stalker really, all those ghost Ark conversions were spot on. I have to admit, I never did like the idea of the Stalker walking on the spine things, I am not a fan of the model design really, I would prefer something hovering like the rest of the army.

Again the Wraiths look nice, but the Whip Coils look like such a weak point and very vulnerable, at least they are not Finecast! I will again, wait to pass full judgement until I see them in the real. I already have six old Wraiths, so another unit of the new minis is not out of the realms of possibility.

So what do you think? Will the new Wraiths and Spyders match in with my old models? Or is it time to start stalking eBay?

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Is Finecast Fine Now?

Nick speaking,

It has now been quite some time since Finecast was launched upon us, and up until recently, I have never actually purchased my first Finecast mini. Now with all the new Necron models coming out, I thought it would be a good time to try it out. It's been long enough that all the teething problems should have been ironed out, and the excuse of using the old metal casts being the problem, wouldn't be the case with a brand new Finecast model, would it?

So, there you have it, my first Finecast model purchased, Imotekh the Stormlord. Now I have to admit, when I opened it I was looking for issues, I have heard all that has been said about Finecast, so I started looking for imperfections! So much so, that I convinced myself that the holes on his cloak were air bubbles?

No problem, I said to myself, that's what liquid green stuff is for anyway, but then, when I took a closer look at the Lords staff, I was disappointed to see that it didn't look quite right either! I double checked with the picture on the packet, and yes, there was a massive junk missing on the staff blade...

OK, I could cut the other side off a bit to match it in, but why should I have to do that? I then started to look at the main body itself, and low and behold, I found real air bubbles...

Time for a quick trip back to GW for a replacement! I got it replaced with no trouble at all, they even opened a new one up in the shop so I could check it out for imperfections. The second one still had a few air bubbles on the body, but nothing I couldn't sort out. The replacement also had all the holes in the cloak the same as the first one did, so we assumed they are meant to be there?

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Before there was Finecast there was Urban!

Nick speaking,

A short while before metal models made the switch to Citadel Finecast, I purchased my second box of the Citadel Urban Basing kit. The first box I bought was way back when it first came out five years ago, but in this new box, I could see the start of some changes for GW resin models...

If you don't know, the basing kit comes with five mini pots containing brass etchings, some large and small slate pots and two pots of resin base bits in various sizes...

One problem that I had with the original kit I purchased, was that all the resin base bits were so thick, that you had to somehow file them down to get them to sit flat on the base. I found sand paper did the job, but it was a bit of a pain. However, this new kit I had was not like that at all, in actual fact the resin bits seemed to be made of a different material altogether! Yes they were flatter, but now the detail was rubbish? Some parts were so bad you hardly had any detail at all!  You can see the differences from the pictures below. Take a look at the the detail of the coils and sand on some of them. Old bases are on the left, new ones on the right...

Overall, I was very disappointed with my purchase and although I didn't have to sand down the bases anymore, the general quality definitely seemed to be going down hill. A few weeks later, Finecast was announced, and I have to say that my new basing kit didn't give me much confidence in it!

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My first Citadel Finecast experience!

Nick speaking,

With all the hype and chat about the New Citidel Finecast models going around recently, and then my copy of White Dwarf turning up on my door step totally covered with the new stuff! There was no getting away from it, Finecast was here!  I have seen many great reviews on various Blogs with some great arguments for, and against this latest revolution. So on the day of release, I just had to go to my local GW store to check it all out. To be fair, I had no intention of buying anything, as I am saving for a holiday at the moment, but still...

I waited until the end of the day as I assumed it would be pretty busy, and it seemed like I was right. Being a Saturday, they had some sort of gaming event on, which I caught the tail end of, but there was still plenty of people around. First impressions of the new stuff was 100% great packaging, much better than before, and when I picked up a Hive Guard model, I seriously wanted to buy it. With the Hive Guard in my hand, the impulse was very strong, but I couldn't quite part with my £15.50 for this one model, especially knowing that I really need three of them! I think I will wait a while and see what happens to the metal model market on eBay? The other reason why I stopped myself from buying it, was seeing the prices of some of the other models I want to buy. With the Trygon having a new price of £36, it really makes you think, and I need two of them! Surely price rises like this is going to affect sales somewhere along the line?

To be honest, I have always hated metal models, mainly because the paint chips off so easily, but also many are top heavy and topple over, making the situation worse. I know this contradicts what I said above a bit, but some metal figures are not top heavy and are fine. Ideally I would like all plastic models, but I know the production issues makes that difficult, so resin it is! I am slightly worry about the brittleness of them though, and I can see some parts snapping off easily, but I will have to wait until I actually buy one to find out.

All in all though, I have to admit, seeing all those boxes of new resin models in their new packaging, and all my old kits that I have bought now in resin, gave some sort of excitement and made me feel good about my hobby. I felt like I just wanted to buy some more models, and I bet that is exactly the feeling GW wants me to have!!! The question is, do I eBay some of my old unpainted metal mini's for Resin ones? Maybe, but it would have to be just the top heavy ones!

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