Posted by
BobbieTheDamned on
Jun 04, 2011; 5:08pm
URL: http://the-lost-and-the-damned.71.s1.nabble.com/Citadel-ine-Ca-t-what-you-really-need-to-know-tp6396431p6439624.html
Talsin wrote
The finecast release seams to be a bit mis-timed, as GW ALWAYS have a June price increase.
Yup, and the fact that has become acceptable is staggering. No other miniatures company has a yearly price rise like that.
Talsin wrote
This increase is not just on items that were metal but are now finecast, but on books, plastics etc, so the price increase may not have ANYTHING TO DO with finecast, but could just be GW sticking their foot in it with a really bad timing decision.
Yes releasing a new line just after the yearly price line is a massive goof. As was forcing all the independent retailers to stop selling abroad in the same month. Its obvious that internal communication at GW is getting worse and worse.
Talsin wrote
Secondly, i am looking to the future. My Dark Eldar Heamoncumlus coven will be finecast. There are not plastics for these at the moment, and the old metal dark eldar figures dont look to good compared to the new range. So i have a choice of finecast or spend more money converting them up.
Having just looked at the Haemonculus model I'm supprised that you're willing to fork out £10 a time for it. Not that its a bad sculpt its just not worth £10. £5, maybe £6, is what that model is worth at most in my opinion. It'd be a pretty easy conversion from a standard warrior torso with any four arms you care for (which I'd guess you'd have rather a lot of spare from the warriors and/or wyches). Sculpt a coat and some legs/robes and you're pretty much done. Even having to buy these parts from one of the bits websites it'll be a lot cheaper.
Talsin wrote
Third, have any of you held a finecast mini or painted one? the one in the pic mort showed i have seen on a forum with a statement which in essence read, "dont ask how i got this, cos i didnt get it through the proper channels", and remember finecast is in its early stages, so there may be a few quality issues. that review also had many positive things to say as well. However if GW want this to sell they will need to deal with these, and sort them out for their customers. Metal has flaws, i remember buying an Azezal mini, and one of the wings was completely miscast at the joint, so i could not assemble it.
Yes its a new product, but GW have plenty of experiance with quality control, that doesn't change no matter what the material is. They shouldn't be selling a defective product period. Of course you're going to get a the odd miscast, hell I've had plastics from GW that were incorrectly moulded, but it seems like they've been very lax with checking these new releases are actually up to scratch.
GW had all the time in the world to get this release right, and instead they've rushed it.
Talsin wrote
Fourthly, A lot of people say they cant see any difference in metal or finecast. I have looked at one in the new blister and it looks a bit clearer, but i will wait until i have my heamonculus coven before making that judgement. However, what did you expect, that they would develop new molding tech AND resculpt a massive amount of the metal range AT THE SAME TIME?
GW do some of the best cast metal figures in the world. Resin would allow them to do something a little more detailed if they re-mastered the models, but that's rather pointless. I highly doubt anyone but the very best painters will get even a tiny advantage from the resin figures. Personally I feel that people think the new figures look sharper because they're grey and that gives much better contrast than bare metal figures do.
GW have got a 100% market share of their games, there's no rush to get new products out other than their own greed. From my own experience with resin casting and what I've gleaned from other manufactures is that the main advantage of resin over metal is the ability to get more detail on the 'sides' of the model and to do deeper undercuts. Both advantages are completely lost with the GW models as they're exactly the same sculpts as they've been using beforehand. They'd have been better off releasing this new material with brand new models rather than re-releasing stuff that's already available.
Talsin wrote
They could have done this, but would not have released anything for at a long time while the sculptors were redoing the metal range. Focusing on one massive project nearly killed Heresy miniatures. Imagine if there were no releases from GW for a year? What would happen?
Yes doing the dragon really has hampered Heresy. But that's because Heresy has one sculptor, who also does a lot of other work for the company. GW has a team of sculptors that are very well supported and don't have anything else to do but sculpt. If they'd simply used the new material for the new lines being released wouldn't have reduced their output at all.
Talsin wrote
and then had to be redone when a new army book came out?
And why exactly do miniatures need to be re-done each time a new army book is released? I have models that I bought nearly 15 years ago that are still just as usable with the rules I bought them for and now can be used for lots of other new games too. Think how interesting and diverse GW could have made their games if they'd spent all that effort they've put into re-hashing the same few sprues of space marines (and not really changing the overall quality or look of the miniatures) into creating new things?
Talsin wrote
Anyway to conclude, how can you make a judgement without the evidence? Innocent until proven guilty, dont judge a book by its cover.
The evidence of mis-casts is prevalent in GWs own advertisements for the models. If they can't find a pretty one to photograph then what's the chance of getting a good cast in a blister? GW are trying to sell a product here, they have to prove that its worth my while even looking at it, and they're doing a bad job.
Talsin wrote
And now you can all carry on with the petty hatred, voice of balance over and out.
Ballance? Hardly! GW is part of the hobby, its not the entire hobby.
I was wargaming long before I found GW and will be long after they're gone. I'm not hating on them, I just think its a tragedy that all the great artists (sculptors, writers and painters) that have poured hours of work into a GW are having their work slowly destroyed for the sake of money. I remember a GW that was friendly and listened to its customers. I remember being able to walk into a GW store and have the staff talk to me like I'm a human being, rather than being hassled to buy the newest releases.