Finecast Followup

As promised here I have a picture of a Finecast and a metal Death Jester. Photographed most expertly by my good friend and graphical wizz Mr Chris Morris whose work can be seen here (http://www.chrisjm.co.uk/).

Mr Morris informs me this would have worked so much better if the models were undercoated in white. However, since we still have no real idea about the ability to strip paint from Finecasts black it is.

Without further ado, here we go. First the metal. (Click, as they say, for big)

And now the Finecast:

Well now, to me it seems like paint sticks to resin that bit better. Or, I was a bit more thorough then the chap I loaned the metal miniature from with the old spray. Other then that, I am hard pressed to tell the difference.

How about you?

Rumor Roundup

So, I want to take a minute here to talk about what might be coming down the pipe from GW in the near future. Now, I don't have any sources of my own this is simply what I have been able to cobble together from the various things you hear online. The skill comes from distinguishing the likely from the unlikely. I hope some of you at least find this information useful. 

First some general info. First off it cant have escaped anyones notice that Citadel Finecast launched this week to much fanfare. I have already detailed my thoughts on this new product on my blog, but whats more interesting from a speculation standpoint is whats happening to all that metal. Games Workshop stores Y'see have shipped all there metal stock back to Lenton. Presumably its being melted down and used to cast up the various metals still for sale on the GW website. Nothing has so far been pulled from sale, now its expected that more of the popular metal miniatures will be released in Finecast. Ratlings, Ogryns, Beastmasters, Warrior Priests, Engineers. That sort of thing. Other kits may well get remade in plastic, either as a direct translation, as seems likely for the Thunderfire Cannon or as a replacement kit, as seems likely for the Tomb Spider. The real question to me, is what happens to those lines which currently only exist as direct only metals, but which it wouldn't seem likely Games Workshop would want to invest time and money In. I speak of both classic miniatures, like the original imperial guard regiments and of the entire specialist games range. I wouldn't like to speculate, but since Games Workshop aren't exactly known for there openness and transparency so if you desperately want a Necromunda Gang or a Blood Bowl team, now might be the time.

Talking of openness and transparency it seems that Games Workshop has decided it can do with a great deal less of both. GW has decided that now, no one will have any information about any upcoming release until one week before it is due to hit the shelves. There aim, apparently is for the announcement on the back page of White Dwarf to be the first anyone knows about anything. I have head conflicting stories for the reasons for this. One being that news about the Necrons was floating around the internet a long long long time before GW wanted it to be. And another being that they believe leaked pictures of the new Dark Eldar Razorwing hurt sales of earlier releaces as people were saving for the Razorwing. Games Workshop has no interest in your ability to budget. Another possibility is that GW wants to boost sales of White Dwarf by making the official news the first news. In practical terms what this means is that there will be no more "Incomeing" emails, and that GW Blackshirts will have 0 tit-bits of information to share. Wether or not they will be able to silence the reliable few online "rumormongers" is a different story.   

Speaking of White Dwarf, another interesting general rumor is that White Dwarf may soon be going digital whether this is in addition to or instead of the print edition I don't know. But if its cheaper and in a sensible digital format I'm all for it. Saves money and saves having to store and eventually recycle old magazines. Apparently this digital initiative also extends to selling digital editions of codexes and army books. Which I would be all over. I mean, personally I would still want the print edition for the army's I actually own. I think I would also want the digital editions for every codex/army book, a digital edition would make list building so much easier and would provide a cheap alternative for those armies I don't play but would like to remain informed about anyway.

Thats the general rumors of the way. Lets get down to specifics, what follows is my best guess at the release  schedule up until the end of this year.

July: Warhammer Storm of Magic

Anyone remember these:

These came to us via an Incoming email quite a little while ago now. Best guesses on the intertubes are that the first image shows a black dragon and the second a manticore. These models form part of the Storm Of Magic.

So what is Warhammer: Storm of Magic? As far as is known its an expansion for Warhammer thats along the same lines as Apocalypse for 40k.  It will consist of a book new wizards for each army and some generic monsters that can be used by multiple armies. Dragons, chimera, basilisks, that sort of thing. As well as some "magical terrain" Rules wise, I'm expecting that the  magic rules will be readjusted to make spells more devastating. If theres one thing we learned from Apocalypse its that GW certainly beleaves that these large games require devastating board clearing abilities to speed them along. No details beyond that, but we should know more about this soon enough.

August: Necrons

 Thats right! This August the oldest codex in the system finally gets updated. As a long time Necron player, I am quite quite pleased. So what exactly will this update consist of? Well, heres the best information from the internet:

Warriors: A Bit of confusion here. Apparently were not getting an all new plastic kit but the plastics we already have may be getting repacked with an upgrade sprue, and or perhaps different colors of plastic rod for the guns. I have mixed feelings about this one, we have kits that need an upgrade more urgently then the warriors and they are a multipart plastic kit. It is, however a slightly elderly plastic kit. Not having to replace my current Necron warriors would certainly be a good thing.

Immortals: These guys have apparently been completely re-designed and are going to resemble the current plastic terminators. Big bases. 5 to a box. Most likely a price tag to match.

Destroyers/ Heavy Destroyers: These have apparently had there torsos remade to tie in with the new larger Immortals. Destroyers basically now being flying Immortals. 

Necromancer: This thing is apparently like a giant Necron or a Necron Wraithlord. Its sure to be the big center peace kit for the Necron release. Plastic MC. Personally I don't believe the name but, time will tell.

Tomb Spyders: These are being redone into an apparently awesome plastic multipart kit.

Thats it for the first wave, with the exception of one or both of the currently available necron lords being re-realeased in Finecast

The Second wave apparently contains a retinue for the Necron Lord which may or may not be the same thing as Cryptics, which all themselves have some relationship to Pariahs who don't exist in a unit in and of themselves.

September: Man O War

Here me out here, September is apparently another super secret Space Hulk style limited release box rumours had pointed to blood bowl, but I now think it will be a re-release of the somewhat ancient Man O War.  Which if you don't know is the navel game set in the Warhammer Fantasy Universe.

Details get spottier here on out:

October: Ogre Kingdoms

November: Sisters of Battle

December: Holiday Items

And those are my predictions until year end. More details when there are more to be had folks.

Rebooted Blog

So, I have decided to restart my blog. This time using Blogger which is I suppose a little limited, but has the advantage of being free. With a bit of luck I will update this more frequently then the last edition.

Generally the blog is going to be about table top wargaming, technology, and some general comment. I hope you find it interesting. I am certainly finding typing large sections of text without a grammar checker interesting. I know blogs about a few different things don't tend to be popular. I don't expect to be popular. If a dozen people read it from time to time I shall consider myself a success. 

Citadel Finecast

So, apparently I am starting a blog again. But this post isn't about that. This post is about Citadel Finecast. I'm sure I will post a "This is my new blog look at how bland it is" post later. 

So, Finecast. Its resin. Games Workshop have, in there wisdom decided to replace the popular metal ranges with resin editions. Why? Because its awesome because there hyper detailed and its equivalent to the moon landings only for hobbyists. Or thats the spin White Dwarf would like to put on things. The real reason?

China has lots of money and is buying up lots of raw materials so it can build stuff. This drives up the price of Tin, Games Workshop swap to resin because its cheaper for them. Obviously, better then passing the saving onto us is a price rise justified by this being like the moon landing (they actually claim this in white dwarf). Only for toy soldiers. 

So, I got a lift down to my FLGS to do what any sensible person would do and buy up Metal Miniatures before they vanish. My Dark Eldar army eventually needs some Harlequins. Not the best choice ever, but I love the models and the fluff. He was out of Metal Death Jesters. So I ended up with a finecast death jester. What follows are my adventures in finecast.

So here we have the front of the new packet, with a nice painted model on. Internet flotsam has it that most of the miniatures painted by the 'Evey Metal team are, Ironically enough resin. It has to do with the fact that the Resin version can be cast up quickly, and they can get one painted so the boxes can be made up while the production molds are still being tooled. One thing I will say is these boxes are hard things to get into, they are heat sealed and require a knife or at the very least a good pair of scissors to get into. More thief proof, I imagine. 

The back of the pack is see through so you can see what your getting and at least make some attempt to judge quality. No Obvious miss-casts here. So lets crack it open.

Looks good. No obviously missing feet or other chunks of miniature. Detail looks, I hate to say it "crisper" then metal. But I think this is something of an optical illusion. To quote from this months White Dwarf:

"I'ts Easy on the eye. With resin the hobbyist can easily "read" the model. As it is a matt texture, there is no shine or glare to conceal the detail: it looks great even before you apply an undercoat." - Aly Morrison, GW sculptor.

I think this is exactly the point. I plan to prime this guy black and stand him next to a friends primed metal Death Jester and take a few high res photos... watch this space.

Clipping the miniature out of the sprue and cleaning the reasonable amount of flash was very easy. Citadel Finecast basically handles like slightly less brittle forgeworld resin. Cleaning it up is easy. Sometimes a little too easy. I can be a little ham-fisted at times so I had to be extra careful with the old hobby knife. It was only on gluing him to his base that I discovered my flaw. 

See the light shining through the scenic base there? Thats because that part of the resin is tissue thin. Now, its near the base and I could fix it with green stuff, though my green stuff skills are somewhat lacking. I might just add an extra rock or too if it becomes a problem. I feel kinda lucky, that Its a flaw down near the base of the miniature that can easily be corrected. But really GW should not be letting imperfections like these go out to stores. If you claim to be making the best toy soldiers in the world out of super secret moon-resin - and charging over £10 a pop - shouldn't they be flawless? I know some people say that cleaning up miniatures and using green stuff are a part of the hobby, and that you shouldn't moan about it, but since the whole premise of finecast is that it makes old miniatures -better- shouldn't they be... better?

For now, a blob of super glue fills the offending hole, and I bet its undetectable after priming. But an imperfection is still an imperfection, so I guess the hunt continues for a truly perfect finecast casting.

Still, I had no other issues putting the model together. Super glue dries hard and fast, in exactly the same way it reacts to forge world resin. 

It is light, I would say probably lighter then plastic. And you can be fairly rough with them. Ive thrown mine on the floor repeatedly and nothing has gone wrong with it. I can really see how finecast will be a godsend for larger multi-part models prone to exploding. Assuming GW gets its QA in order regarding miscasts then, tentatively, tentatively I would say this is a good thing. I don't think I will be replacing any of my existing metals with finecast though. I may be tempted when it comes to things like the Keeper of secrets and Friends of Slaanesh in my daemon army. But overall, I would still buy metals for most things given a choice. If for no other reason then its cheaper. In conclusion. Finecast... its alright.