Citadel "fine" cast?

[Ovidius Incertus]

I received my first "fine"cast (and those quotes are dripping with sarcasm) piece today, a jump chaplain, and the word 'disappointed' does not begin to describe my reaction. To put it bluntly, the thing is garbage. $18 worth of garbage. Where to begin? The crozius is warped and looks like a wet noodle. The slotta base is warped and may just need to be cut off, it's so awful. The surface--every surface--is rough, so rough it looks like a sidewalk, and as the roughness is so omnipresent, it may be impossible to get some of it corrected, especially the flat surfaces that are enclosed in detail. Some details (e.g. the riveted rim around the pauldron and even the bottoms of the feathers on the crozius wings) are imperfectly formed, such that certain aspects of the armor are essentially ruined. There were bits of what I assume is uncured resin (pink stuff) that is extremely stubborn to weed out of nooks and crannies. I've seen 80% complete investment casts that look better than this thing. What a piece of :lol: .

 

I was able to see the major flaws (wobbly crozius and hideous texture) at first glance in poor light. Did no one look at this before they tossed it in its blister pack? I think a blind person could pick out the problems in about as much time as it took me to spot them.

 

Just a rough estimate, but the time it will take me to clean as much of the horrible molding off this one mini with three parts as possible is what it would take me to prep a combat squad of Marines--and it will still look worse.

 

I would be remiss in mentioning that this item (and several others) was ordered direct from GW's website and took nine (!) days to be delivered via USPS--from a distribution center in the next state over. That's two times (if not three) the normal length it takes USPS to deliver to me from nearly anywhere in the continental US. I suspect the "we shipped your order on this date" email from GW is just malarky. The absurd shipping delay would be palatable if the two major items in the shipment weren't both flawed in some way (the Landspeeder Storm I ordered was missing the central leaf of the instruction manual!).

 

So, three questions: is this an isolated incident, or is this common for "fine"cast items; what do you think is the best way to smooth out the pavement-texture all over the mini, and, finally, how does one go about getting the missing central leaf of the Landspeeder Storm manual? I suppose I could guess, but I'd prefer not to. I didn't find any downloadable .pdf versions on GW's website (unless my obvious search terms were too obvious).

 

:P

[Jay Taint]

Finecast is flawed. It might get better over time or not, but that doesn't address your point. It really is flawed. I've seen many awful miscasts on the web that still looked better than what you're describing -- so I reckon you've got a particularly bad cast. I'd say it's usually not that bad. Bad it can well be.

There's only one way to handle that. Call them, complain, send them a picture if they insist -- and make use of the usually excellent customer service GW has got. It's a hassle, but they usually keep sending you new stuff until it's fine. (That is, until it's what you're actually paying for.)

 

Cheers, JT

 

EDIT: The same applies to the land speeder instructions I guess ...

[Brother Tyler]

A quick search will yield extant discussions in which members complain about the quality of Finecast (no need to start a new one).