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"Acceptable" finecast flaws?


tvih

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I was wondering how people felt about finecast flaws, and more specifically what amount/severity of flaws do you think is acceptable?

 

I've been thinking about this what with my recent mass of finecast purchases (hadn't bought any before) and all.

 

Some examples of annoying issues found:

- Thunderfire cannon. Well, I did expect issues, but some things are quite annoying like the frontmost ring+barrels part has the ring all messed up, poor detail + even a "ravine"-style of hole in it. In general not a very nice kit to put together, and even while you can straighten bent stuff etc, some things will be hard to fix.

- Broken sword hilts on both Helbrecht and Emperors Champion. Basically this would require replacing the remaining hilt entirely, and I'm not good at adding such fine detail like that.

- Sword Brethren kit. One power sword looks like it's been sliced with a real power sword along one of its edges. I don't know, it might be fillable with green stuff or something, but it'll still probably show. Another guy has his chainsword's tip end replaced with a mess left behind by an air bubble. Would probably need to replace the entire blade.

- Khorne Lord on Juggernaut's axe has the blade spikes half gone from one side. I probably need to remove them entirely and either leave the axe that way or somehow make new spikes. Some other issues, but they're less visible.

 

Funny that three out of four BT kits have weapon problems, sounds like Inquisitorial sabotage to me :P But anyway, all kits have some flaws, but most I think I can easily enough remedy (like a small "air bubble crater" in Kantor's shoulder), but these top my list.

 

It comes down to replacements and the original question. On one hand, a product shouldn't be flawed - just because it could be worked around, doesn't mean you would accept a new car having a flat tire, for example. On the other hand, in GW's case getting the tire fixed means replacing the entire car, which I must admit makes me feel a bit uneasy. I won't really even need two Helbrechts or Champs or Lords, and the flaws are relatively minor... but they're still annoying flaws that shouldn't be there, and it's not my fault GW doesn't replace specific parts (though I understand why). But it still feels like a dilemma, even though it shouldn't. Additionally in the case of the Thunderfire cannon, I'm dubious as to the replacement being any better than the current one. Same problem with the GW Hobby Knife, which had messed up threads and couldn't be tightened - replacement's quality is highly in doubt as well.

 

What would you do? Just ask for replacement without a doubt, or try to work with the flaws?

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What would you do? Just ask for replacement without a doubt, or try to work with the flaws?

 

I made the mistake of trying to work around the flaws on a Necron model that I bought and after 6 hours of work was still unusable. I e-mailed GW about it and they said to take it back to the store but they needed a receipt, which I no longer had (as I'd bought the model several months before getting round to opening the pack).

 

Take the flawed models back and expect a refund or replacement. At the end of the day you are paying a lot of money for these models and you are entitled to expect them to be free of defects. You would not accept such flaws in pretty much anything else you buy so there's no reason to accept them from GW.

I would ask for a replacement. Of the boxes I recieved over the holidays, all of them had flaws to some extent. Whilst the air bubbles and other defects in most of them were minor, three boxes contained models which were unsalavagable without replacement parts or considerable sculpting skill. In such cases I would consider that I had not recieved the advertised product and therefore insist on a replacement.

 

Another thing to consider is that GW is a corporate entity and will respond to pressure from its customer base. If enough people make an issue of the quality of Finecast products (directly to GW mind, not just on forums) then they will seek to address it rather than constantly having to send out replacement parts and field complaints. If not, they'll just assume everything is fine and dandy and hobbyists will continue to be frustrated. In a way it's your duty to the community to kick up a fuss! :D

I can get new ones, that's not really the issue. It's not a GW store I bought from, and they don't have this stuff in stock, but apparently the procedure is simply that they request new kits to replace flawed ones, and I end up with the new kit as well as the original, unless something's changed on GW's end since the last time the store had to do this. So it's more should I rather than could I.
I would ask for a replacement. Of the boxes I recieved over the holidays, all of them had flaws to some extent. Whilst the air bubbles and other defects in most of them were minor, three boxes contained models which were unsalavagable without replacement parts or considerable sculpting skill. In such cases I would consider that I had not recieved the advertised product and therefore insist on a replacement.

 

As I own no finecast, I do not have this issue (yet!) - but this would be my stance. If I cannot fix it (i.e. a small bubble of some description that doesn't grossly distort the model) - it'll be returned and a replacement requested.

I have bought 1 finecast model since the release and have been lucky enough that it was flawless, however I don't think any level of flaw is truly acceptable especially given the fact that it's a cheaper material that they are charging an extortionate premium for.

My LEGO Death Star was missing a couple of parts (and had a few wrong ones). It's been 6 months and I've still forgotten to send in the part requisition form :D

 

I already said in my original post that one wouldn't normally accept flaws in a product though. But finecast seems such that if you really want to be anal about it, there's no such thing as a perfect casting. My Grimaldus is about as close as it gets, probably.

  • 2 weeks later...
I've been pretty lucky with all my Finecast purchases, my set of Sternguard weapons were pretty much perfect, they look far better than the ones in the GW picture. Chaplain Cassius had a few tiny air bubbles that actually fit in with his armour pretty well, what with the claw marks and such. Sergeant Chronus however, well, the tank version of him was totally missing his pointing finger. He had a clenched fist, fortunately since I was converting the full model, I just cut off his hand at the wrist and swapped them over.

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