The few Citadel Finecast models I had before this week were ones I purchased off of EBay and were already assembled and cleaned upon arrival. My assumption was that at this point, GW had worked out any quality issues the process and anything new or recently cast would be of a higher standard. Was I wrong.
This week I worked on Orikan the Diviner and the model crumbled as I removed it from the packaging. The head on the staff was so fragile that it broke in numerous places just from me touching it. The mold lines were obvious and deep, such that I wonder if it was miscast. The air bubble holes are in places that are obvious if I were to paint it, but in positions that are going to be difficult to fill.
I know to most this is old news, but again I am shocked that GW has not made improvements to the process since the original launch of Failcast. Most companies would have pulled the line or at least attempted to make changes based on the negative reviews and PR. More to the point, I have not experienced these issues with the FW kits (minor problems sure, but not crumbling and horrible miscasts and mold lines).
In the end, a year later and I cannot still believe that GW has continued with the Finecast experiment. While GW is making an effort to move everything to plastic, some of these amazing sculpts will never be possible in that format, so GW needs to find an alternative.