I'd bought some Warlocks and Fire Dragons for my Eldar a while back and the casting was deliciously perfect - like what you get in the Warmachine/Hordes starter sets. That kind of lovely crisp detail, but with a soft feel to the surfaces.
So I was ready and feeling confident to order more Finecast miniatures. But what I got was 4 boxes of horror.
Yriel's spear looked like a soggy noodle. The howling banshees all seemed to be made of two parts which had slid 3mm apart and it felt like I was tripping out when I looked at the Striking Scorpions they were so bendy!
So I called up my local Games Workshop and explained the problem.
"Have you tried liquid green stuff?" was the reply.
*facepalm*
"I'm very familiar with it - but it can't fix poor casting where the two halves of a model are 3mm apart."
To cut a long story short, I told the member of staff of all the different things I'd tried before coming to the conclusion that this was beyond my skill level to fix. But most importantly that I was paying £5 per model for a premium product which had failed to deliver.
I also went on to tell the member of stuff of how I hadn't been impressed with Finecast and that the resin was often so brittle that models in my existing collection would simply break at the slightest touch.
So I took the Howling Banshees and Striking Scorpions back along with three other boxes of Finecast models and exchanged the lot, saying that I would happily wait a few years for plastic miniatures to become available.
Kudos to Games Workshop though. Because while we may all bitch about their staff from time to time, they do get their customer service right when it comes to exchanges, refunds and generally making their customers happy. So I was offered an exchange for everything I'd brought in.
Problem is, I don't know what I want! So I asked if I could have vouchers instead.
As it turns out, GW vouchers don't expire for 2 years!
So the next time you need to exchange something, rather than having to choose something on the spot, you can always ask for vouchers instead - Because GW still has all your money it's not an issue for them and the shop staff seem happier with this as well, because you're not screwing up their stock control.
As for Failcast, I intend to steer well clear of it and buy my Eldar aspect warriors and Warlocks in metal from eBay. While metal may be more prone to chipped paint than resin, it's far less prone to simply snapping for no apparent reason.