But I woke this morning to a comment on this blog that finally has me taking the metaphorical bait. Oddly, the peculiar passage in question comes from my very own comments section and thus, in the spirit of Brent’s excellent “comments come lately” series, here goes my first official effort to feed the troll.
You may remember that some day/weeks ago I celebrated some random, wonderful miniatures from Black Scorpion. In that post, I indulged in a digression on the relative merits of Black Scorpion’s resin mixture compared to that of another prominent game company that you may have seen around the blogosphere.
“I like how whenever anyone on the internet says they hate finecast they never say why it's bad it's always just blanket statements which leads me back to the inevitable conclusion that they're living the life of change=bad”
I still do not really understand where he meant to go with that nugget, but here are three moments that caught me a bit flat-footed:
- passive aggression masked as irony: when he says “I like” he means “I dislike.” The literal meaning is the opposite of the intended. It is an old trick to make oneself sound less of a prat for disliking something while not having to take credit for expressing the opinion. I hate when people on the internet do this.
- funnily enough, I do not mind the condescension. I think condescension is ok when one is moved to indignation (see: this post)… which leads me to the final point in this series of observations. Why the indignation? How can one feign (or worse, feel) said indignation on the merits of a statement of pure opinion? If I said, for example, “I loathe butter pecan ice cream,” would we then ascertain that my outlook on life is fundamentally flawed? How could one contest the validity of such a statement? Imagine the very useful exchange “–no, you are mistaken. You really, really do like butter pecan ice cream. You. Must. Like. Butter. Pecan.” Is that point genuinely arguable? For the record, I cannot stand the taste of butter pecan ice cream. It’s horrid, horrid stuff.
But that last point has merit. I will presume that Slysa is a kindly troll, so here is the solid interrogative that he or she did not make, which would have provided a decent, more civil response to my assertion that finecast is utter rubbish: “what exactly do you dislike about finecast? Are you simply afraid of change or is there a more practical reason you dislike the stuff?”
I like change. I believe in it strongly. I like resin, and a post in the very near future is going to feature quite a lot of Forge World’s variety of the stuff. Moreover, a feature of the post in question was a compliment for the quality of Black Scorpion's formula. I am finding it really quite pleasant to work with. Change is not the issue.
Finecast is.
The quality control on the stuff GW ships out the door here is lamentable. I believe that statement sincerely. I have worked with exactly four finecast models. The first was ok, look right and read below. The second was a mess. That happens. The third was an utter mess. I was disappointed. The fourth model is pictured above. You will have observed the variety of holes in the cloak, hat, boots, and so on. The model is untenable.
By my count (and only by mine) GW is batting 25% on this. I am done. But that is not even the whole story. Let’s revisit my first solid impression.
Attentive readers will remember that I was once unequivocally positive on finecast based on my first impression. In fact, I was keen to refute the overwhelming negativity of internet wisdom based on the strength of the impression. Click here for the reference of my Necron test model above. I spent hours getting this guy right and I generally felt he was quite good.
And behold the same figure now.Tragic. Utterly tragic. Note the staff (obviously), the index finger, but also the little trailing piece hanging from his belt. I am heartbroken.
Now. I must also mention that my treatment of this miniature has not been extraordinary. He has played about six games in his time and been in foam only twice. He once (and only once) came off a 3-inch piece of standard GW scenery... and lost the first half of his staff. Sometime after, he lost that finger. The staff might be fixable. The finger really is not. At all. Period. Nor the detail on his belt.
So, again by my reckoning, finecast is 1-for-4 out of the box and 0-for-4 beyond that. My experience only. My opinion only. Given that, I believe what I have said and shown here I would be a fool to feel otherwise about the stuff. But I will certainly entertain contrary opinions.