I thought I'd better post something model related...

So why not look at the new Citadel Finecast models from just a plain 'user' perspective. There was a thread over on Platoon Britannica which looked at it in quite some detail - Finecast Thread - or click 'Read More' below to see my thoughts (lots of pics):

Well, back home now with our haul... was an interesting time and we had a VERY good look at pretty much all of the new blisters in the store. What a mixed bag! Oddly, the Lord of the Rings stuff seemed to be a whole lot worse than everything else, and those Gandalf's they keep showing were disgusting...

The rest of the stuff was also very hit and miss. We picked up a number of blisters but had to go through all of the blisters on the shelves to find ones we thought were acceptable. So we got ourselves a Queek Headtaker, a Vampire Lord and a Urien Rackarth.

The pics are a bit grainy, but I must say, they seem to be of a VERY similar quality to what everyone else has posted above.

After speaking with the Manager we decided to gamble on a small box each under the proviso that we would open them in the shop and return/exchange them immediately if they were sub-par. We both went for orcs riding boards - Toosh got the Shaman and I picked up a Gorbad Ironclaw. The Shaman was fine and actually quite an impressive cast (there were issues such as no fur on the back of the boar, but I think that is a problem with the model - a converted plastic kit - rather than the material change). The rider was really good, with the only slight downer being a wad of flash between his legs. 

 

My Gorbad wasnt nearly as good...
The belly of the boar was really thin but also really rough so any clean-up would definitely have ended up with a huge hole - one which I was not really happy to put up with at that price (£30). This was on both sides, and I showed it to the staff member immediately, and to give them their dues, they replaced it immediately and went through all the replacement pieces of the kit with a fine-toothed comb. I think I have ended up with a model I am very happy with.

Overall the quality in the shop ranged from a 4 to a 9/10 

QC definitely needs improving, to the point that I think we should all make a concerted effort to write/email GW with our concerns. I think in the long-term it will be a great change for the hobby as the models seem to have a whole lot of potential. The resin is much nicer to work with than metal, and if the quality was monitored more they could have blown me away today. I wouldnt recommend buying FineCast by mail order for a while yet...

Well, thats a start - I did go back and buy some more finecast from the store and again made them open the box. It was a box of Dark Eldar Mandrakes and we went through two boxes to get a perfect 5, but what we do have is now really VERY good!

Peter