G.W. does not seem to have released any thing manufactured in fine cast for about eight months now! Quite a few Warhammer models that you would expect to be in fine cast gave been released in plastic. Does this mean that fine cast is no more? Personally I hope so, bring on the plastic.

My main concern with this is the expense of manufacturing plastic moulds and how this could result in a very reduced Hobbit range of figures?

If finecast is truly dead it'll be the greatest thing to happen since sliced bread and the old phrase will have to change to "That's the best thing that's happened since the death of fine-cast" lol

But in all seriousness I hope you are correct, fine cast is far too expensive for such low-grade products

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They'll keep it for hero models at least in the hobbit. The hobbit heroes probably aren't profitable as it is but the production costs for making a new plastic mould would make it a large loss for GW

I was not aware that no new Finecast had been released for so long so I just went for a nosey around the GW site, and even the individual Dark Elves characters/heroes are plastic. I do not know if that is an absolute indicator but maybe they have had so much trouble with the Finecast quality control a decision was made to limit future usage. Or maybe there will be a relaunch with a different resin compound?

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I hope it is dead. I always prefer metal and plastic, and I see no difference in the quality of metal and plastic. Metal was weighted, which was good for gaming however could be chipped easily. When I first came across resin miniatures in store, I was told that metal was hard to paint and play with. Looking back, I think this was a white lie.

Before I go too off topic, I'd just hope that they've either killed it or improving it.

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It sort of then became a Hobbit

The trouble is, I'm not sure a hobbit/LotR character is likely to sell as much as a Warhammer/40k character - at least not enough to justify the long term investment of a steel mold. So I suspect we'll still have Finecast cropping up for us, sadly.

Unless they start adding character models into relevant unit boxes like the warhammer fantasy special characters have been included in war machines and monster kits.

Hi Creaky,

I think that would be the logical way for ward.

I think we can wave bye bye to Lord of the Rings metals and Finecast over the coming year. Expect to see more support for the Hobbit SBG. Pushing us into the current and away from specialised models.

I have a suspicion that GW have had a bit of a hard year with the models from AUJ. Not only have the models gone up exponentially in sell price, we've been given much less models for that price (White Council, anyone?).

With this strategy, they've been forced into the position of the figures being 'collector's models' - not a price or market you want to be into when the age range of the film in question is lower than it was for the LOTR trilogy.

With a move to plastic, it's a reduction of cost, a lessening of figures being returned with defects, and the opportunity of producing in greater volume and bulk - especially with hero figures - who are a very hard sell in Finecast in both the pricing and quality. It's good for GW's image, and it's good for gamers.

As we've seen in the trailers for DOS, there's going to be more 'army' figures - there are wood elves in armour, wood elf 'hunters' of Legolas and Tauriel, the lake-town folk doing battle with the dragon, as well as plenty of variations of Orcs, from Gundabad to Dol Guldur, and there'll probably be another variation on the dwarf army of Dain coming up too. And of course, SMAUG the MAGNIFICENT.

I won't go as far to say it'll be a return to the 24 models for £15 policy, mainly because they've gotten the taste of the higher margin over the past year, but it is likely to change the way that the game is pushed in store.

It rather feels as though the Hobbit AUJ was a poor spring board for SBG. The majority of the scenarios were hero and smaller game based - there wasn't really a 'Last Alliance' moment to really push the army element that is the main driver of LOTR. Instead there were a lot of Thorin's Company vs the world. Of course, the next film will be similar, with the spider sequence and escape from Thranduil's Halls, but with the Battle of Five Armies coming up I can't see how they won't be pushing for more models on the tabletop.

Come November the 30th Finecast will truly be ALIVE i tell thee! ALIVE
No seriously its better to get used to finecast so you dont have to constantly resent it ive found. That way then they go " FINECAST brand new model!" , you wont turn around and say nah even though it could be a really good sculpt. Plastic is of course what we would all love he he. Imagine that on GW website.....

" Due such negative demand and quality control issues alienating our customer base and pursued success in our plastic manufacturing technology as of this date we will be producing all current and new range of models in plastic. We would also like to apologize to our customers who have been very loyal for the issues regarding Finecast and the numerous problems that have arose from the use of this material"

If they just did EVERYTHING in plastic , people might get back on board what with the Finecast bashing and the prices which to be honest are not that much ( just value it more i guess if money is an obstacle ) anyway this hobby is quite expensive lets not forget.

The License for this "The Hobbit Strategy Battle Game is until 2017 , so with that in mind they need to push as much as they can or the whole License costs will not even make them break even consequently resulting in losses. These are big no-nos in big business , especially flops like the sort some people are predicting.

Hi Robshawe,

Do you have some concrete info imminent on finecast releases?

Warhammer hasn't had a Finecast release for a while, it seems like the more popular lines (FB and 40K) are phasing out Finecast, but I bet Hobbit will keep Finecast becuase it's cheaper to produce.

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Nothing released in finecast for eight months? Even for Hobbit figures, the last were released in August (Azog, young Thorin/Dwalin/Balin, Bilbo)...

For WH Fantasy, just the last release (Dark Elves) didn't have any finecast as far as I'm aware, but the one before that (Lizardmen) released two named character models in finecast. Which makes a lot of sense, as such figures will only be bought by some collectors and gamers, whereas regular commanders truly are required for a legal army. Oh, and the special White Dwarf figure released just this month? Finecast.
What seems to have stopped is the re-releasing in finecast, for all ranges. Both of those Fantasy armies still have quite some character models in metal, and those have not been replaced. Units are gradually replaced, but with plastics. For LotR, however, it means that such figures will simply be dropped.

Producing plastics is hugely more expensive than a mold for resin/metal. Judging by the Hobbit's popularity with the public (or lack thereof) and the (lack of) willingness of GW to make it work, many units will be plastic (as has become the norm), but especially named heroes, nah, don't see it happening (aside from those in a starter set).

Especially interested in Smaug though. Very big, so terribly expensive in finecast (to buy at least). Plastic sounds feasible, especially since it will both be very popular (who wouldn't want a Smaug?), and not just with Hobbit players: many Fantasy players would want to put their Elven Lord or whatever on top of that as well - just like plenty of people used the Balrog as a basis for their daemons.


Stockholm syndrome...

Hi CS,

I suspect that you might be right that we are seeing a readjustment, but hope springs eternal!

Word of warning.
Finecast may have been a price increase from metal but check this out
SM librarian in metal £.8.20 then in finecast £9.50, then in plastic £18.00

Don't wish too hard

I was purely Hypothetically speaking there Bilbo , you know... putting a made up scenario in which GW announce they would change all to plastic as that is what we all want right in the end?

Stockholm Syndrome... nah just accepting Finecast as if GW continue the way they are going ,it will be here to stay.

And if TOS will be alot of heroes individually like AUJ, Finecast will be seen alot Bilbo , perhaps go count the amount of finecast heroes are in the hobbit range now and make a judgement if they will do the same with TOS. I concluded that on 30th November we will see at least 1 Finecast Model , lets see if i am right at 12:01 on 30th November on the website they will show the pre-order's available.

I guess i'm in the minority in that I love finecast's detail, however I do only own about five finecast minis.

VG

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The sooner the better as far as I'm concerned. They should have stuck with metal, and charged the current Finecast prices. That at least I could understand, given how expensive metal is, and I might have gotten some Hobbit figures.

But the thing I'm concerned about is that much of the range will be lost as it can't be easily converted from metal/Finecast moulds to plastic moulds. As I understand sculpting, sculpts to be specifically designed for injection plastic moulds in a much different way due to things like undercutting or w.e. its called.

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If it's not selling there not going to bother producing stuff.I guess It'll give people an excuse to convert oop models out of the plastics.