While this is one of those weeks where every time I painted, I felt like I could have used another 10-15 minutes to get more accomplished, I do have some interesting things to share.
First up, I built my Goblin King that I got a while back. As today’s post title suggests, building anything in Finecast is a serious pain. The Goblin King had way more issues than I initially thought and I had to more or less fix large surfaces on his sides with milliput as you can see above. I hopefully haven’t lost too many of the detail in the process as I love the sculpt and I look forward to painting it up in the future now that it is finally built. There is no doubt that anything in Finecast is going to take twice as long to build as it should and it will frustrate you along the way too.
Another completed task that wasn’t as fun as I’d hoped was painting up Pippin. This sculpt looks pretty good but the problem is that some of the parts that you’d really want to paint nicely are hard to get at. The scarf being the main culprit. With that said, I got Pippin finished fairly quickly and I’m happy to have him nearly done (just the base to go). Only two more Fellowship members to paint!
Getting Pippin done inspired me to look at the previous one I painted for a bit of comparison. I have to say, I’m surprised by the “growth”/improvement in my painting since I painted the first Pippin. The new Pippin’s hair looks so much better and like the actor’s hair in the movie. I also like the higher level of contrast on his sword (which doesn’t show up that well in the pictures I took) and on the newer one’s cloak. The clothes may not be quite as well painted on the second one, especially the scarf which was really hard to reach and do the freehand on. Of course, this is a bit of an unfair comparison because the base is not finished on the new one. I really can’t wait to get them all based up like they’re at Amon Hen.
While I’ve got some other stuff done like a couple of trees based, I’ll hang off on showing them until I have more done as its not that exciting to see two done. While this week has been fairly uneventful, I enjoyed hobbying all week and bounced around from different projects (maybe even a bit too much) so I think it is safe to say the hobby malaise is over and I’m back to business as usual.
Kuribo's Painting 
Ive heard tales of the horrors of finecast, fortunately it’s not something I’ve ever encountered myself. I was shocked how much work you had to do still though!
On the plus size I’m looking forward to seeing the Goblin King painted up, it’s such a dynamic looking model.
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It can be a ton of work. Pieces don’t fit together well so that creates gaps, there are “resin” holes that have to be filled, some surfaces end up not being very smooth. Its a real mess! Any time I deal with Finecast it makes me appreciate how great GW’s plastics are 🙂
I’m glad to hear that on the GK too. That will motivate me to get him on my painting table in the near future!
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I feel your Finecast pain. It really surprises me how Games Workshop actually dared to increase pricing on miniatures when they morphed them from metal to Finecast back in the day. In my mind there are only three (potential) advantages to Finecast: 1) If done right, I do believe Finecast miniatures could be more detailed than metal. However, in practice, it is sometimes the opposite, especially on older miniatures where the design wasn’t actually changed. 2) It is easier to cut up and use for conversions and 3) It is a lot more lightweight (could also be a downside if you prefer the hefty feel of metal minis), which is especially nice for banner bearers, creatures with large wings or otherwise unstable miniatures.
At the same time, there are many downsides, such as requiring a lot more assembly time, being annoying to work with, being very brittle, being very prone to accidental miscuttings, being prone to miscasts, being expensive. The amount of times I have accidentally cut off a foot or other part belonging to the miniature thinking it was just a support node is really too many, which is extra frustrating because these miniatures are so expensive. The Forge World finecast fortunately is a lot better (though also much more expensive for some reason, how much realistically would the material cost though?).
I wonder if GW didn’t also drive their prices up when they introduced Finecast, if the reception would’ve been better. I think if it wasn’t for the ridiculous pricing, I’d have been far more accepting of the change.
Anyway, I am dreading opening up my finecast Gwaihir and a lot of other Hobbit era stuff I have stored away. But those are worries for another time, I’m thankful GW is using more plastics now in the new releases and happy that a lot of the stuff that is out there is available in metal or plastic.
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By the way, great work on Pippin! While I’m naturally drawn to red (it’s my favourite colour), I really admire your work on the Elven cloak on the Breaking of the Fellowship version.
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Thank you! 🙂 Red is my favorite color too though it isn’t easy to paint necessarily. I put some extra time into the cloak so I’m glad to hear it paid off!
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You really nailed it on the pitfalls of finecast! The extra work you have to do is annoying on them but for me, the brittleness and the fact that many weapons bend badly before you’ve even clipped them off the sprue is most troubling. They cost too much to be so frail!
It is surprising that GW increased prices and introduced Finecast at the same time. I can only imagine how upset people were at the time (I was out of the hobby back then so I missed that period). Having a lot of Finecast in the Hobbit minis is a weakness in the range but the metal minis which got turned into finecast are probably even worse. GW should consider dropping those and going back to metal but I don’t think that will happen.
I have to admit that I do fear for your unopened Finecast minis. I’ve had one sculpt that was missing its nose and I bought it on eBay so it was impossible to return it. Hopefully everything is good and you can paint it whenever you’re ready. I order Finecast from GW now only so I can take advantage of their excellent customer service if there are any problems 🙂 Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts, Gero! 😀
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Great job fixing up that failcast of the GK.
The Pipen looks great as well. I really like your painting. Having only two more fellowship left to paint is nice. I’m happy to hear that the malaise has passed. 😀
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Thanks Stew! People rarely compliment my painting as a whole so I really appreciate your kind words 🙂 I may have even less Fellowship members to paint by my next update 😉
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I have the hardest time sometimes distinguishing between flash/attach to frame points on finecast and invariably cut something I shouldn’t have. Or not trim something until I get to painting – quite aggravating.
Besides all that 🙂 , I just don’t like the feel of finecast in my hands when I paint the figure.
Enough of my get off my lawn rant. I am looking forward to you finishing the Goblin King and having him do battle against your Thorin’s Company!
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I know exactly what you mean, Bret! I really get annoyed at the placement of the frame points too. They often put them near important details or they’re just really hidden so you see them right before painting.
I will definitely get the Goblin King painted up sometime soon as I got some more Goblin Town terrain and I’m itching to play the rest of the Goblin Town scenarios 🙂 Thanks for stopping by as always!
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Huh. I had assumed that the Goblin king would have been in plastic, rather than Finecast – which, yes, is overall hot garbage as a material. Pippin here looks good, and a worthy companion to Merry (yes, I am working my way backwards…)
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This one unfortunately is in Finecast. The Goblin King in the Escape From Goblin Town set is plastic and a pretty good sculpt as well. I think GW only sold the finecast one for a short while (probably wasn’t a hot seller since a lot of people got the plastic version first) and thus, this one became rare and was worth over $100 here on the secondary market. I like the dynamism of this mini so I had to get it. That and I’m going to get my Goblin Town terrain finished as soon as I can so he’ll see some use 🙂
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Looking forward to seeing it all done up!
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