The Big Boss on Bike made mostly of Trukk!

Last week saw me get cracking on the warboss on bike, which was slightly more challenging than the nob bikers in the sense that I wanted his bike to be mostly built from trukk parts?! It was the only way I felt his bulk would be accommodated so I set about mounting the engine block and large wheels from the trukk kit onto a very cut down deff kopta chassis.

I kept the deff kopta legs because they aren't actually all that much smaller than the normal warboss legs. Instead I raised the torso and re-sculpted the lower back just to give him some extra height and prevent the legs from making him look a little misshapen  (then again if you spent your whole life on a bike I guess you'd have short legs too!).

The finecast parts, although in pretty terrible condition, were a God send as it meant I could cut the parts to fit with ease. The fact they are so light also helps to prevent this guy from falling over, which I'm certain would happen a lot on the battlefield if he was all metal. All in all I'm very pleased with the result and I'm sure he's going to turn heads (and a few stomachs) on the field!

Here's a size comparison with the previous Nob bikers! He's an absolute beast!

Smurf Like Musings: Citadel Crapcast?

What exactly is the deal with the citadel finecast range? Not having a GW in aber (or any money of my own to buy a model) means that I have not yet seen the quality of the new resin sculpts for myself yet.

Lets just remind ourselves what GW stated on their website when the range was launched:

Andy Hall: Last week we announced something very special - so special in fact that it's nothing less than a new era in wargaming, as we launch the highest quality miniatures the world has ever seen - Citadel Finecast.

I think the key words to lookout for in that paragraph are 'new era' and 'highest quality miniatures', and they obviously suggest that GW have a really high opinion on the quality of their new range. Now is this well founded?

As I have already mentioned, I have not seen a finecast model with my own eyes yet and so I am making no opinion either way in this post. Instead, I thought I would just put the question out there; 'Are the finecast models any good?'

Looking around on various blogs I have noticed that many people have been really disappointed by the lack of quality. Now this would seem very at odds with the bold statement GW made regarding the quality quoted above. Many of the complaints made have also been accompanied with pictures of the main offenders and I must say, the ones I have seen have been truly awful!

Sons of the Grail posted up some images of the techmarine and servitor box and judging by the pictures, the quality is staggeringly bad! The casts are not clean and crisp at all! There are bubbles and blemishes all over, giant mold lines, uneven surfaces and more flash than you can shake a stick at!

I would also like to direct your attention to this thread. I mean wow, those are some very bad casts!

Finally, the giants themselves have go it wrong. This post on the regular GW blog describes the process of cleaning up your finecast model. If you view the skull taker model they are using, you can clearly see multiple defects, including a hole in the cloak under the right arm. So they make a huge fuss about the superior quality of the models and then feel they need to write an article showing you have to fix all the defects. It's all just a little bit weird.

So what are your experiences with the new range? Does it deserve the coined phrase crapcast? Or are these simply some rare bad examples of an otherwise outstanding range? Please let me know.