Resin Addict Forum

Ok so last weekend I attended the Forgeworld open day at GW HQ in Notts UK. I got there @ stupid o'clock in the morning to find 25 people had decided they had nothing better to do on their sunday morning either and also got up a lot earlier than me
Anyway I thought I was a lucky guy as being one of the first twenty-odd people I was fortunate, or so I though, to get my hands on both the event only miniatures two of the first 20 kits of the new Storm Eagle(thanks to my girlfriend) and a shiny new set of the Tartaros pattern Terminators.
Boy was I wrong I got the mini's back to my girlfriends and started to check them out. It was at this point I nearly hit the roof

Now I know some of you out there are not huge fans of FW, well I'll admit, generally I am. I like a lot of the stuff they produce and most recently the new Minataur Characters are awesome. At this point I'd like to point out that the event only Enforcer with Cyber Mastiff is a great mini. While the Mastiff is neither here nor there the Enforcer is fantastic. It's clean it's highly detailed and just a real good buy in my eyes, Look out MJ
The Skin Wolf however has been produced using the same style as 'Failcast' ie it has a Sprue like casting even though it's in resin. It's this that set alarm bells ringing when I open up the new terminators.

Yes you've guessed it, they too are produced in exactly the same manner. Now initially I reserved my judgement as I thought, 'Hey this is FW not GW all will be ok.' All was NOT ok

There is mould slip, missing material/mis-casts, air-bubbles, awful mould lines across the bridge of the nose on the helmets, and most astonishing of all, one of the sets of legs that is in a 'dynamic' pose is mis-proportioned. What I mean is the left foot is actually smaller than the right. Also the fine detail on the chest pieces on the torsos just aren't and what I mean by that, is they are barely much better than some of the older plastic terminators in detail level.
In fact the new Wolf Guard plastics are better, yes I'm a SW player but still? And I know the Space Hulk ones were a one off in design etc etc but they kick these new resins into touch by a LONG way.
I thought long and hard and decided I'd give them a call the next day to complain at my disappoinment of the quality.

What I got was not a real apology, very little sympathy and and defensive stance from the customer service rep that bordered on rude. I explained my disapointment to the guy and he was more interested in me sending them back so their casting team could take a look at them than he was about me as a customer, well thats how I felt. When I asked about the Quality checks put in place for the limited release that's when he got defensive.
My point was simple really as it was a 'Limited Release' of a brand new product why weren't the kits checked? We're talking about 20-30 kits AT THE MOST. Surely if your name and reputation is on a limited release you'd make sure they were all top-notch before pushing them out of the door? The guy at FW said that they'd 'probably' been rushed out for the Open Day and that not all minis that FW produce can be checked, weak argument in my book I'm afraid.

Anyway I've sent an email, written a letter to accompany the mini's, and they are being sent back today.

My honest opinion DONT buy these unless you REALLY want a different look to your army with pre-heresy-ish looking Terminators. I have some pictures, I'll admit they aren't the best and I'll try posting them up later, but most of the patients with a serious habbit on here will know I rarely show disaproval for a FW kit let alone warn people off.

I just really hope this isn't the future of FW products, otherwise I'll be turning my attentions to Scibor more and what I can pick up elswhere.

sadly, FW are now spin casting there resin.... its a sad day for us all.... lol

This makes me sad......

Im glad the Enforcer I got from you was well cast, the skinwalkers were Meh IMHO so I was not worried about them, but I really wanted some of those Termies..... Like in the worst way.

I will still get one set more than likely but I will wait till all the "bugs and rush" is over for them.... Thanks for the heads up!

This is disappointing news. The enforcer look like a lovely mini so I'm glad the quality is good there, But I agree to have "limited pre-release" figures badly cast is simply unacceptable. Puzzling that you say the sculpts themselves are actually really poor though!

Oh and to be fair, although we carry a bit of GW hate on here (and general complaints about FW casting quality), I think it's safe to say that most of us love the FW models

Just a quick update guys. I spoke to Forgeworld this afternoon, having sent them an email regarding my returned miniatures on Monday. An auto reply said if I hadnt recieved anything in 3 working to days, to ring. So I did. I was told that they will respond to the email when they get the chance as they have so many to deal with, and that they would contact me when they recieved the minis in the post. Which using their freepost address could be up to week from dispatch. So basically I'll be looking at a response probably no earlier than Tues next week
Proper fuming now!

Classic customer service right there! Ugh.

My understanding was that emailing FW was always a useless endeavour anyway - I phoned them to arrange replacement parts for my Ramilies Star Fort.

I feel your pain though

Ok guys been a while so here's an update. I am still yet to receive my miniatures and here is why.
I spoke with Ead Brown head of sales and customer services yesterday. It would appear that for the last 3-4 weeks sice i complained and they finally replied to my letter I am not the only one with issue about the miniatures.
It would appear I opened a can of worms as since then pretty much every batchnof the new terminators has failed quality checks in other words, every batch as mine was part of the first!

They have decided to take a serious look into the quality of the resin, the moulds and the casting process for the terminators as they're seriuosly unhappy.

So chalk another one up to the failcast process!
I'm going to have to wait another 3-4 weeks now for a fresh batch of mini they hope will address all the issues.
However they are sending my 'sorry' Minotaur Characters minis via courier tomorrow

The two sets purchased by people at my local store both met usual FW standards.

It sounds like the process is not bad, just not consistently good enough.

They are all cast at lenton lane.

Hmmmmm.......that's interesting?
I was led to believe that a large portion of the 'big kits' and stuff like the DKOK due to volume had been pushed over seas as it was cheaper?
If that's true how come they have to wait for them in the post?
Unless the packaging and Sales it done over the road @ GW HQ?
I was under the impression that FW was it's own entity over the road?

Thanks for the heads up Alan I'll keep it on file

Last I heard it had all been pulled back in house after having issues with Asian outsourcing.

It sucks to hear about all of these issues with them though

It was outsourced like Zac said, but the quality was a massive issue, so came back in house when FW moved from there lone building, back into HQ casting area.

They keep up with demand with a resin gun, they line up moulds, then have a mixer ( like a cola dispenser at a pub) that mixes perfect A+B+pigment. They just fill the moulds up on a tray, onto a big vacuum chamber, and away it goes. Far more advanced than our primitive ways

All GW products (besides books and WD) are made at lenton lane. Ah and printed boxes, there aboard too i think.