It’s this time of the year for Masterclasses in my hometown of Sherbrooke in the province of Québec. The Masterclass one will be offered on March 24-25 and the Masterclass II on April 7-8. Note that these classes will be primarily offered in French but I can easily accommodate English speaking students. For information and registration contact me directly.

Keep painting!

You read correctly. I will be back in Sacramento to teach a Masterclass I on the weekend of March 31-April 1. I am really happy to head back to Great Escape Game a second time. For more information or registration contact Justin McCoy at misterjustin@gmail.com

Either way I wish you all a happy holiday season. Those of you who have been following me for a while, know by now that I’m pretty lazy at this time of the year. Do not worry though, there are already quite a few projects aligned for next year, in order to be ready for Atlanta’s show in February.

In the meantime, be merry, have fun, and if you have a bit of time, keep painting!

A Christmas song from one of my favorite band:

Well I must say that this has been an interesting run. I have been through 10 different models since the release of the Necrons for an acceptable Necron Overlord. It’s been more than a month now. Good thing I am not a gamer eagerly waiting to field one in my army (which is non existent). Before revealing the results on our last two test subjects let go through a few points.

Following my previous post, I’ve tracked the various sites referencing my post to see what was the reaction toward the issue. I’ve seen quite a lot of opinions and positions so let me clear a few with my own personal opinion.

1) This series of post is not an attempt to “get back” at Games Workshop. Although I’ve openly said that I do not agree with most of their recent decisions (mainly marketing wise), they never did anything against me personally, so I have no reason to be vindictive.

2) I am not a Games Workshop hater either. I grew up with Games Workshop various games and miniatures. I’ve always loved the various universes behind their games. They have some of the best artists in the industry, which always produce inspiring work. The quality of their plastic is incredible both in the level of details and the multi-part/kit options. Although I find the latest decisions and marketing strategies to back them debatable, I have to admit that a part of me is still a GW fanboy.

3) I love resin. I’m not arguing for the return of metal. Resin is simple to work with, fast to fix. Cyanocrylate creates a strong bond and there’s no need for pinning. Working in a gaming store, I find it way simpler to sell this products to kids than metal with all the tools required to prep them.

4) Yes I have experienced miscast with metal, like everyone else but never at this rate. I always asked for replacement and always got it but never needed 9 more copies. Most of the time, the issues were missing pieces and not miscast.

5) I will repeat it once more, this series of post hasn’t been in the hope to find a perfect copy. Simply a copy which I do not need to re-sculpt. I have no issues with fixing mold lines. It’s pretty straightforward and easily done, especially with resin. I have nothing against surface bubbles either. I do agree that liquid green stuff is perfect in this case. Once again it’s a simple thing to fix. When a corner of a detail is erased by a bubble or any other situation where you need to re-sculpt the details instead of simply filling the surface is an entirely other issue.

6) Yes modeling and converting is part of this hobby but should NEVER be an excuse for poor quality products. No matter how much you love and support a company.

7) I would never stop a customer from buying any line of products because I personally think it is a lower quality than any other company. But I will stop a customer from buying a product which has a lower quality in the parameters of the company.

8 ) As previously said I know that there are perfect Finecast copies out there and since quite a few persons are arguing that these models are never shown, here are two for you:

Apophas has a few tiny bubbles underneath some of the details but nothing major.

9) GW customer service has nothing to be ashamed of. They keep sending new replacement copies without asking too much questions. At least on that level it’s an A+. But when you are more than a month past the initial schedule of a new army and that you are still waiting for an acceptable model for your HQ choice, well, no matter how good your customer service is… You’re still pissed.

10) Buying online shouldn’t be a “no-no” because you cannot inspect your copy before buying. In fact buying online should be an issue since you are not encouraging your local gaming store that takes the time to organize activities, provide tables and scenery and guide you for your next purchase. Obviously if you live in the middle of nowhere without any gaming store in a 50 kilometers radius, it is an entirely other issue. As an employee of a gaming store I should not have to inspect every Finecast blister being delivered to the store. As a customer, I shouldn’t have to inspect every copy before buying. I should simply walk in, buy my copy and come home. If in any case it is a bad copy I should positively hope that the replacement copy will be acceptable.

11) Finally, to all the GW Fanboys that are saying that I should shut up and simply fix the mistakes on these models since I’m so great… Well I’m sorry but no I won’t. As previously said, re-sculpting a model should be a personal choice to modify a model, to convert it, to make it better. Re-sculpting never should be to repair a badly cast model in order to get it as it should be in the blister. No matter how much you are fan of a company.

If you want to catch up on the story, here are the three previous posts detailing all the previous models:

Models #1, #2, #3 and #4

Models #5 and #6

Models #7 and #8

Now let’s move to the core of this post. Necron Overlord #9 and #10. If you have followed the saga so far you should have picked up on the trend. Fail! Yep again. I thought I had a fairly good copy when I saw the part behind the knee properly cast but, unfortunately another classic mistake made it to the top of the list. Pictures!

Necron #9

From this angle, nothing major. A few bubbles here and there. It would appear that every points in the details have tiny bubbles. So far I would let it go through simply to be done with it.

Again just a few tiny bubbles that I would be ready to work with. Unfortunately the entire bottom rib has been replaced by a nice looking bubble. Sad since the model was really crisp otherwise.

And obviously, the stomach area is a mess again… Yes these pictures are oversized and some of these bubbles are a quick fix. But look at the two huge bubbles around the center at the bottom. These need re-sculpting to bring back the sharp angles of these parts.

Necron #10

Bigger bubbles again along sharp edges. Once more we have a gaping hole behind the knee… (sigh)

Again bubbles here and there, hole behind the knee but look at that bottom rib.

No need to say more.

So what to do from here? Stop whining and fix one of these model to please the Fanboys, and walk in-line along GW marketing imperatives telling us that these are the best products ever? Yeah… no. As previously said, what worries me the most, is the number of models, miscast like these, that were bought by people not knowing any better or simply not caring. How many models like these were not return to GW? For how long does GW think it can continue to take their customers for fools? Probably for a long time. My suggestion? Fire a few marketing directors for more man power on the floor. It might help fix some issues because a bunch of adjectives to describe various products don’t make them magically great.

You probably got it from the title, this is the conclusion. Yes I have not yet find a decent Overlord, but I have better thing to do then track it down. So instead of asking for replacement copies I’ll simply exchange it for a Cygnar Warcaster that I still haven’t bought. Guess what? I’ll even get money back in the exchange! Woohoo!

So this is officially the end of the quest for a decent Overlord. The saga is over and is a failure from start to finish. After 10 models I’m done.

So, to all of you who found decent models, keep painting.

Yes you read correctly. We have two other failures among us. I was hoping for success from a first look but, although they are not as bad as the previous batch, they are not acceptable. I’m at lost now. Through the 8 copies I have examined, I can now say that I have seen each issues I have encountered being perfectly cast at least once on a model with the exception of the belly part. So I know the perfect copy is not impossible, simply elusive. And as said before, I’m not asking for the perfect copy. Simply something that I can work with without spending more than 1 hour prepping the model which in fact shouldn’t take that long.

Yes I have the abilities to take most of these models and fix them. I can repair these issues using miliput, green stuff, files and sand paper (don’t talk to me about liquid green stuff). The question is why should I spend the extra time to repair a finecast model which Games Workshop labels as “incredibly detailed, high-quality resin kits”. You simply have to click on the finecast logo on their website to read the description. As a friend recently said on the topic: ” i shouldn’t HAVE to resculpt parts of it, the fact than i “can” is moot.  I can accept mold lines and the ocassional sprue/vent, but resculpts should be a choice i make, not something i have to do just to get a stock mini”. When I pay 20.75$CAN on a model I do not expect to have to take my entire tool set to prep it.

The thing which disturb me even more is that I am not the major demographic buying their products. I have the abilities to see the problems with these minis and call them what they are: shit. But most customers, especially the younger ones, which we have to admit are GW’s main target, probably won’t see it as they are. So how many people actually bought these “high-quality resin kits” without further inspection and are now being played? If that doesn’t sound like ripping off your customers I wonder what does. I have seen perfectly casted Finecast minis. I know that they are not bad all over the board but I’ve been through 8 Overlords now and I am still hoping for a copy I can work with.

So far we had no issues getting replacement models at my local store. This time though they asked questions. Pictures were requested so I eagerly sent them the link of the previous article. The answer from our sales rep was to inform us about the existence of liquid green stuff… First of, as previously said, I shouldn’t have to buy a new products to fix extensive defects on a foot soldier model that cost 20.75$CAN. Second, if your company policy is to push you customers to buy an extra overpriced product to fix your inability to produce a “high-quality resin kit”, definitely you have major issues. Lastly, liquid green stuff has been out of stock at GW USA warehouses for the last three weeks. Well to be exact, we have ordered liquid green stuff the last three weeks and every time our order arrived without it and the invoice stating “not shipped”. Furthermore if you think you can fix the issues on the models #5 and #6 with liquid green stuff you are either simply blindly following your company guidelines on what to answer your customers or you are clueless. I don’t want to be mean but at one point someone is getting tired of being laughed at in such an obvious manner.

They did finally sent us two replacement copies… and here are the results:

Necron #7

Nothing majorly bad from this angle. Again we can already see that the part behind the knee is miscast. This part cannot be fixed with liquid greenstuff. It has to be properly re-sculpted to get the sharp angles and flat panels. Liquid greenstuff would either create a bubble on each side or simply run through if too thin. In either case it would be impossible to file or sand to get the proper angles. And look at the number of vents… I’ve never seen so many of them on resin model.

Once again the lower rib is miscast. Liquid greenstuff would partially fix the issue but it would be quicker and much more simpler with actual green stuff.

This one is a first and actually appears on both models. There’s a major dent into the flat side of the shoulder pad. And if anyone can actually tell me what these yellow residues are I would really appreciate it. No they are not the molds because they are pink… unless both side of the molds are actually different colors.

Underside… do I need to say anything more than the picture shows?

First time I’ve actually seen a miscast on the weapon. I have seen them bent every ways possible but now we literally have a piece of mold missing giving us an extra lump of resin! Yes it’s easy to fix. A simple cut with the exacto and then you simply have to carve the line along the rod.

Speaking of extra lumps of resin, this one actually made all the fingers disappeared. Just like a magic trick.

Necron #8

Once again we already see common issues. The back of the knee, the thick flash along the ribbon and quite a few bubbles here and there.

Close up on that ribbon:

At least now we have a nice lower rib.

Same dent on the side of the shoulder pad and more of that yellow stuff. But you can see a pink piece of mold as well.

Now we have poorly cast fingers and a broken little finger…

The underside is still as bad… (the color difference with the resin here is simply because no flash was used on this picture)

And finally, the collar along the neck is broken. Not miscast, broken. We can clearly see the white part at the break point.

So once again the pictures talk for themselves. Now let’s compare with a few other products.

First from their sister company, just on the other side of the street, namely Forgeworld. I just received the latest Chaos Dwarf lord on his giant taurus. The cast is perfect, no bubbles, no mold lines that need extensive works, a level of details far superior and there’s no 20+ vents per parts.

When you compare Forgeworld prices to Games Workshop for equivalent models they are more expansive when you used the UK website prices as comparison. When you actually compare the Canadian prices for Games Workshop to the Forgeworld one the difference rapidly disappear. It should not be the case but since GW doesn’t seem to understand the principle of fixing a price and using market fluctuation, it does. So since prices are fixed according to specific region and that Canada is overpriced compared to the USA and UK, it would appear that buying FW is not really more expansive.

Last comparison with the company which is most likely GW’s main competitor:

This Cygnar Sentinel Light Warjack is twice the size of an overlord but 18.99 instead of 20.75. Yes there are mold lines but no bubbles. I’m fully aware that this is hard impact plastic and not resin but I can take pictures of the resin part of my Cygnar and Menoth battle engines and they are impeccable.

I am not one of those saying that GW needs to go back to metal. I fully understand the move to resin. I’ve seen the price of pewter doubles more than once in the last 5 years. This move could not be avoided. But when I see the quality of the new plastic kits, it is unacceptable that a company of this caliber cannot have a better quality control.

In all honesty I’m beginning to get tired of this game. The amount of time I’ve lost in reporting these models is beginning to be quite a lot. I have no desire to paint that model anymore but I have to keep going until I actually find a decent copy of the model I bought. Will it be #9 or #10? I sincerely hope so in order to move on.

In the meantime keep painting!

This report should have been done a week ago but unfortunately I was busy killing dragons in Skyrim. I know lame excuse but once in a while it’s always good to change setting and honestly who can resist the opportunity of killing dragons? So a week and a half ago, not one, not two but one and a half ago we headed to Long Island for their annual show. Last time I went was three years ago and although it is a small contest it is always in a friendly environment with great people.

The location is also fabulous. Well maybe not fabulous but being on the coast during the dead season means fresh fish and seafood but without all the tourists. The contest itself is nothing big. Still a lot of interesting pieces but it isn’t MFCA, MMSI or AMFS. So here are the pictures of the various entries I found interesting. There was more than those taken but there is no point in showing you again the pieces that was at MMSI.

The paint on this one isn’t top notch but the play of light is really interesting:

An interesting vehicule:

Other vehicules:

A giant diorama:

A 1/72 scale diorama. I’m always amazed by these one and the level of details they can achieve:

And two new pieces by Mike Blank. Once again amazing:

The best of show was once again awarded to Mike Blank for his Empire’s new clothes has shown in the MMSI article.

And now the travel part. The  7 hours drive from Montreal to New-York was fairly as usual. Of course the driver froze in front of the custom officer not understanding what putting the car on “park” meant, his girlfriend all excited or apprehensive about driving on a US highway, and me having to cope with the rush hour traffic in New-York. Let me tell you that I now understand the necessity for all these psychiatric meds. If I had to drive back and forth every day in that crazy traffic I would want to be sedated to.

As for signs… a bit boring… Only some deer crossing

It’s also interesting to see that people in the state of New-York need sign to remember to put their sealt belt, or use their wipers in the rain and such… I thought that was common sense but.

As usual we stayed at Freeport Inn & Marina. It isn’t the best hotel but it’s comfortable and affordable. They also went through a lot of renovation in the last three years which is not bad at all. The first dinner was at the local Italian restaurant close to the hotel. If you remember from our last visit on site, the dinner had been punctuated by a temptative crooner singing a bit too loud… Well to our surprise the restaurant was renovated and the singer  now manage the place. Well to be honest the whole family is probably managing the restaurant Italian style. Food was good with the exception of my unwashed mussels full of sand but we got two free wine bottles and half price on our family size portion of gnocchi so overall no complaint.

Saturday’s lunch is the time to hit the nautical mile. A stretch of restaurant and stores, mostly all closed at this time of the year, along the marina. And it is also the spot of what is probably my favorite fish market: Captain Ben’s Fish Market. Their assortment of fish and seafood is incredible. They also have a small restaurant connecting to the market where you can actually chose what you want to eat and they prepare it. So nothing like saying that you want blue crabs and seeing them travel from the market to the chef’s kitchen then to your table. Can’t be any fresher. But first you need a clam chowder!

And then the main course (already being eaten… forgot to take the picture when it showed up…):

My friends had tuna and mahi-mahi and both looked really good as well. The restaurant itself or should I say cantina:

Our dinner was at the new restaurant of our hotel. Wasn’t there before and was part of their extensive renovation and is called The Patio. We didn’t really know what we wanted so we basically ordered everything separated in three different waves and split everything three ways. It was delicious. We didn’t really what to expect. It’s the type of menu that can be either great or really disappointing. It was really good.

Some pictures from the mile:

My two traveling buddies for the weekend, Samuel and Marilyne:

What’s for dinner?

The fish doesn’t seems as good anymore but who cares:

If you ever looked for a wedding chapel with a lifesize replica of a Holstein cow, look no further:

Nothing like a piece of cake singing in your face while you eat it:

And would you believe me if I told you that 2 crazy/stupid/most likely drunk guys crossed the Atlantic aboard a row boat like this one in the 1800′s?

Yeah me neither. I’m sure the guys actually left from Gaspésie and when they arrived in Freeport they were mistaken for Frenchmen…

So there you go. As for the results, Marilyne picked up a gold in standard for her second painted mini in her life, Samuel a bronze in master which should kick his butt into gear and me a gold in Master.

Keep painting,

Keep painting!

I thought I had it but no… Number 5 & 6 are rejected as well. I grabbed number 5 first. At first, it looked pretty good, “manageable”. That was until I sat down at my desk ready to assemble and convert it. Once again it is nightmarish.

Necron 5: From a quick glance the model looks pretty good. The weapon is one of the straightest I’ve seen. No apparent major default and the part behind the knee is properly cast.

Another common issue with the models. An amount of flash which is not normal all along the scale cloak. Fairly easy to manage in this case.

Front view of the model. Several bubbles, which this time I know are not part of the sculpt as well as several pieces of mold.

Close-up from under the belly. No need to point the mistake as they are festering the area. Bubbles battle against mold’s pieces!

Other side of the chest with the usual bottom rib miscast. Other bubbles and pieces of mold.

Large quantity of the mold behind a shoulder blade.

Necron 6: Right from the start we know there are issues with this one. Again bubbles and pieces of molds battle against each other all over the model.

And look at that weapon…

Once again the back of the knee and the lower ribs are miscast.

If the previous miscast along the scale cloak was easy to manage, this one broke which means that the side of the ribbon also need to be re-sculpted to repair the damages.

The underbelly shot which once again doesn’t need any hints.

And remember the extra pieces of mold behind the shoulder blade? Well when there is no quality control it ends up like this:

Now let see what number 8 & 9 will look like!

Keep painting!

I usually refrain from blasting companies on this blog. I do not think it serves anyone any good but at some point you have to realize how hopeless some are. As several of you already know I am tired of Games Workshop. I decided to not attend last year US Games Day for that reason, sold my Grey Knight army and use the money to build a Cygnar force and told myself I wouldn’t play their games anymore. So far I’ve respected these promises but it doesn’t mean that once in a while I do not have an urge to buy some Games Workshop products.

I, like many other, fell for the new Necrons. Honestly the new range is incredible. It has a lot of character and I really felt like painting a Necron Overlord. So I bought one, then two, then a third one and again a fourth… and I am waiting for a fifth and most likely a sixth and so forth at this pace. No I do not need 6 Overlords. One is enough but I need one good one. I have not dealt with any “Finecast” product since the Ghazghkull which was already bad by itself. But comparing it to its metal counterpart I owned, it was more encouraging to fix the resin products than the pewter one.

The last 4 overlords I bought are far worst. I do not mind a few surface bubbles that can be easily filled. But when you have major bubbles that means that entire part of a model is missing, that’s an entire different story.

Here are the evidence:

Necron 1: on the first picture, notice the upper circle. There’s a part of the mold stuck in there. No trouble for me and easily removed. Unfortunately it means that the next model coming out of the mold will have this part filled with resin and considering the quality control I’m pretty sure they will not spot it. Major flaw here though are the two bubbles at the knee level.

Now notice behind the knee. It is a common issue on all four models. The resin do not reach all the way to the knee so the details are not filled properly.

Necron 2: Now observe the circle to the left. Same problem I explained in the previous picture. The resin doesn’t reach the knee so we are missing these details. In this case though it seems that the mold is incorrect due to the shape of the missing part.

From this side you can see the extent of the hole behind the knee. Furthermore the fingers on the opened hand are broken.

Necron 3: Once again you can see the gap behind the knee. The upper circle default can’t really be seen. But it’s a major mold line deforming the part.

Gap behind the knee and several other bubbles.

Necron 4: Gap behind the knee again, but also an entire part missing looking at the long circle.

Gap behind the knee more apparent and another festival of bubbles.

Yes Games Workshop came out with hobbyist products to fix the issue… Come on! Emery board or should I say overpriced nail files? A flash brush… I still haven’t stop laughing about this one. I wonder how many tiny parts, point of edgy weapons and locks of hair have been broken by over zealous hobbyist?

The best of all though is the “liquid” green stuff. Nice little product indeed. Nothing new though. Furthermore yes liquid green stuff can fill bubble holes but they can’t make disappear extra lump of resin, they can’t make appear details that weren’t cast because the resin can’t be spread around properly in the molds and when we come to huge bubbles, like the knee we see in the upper picture, it won’t magically fill the hole and take the shape of the sculpt.

Liquid green stuff is also a great product to mask details as in your example in the White Dwarf issue of last October on page 61. It’s inspiring to see you guys take a 109$CAN model, Azhag the Slaughterer, and make sure that all the details of the chainmail at the junction of the wings totally disappear.

Honestly when your resin cast is worst than your little sister Forgeworld, you know you are in trouble. As said before, I love Games Workshop’s universe. Their plastic range is incredible and never stop to improve as we go. Unfortunately, what inspires me, and probably most other painters, are the unique character with more personality. Again, unfortunately, they are the one cast in resin and we are to expect these troubles.

I was hoping in an improvement of their cast after last summer. I am disappointed to see that it was not the case. I was starting to brainstorm for the upcoming Golden Demons but, once again, I wonder if I want to encourage a company which keep laughing in our face. Especially when they want their customers to buy 2 brushes and 2 bottles of matt medium for 60$CAN. Really? I can get 5 Raphael 8404 brushes for that or if you are really bent on that medium I can get 4 Raphael brushes and 473ml of matt medium which is 2 brushes (probably better quality than the one you are offering) and 449ml of matt medium extra… I guess the metallic case is worth half the kit.

On these words, I am going back to painting my last horse in a while.

Keep painting!

UPDATE: Someone pointed out to me that the bubble holes on the cloak are in fact “part” of the sculpture as you can notice on the GW official 360 degrees view on their website. Unfortunately, as said earlier, these are the easy things to fix and are not at the center of my worries. Otherwise I am fully aware that most hobby products GW releases are not marketed for me. But for a company that claims to have the best range of products in the world I think it is sad to see cheaper version of already existing tools out there with a major price hike.

The tickets are now on sale for the raffle of the Celebrity Dreadfleet! Unfortunately your ticket need to be present at Adepticon in order to win the raffle. Note the importance nuance here… Your ticket need to be present but you do not need to be on site.

If you are planning to attend and want a ticket (no reason why you shouldn’t buy at least 3 dozens…) the ticket are this way.

If you will not be at Adepticon this year (which is a shame but understandable… well not really but still…) you can always ask a friend who will be present to buy them for you and collect your prize on site (if you do win which I’m sure you will).

If you do not know anyone present at Adepticon or you cannot trust any of your friend I have another solution.

Dave Taylor and I are proposing to be your reliable friends at Adepticon. You send us your donation via paypal and we will buy the tickets for you, manage them during the raffle and if you win (which again I’m sure you will) we will send you your copy.

A few rules and precision:

• We need to receive your donations at the latest March 30th. Dave and I will buy the tickets on March 30th (day on which the online cart for Adepticon closes).
• Any bonus tickets will be awarded as per the guideline on the Adepticon Online Cart. Any extra bonus ticket will be pooled together and if one of them ends up being the winner, the copy of Dreadfleet will be randomly awarded to one of the donators.
• A complete list of the donators with their ticket numbers will be published on our respective blogs for transparency on Saturday,  April 21st.
• Any transfer sent to either Dave or I have to include Paypal fees or sent as personal transfer. Dave and I will cover shipping of the Dreadfleet copy in case one of you win (and I’m sure you will) but we will not cover the Paypal fees.
• The winning ticket number, along with the name of the winner if it is one of our donators,  will be announced Sunday, April 22nd in the evening on our respective blogs.

I accept donation at following Paypal adress: akaranseth@gmail.com

So now you have no excuses! So keep painting and don’t forget to donate.