Joining the Great Finecast Debate

Much has been said on the 'net about Citadel's new finecast models. From GW's original, somewhat bombastic claims of the latest step in 'hobby evolution' through various debates on TMP and Wayland Games decision not to retail the stuff based on their assessment of flaws (some of which seem fair to me, others which I wouldn't have been surprised by in pewter).

Well, I just had to find out for myself, didn't I? I had some GW vouchers and, not really needing things for any of my main GW armies, thought I'd indulge myself with something that might be interesting to paint. So out of GW Chesterfield I skipped (well, tripped on the doorstep really...) with a Ludwig Schwartzhelm clutched in my eager little hands.

So, first impressions? Here's the inevitable pics...

It's a very light material, and slightly bendy (although not brittle). How well it will hold paint on thin items like swords and staffs? Will it flake over time like the soft plastic on 1/72 models. Compared to pewter flash seems to be a surprising issue. Partly it's because there are so many gates for the material to enter the mould, some of which are on points of detail.

However these do seem to be easily cleaned up without leaving noticeable damage. There are quite a few mould lines as well (multi-part moulds?), but no more than you'd find on pewter, and it's an easy material to work.

What I will say is that I've not noticed anything like the problem with bubbles that some have reported. One or two small ones but so tiny and in out of the way places that they're not worth worrying about. It also holds detail really well; just look at the detail on the barding, above.

Verdict so far? Not sure yet, I'm going to hold fire until assembly, but so far it's neither feeling like an improvement on pewter, nor as bad as some have said

I CAN'T HEAR YOU, I'M A LITTLE BIT DEAF!!!

Quick paintjob on some Empire Artillery Crew that I'd obviously started a while back and forgotten about. They've come out OK, although now I'm going to have to paint (and find) their cannon.

Forgotten Purchases

Having a bit of a tidy up the other day (I needed to make some more space in the cupboard for my wife's school textbooks), I came across a box of resin scenery pieces I'd forgotten about. I recall I picked them up at Salute some years back from (I think) a mix of Snapdragon studios and Ainsty Castings. Anyway, they looked like a quick win on the painting front so, hey presto, here they are.

You can never have too many crates to hide behind. Computer games have taught me that...

US and them

Finished the US Infantry Platoon (finally). All figs are from Caesar miniatures US Infantry Set 1 and I must say I'm really impressed with them. They take washes for shading very well. The Sherman is from Dragon Armour and very nice too.

Just need to get them on the table now.

Those Italieri walls have painted up well too! What I really like is that they fit together really flexibly but firmly.

And just to show it's not all been 20mm, Somewhere along the line I seem to have found the time to paint a couple of Hasslefree Townsfolk; the Village Idiot and Barwench.

I have a few more of these to do, and will be mounting them on some nice resin bases from Fenris Games that the lovely folks at Hasslefree included as a freebie.

Over the garden wall

Just a quickie tonight (if you'll excuse the phrase). I managed to pick up a couple of cheap boxes of Italieri's Stone Walls care of ebay. I know walls are the kind of thing I could easily scratchbuild, but given my notoriously slow progress on most projects I figured this was a cheap way to save time!

They come as two sprues to a box, with each sprue containing enough pieces to make just over 2 feet of walls, including gates and a variety of end pieces, and have a nice, simple interlocking design. So between the two boxes that's enough for about four and a half feet of stone walls on the table. The plastic is nice and solid and the detail looks nice and crisp, so they should paint up well using the same techniques I used for the same company's farmhouse.

Here's a pic of the sprue:

Once painted, they should be ideal for farm boundaries, orchards or just the sides of roads.

Hail Caesar!

Is it wrong that I still get excited when a parcel arrives for me? Well, right or wrong I was quite cheery when I got home to find my Caesar WWII British Infantry had arrived. Even though I've not finished my US platoon (nearly there!), I couldn't help but do a quick test on the Brits (flying the old flag for blighty!).

So what are they like? In common with the US Infantry, the detail is nice and sharp and generally clean. There's more flash than the US models, but the plastic is fairly tough so it cleans up pretty easily. The level of detail makes them a joy to paint though. The uniforms and webbing are nicely detailed, although the weapons are less defined (the US infantry have a similar issue), which is odd; it does have one advantage though, as the ratio of stens to rifles is high, but could be remedied with a bit of judicious trimming of magazines!

On the subject of the mix of equipment and weapons, as I mentioned, it's a bit heavy on the stens (12) compared to Lee Enfields (18), and there are 4 flamethrowers, which seems a bit much. But on the plus side there is a nice prone PIAT gunner and a great officer. I would have liked to see a Vickers HMG and more poses with the Bren though.

Size wise they're slightly tall, but fit well with the US models, and aren't so far out from other ranges that I wouldn't consider mixing and matching. Here's a comparison with one of the models from Caesar's US Infantry Set I and the matchbox British Infantry (which are 1:76 to be fair).

Big House, Little House

Here's a family photo of my recent buildings for the WWII project, particularly for Greg of 'Greg's Wargaming Blog' (check it out, he makes some fantastic scenery!) to give a scale comparison.

Left to right are a townhouse and cafe in Resin from Airfix, plastic Italieri Farmhouse, and Resin Airfix ruined workshop. As you can see, the Italieri Farmhouse is substantially larger than the airfix buildings, but next to each other they don't look out of scale, you only have to look at any street to see how buildings vary in size. As a standalone building I'd have no problem putting it on the same table with the others.

Here's a close up with a Caesar US Infantryman for scale. The style is slightly more mediterranean than Normandy, but not too out of place. The model comes in a solid (and surprisingly heavy) plastic. Assembly is pretty easy, and once constructed, with the internal floor in place, feels pretty robust. The roof isn't perfect, the pieces don't fit that precisely and the ridge tiles are a little off, but they paint up nicely. There's also a chimney, but no flat spot to place it, so it's either perch it precariously on the tiles or leave it off. But all in all a really nice gaming piece. Italieri also do a couple of other buildings in a similar style that would probably be worth investigating, particularly if you fancy gaming the Italian campaign!

And so, on to Airfix. These buildings are cast in a nice, crisp resin. The detail is sharp and nicely moulded, in most cases with separate brass windows (they also come with clear plastic for window panes, but I figured that, as ruins, any glass would be long gone!) and they paint up really well. Again, here's our friendly GI for scale.

One thing that is noticeable here though is relative scale. For some odd reason, Airfix have produced these buildings in 1/76 scale (and 'small' 1/76 at that!), whereas all of their figures and vehicles are in 1/72... It's only really noticeable when you place models next to the doors so, again, not really a problem for me. Of course if your models are already at the upper end of the 1/72/20mm range, it might be too much. I wouldn't want to put them with the models from Valiant for example.

I think they would benefit from some rubble on the bases as well, which would also help disguise the low height of the doors. Another future project or me then...

One final comment though is price. They're not cheap, so you'd have to judge for yourself whether they're worth it for you.