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And We're Back...

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Finally, Comcast came through and we now have Internet at our new place. I've been out of commission the past few weeks dealing with the recent move and all the fun stuff that goes along with that, but happy to say the bulk of it is over! Still a few odds and ends to sort out but the new place is starting to come together nicely and I should be back on the hobby table soon. We're about 2 months out from Nova so if you haven't ordered your ticket yet, you better act quickly! Few spots remain and you don't want to miss this, or the opportunity for a good challenge ;)

I'd like to have my army finalized and fully painted in the next month to avoid any frantic hobby sessions at the last minute and to ensure I have enough time to get a feel for my tournament list. I'm not expecting much in terms of win/loss record, but I am expecting to have a great time (and part of that means not getting my ass handed to me every round). I'll get a list of what remains to be assembled or painted together so I can come up with a reasonable plan of action for the month. The last thing I want is for my hobby to feel like a chore, and it hasn't yet, but I do have a tendency to start on too many projects at once. Now is the time to focus in on my 2k point list and get in as many games with it as I can. Anyone else starting to feel the pressure? Time to stop reading 6th edition rumors and bring it back to basics (and reality!)

Citadel Finecast

Wednesday, June 1, 2011


Last Saturday, I managed to pick up a couple of the new Citadel Finecast models; a Harlequin Shadowseer and Harlequin Death Jester.


With these two models I'm able to finish off my Harlequin Troupe, the latest addition to my Dark Eldar army. I tried to get these a couple of weeks ago when I ordered the Troupe box set (ahead of the price increase and switch to resin) in hopes of snagging some of the last metal miniatures from GW, but these two were already sold out. It's all good though because now I have a nice comparison between the old metal and new resin harlies.

The good news is that Finecast is better than what I was expecting - I thought it would be exactly like Forge World resin which can be prone to some extreme mold lines and loss of detail when extra material unfortunately seeps into the wrong parts of the mold (the quality of the production process just isn't as high with FW as it is with other/newer GW lines, at least from what I've seen). I still need to finish a few things before posting the rest of my FW order from a couple months ago. I finally picked up some much needed tools over the weekend that should make working with resin models much easier. More on those later.


Anyway, back to the Harlequins. The new Finecast models can be assembled pretty quickly. There may be slightly more cleanup required with the back of the hobby knife depending on the mold/model, but everything glues together faster than metal. The downside is this stuff is fragile! The top of my Shadowseer's staff seemed a little bent/loose on the spru, and sure enough after I cut it off and started to clean around the edges the skull fell off. Nothing a little greenstuff can't fix, but have to remember to be really careful with the thin pieces; they can't withstand any flexing to and fro and have very little give. On larger pieces/models I don't see this being an issue, just the small ones that are attached to the spru edges you have to watch for.


All in all, I'm impressed with the level of detail they can achieve with the new material. I'll have more as I start to paint these guys and also as I finish up the metal Harlequin counterparts and remaining FW models. I'm very happy to finally be working on a squad of Harlequins - these are the models that had just been redone when I started getting back into the hobby a few years ago from a long hiatus. No one put it better than my wife who, after several rounds of drinks at a nearby Chili's drunkenly blurted out to the guy working that night at the now closed GW store, "these new Harlequins are off the chain!!!"

Wow, that was 4 years ago!
I think he thought she was mocking him and the new minis, but she wasn't. I looked up and smiled and said "Yes, yes they are." :-)