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Hi there!

When I found out about the release of a Forge World Chaos Decimator and Chaos being my soft spot I just couldn’t resist ordering it. Additional benefit being the fact that now I can share this Forge World Chaos Decimator review with you. 🙂

Ordering

I tend to order from Forge World early to get “fresh” moulds, and thus reduce the chances of miscast.

So, using my old habit when it comes to Forge World to order their releases early to get “fresh” moulds, and thus reduce the chances of miscast, I pre-ordered the Decimator and each weapon set right away. If I am not mistaken the release date was due on the 2nd of April and I received it on the 4th of April so kudos to them for shipping early (had I lived in UK I’d prolly had receive it before release so that’s a good point for them.)

Anyway onto the miniature!

Unboxing the Chaos Decimator for review

As you can see from the next picture, the body kit comes in a bag of 23 parts plus a standard 60mm base (not shown) and assembly instructions. In this Forge World Chaos Decimator review we will focus on the model itself.

The weapons as for all dreadnoughts are sold separately. To my surprise, they now come into the same “new” blisters Games Workshop uses.

Resin

As you can guess, and to my dread, you can recognize Finecast sprue and resin! I was starting to ramble and think about how many air bubbles I’d have to fix but I soon realised that this is not your everyday finecast. Both body and weapon’s resin is somewhat new (comparing to what FW used a year or so ago).

As you can guess, and to my dread, you can recognize Finecast sprue and resin!

To make this Chaos Decimator review more complete I should describe the material used. I am by no means professional when it comes to resin but I suppose this one is more or less from the same recipe as the Finecast one, but of much better quality. If you compare it to Finecast, this one is harder, while still being more flexible than what Forge World used to have. Like its finecast counterpart, it’s light and the mold lines are very easy to clean.

Casting quality

On this particular mini I found just a few mould lines, not badly placed (nothing in the way of details for example)

Also, as you can see from the pics, the details are sharp and crisp. To my relief the only air bubbles I found were on the resin excess you will throw away.

Overall I’d say that, unlike Games Workshop, Forge World has mastered this resin. This is what finecast should and must be. Great quality and no bubbles or any of the troubles we got used to see from Finecast.

Assembled Chaos Decimator

Anyway, I am cleaning and assembling it as I write this so for this Chaos Decimator review I’d just provide you with the official Forge World picture of the final product as I still have to magnetise all the weapons (which, considering how they are attached to their mounts shouldn’t be too difficult)

So this is the beast in its splendor:

And the size comparison shot provided again by Forge World:

Chaos Decimator review – Conclusion

To conclude, I think both gamers and painters alike would enjoy this mini. It is nicely detailed but without being overwhelming.

Being Chaos and rather big, it might prove to be more challenging to paint it up to competition standards than the Contemptor but I am sure we will see a few Decimators on the coming painting events! The dynamic posing and its size might also make it a good candidate for dioramas.

All in all I am happy with my purchase from Forge World, the quality of the sculpt and casting being very good, now we just need a cool Chaos Codex to come too!

— Ariakas

Reviews

Warhammer 40.000 25th Anniversary Space Marine model – Review

April 2, 2012 Ańa 10 Comments

Today Benathai paid me a visit and showed me one of the latest products from Games Workshop’s Citadel Finecast range: The 25th Anniversary Space Marine. Review of this model may be of interest to some of you, so I decided to share my impressions from unboxing this miniature.

25th Anniversary Space Marines Captain

So far it’s been the best Finecast model I’ve seen, and Benathai’s opinion is exactly the same.

The model was created to commemorate the 25th Anniversary of Warhammer 40.000, so the inspiration with nostalgic memories of the beginnings of this system is tangible. And that is great! I join the choir of sentimental voices from the miniature painting and gaming community, as the RPG-like character of scenarios from the first edition of Warhammer 40.000, also known as Rogue Trader, was a great approach to miniature wargaming and it emphasized the fluff of that universe. This is also reflected in artwork from that period, which put much emphasis on individual character of depicted personalities.

The company managed to hit a soft spot with this model and approach, and in my humble opinion this way they managed to reach the target group of not only gamers but also collectors and miniature painters, because the models – even if based on early Warhammer 40K artwork – stand up to current standards of the industry. And it must be said that the models faithfully represent the characters depicted. If you haven’t had a chance to compare them, here you go:

There’s also another model based on an iconic artwork from the past – Games Day 2012 special miniature based on the cover of 2nd edition of Warhammer 40.000. (I hope to be able to get this one ^^ – leave some for me!)

Ok, let me return to describing what I expect to be another collection of air bubbles trapped in resin.

Close examination

In order to prepare our 25th Anniversary Space Marine review, we took the miniature under magnifying glass (ok, not quite, but two pairs of eyes scanned the miniature for flaws carefully in strong light). And here’s what surprised us:

A decent package – the box is one of those that protect the model inside, so no parts of the miniature were broken.

Quality of the box and print cannot be called anything but good. It opens like a book revealing photos depicting a painted version of the model.

So the first impression was a very pleasantly surprise that the sprue isn’t deformed as much as I would have expected after my first experience with Finecast models. Was it a good omen?

We spotted mould lines in a few places:

Will you agree they don’t look all that bad? The one running along the banner is the worst of them, but fortunately it’s not a bad place and should be easy to fix. Mould lines on the marine were going in pretty acceptable places and fortunately all of them were shallow.

The only thing that I would like to mention as a negative surprise was the amount of flash, seen for example on the backpack.

Also the scenic base insert was slightly warped. Nothing that wouldn’t be easily fixed, but it should be mentioned nonetheless.

Hunt for bubbles

It’s time to take a closer look to those infamous air bubbles:

Did you see what we saw? Is it a kind of magic? Can Finecast models really look unlike foam?!

The few holes we found were completely compensated for with the quality of the sculpt. The surface is smooth. And have you paid attention to these shoulderpads and leg plates? Details are crisp, clean and sharp.

Benathai commened that “these are self-painting details” – and I think he’s quite right 😉 These are difficult times for professional painters, as with such models it suffices to learn to use washes for detailing and even inexperienced painters will achieve good results. 😛

Conclusion of our 25th Anniversary Space Marine review

How positively surprised we are with this model! Is this a sign of improvement of quality of Finecast models? I wish! Unfortunately I am afraid it may be too early to announce such positive changes, because we might be simply lucky with our miniature. Examples seen in the internet seem to confirm my doubts.

So far it’s been the best Finecast model I’ve seen, and Benathai’s opinion is exactly the same. Hasn’t it been for the photos of less fortunate castings we’ve seen in the internet, we would believe it’s a moment that Citadel Finecast models begin to live up to their name.

We’re going to have another example of this model soon, so I hope it won’t disappoint us and our expectations are not too high. Of course we will inform you about it.

Reviews

Games Workshop: FineCast Jabberslythe – Review

January 25, 2012 Nameless 11 Comments

Jabberslythe is a brand new Games Workshop model following the “We-need-big-monsters” trend assumed some time ago by that company. It was released as a part of their (in)famous Finecast range of resin miniatures.

FineCast or not so fine cast?

This huge beast, barely fitting the 100 x 50 mm base it comes with, is packed in the standard GW box. Its size is also well reflected in pricing. You can buy Jabberslythe for 40 GBP (66 USD, 52 €). For that price you will get 14 pieces requiring cleaning and assembly; and a plastic rectangular base. These bits are of course attached to few sprues. Frankly speaking, all the stories about quality of Finecast models caused that I was pretty nervous while checking my copy of Jabberslythe. After all, that’s a lot of money I paid for it. The first quick look was actually pretty reassuring, but then I’ve started to check every single piece.

As you can see, there are no problems with the cast. Bits are clean, details quite crisp, no air bubbles. What happened to the frame though?

It’s so heavily deformed, that in few cases resin bits connecting elements within the sprue were broken. I’m pretty sure that all this had an impact on shape of individual pieces. We’ll get back to it later. Another frame, another issue. Lots of flash requiring cutting off. Nothing really problematic, but it will add some time during preparation of the mini for painting.

More examples of deformed frames and flash:

There are not many mould lines, but some of them will be annoying to remove, especially one across teeth of the beast. I haven’t seen any air bubbles on bigger surfaces, but it is really clear that GW has problems with smaller, thinner elements.

You can see that spikes are cast poorly. Such imperfection could be found on almost every similar piece of this model. My first thought was that this is not a real problem, as it is a chaos monster. Casting mistakes like broken spikes can easily by justified or hidden (e.g. air bubble is a wound leaking with blood). What would happen though if I bought a slick eldar tank or elven mage? I guess I wouldn’t be too happy in such case. After checking quality of the cast I tried to fit few elements. There are several pieces with pegs or slots which should make assembly easy.

It should, but it doesn’t. Gaps between different parts are sometimes extremely wide. I wonder if deformations shown above contributed to this problem.

Man, you will need a lot of putty to fill these! Many companies already proved that you actually can cast a multi-part model which requires just a minimal amount of gap filling. GW, please, ask them how to do it or at least add some green stuff to every box!

The sculpt itself is nothing special. I usually like big monsters, and this one is no exception, but some of the painters may be looking for something more… sophisticated. On the other hand, it’s a model provided for gamers and it will sure look impressive on the gaming table.

Jabberslythe review: conclusion

So, do I recommend this model? Well, if you’re not a gamer, there are more interesting alternatives for your collection on the market. If you’re a gamer (with a WFB Beastmen army) you’ll probably get this one no matter what I’ve written here.

As a final word I’d like to repeat my request: GW, get to work and improve the quality!

— Nameless