Miniature Review - Forgeworld Event Only Enforcer

As anyone who is a regular at Games Workshop events and is a fan of Forgeworld miniatures will know, GW's resin specialists have, for the past few years now, released special "event only" miniatures on an annual basis.

Last year saw the event only Warhammer Forge Chaos Dwarf hero an Warhammer 40k Boarding Space Marine, while 2012 sees the Warhammer Forge Skin Wolf (Chaos) and Warhammer 40k Imperial Enforcer. It is the later of this years models which will be the focus of this review.

While I have yet to attend a GW event this year, I did manage to pick up one of the many event only models available on eBay. While you may find that you have to over-pay to pick one up, I got mine for £18 including postage - not too bad when you consider the model costs £12 new at an event (which would also have associated costs in attending).

First Thoughts

The first thing of note about this years event only models are that they come in a new packaging format for Forgeworld. It seems that the new Finecast style plastic blisters are also being used to package these figures. I'm not sure if this is something that is being rolled out across the Forgeworld range, but it is a bit of a welcome change.

Previously Forgeworld models came packaged in small jiffy bags - great for seeing the parts through because you could carefully manipulate the parts to see them from all sides, but they didn't offer any protection from breakages while transporting/storing. Not great for the often fragile, brittle parts typical of resin kits.

I knew the minute I saw the first pictures released of the Imperial Enforcer model that I would wind up purchasing one and on doing so, I was not disappointed. I have always had a preference for Imperial figures and a great fondness for anything related to Necromunda/Inquisitor - models that have a strong character in their own right without a supporting army. This guy definitely ticks that box.

Contents

So what do you get for your £12 (or £18 in my case)?

The model consists of 3 pieces. The enforcers body, head and a cyber mastiff.

Quality of Sculpts / Detail

As with most of Forgeworld's products, the sculpting quality on both miniatures in this set is top notch, full of crisp, intricate details. The enforcer's body has a number of small imperial icons and some finely detailed chain elements, including a pair of handcuffs.

I can't say I'm a big fan of the way the boots have been designed. The soles/heels look too tacked on to the rest of the boot, almost like an after-thought modification to "space" them up to look more 40k. A minor criticism though.

 
The head has a sullen eyed veteran appearance - a somewhat common trait of Forgeworld bare human heads. It actually reminds me a lot of Inquisitor Eisenhorn too and would be an ideal choice of head for such a conversion.

Finally, the cyber mastiff is a large, but exquisitely sculpted beast. The anatomy is very realistic looking, even for a cybernetically modified, gene-enhanced dog! The face is a pleasant change from the usual aggressive snarling that is common for most wargames miniature beasts and hounds. There is also some really nice detail for the cybernetic enhancements.

Pose

The posing of the model is more relaxed than the typical 40k miniature posing offered in GW's main ranges, yet still interesting and characterful. He has a sort of "investigative stride" look, with shock maul held low in his right hand and some sort of auspex/communicator device in his right.

The cyber mastiff's pose has a similar feel, as though master and beast are investigating some sort of incident. He also has a nice loping, single minded stride going on.

Casting Quality

This kit instantly ranks amongst the best quality of casting I have seen from Forgeworld. A few small mold lines, bits of flash and sprue vents, but nothing you wouldn't expect on any miniature. The details have all been cast fully and crisply, with no softening of detail that can sometimes be present in resin kits and which used to be a common issue with some Forgeworld kits in the past.

The worst area for mold lines appears to be the tops of the boots on the enforcer's body. This seems to be quite a common location for deep inset mold lines (as opposed to raised mold lines common on plastic kits), but nothing a little putty and sanding can't sort.

One thing I would say is that the miniatures feel very greasy all over, clearly having a goo coating of mold lubrication, meaning they will need a good wash and light scrub in some warm soapy water - something worth doing to all miniatures before applying paint, but particularly important on resin models.

Summary

Overall, this is a great kit. The models are nicely posed, work well together and are finely detailed and cast. As a personal opinion, there aren't enough of these "non-battlefield" miniatures that flesh out the background of the game and are a common focus of Black Library novels, making this a welcome addition to the GW range.

The only real criticism I have is the previously mentioned styling of the boots. A small criticism though of an otherwise brilliant kit.

If you plan on attending a GW event this year and you are a fan of both 40k and Imperial miniatures, then I strongly recommend taking the time to pick this kit up. If you don't intend to visit an event, then you could always do what I did and pick one up on eBay as there appears to always be plenty going.

Forgeworld Event Only Imperial Enforcer Reviewed by CMDante on June 1, 2012
Overall Rating: 4.5/ 5

Citadel Finecast Review

If you frequent any hobby forums (Warseer, Dakka Dakka etc), visit the GW website regularly/receive their newsletter/read White Dwarf, then you probably can't fail to have noticed all the talk about Games Workshop's new Citadel Finecast range.


Citadel Finecast - Summary

If you are wondering what Finecast is, then to summarise, Games Workshop have decided to move away from casting character figures, monsters and elite units in white metal, instead opting for a new resin hybrid - the Citadel Finecast range.

In the first wave, there are around 120 Citadel Finecast kits, cast using the new resin. These include a range of the most popular figures previously cast in white metal for most armies, along with all the new character and elites/monster releases. The word is, all new models which would have previously been cast in metal will now be cast in the Finecast resin and the change will also sweep back through "most" of the existing miniatures still cast in metal.

What I've heard is that, as a metal figures stock expires, the decision will be looked at whether to cast it in the new resin, or just continue to cast it in metal, though I suspect resin to be more likely.


First Look

Anyway, with all the hype about today's big release of the Citadel Finecast range, I decided to pop down to Games Workshop Glasgow to have a look for myself and pick up a figure to experiment on.


The fact that the new range is cast in resin excited me from the moment I first heard about it. As regular readers will probably already be aware, I hate working with metal miniatures. Resin offers excellent conversion potential to a range of miniatures I previously would never have considered due to being easy to cut, carve and clean compared to metal.

While in store, I was given a look at a range of the new Citadel Finecast kits, large and small, and I have to say - I was very impressed with what I saw. The details were crisp and sharp, there was little flash and what there was is easily removed and the figures were very light and resilient (Steve the manager dropped a LOTR elf with bow from about 2 feet onto the table and it simply bounced - the bow, which was very thin, didn't even bend or break).

Best of all, because the material is so light, large kits which were once a pain to assemble when cast in metal (such as the Nurgle Demon Prince and Shaggoth) are now extremely light and easy to put together. So much so that you could simply glue all the parts without pinning (though I probably still would just to be 100% cautious).


The Review

Anyway, as I mentioned, I decided to pick up one of the new Finecast figures to do some experimenting on. In the end I settled on the Dark Eldar Archon.


The first thing I will say is that I was impressed by the relative lack of flash on the sprues for the figure. Earlier in the week there was some serious "scare mongering" going on following a blog post on an early opening of the Grey Knight character Draigo which seemed to have a lot of excess flash and generate a lot of negative comments.

I looked at a couple of the Draigo blisters in store and a few did seem to have more flash than other kits, but I guess the advice is to look at what you are buying to make sure you get a good cast before you put your money down. I expect the casting quality to get much better now that the big push to get a worldwide release out has passed.


As you can see from the pics, the amount of flash on this particular figure is insignificant - a couple of thin filmy bits but nothing a quick trim wouldn't easily remove and certainly much quicker to clean than metal flash.

This figure comes on two small sprues, one for the body and right arm and one for the head options, shoulder spike and weapon arm.


The detail on both sprues has come out perfectly - no evidence of tearing, warping or air bubbles/detail not filling. The mould lines are also very small which is always welcome. I had seen some people commenting on forums that the Finecast range requires more vents to be cut in the mould, meaning more contact points for flash which would obscure details.


Honestly, on this model I don't see what all the panic was about. The flash is no more than was ever present on a metal model (excluding the spure of course) and the contact points between sprue and figure are very small and do not meet at any detail points.

Like all models, whether metal, resin or plastic, I think I will still be sanding most surfaces to get as smooth a finish as possible, but for the casual painter and those who game, I really think the Finecast range will be welcomed as an improvement over metal miniatures.

I know that personally, I am really looking forward to being able to use some new and existing sculpts for conversions and have already been eyeing up the current Citadel Finecast releases, identifying models with interesting "new" conversion potential!

Feel free to leave your own thoughts in the comments.

First and Only (Part II)

Since my original post on this I have spent a fair amount of time doing some research and amassing parts and ideas which have begun to find there way into my initial test model (shaping up to be Tanith scout Bonin) seen below.

As I wanted to keep my guardsmen to a realistic scale and proportions I've used Elysian guardsmen legs (from Forgeworld) as a base and sculpted the torso, neck and arms on top since there is a lack of pieces in the GW and Forgeworld ranges that fit with the look I'm going for for these. I have also removed the kneepads, thigh padding and harness straps from the legs and replaced them with a look more fitting with the Adrian Smith artwork I am using for inspiration.

There are still a lot of details to add, and this is obviously still very WIP, but I figured I would share it since I feel it is a sizeable step forward in the progress. Incase you are wondering about the pose - he's going to be moving silently to the edge of the wall he has his back to, weapon raised in his left arm ready to break cover and bring down the enemies of the Imperium.





More soon! Feel free to let me know what you think in the comments section.

Conflict Scotland 2010

Conflict Scotland 2010 was last Sunday and for the third straight year I was in attendance accompanied by my wonderful (and very supportive) girlfriend.

Taking place at Glasgow's Braehead arena (on a thawed out ice rink no less!), I have been to one good event (2008 - Jervis Johnson and Jez Goodwin in attendance) and one really poor one (2009 - No studio presence, terrible judging), so I wasn't sure what to expect this year.


2010 - A Good Year

Luckily, my fears for another poor year were unfounded as the organisers had taken on feedback from the previous year and greatly improved on what was on offer. This year's studio representatives were Giorgio Bassani and Graham McNeil, both of whom were surprisingly quiet for much of the day.

Seeing this was the case, I took the opportunity to pick Giorgio's brains on the art of miniature sculpting and he was kind enough to share some secrets about tools, techniques and materials for smoothing Green Stuff joins, but these will be discussed in future tutorials.


Giorgio's Sculpts

I also got to see some of Giorgio's trainee sculpts, all of which were fantastic (see the pics to truly understand what I mean!). Unfortunately he wasn't able to say whether or not any will be cast as there has been no mention of an intention to.





Golden Griffon 2010

The other main thing that I noticed that was greatly improved on last year was the Golden Griffon painting contest, my main reason for attending.

The previous year there had only been a handful of categories and a pretty low number of entries. This year however, the categories were much closer to those of Golden Demon UK (Fantasy single, Fantasy monster/regiment, 40k single, 40k regiment/monster, LOTR single, LOTR monster/regiment, Diorama, Youngbloods and Brotherhood of the Brush).

The Brotherhood of the Brush was a new one and the only category staff could enter. The unique thing was that everyone had to paint the same figure - the beastman character Ghorros Warhoof. As this was the only category staff could enter, I was expecting a big turnout and some good quality entries, therefore I spent the week running up to the event painting up my entry. I was a little disappointed though to see there were only 4 entries including my own...

My other entries were in 40k single and Fantasy single with my cadian veteran and Blood Bowl Griff Oberwald respectively.

In the end, I managed to win all three categories I entered which I was very pleased about! Below are a few (pretty poor - sorry, need to take some new ones!) pics of my entries.

Ghorros Warhoof - 1st Place Brotherhood of the Brush



Griff Oberwald - 1st Place Warhammer Fantasy Single and best Warhammer Overall




Cadian Veteran - 1st Place Warhammer 40k Single and best 40k Overall



All in all, it was an enjoyable event and I think I will definitely return next year. It was also great to get to speak with a few other painters, albeit briefly!