Dark Eldar Grotesques Finecast Review - Number 2

Hi Folks, hope you had a great Christmas break.

Here is my second review of the GW Dark Eldar Grotesques in Finecast resin. As you can see in the picture above, I got some more. Now these were courtesy of the excellent GW customer service. I debated sending them a message but as a friend pointed out, if they don't know then they can't improve on it. Despite clearly stating that I made one great model out of three and only two had some problems the customer service people were kind enough to send three new models along with the rather funky Christmas card you can see above. Thumbs up.

Here you can see the contents of each clampack spread out. There are a couple of minor differences compared to the previous packages I got, which is nice.

Here is the first difference. Now the newer mould is on the left, the older on the right. Immediately I can see that there are cleaner lines and fewer vents for the resin. In particular I was happy that the two 'lamps' (?) sticking out of the back don't have vents on the top of the smooth surface now. That's a big improvement. You can also see a tweak in the attachment for the creepy little arm. I think it's now got a smaller connection point.

Similar story with the other pieces (newer left, older right). The mould design seems to have been cleaned up and simplified, which is good news. Overall I found it less work to tidy up and prepare the models for gluing. 

As far as the model quality goes, there are some similar issues. The bubbles are fewer but this batch all had a bubble in the upper calf of the back leg and a few other tiny bits. An improvement but not perfect. The overall quality of the models is higher, definitely, and I'm glad GW adjusted to improve. The waists suffer from the same problem as before in that none of them align to the body properly. I'm not sure if there is a design flaw or the resin just needs to be tweaked and bent some more. For me I'd rather throw some glue there then fill it with green stuff when I get time. It's easier and these models are suitably creepy and messy looking that my limited sculpting skills probably won't affect the final result once they're painted up.

My second conclusion is similar to my first. Great model concept and sculpt. Let down slightly by the material choice and issues with production quality BUT easier and better than the first time around. Credit where due to GW for making their models better over time as well as the consistently  excellent customer service. I may by moving away from them as a company for many things but their model quality and customer care is great.

All the best everyone,

Pete :-)