Have you seen mold slips, holes and bubbles like those on the Vostok in the videos below in pewter CB products? Would you consider them the current norm? Because with the hundreds, even up to a thousand CB minis that went through my hands, I haven't. #1 https://www.facebook.com/groups/WGCInfinity/posts/4335218503168120/ #2 Examples from 2nd vid: slip holes, poor cast slip slip along the whole line, not a mold line, also weird flash or lack of definition of the hole in the rear fuselage slip in the "jaw", melted/bubbled side of the "neck" notice how on the other side the same hex shaped detail is not "melted", even though poorly defined excessive flash and poor edge definition in the same port hole on the other side air bubbles, poor cast again not to be completely negative, I really like the definition and sharpness of the detail where the casting process worked properly, like here: All in all, I like the general idea, but I do not currently think the process is mature enough for the detail and expectations the customer base has of Infinity miniature quality. Introducing Siocast seems to be a severe decrease in overall quality of several very popular model classes - TAG, Beast, REM - in comparison to the spincast pewter process CB have down pat. We're going from best metal models in the world to "the same poor Siocast everyone else can use". Maybe it can be further adjusted to avoid those issues, but for the time being I do not feel like being the guinea pig and will refrain from purchase of Siocast models until they cease showing those issues.
What you're calling a bubble is actually sculpted into the miniature, unless everyone else has the same bubble, and on both sides of the clip in the same spot... As far as a little extra pewter in holes for tabs? Pretty much all the time. I'm not sure about the "melted" bit, it's hard to tell with video capture images, but on my mini it's not particularly well defined on either side. The slips you are showing look like mold lines to me, and don't seem more extreme than I've also had before. I had mold lines that looked pretty similar at certain angles on mine too, which were trivial to clean up. Overall, I found that there was a little more fine clean up than pewters, but the clean up was easier. Less scraping away detail to clean a mold line, and more carefully cutting off and sanding mold lines or flash. Like I said before, I didn't find it better than pewter, but I think it's an acceptable alternative. Being different, I expect people to whine about anything that's new and scary. One way that it is VASTLY superior to pewter though... no more pinning. It holds super glue like a champ.
Yeah.. for once I’m with Nuada on this one. I don’t find the plastic models appealing due to the same reasons on Nuada’s post above and the defence for it seems to be a soft form of denial. This will make me hesitant on buying any models of siocast before I see it for myself and I especially don’t see myself investing in a KS-project where I’m basically gonna be put in a position hoping my product will be of decent quality when I receive it after 12+ months of waiting.
Of all of the issues, the only ones that really concern me are the ragged holes on both sides. This looks almost like flow freeze, as if the mold gating and flow path was not optimized correctly. There also appears to be slight mold misalignment in a few of the shots as well. I anticipate that this kind of issue will be prevalent in the 1st gen of molded plastics, but hopefully CB implements a stricter QC policy on the initial production to catch these kind of issues and then learns how to refine their mold designs for the next generation.
From what I can tell, he doesn't have it in-hand, and I don't speak Spanish so can't understand the interpretation of the video. I'd be skeptical by those photos, out of context as well, but thankfully I have my own copy in hand. I'm curious what the poster of the video has to say about it after clean up and assembly. Someone thought I had mold slip in some of my photos, but it was the angle of the light making a mold line appear more substantial than it was. I'm happy to share my experiences, but if the minor issues I've experienced with the Vostok I received are a deal breaker, then I've got piles of pewter minis that would have made you quit ages ago... To me, they feel more like when a bit of the silicon mold has come off in an undercut, something very common on the pewter minis, especially in the post holes where pieces attach.
@TheDiceAbide Saying something isn’t so bad because other things are worse is not really a good defence of anything, really. As I said, I’ll wait for it and see it in physical form before deciding to buy.
This looks like it retains the level of detail that CB are trying for. And if cleaning them up isn't any harder than metal and other plastics than its just par for the course really. Its clear they're looking at the alternative because metal prices, so its not an ideal situation. I'd bet my entire infinity collection if this announcement was a 10-20% price increase there would be people pissing and moaning even more (and potentially the same people).
If that was a completely new process I'd probably agree, but aside from it being new to CB, they have the support and know-how from years of experience of Siocast themselves, right? What do you think about the "melted hexes" example? I've seen that on all three separate Vostok pieces shown to us so far. My concern is that we're gonna be doing the "QC" by the usual dint of "it's only not good enough if the customer bothers to return it" in such cases. Not sure I signed up to have the first generation tested on me :P
Click on the image to enlarge it and then compare the detail shots. Metal, I will assume the bubbles are just crap primer. Take a look at the amount of definition of the hexes, the area and separation line under them, the detail and definition in the area around the "mouth / chin". and plastic, compare now the same areas where the separation line is gone, definition of hexes is much worse, separation on the chin is gone as well - this is evident in both of the videos as well, so it's not a case of overpriming.
I think that is a very reasonable approach... Much more reasonable than looking at other people's photos and hunting for nitpick issues that would have been excusable if nothing changed, and not trying it for yourself, lol.
I think at this point we need to petition CB to send Muad'dib a Vostok and to kindly ask him to say a few words about it, when he receives it. Also in case someone is wondering why CB is making this move now - https://tradingeconomics.com/commodity/tin
I can barely understand to which point I should "shiver in fear". If I want to legitimately criticize about the lack of quality, I would choose to wait until I get the actual product, rather than being a drama queen. Continuously expresssing your own intense and subjective feelings, makes you seem like you're indirectly asking for an agreement from the crowd, and trying to form a political consensus. I wouldn't call that being critical, it's rather excessive. In conclusion: We can wait.
Seeing the images (which i find a terrible cast, and those moldlines, gosh...), resin was not conceivable at some point? If the bear is in the same material, i'm absolutely not going to enjoy cleaning the model.
Ah, yes. The obvious faults in casting do not exist until my own piece also has them. Of course. Quality issues will always be subjective in what's acceptable for one person and isn't for the other. People bought Finecast for how long, after all. I'd absolutely love that.
I was expecting fewer mold lines, but I might've dialed expectations too high. It'll be interesting to see the final products once CB releases a plastic miniature I'd care to purchase - both how the actual production line casts the shapes and how the packaging process and cleaning up handles it. It's important to remember that even the hobby's gold standard for plastic miniature production quality (like it or not, that GW plastic) does have mold lines and even sometimes slightly misaligned upper and lower halves. The words "captive audience" comes to mind. Even the most die-hard fans tend to be critical of Finecast, and they have no alternatives if they want to collect them all.
I've been wondering about that ever since the first drone redesign that ditched integrated guns in favor of models used by infantry. Especially since we've already got stuff like assault rifle drum magazines IRL.
