It's been said elsewhere on the internet that Forge World's quality is improving of late, and this can only be a good thing. Don't get me wrong, FW products are proper adult space toys in my opinion. The crispness and level of detail is so far beyond standard GW fare that the higher cost is justifiable in my opinion. I don't get much painting time these days so I'd rather spend the same amount of money on fewer, better quality products.
However, grown up toys need grown up prep before you can start painting. In the past it's not just been a case of removing a few mould lines and a bit of flashing with these bad boys. More often than not you are greeted with warped resin that needs heating and bending, mould release agent that needs soaking and scrubbing, and only then can you start removing the flashing, green-stuffing the bubble holes and straightening misaligned details.
As a busy Dad, that's quite a number of my hobby time slots taken up before I actually get to stick my toys together and paint them.
The results are, more often than not, worth the effort, but 'effort' is the optimum word there.
But alas, there appears to be light at the end of this long tunnel. It seems, with the Horus Heresy increasing in popularity and more and more customers of all skill levels buying the big boy toys (they should have an age appropriate rating on the packet perhaps... 25yrs+ haha), FW needed to improve the user-friendliness of their products.
So, myself (Dave) and Dad Rich have recently brought items to see what has changed with our own eyes.
I got some new Mk2 tactical marines (My purchases of late have been frugal, I am saving my money for new Space Wolves when they finally arrive...) and was pleasantly surprised. I've taken some comparison pictures below:
The details are crisper, there's no, or at least minimal mould lines and most of all, the thickness of the shoulder pad rims is much better. This last issue has been a large issue on Mk2 and Mk3 marines in my experience. There never seems to be enough resin material in the rims and a good number of shoulder pads end up unusable because blow holes are prevalent. Another area where this happens is the collars on the torsos, another thin section that doesn't have enough material injected in the mould some times.
So, certainly in this latest batch of minis, it seems the quality has indeed improved. I would have brought them anyway but at least there's not one less thing for me to moan about. Thanks Forge World!
Dave
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