Forgeworld/Game Workshop "Made in China" review #2

I posted a review a few months ago about my first ever purchase of Forgeworld's copy from china. It was plague toad, basically, a big blob of finecast from nurgle. It was pretty hard to fail copying that. For the price i paid, i was very happy, and they served as a count as for my beast of nurgle, which models is old, ugly, and frankly outdated. Since then, the market for copy grew, and it is now easier than ever to find copy of just about anything, even Witch Elves! (when i take the witch elves for example, its simply to show how they can get filmsy detailed model copied now!)

When i started my Warrior of Chaos army, i didn't really consider china copy, because everything was easily available online (at already 25% off), and i'm not a big fan of failed copy. In the end, i did place an order, kinda to test the water to see how their copy do vs the real stuff. My order was ;

Chaos Lord
Nurgle Chaos Lord
Forgeworld Merwyrm
Hell Cannon
Sayl and his spawn.




First thing i noticed, is that pretty much all small models came out great. The resin is VERY brittle, but you can work with it, as long as you are very careful. Forget about bent piece tho, you'll never get anything straight, no matter how much hot water you pour on it (i actually didnt try straight into boiling water, too hazardous for me). Sayl had that problem with his staff, and no matter how i tried, it never straightened up.

I was lucky tho, because the staff rested on his foot, so even if it was bent out of shape, once glued, nobody could notice!

The remaining of the detail were pretty much flawless, but with so little number of piece (Body, head and 2 arms, thats it), it was hard to have gap anywhere.... it was another story for his spawn tho ...

Pretty much all his legs/arms had a 1 mm gap somewhere. Nothing that can't be fixed, but i'm not sure forgeworld original face the same problem. Another thing, as you can see, it does not sit flat on the base, and since the resin can't be bent in any way, there's nothing i can do about it except force it into shape once i glue it to the base.

Next up was the Nurle Chaos Lord. Again, a pretty simple model, that came i believe under 10$.

It fit just right, and despite the different color in resin, its the same brittle stuff. I did break pretty much instantly one of his horn on his shoulderpad, and i'm pretty sure his axe won't survive much playing before breaking as well, which brings me to a realization ; if they use the same resin for small model like Witch elves, its got to be near impossible not to break them all the time...

Last one, one of my favourite "new" model, the Chaos Lord, Mister "everyone play me as a BSB!"

Sorry for the lack of "before conversion", but it gives a good idea of the model. This one was flawless, and everything fits smoothly like the real deal.

After these models, i was pretty much in heaven. Something that should have cost me over 80$, cost me under 40$... In the end, if online market were still available with real stuff, i think i would have purchased them instead, a 30%+ rebate over the real price, when its real model, is much better than 50% with reproduction....

But still, there was 2 more model on the table for me to build, the Merwyrm and the Hell Cannon...

The first thing i noticed, was that all model were provided with bases, which was a nice touch. But when i opened the last two bags, and noticed they were carrying chariot base, i knew it wasn't a good sign...

Maybe its the lack of instruction, or maybe its just that the resin is so stiff (and so brittle) that you can't bend it at all, but almost nothing fit on that models. I even had a 6-7 mm gap on his tail that i had to greenstuff..

The detail are near perfect, everything is crisp, but it fits so badly... and the wreck he's holding on to is so thin, i can see through basically everywhere on the model...

Since its a model that nasically has no use outside looking good, i'm not too worried, but still very dissapointed in the whole thing.

With that dissapointment in mind, i moved onto the next one, the hell cannon, without instruction! (thank god, they are easy enough to find).

On this picture, it almost look perfect. There's very little gigantic gap, and everything look relatively straight. Another thing that is important to know, is that this type of resin is VERY hard to glue, no matter what glue you use. I glued some forgeworld for my Grey Knight army, and it was nothing compared to this. I had to keep it in place for 5 minutes with pliers before the cannon would stick together, because it was so bent, i just couldnt just let it sit on its own.

Outside of that, the detail on each piece was again pretty damn impressive, if we forget about all the little thing that broke in the transport. (i think i can blame Post Canada on that).

But don't be fooled, there was gap. Pretty big one actually. I cleaned up, and tried to straighten it up as best as i could, but there was no way these two piece were made to fit. With real FW or GW resin, i could just push it together and it would bond and be done with it. Not this one.

This one isnt so bad, but its still far from perfect, and especially, it need immediate work,otherwise its the front that will look bad...

Lastly, the crewmembers...

The perfect example of crisp details. Everything is perfect on these 3 dudes, which make me believe an army of Chaos Dwarf is entirely possible from these guys.


In the end, am i happy with the order? i think so. I paid 140$ for everything, which basically is the price for everything minus the Merwyrm.

I had, at some point, considered starting a Lizard army full of monster, and ordering every monster from China. With the result i see on these current big pieces, i'm not sure i'd risk my money on them, even if a carnosaur is roughly 60% cheaper...