Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Pulp => Topic started by: The Bibliophile on September 24, 2016, 10:13:32 PM
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Seeking feedback...
I admit I'm a neophyte when it comes to wargaming and miniatures. I've recently picked up "Pulp Alley" and ordered about 150 miniatures from a half dozen different companies. Most look beautiful, but some received from Copplestone Casting seem to have an inordinate amount of "flash."
(http://i377.photobucket.com/albums/oo213/jvincentp/IMG_2455_zpsnhirge1w.jpg)
(http://i377.photobucket.com/albums/oo213/jvincentp/IMG_2469_zpsnqwu8rgc.jpg)
(http://i377.photobucket.com/albums/oo213/jvincentp/IMG_2434_zpsjfvdycnj.jpg)
From the Copplestone site:
(http://i377.photobucket.com/albums/oo213/jvincentp/img39_zpsgkuixcio.jpg)
Has anybody else had this issue? What does a person do in this situation? Clean it off the best one can? Ask for replacements?
Again, I'm a confessed newbie, but this seemed excessive for the cost of the figures and in comparison to the quality received from all of the other companies I ordered from.
Thanks for any feedback...
--Joe
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That's too much flash, you should get in touch with the seller and ask for new miniatures or a refund. The quality is really bad not what I expected from Copplestone.
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The amount of flash does indeed seem extraordinary. I ordered some gangsters from Copplestone two months ago and some of those figures also had quite a lot of flash and one lady's leg wasn't attached to her body (no break, but a casting fault), but not nearly as much as is present here. I chose to remove the flash (there is almost always some present on metal figures) and repair the leg.
Judging by the photos the flash on your figures should be removable as well. I doubt if Copplestone will take them back just because of flash, although it is hardly good advertising.
It pays to check whether the mold halves have aligned well so that the two halves of the figure fit together well. Misaligned figures should be replaced by the seller as these are clearly faulty castings.
It is a bother though. Not all companies cast their own figures and have to switch casters sometimes, resulting in some unpredictable quality issues.
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I have bought a number of times directly from Copplestone and have never had that level of flash problems with the figures. Actually the Copplestone figures are normally quite clean with little or no flash. It looks like you would be spending a lot of time cleaning these figures up to get them ready to paint. I also suggest you go back to the seller you got them from and ask to have the figures returned and replaced.
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Thanks for the responses. I ordered them directly from Copplestone (i.e., North Star Military Figures), so I guess I'll be getting in touch with them about this. Thanks for confirming my suspicion that this doesn't fall in the range of what's normally acceptable.
--Joe
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It has been a while but in the past I have bought a lot of figures from Mark. They were always very clean castings with minimal clean up required.
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Copplestone Castings has recently started to work with Northstar Miniatures for distribution and probably also casting. Think Northstar have their own inhouse caster(s) maybe that may explain the change in casting quality. Note maybe you just received a bad batch that slipped through their quality control. Just remembered this as it was announced a while ago.
Should add I have bought metal miniatures from Northstar quite a while ago and they were good quality without flash. Also received some of their metal miniatures for Frostgrave and those were also good quality with only some minor flash present.
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I've contacted North Star and sent them photos. I'll report back regarding their response when I get one.
Thanks!
--Joe
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Yeah, that's way more flash than I'm used to seeing from Copplestone. I hope the transfer to North Star doesn't mean a decrease in quality.
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Yeah, that's not an acceptable amount of flash, you should demand a refund.
I have a bunch of Copplestone stuff from before they got with North Star, and they've all had very little to no flash. On the other hand, I've had some issues with NS, like missing shields that never got supplied, flash and other casting flaws. So I'd write it down to them being honestly pretty sloppy.
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I have ordered a lot of copplestone figs and NEVER had any problem. In fact they were so clean I ordered more right off. I have to believe this is a slip up and copplestone will make it right.
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I have never had any flash when purchasing from Copplestone or recently from North Star. I have come to expect very clean minis from Copplestone and am quite surprised by your experience.
LB
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I have ordered a lot of copplestone figs and NEVER had any problem. In fact they were so clean I ordered more right off. I have to believe this is a slip up and copplestone will make it right.
+1
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I have never had a problem like that with Mark Copplestones' figures. I used to work in a Gaming shop and we ordered repeatedly from North Star and this range. Never saw this level of flash!
Maybe it was a worn mould or a loosely fitted one in the casting process that slipped through the net!
Personally I would just clean them up. But if you are new I understand your discomfort.
As has been said above though "Do the two halves of the mini actually line up along the flashline! That would be a big problem if they didn't!
Hope you get some replacements as Mark's minis are among the best!
:)
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Mr. Phipps,
For what it is worth, the miniatures I ordered from your "Pulp Alley" line were some of the cleanest castings of any I've ordered in my recent foray into this hobby. Thanks for the nice quality control, and fun sculpts!
--Joe
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Yes, Andrew's stuff for Pulp Alley are probably some of the best metal casts I ever saw. And +1 for the posts who never saw Copplestone castings with this much flash.
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I admit I'm a neophyte when it comes to wargaming and miniatures. I've recently picked up "Pulp Alley" and ordered about 150 miniatures from a half dozen different companies. Most look beautiful, but some received from Copplestone Casting seem to have an inordinate amount of "flash."
(http://i377.photobucket.com/albums/oo213/jvincentp/IMG_2455_zpsnhirge1w.jpg)
Has anybody else had this issue? What does a person do in this situation? Clean it off the best one can? Ask for replacements?
Again, I'm a confessed newbie, but this seemed excessive for the cost of the figures and in comparison to the quality received from all of the other companies I ordered from.
That is quite abnormal and very much unlike Copplestone. Are you sure they are not pirated recasts? Either that or Friday Afternoon Products.
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"Ere, I dunno what you lot 'r on about. Copplestone minis always got plenty o' flash!" ;) ;D
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That is quite abnormal and very much unlike Copplestone. Are you sure they are not pirated recasts? Either that or Friday Afternoon Products.
Well...unless Copplestone is somehow pirating its own product, I'd say yes, I'm sure. As I mentioned, I ordered these straight from Copplestone's website, which then created a shopping cart via North Star, who according to the message on the front page of the Copplestone site, is handling fulfillment for Copplestone (if not casting, too).
I guess I'm surprised because it seems like there were three opportunities to catch the issue: when these were cast, when they were being bagged in a ziploc, and then finally when they were being packed in my parcel. As everybody here probably knows, it's not a simple matter of cleaning flash, it's trying to file down the pronounced seam lines, too.
Anyway...hope to get an answer today. I'll post the resolution here (hopefully a happy one).
Thanks!
Joe
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My experience with Copplestone figures has been that they have been some of cleanest figures I have gotten. I'm with Hammers on this. If they were not in Copplestone packaging they might be pirated.
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Was the seller wearing a grubby raincoat and not much else?
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My experience with Copplestone figures has been that they have been some of cleanest figures I have gotten. I'm with Hammers on this. If they were not in Copplestone packaging they might be pirated.
Like you, I've always found Copplestone's to be some of the cleanest figures found anywhere. There's something very strange with those examples.
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We stock Copplestone Miniatures, we get them wholesale from North Star.
I've checked our racks. None have flash like that.
Copplestone Miniatures always come in blister packs, so if they are not in official blisters they could have been pirated.
The photos you have posted are dreadful. I have never seen anything from Copplestone / North Star that looks like that.
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I'll just add another voice in agreeance with everyone:
a) The condition of those minis is horrid. Nigh unforgivable, actually.
b) I have never had any problems with Copplestone figures.
Actually, the quality across the board with all the miniature purveyors I deal with has steadily improved over the years, and I honestly don't remember the last time I received something in that poor of condition.
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I promised to post a follow up: Nick at North Star contacted me, apologized, and agreed to send replacement figures.
I'm glad most everyone except a couple of us have not had problems with Copplestone in the past. My intention was never to besmirch any company, but rather to seek advice on what is an acceptable norm in this hobby that is new to me.
I do find it odd, however, that some people on this thread persistently questioned my claim as to who I had purchased these miniatures from. Short of posting an invoice or my correspondence from Nick, I'm not sure what else would clarify this. In the end, though, the whole matter is on its way to being resolved, and I look forward to receiving replacements that I can get painted and put into action in a game of "Pulp Alley" or "Strange Aeons" (another of my recent discoveries). I would order from Copplestone again, especially after hearing that my experience was mostly anomalous.
As to how miniatures are packaged, as I said in the original post, in my excitement about this new hobby I went a little overboard and bought about 150 miniatures from many different companies. The only ones that came to me in blister packs were Reaper, RAFM, and about half of my order of Artizan figures (the other half were loose in mini ziploc bags). My miniatures from "Pulp Alley" and Murch's "Pulp Figures" had a middle-ground approach of mini ziplocs but with a printed card keeping the bag rigid. The Blue Moon "Chaos In Carpathia" figures I bought came in a nice printed cardboard box with the minis wrapped in bubble wrap inside. The other manufacturers (Black Cat Bases, Copplestone, Brigade Models, and a couple of other I can't remember now) all sent their miniatures in unadorned ziploc bags. Surprisingly, about half of these folks didn't even include packing lists or invoices in the boxes.
Anyway...that's quite a detailed download of my experience. Again, I'm new to all of this, so maybe this is only of interest to me.
--Joe
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I had no doubt NorthStar would resolve this immediately. I've had nothing but great service from them.
This pack must've slipped through quality control, nothing else.
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Just to conclude with a happy ending, I received the replacement miniatures today, and they look great. See below:
(http://i377.photobucket.com/albums/oo213/jvincentp/74aab961-7a93-4379-8be1-b957f42a9e26_zpst1srttrf.jpg)
(http://i377.photobucket.com/albums/oo213/jvincentp/replacements_zpshevc8914.jpg)
All's well that ends well! My thanks to the good folks at North Star...
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All's well that ends well. Very good result and kudos to North Star.
Good after sales service really does make a difference in this small industry.
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Got a brand new, mint condition, never opened before box of North Star's A Fistful of Kung Fu models, and while the casting isn't quite as terrible as the ones you got, it's still subpar, with way more bent parts, flash and outright broken bits than what's normal for miniatures. I've has similar problems with their stuff before, so this really doesn't surprise me that much. They have some nice models, but their quality control is near nonexistent. I've bought from them about three times, and there's been casting errors every single time.