Casting Quality

33YearsGHQ · Post by **33YearsGHQ** » Tue Apr 17, 2018 5:24 am

We all know GHQ makes the finest military miniatures, but I have had a few issues on selected models recently. GHQ obviously takes care of their customers, but I have kind of given up on rebuilding my modern US armor forces because:
- I have purchased multiple HIMARS packs and the mold is clearly offset. No amount of cutting or sanding will fix it
- Same issue with the M1A2 Tusk and even the standard M1A1 and M1A2
- Same issue with the FMTV canvas tops
- Same issue with the M2A3 Bradley (though not as bad)
- The LPD New York had the same issue, but appears to be corrected now
- The CVN Roosevelt (I have purchased 6 recently) has been warped badly on a couple of them (the main hull).

Have any of you seen these same issues?

On the other hand, I have had nothing but nice casting on the multitude of US WWII armor I have purchased the past few months. And most other modern armor I have been purchasing has been very nice.

panzergator · Post by **panzergator** » Tue Apr 17, 2018 9:13 am

I suggest you let GHQ know by direct communication of your dissatisfaction. Take pics. Send them to GHQ. Return the pieces. THE is very good, but these things are too expensive to tolerate those flaws.

Brutzel · Post by **Brutzel** » Wed Apr 18, 2018 1:20 am

I have a large number of models of GHQ, but so far I have not been able to see any of the errors you've described.

I have sometimes missed some parts in a Combat Box and GHQ has sent the parts to me to Germany. I was surprised. A great customer service from GHQ.

Hoth_902 · Post by **Hoth_902** » Wed Apr 18, 2018 1:54 am

I have seen some of this. Most times I write it off. If you look at my T-55 Enigma's, you can see the mold was shifted Aft or FWD. The side armor does not line up. I let it slide.. I feel I can only be so Picky. GHQ has been really good with some of the imperfections I could not live with. Speaking of which, I need to contact them on a Bradley that has a hole in it. Over all, great product that I can barely complain about.

BurtWolf · Post by **BurtWolf** » Wed Apr 18, 2018 2:41 am

I have found some trucks (Lancia - ww2) that donâ€™t fit right, but that varied from pack to pack of them. Short of some flashing issues I could handle or overlook, my ww2 orders have come out nicely. The quality is amazing by and large.

33YearsGHQ · Post by **33YearsGHQ** » Wed Apr 18, 2018 6:51 am

I am definitely NOT complaining about GHQ's overall quality. I have purchased many thousands of GHQ miniatures over the years and 99+% have been flawless. I am just curious to see if others have experienced the same issues on the same types of models. I am thinking that modern blocky shapes are more difficult to make molds for and cast. GHQ always takes care of the customer, but I just don't want to complain about something that is difficult to control.

Begemot · Post by **Begemot** » Fri Apr 20, 2018 1:32 am

I'm glad this issue has been brought up to the forum community. While the overall quality of castings is good, there seems to be a trend to a lessening of quality, which suggests a lack of attention being paid by the casters or quality control people. An example: when I got a pack of the Panther Gs w/ side skirts shortly after this model was released I was surprised to find the area around the exhausts filled up with lots of 'mud', those blobby chunks of material we find, usually around the road wheels. This, of course, obscured the detail of this area on the model. As this was a new model, with new molds, I was puzzled as to why this should be. Were the molds bad? Another recent purchase brought some American WW2 trucks with their running boards with holes. Either insufficient metal was injected or the air wasn't being properly vented from the molds during casting. But the real question is why did this poor casting make it past the quality control checks and get to the customer? Another casting problem is that of slippage of the mold joins, the result being part of the model is offset by a half a millimeter from the rest of the model. Sometimes this is slight enough you can scrape or file it down, but sometimes it's not. When I recently got to a pack of Microarmor that I had purchased by in the late '80s and was prepping them for painting I was pleased at how little cleanup was required. This, sadly, reinforced my sense that this is an area where there has been some slippage in attention.

Quality is what GHQ is ultimately selling. Don't let that slip away.

Hoth_902 · Post by **Hoth_902** » Fri Apr 20, 2018 2:05 am

Agreed, they are selling quality as there primary product. They should hold onto that, its the only way I can justify the price of there pieces.

I recently purchased a Bradley and there was a hole near the drivers hatch. It was really small and hard to see. I have not wrote GHQ but I plan to tonight.

nashorn88 · Post by **nashorn88** » Fri Apr 20, 2018 5:49 am

33YearsGHQ wrote:We all know GHQ makes the finest military miniatures, but I have had a few issues on selected models recently. GHQ obviously takes care of their customers, but I have kind of given up on rebuilding my modern US armor forces because:
- I have purchased multiple HIMARS packs and the mold is clearly offset. No amount of cutting or sanding will fix it
- Same issue with the M1A2 Tusk and even the standard M1A1 and M1A2
- Same issue with the FMTV canvas tops
- Same issue with the M2A3 Bradley (though not as bad)
- The LPD New York had the same issue, but appears to be corrected now
- The CVN Roosevelt (I have purchased 6 recently) has been warped badly on a couple of them (the main hull).

Have any of you seen these same issues?
Yes , I have a few CVN that has the same problem but I just played with them until I was able to it as flat as possible.
I did and still have about 100 panther tank turrets that are off a bit but that happen over 10 years ago and the person I spoke with didn't want to replace them and said that's within tolerance.

Hoth_902 · Post by **Hoth_902** » Fri Apr 20, 2018 8:04 am

nashorn88

Standard M1A2 - CHECK
FMTV canvas tops and cab- CHECK
M2A3 Bradley- CHECK

Now that you mentioned those specific vehicles, I see what you are saying. At first I thought it was flash, but now I realized it is clearly a mold mismatch. Thinking about other models, I have seen this a lot with some of the older molds.

panzergator · Post by **panzergator** » Fri Apr 20, 2018 6:34 pm

Given what I am accustomed to from GHQ, there is no obvious mold mismatch that I would accept as "within tolerance." In scale, that makes 6 inches to a foot! Sorry, that isn't acceptable. I would send it back. We pay too much to accept that kind of nonsense.

Casting Quality

Casting Quality

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