Well said bart, I can kind of understand your frustration. However....
Today I went to my local GW store to pick up my order (weathertop aragorn, metal) and I had a talk to the staffers there about the new finecast range. Apparently it's a sort of resin/plastic hybrid, meaning that we still get the detail of resin, but none of its brittleness. The manager said that he was able to remove a mold line by simply scrapng it off with his fingernail. The other guy said that he once bumped a finecast model off the table onto the ground, and remained perfectly intact. The manager also cited a test that was conducted, whereby a model was
kicked across a room, and not a single piece was broken. Apparently the model actually bounced!
However, he mentioned that, the models being like resin, we must wear a face mask when filing or sanding them.
But they also said that the miniatures were a cinch to put together from the frame. No pinning, no greenstuff. Win
Of course, I'll be ordering them from my indie friend who usually gives about a 10% discount or more when I buy GW products...and he still has some decent second hand metal stuff I can pick up cheap
Seems to me that the new range isn't so bad after all. They probably talked it up a little bit, but I've found the guys there to be pretty honest
I suggested that an exemplar finecast model for LOTR would be elladan or elrohir, and the manager agreed, with the addition that the twins' detailed headbands would not slowly erode to a flat circlet like the metal ones tended to.
Cheer up people, they're not forcing you to buy them anyway...