Concerning the new resin Mirkwood elf blisters, I was wondering if anyone who had bought them had noticed any problems with the casting or the model itself? How durable are the spears and bows? I know vault wardens spears sage a bit and I have seen some galathrim guard spears melt, has anyone seen any problems like that with new designs? Do the parts fit together well or do they need a lot of greenstuff to look nice? I was thinking about biting the bullet and final buy some but thought I should ask about quality first.

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"Draw your sword with a heavy heart, but swing it with a heavy hand"

The advantage of the glaives is that they can't bend all too much: they're supported by two hands, with only the blades extending. Those blades are pretty thin though; probably not the most durable things. On the other hand, e.g. the first Hobbit Thranduil has a very thick sword, at least these look better. The glaives, swords and bows likely still require some heating+bending, but they should be alright after that.

I only have two packs of the glaiveguys and a single kit of cavalry, and it's mainly that latter that has proven to be annoying. Loads of work to clean up, and parts don't fit particularly well either. The glaives only require a hand glued to one arm, and the other arm to be attached at the elbow, in a wide sleeve: not much room for major problems there.

I can't speak for the new Mirkwood Elves, but my experiences with Hobbit finecast haven't been at all positive. Of the three miniatures I've bought so far (the first Thranduil, Thror, and Young Balin), all have needed resculpting and patching, and the Balin I even returned as his face was completely messed up. Some finecast miniatures I've purchased have been successful though, including the High Elf Everqueen Handmaiden from Warhammer, which had almost no defects at all. I think it's essentially down to your luck in which blisters you buy. Some might have imperfections, some might be simply unacceptable, and others might be flawless.

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Wise Old Elf

I bought a lot of them, two warbands.

I had some problems with the wrist joining correctly on my glaive models, and GW replaced them with two whole new packets. So, don't be put off buying them, keep the receipt and if there's any problems, GW will help you out. Definitely keep buying models, it helps us all.