Just got the factory painted 'Conan the Brutal' statue, and while I hate to be 'that guy' I've gotta say I'm very disappointed with the paint application and general factory finish on it.
I'm by no means the pickiest guy in the world, believe it or not, especially compared to some collectors, and I've certainly been collecting for long enough to not expect miracles from factory paint ups, but I still expect better than what I received here with this statue today. Even rated against the lower end of factory finish standards, what I got doesn't really make the grade in my book.
Black paint drips from the hair on the skin, visible pinholes in the chest (!), hairs in the paint (!!), really substandard skin tone paints (this is hard to get past), minor paint bubbles, visible gaps in the seam on the shield arm (!!!), some sloppy line work, and haphazard paint on the small amount of finer detailing that was even bothered with. The colour of the broken pillar on the base is the sickly colour of a mouldy, uncooked sausage, and the rest of the base paints aren't much better, nor any better applied, either (though I could probably live with the underdone base paints if Conan himself had less issues). The odd issue here and there is one thing, it's pretty much expected these days, but in combination mine makes for quite a laundry list, unfortunately. *sigh*
Even worse (for me) is that, with shipping, I paid about a hundred dollars more for this by supporting Quarantine directly, than I
could have paid if I had gone through my usual online store that I get most of my non-exclusive statues from. My mistake, no one forced me to buy direct, but it's certainly not a mistake I'll ever make again. Nor does it help in making the myriad issues with the paint on the piece I received any easier to swallow.
If I ever do buy another Quarantine piece to begin with, that is. Especially seeing how I also purchased their first Conan (Sideshow exclusive version), which in my case had the single issue of having the sloppiest and messiest paint applications of any statue I had ever purchased (even the sideshow rep commented their surprise at how poor it was!). Others seemed to have gotten decently painted ones with that statue that they were happy with, so I just thought I was unlucky (and I well may have been), and as it was sold out through Sideshow, I couldn't try my luck again anyhow to find out. And so while I do believe in second chances and accounting for just plain bad luck, it's still pretty hard to justify giving this company a third chance at my money from here on out.
If I had painting skills, I'd be more open minded, because the sculpt work is top notch, and the statues are weighty and solid, all major plusses. But the factory painting these things seems to be just brutally dropping the ball on what otherwise is great work. And as a collector only, I imagine I'll be pretty damn gunshy from here on out as a result of that.
It's still a fantastic sculpt, absolutely full of character and presence, and that's what I'm desperately holding on to right now. It's also what makes all the paint issues so damn disappointing. But if you have the artistic talent (I don't), I'd suggest people buy the kit instead and paint their own. Or go in expecting that the factory statue will need some significant touching up to really do justice to the raw potential of this statue.
Unlike most people, I got a truly terribly painted 'gray zombie' looking Red Sonja a few weeks back as well, and now this. So it has not been a good month for me. And the two pieces combined has certainly put me at the lowest point I have felt in regards to continuing collecting in a great many years...
