Just picked up a new WFB Vampire Counts Cairn Wraith because it'll make for a great Necron Lord substitute -- and I just wanted to post a quick review of it.
[U]The Cons[/U
Iit's plastic ... and very very minimal plastic at that. I realize it's supposed to be a ghost of sorts, and that I've been painting far too many burly orks lately, but I'm a little taken aback how little there is to this. It feels like it should be one mini on a sprue of 30 from Wargames Factory, and not from the GW I grew up with.
Following on that, it's very delicate. The scythe and the hands that attach to it are very very thin ... so the room for error (or for conversion that pin, for that matter) is pretty much nil.
The skulls are tiny ... little elfin children skulls that will be of little use elsewhere (and they give you three). This necessarily undercuts one of the central tenets of GW's success: the ability to swap WFB and 40K minis interchangeably.
The size of the wraith is smaller than what I've come to expect from GW's supersized 28mm ... as I say, it feels more like a 'life sized' 28mm from Wargames Factory. I can already tell it'll be too small to be a Necron Lord.
This is a fine mini, but not a $13 mini. Not for a piece of plastic. I get that they're trying to save money by switching away from metals, but we all know how cheap plastic is. After all, we all have loads of cheap plastic around our houses ... the very phrase 'cheap plastic' is what I can't escape. And yes, I know moulds cost money.
The Pros
It's a damned fine sculpt, no matter how much I might complain.
They give you three head options - one of which is full of Necron goodness.
They provide you with a textured base, which is a simple upgrade but one long overdue in infantry models (vice dreds and stegadons, and such).
They provide you with a full painted shot of the model on the cover - long overdue, and helpful in guiding my purchases (yes, this was something of an impulse buy).
Overall Value
I give it a C+. Great sculpt, great packaging but overpriced.