nitroglysarine:
It's been that way for ages, as far as I know. They make a number of resin masters from the green (because the metal casting process destroys the original) in case something goes awry. The 'Eavy Metal team then gets one of those to paint and that's the one that appears on the website, in the Armies books, White Dwarf, etc. It has the added advantage of being a better quality figure too.So yet another way that it could be cheaper for GW (by removing a stage from the process).
Citadel Finecast is just those small run of masters being produced en masse and sold.
Thommy H
It makes sense now tbh, the models on the box always looked better than how I painted them (or now I can use that as a excuse for my old models ;P )