Barker Zosa - Assembly

Here's the run through for Barker. The parts go together in a very straightforward way, and the only tricky thing is deciding which weapon to give him. We only have one studio version painted, so I have inserted a pin for the Plasma thrower (it's a tight fit in the hole so stays on okay), and if I want to use the  Fusion lance I pop a little piece of blu-tac in the join - it's worked fine in games so far. People have suggested using magnets to attach the weapons, and that sounds like a great idea - I must give it a try.

Here are the parts in the bag -

And here are the stage-by-stage photos for the assembly -

That's it for the figures that come in Bag 1.

mike

Hurley - Assembly

Here is the run-through for Hurley. This is a very straightforward one to put together, and it's pretty clear where the different parts go. The only tricky thing is the base - there is a re-enforced hole in the middle of the base for the post, and this need to be cut out.

The best thing to do here is to use a sharp craft-knife blade and twist if through from the back of the base. Once the point is through - flip the base over and cut from the top surface. Please take care when you are doing this - always cut away from your fingers and work on a cutting mat if possible.

Here are the components for the miniature. There are four pieces plus the base - main hull, turret, aerial and post.

Here are the stage by stage photos of the assembly -

Grendlr - Assembly

I thought I would skip ahead a little on the assembly and have a look at The Grendlr, as some questions have been raised about the fit between the pieces. After a quick dry fit of the parts (just holding them together to see how they look) - it became very obvious that the fit between the two body halves and the mouth piece is pretty poor. I'm not entirely sure what has caused this - the samples I received earlier in the production process were far better. I can only assume that there was either some warping when the parts are removed from the mould - or they have been subject to differences in temperature during shipping (the games are transported in containers that have no temperature control). Either way, I have to be honest and say I'm disappointed, and apologise if that's the way you feel when seeing the miniature.

However... I have just spent the last hour putting the Grendlr together (and that was cleaning the mould lines, shooting a short video and assembling the whole thing, while taking pictures along the way), and I'm far happier now. There is a very simple technique that can be used to get a very accurate fit between the parts - it takes no practice, and the results are really, really good. I have never done this before, so I'm as new to it as you are. We shot a short video of the process - apologies for the quality, but hopefully you can see what I'm doing. We'll try and find the time to shoot a better one soon.

All you have to do, is put the parts you are assembling in very hot water for around 20 seconds (I heated water in a kettle, and turned it off just before boiling) - and while they are still hot, firmly press them together. I was really pretty astounded at how well this works - I did it with the two body halves, and the fit was great. I then glued the body together, and did the same with the mouth-piece - I put it in hot water (not the glued body though), and pressed it onto the body.

You obviously have to be careful with the water - I used a pair of pliers to remove the pieces from the bowl, but when I handled them (pretty much immediately), they were only warm. Nowhere near hot enough to burn you.

All of the other parts fitted very well - the exception being the head, which needed the location lugs trimming to get an accurate fit. I presume this is because the body parts have changed shape very slightly with the technique above.

Overall I am really happy with the Grendlr - I started this morning a little depressed about how poorly the body pieces fitted, but I now have the assembled miniature in front of me, and it looks fantastic. In all honesty I'd take this over a metal version any day of the week, and it's not far behind the resin castings.

Here's the stage-by-stage -

The fist thing to do was to clean the injection marks and mould lines from the parts. The mould lines were actually very light on this miniature, so that was a quick process. Just make sure you have a brand new blade in your craft knife - it makes it far easier and the results better.

The next step was to fit the two body halves together - and as mentioned above, I improved the fit dramatically with the hot water technique, so much that there was no gap at all along the spine and across the belly. There was still a slight gap where the mouth was going to fit, but I knew that was going to be completely covered.

The next part to fit was the mouth piece - and this was the only other part that I did the hot-water method on. I also removed the fitting lugs between the body and mouth part, as this made it easier to get a good fit. They were very simple to cut away with a sharp blade.

Next was the head - and again, I cut away the fitting lugs on the back to give a more accurate fit with the body.

Once the head was in place, it was simply a case of gluing the rest of the parts in place, one by one. There are fitting lugs for the legs and arms and they ensure you get a good fit between the Grendlr and it's base - so all three limbs contact the ground solidly. Here are the photos of the rest of the parts going on -

And here are a couple of different views of the finished piece. I know it's just a little more work than is ideal, but I think that is more than offset by the miniature itself - I really think it looks fantastic. It was always ambitious to put such a large piece in the game, but I'm really glad we did.

mike

BfA - Bag 3 contents

This bag contains the phase four and five Strain creatures.

1 - Grendlr (complete). Left body half, right body half, mouth, head, tail, tongue, left arm, right arm, left leg, right leg, left and right tendrils.
2 - Cthonian (complete). Body, right leg, left leg, right arm, left arm, optional face plate.

mike

BFA - Bag 2 contents

Here are the complete contents of bag 2. This one contains the phase three Strain, two Samaritan Reavers and quite a few weapons for the female Samaritans.

Scythe Witch x2 (complete)
Brimstone x2 (complete)
Samaritan Reaver x2 (complete)
Las Carbines for female Samaritans (bodies in bag 4) x6
Grenade launcher x2
Lancer special weapon x2

mike

Kara Black - Assembly

Next up is the leader of the Vanguard force on the Alabaster Station mission - Capt. Kara Black.

Kara comes in four pieces plus the base - Body, right arm with gun, left arm with sword, scabbard.

The assembly is extremely straight-forward - the gun is a very secure fit, contacting the model on the back (with a location lug) as well as the shoulder. The sword can be positioned in a few different ways, to give some variation from the studio version shown in the game. The scabbard is a simple plug-fit piece.

Here are the stage by stage photos  -

Cheers

mike

Akosha Nama - Assembly

The next miniature we are going to look at is another Vanguard character from bag 1 - Akosha Nama.

There are five for this miniature - Body, left leg, head, right arm and gun.

The process is just the same as outlined in the Morgan Vade article - clean the components first, then assemble them one at a time, being careful to let the glue dry before moving on to the next. The only difference with this miniature, is the leg needs to be attached to the body before the body can be glued to the base.

The leg, arm and head are all plug in pieces - so very easy to assemble. The gun is a little more tricky as there are no locating pegs (the pieces are too small) but the fit is accurate with the arms. It will help the gluing process if you carefully remove a little of the surfaces to be joined with a sharp blade or emery board - that gives a stronger join.

Stage by stage photos below.

cheers!

mike