They're here! I preordered them two weeks ago, but wasn't able to pick them up till today. My wife and I just finished moving, so the next week will be unpacking, and then what renovation is left. It's be a crazy two months, and I haven't been able to hit the tables very much at all. It was a nice break then today when I got the chance to put together these guys.
There's been some bad rep on these dudes as far as the models go. I'm not a huge worryer when it comes to flashing and sculpts. The only models I worry about that on are usually casters or models I want to put into a painting competition, like the Mt. King or Janissa. So I've got a ton of pictures, and some heads up for the assembly. Let's roll through them.
This box is packed.
Seems like all of the bodies are in the first bag here, and arms/heads/most bits in the other.
Right off the bat, I love these torsos. These look fantastic. I don't see a whole lot of flash issues outside of what's there for the slot on the base. There's a few exceptions, but these really don't look bad.
There's a little bit on the sash for this one that's kind of rough. The next one is by far the worse on the bodies.
For starters, the leg nearest the camera sucks, but the worse part is the kilt right in front. That seam runs across the flat of the cloth, and has nearly no access it. A sanding stick is pretty much your only option for that area.
All your bodies here. Three main sculpts and the leader. One of the clothes goes to the Leader, and the other three go to the sculpts at the top. There's also three little kneepads that I've already glued in this picture, and they go to the same upper three models.
And pandora's box. This is a lot of pieces for a PP kit. I haven't seen this many bits since I played Space Marines, but it's not nearly that bad. All told, I think there's 81 pieces in the box not counting bases. That's a lot compared to say, the Fenns. This is also where the worse flashing is. You'll see that there's two holsters and a bandolier for each model as well.
All of the arms have that seam, and that same port spot on the upper side of the shoulder where the resin came in. Kind of a pain, but meh. The worse ones are the dudes with hankerchiefs. The seams run up either side of the face and are pretty evident. The hats also have a port in the side that doesn't come out very well. It's pretty much going to be a notch in the hat no matter what.
So now, trying to put pieces together. For the three standing straight up male sculpts, you'll need the hats, the heads with pegs on top, and the arms with sleeves all the way down to the gloves. That's the first sculpt.
The lady sculpt is pretty simple. The female head, bodie, and the skinny armys with no gloves, some wrist wraps and a patch on the elbows.
The third sculpt is the dude ducking down for cover. It comes with four sets of arms and four heads. Two sets are rolled up sleeves, the other two are bare arms completely. The heads are the two with hoods and the two males with the bandanas.
The right bare arm for this sculpt specifically. These arms all have a visible port that doesn't hide very well against the model, as seen below. You also get to see that seam again.
Last, but most certainly not least, the leader. This is a beautiful model, lots of detail, exquisite cloak. I really like how this one turned out.
You can see this is where his cloak covers. It's sculpted as well, allowing you do use a different head for your leader and ignore the cloak altogether if you so choose. A nice motion from PPress.
Then we have this. Ten bandoliers and twenty holsters (ten right, ten left). Each set of ten is identical, and the bandoliers are all flat. You will either have to warm them up and bend them to the curvature of the figure, or just bend them by force. I chose the latter.
Assembling them was kind of a pain. Everything really went together pretty well though. The holsters were what got my fingers glued together, but they turned out ok. The biggest complaint I had was on the male sculpt with a cowboy, the way the arm sockets are constructed you don't have a choice but to do the gun up in the air stance. I think this model specifically would look pretty slick hip shooting, but he's got the celebratory firing guns heavenwards stance instead.
Overall impressions are that these sculpts are awesome. The biggest complaints are:
1. The hooded head flash lines on either side of the face.
2. The flash line right in the middle of the kilt on the first male model sculpt.
3. Little to no pose options on the arm sockets. Since these guys aren't holding two handed weapons, I think they could have given us a lot more headroom to pose these armsockets how we wanted, but unless you've got grey stuff handy, you're stuck with what you got.
4. The little bandolier and holster pieces. The holsters I think I get, they wouldn't have come out of a mold very well. The bandolier I don't understand, and I think it's an unnecessarily small piece to fight with.
Positive comments:
1. Going to say it again. Beautiful sculpts. Lots of crisp detail for resin. Lots of straps, ropes, flowing kilts, and a fantastic leader model.
2. Female sculpt. I personally don't buy all of the "pp is being sexist" crap I see on the forums, but it's still kinda cool to see a female sculpt in some of these models.
I got everything assembled, but not based. I'll base them later. For now, the sculpts are assembled and below.
Male Sculpt 1:
Male Sculpt 2:
Leader Sculpt with Bouncer for comparison:
Group Shot:
Overall, I'm super excited for this unit, both for their rules and their models, and I'm really looking forward to getting them on the table proper. Hopefully this post has given you a glimpse of what you've got coming when you pick up a box or two of these guys.
Otherwise, I'm moving into my house. I have these guys to paint up, and I've bought a Bouncer, a Winter Troll, and Borka2 (Thank you miniaturemarket), both beasts for him specifically. Although Calandra can use the winter troll. Borka2 is going to get a grizzly bear mod I hope, and I'm going to sculpt a bit on the winter troll too, having seen someone else mess with theirs to good return. But that's all happening after I get settled into the house, which will be a few weeks yet. Looking forward to it. Enjoy your holidays!
No comments:
Post a Comment