First crack at model work

So this past weekend I got the miniatures cracked out and did a bit of filing and cutting on them to make sure the pieces and parts fit together relatively well, trimmed off the sprue fragments and venting spikes, and so forth. Didn’t do much in the way of sanding, and I was planning on cleaning the mini’s AFTER assembly, not before. Further reading indicates that was probably backwards - since now I have a little bit of talc paste mixed in with my super glue.

Last night was the crack at assembly. I got both Argus' put together - they came in five pieces - two body halves, two heads, and the tail. Tail was easy, body will take some work (need to fill in the more obvious cracks with green stuff) and the heads, well, they were just smooth metal on metal. As an experiment I let one set up for a few minutes and then tried to snap it back off - it came off pretty easily, and I was afraid I’d be learning pinning faster than I had originally intended. However, I let another head set for over an hour . . and I couldn’t break it off. It was stuck hard enough I would have had to really risk breaking off two heads at once or actually bring in some tools/floor drops to get it to budge, so this was of some comfort, obviously.

The Warpwolf comes in five pieces also (two arms, torso, legs, tail), PLUS no less than 12 tiny spikes, six of which go along the spine and 3 on each shoulder. I didn’t get around to the spikes last night - most of the challenge was that torso to pelvis join that, in the long run, I should probably pin, but last night I just held it together for a good five minutes to get the glue to set. Seemed pretty stable this morning, we’ll see how it holds up once I start playing with it.

Kaya on the other hand - egads, what a bitch. Only three pieces - but her left arm requires a join at that tiny elbow - was a little tiny nub and a little tiny dent for it to fit into. Absolutely zero structural integrity at all, and I could not get just the right amount of glue nor hold it just perfectly still enough to ever set firm. Similarly for her right arm - even though I was able to get it into place the glue wasn’t cooperating. I suspect I had just gotten too much there - when the nozzle of the glue bottle is BIGGER than the small area of metal you want to join, well. One huge mess after another. Fortunately, I was wearing gloves. This particular joint is so small, I’m not even sure it could be pinned. The diameter of the arm is, at MOST, 1/16“. That means a 1/32” drill bit. Ooof.

So I ended up trying the green stuff out as a pure adhesive. I’m not sure if I mixed it right or not, but we’ll see how it goes. It was still pliable this morning, so I may still yet have some work on those joints to do.

Green stuff is pretty neat shit, actually. Works like play-doh. I figured out all on my own it’s much easier to work if you keep it wet - doesn’t stick so much to my gloved fingers. I read today it’s overall stickiness is gone in about 5 minutes or so, making it much easier to work with after.

Assuming I can get the assembly wrapped up I will be giving these guys a nice bath with a bit of water and a toothbrush. I learned today that talcum powder is used to get the metal out of the molds, and I wouldn’t expect that stuff to do a real good job of keeping the primer attached to the model. I just hope the glue holds relatively well :)

Since this is my first time out I fully expect to have things break and come apart and so forth as I go - that’s the whole point really. Need to have some experience in this.

In the bad news front - ALL of my fucking paints dried out. Granted, they’d been left in a box in the garage for going on 3 years - but damn, what a thing to discover. Some $60 worth of paint now in little cubes in the garbage can. So that will be a bit of a bear to replace. I will probably do what my friend Roy did, and just snag the starter box of 6 colors used by the Circle and perhaps augment with a bottle or two of metals. Before I paint any of the game pieces I’ll probably do one or two “practice” models from the vast supply of miniatures I bought but never painted. Might as well get some new brushes while I’m at it as well. However, I’m hopeful I’ll have at least an assembled force to field this Wednesday. I’ve made my first pass through the rules, now I need to write up my own summary to increase my understanding :) There are definitely some subtleties in them, though nothing too bad. Just little niggling details that are nonetheless important.