My big project for BOYL is to finally get the Dolgan Raiders done - and it's going ok, but one of the sticking points has been the archers. Years ago, I saw the Fireforge Steppe Warriors box in a model railway shop in Chester and thought "aha! Dolgan warriors on the cheap!" - which seemed like an inspired idea at the time. In the end, I'm only using them for the archers (I'm using different minis - metal minis - for the swordsmen, characters etc.) but it's my first in-depth experience with trying to assemble plastic toy soldiers, and bloody hell it sucks a lot of the joy out of things and is probably one of the reasons this whole project has taken so long.
Look, it's a really good sprue. They're nice minis. There's lots of bits and pieces, loads of options. Each mini ends up looking unique. But with legs, torso, each arm separate, the head, the quiver, and then any hat and hair still to stick on... that's a lot of cutting and gluing. Some people are probably used to it and think it's a great part of the hobby. Stop whining, you say. Fair enough, I'm just not like you, that's all! Give me a single part metal mini and that's me happy. Laziness? Maybe.
I do understand that having sprues means that you can kitbash, it's great for creativity, I get all that. I believe it. I've seen some wonderful things. And yes, the minis are cheap.
Kitbashers, I salute you. It's just a bit faffy for me. Hopefully finish these tomorrow and then I can get onto the last few metal minis for the army. I'll post everything here when it's ready and I'm not in a pre-BOYL painting flap.
I completely agree. One of the biggest hobby turn-offs for me is getting fingers covered in glue, not enough hands to support all the bits that need to be supported, having to cut fine bits off big chunks of plastic without snapping them... yuck. Gimme monopiece metals anyday!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad it's not just me! I do feel we're out of kilter with the rest of the world, but that's fine. I'm glad to have all the extra spare bits for conversions... but the experience hasn't made me keen to go over to more multipart plastics for future projects
DeleteHear hear. I completely detest sticking these kits together and my heart sank when my youngest lad started getting into 40k . Some of the space marine thingies have separate HEELS for goodness sake. Having said that Fireforge Templars have been useful and not too hellish to assemble when I couldn't find a suitable metal model.
ReplyDeleteSeparate heels???? You've got to be joking!
DeleteThanks for the general encouragement from more experienced hobbyists! :(
ReplyDeleteWe are newbies and have several GW sprues waiting to be worked on. In fact, the first steps of cutting, sanding and filing, washing and drilling do not appear to be the best of fun.
Maybe D was smarter, who after the first attempts has contracted all these operations to the too kind R for her multipart gors...
Maybe I need to outsource assembly of multipart kits to a family member too! My son did get an airkit kit for Christmas which he mostly assembled himself...
DeleteHopefully the main encouragement will be - stick to metal where you can!
Excuses, excuses... No pain - no gain... and other disparaging comments ;) I guess your torment in assembling these lowly archers will make it all the sweeter when my rampaging Hobgoblins dissassemble them on the table top!
ReplyDeleteLooking good buddy - think the last big unit of multi-part plastics I put together was the old Skeleton Army box set many years ago. Back then I wasn't too bothered about mold lines but I certainly feel your pain now!
This is all your fault!
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