This past weekend has been very fruitful in terms of hobby work. I found plenty of time to spend on models and decided to start work on my Maulerfiend (couldn’t wait!). It’s a surprisingly easy and fun model, so the first WIP session went very smoothly, it was a blast. Find out my little review about the model, some notes on the kit and the early assembly photos after the jump.
The Maulerfiend/Forgefiend kit comes on two sprue sheets that heavily resemble the Heldrake kit. The body is assembled the same for both variants, however the pose and armaments change to show their nature. The instruction booklet has two sides that show the steps for both kits and both start out with the same chassis. There are many modelers out there who have fully magnetized their kits to be interchangeable for both variants, however I want to paint this bad boy to display standards and won’t be fiddling with it too much. So I opted for the (in my opinion) cooler looking Maulerfiend for this kit and set to work. The whole assembly took something close to 5-6 hours in total (I work diligently) spread over two days. More ambitious modelers may have better mileage than I.
Following the booklet, I put together the head, the neck and the body and prepared a piece of the “tail” from a later stage.
First thing I saw when assembling the kit is that there are many join lines on especially the body. The reason for this is the two sides that make up the body, neck and head are not symmetrical, and their joining points have some serious gaps, especially after sanding out the few mold lines and sprue bits. These lines run in a crisscross fashion, just like it was on the Heldrake’s head, and will be difficult to fill in without obscuring detail. I’ll have to be very careful filling them out, for they run over a majority of the model’s visible surface.
Next step I moved on to the arms of the model, where I thought the only confusing part of the kit was.
GW usually has a great way of explaining assembly, but the right arm was clearly not one of those moments! I recommend (as always) to double, even triple-check the fits first to see what goes where, especially for a kit with a dynamic pose like this one.
I then proceeded to check the fits on the main body. I immediately realized that the model was limited in pose due to poor placement of pieces, again just like the Heldrake. Take a look:
The shape of the neck is not straight, it’s bent to the right by a little. I guess the GW team wants us to pose the model in a certain way. Of course it can be converted with the right tools but I’m not going to risk ruining a nice model with such extensive work.
Moving on the next arm, the one defining the pose.
With both arms assembled to the point where paint can be applied easily, I checked the pose on the torso.
Sadly, the problem with join lines on this model is quite prevalent, even on the arms. No matter how much I tried, the pieces do not fit correctly with their respective slots. Puts more work on the bench. Luckily, I’ll be getting new tools to apply modeling putty to the joins within the week and will have little trouble fixing them (or so I hope). More on this in a later post.
The last pieces before the last armor plates that needed assembly are the mechatendrils (I love that word). The left and the right side are easily distinguishable: one has a wide rectangle shaped slit, the other a more square-shaped connection point. Another thing of note is that the tendrils sported mold lines that were very easy to remove. Running a sharp knife once over them easily eliminated the lines without hurting the details.
As the last step I removed the rest of the needed pieces, the arm and leg plates, and proceeded to sort sub assemblies.
With sub assemblies sorted, I wanted to see the final form and applied yellow tack to connect the pieces. The UHU patafix works OK in this regard, but I recommend trying out other brands that have better bonding strength. Patafix also leaves particles if left on too long, so beware.
My last shot is meant more as a warning. During posing I realized that the right hand was getting bent at the connection point and was about to break. To get around, I had to fully assemble the arm with the plate. Will complicate the painting process a little, but at least I do not need to repair the kit. So if you have to pose your model, don’t leave the model on for too long on this hand!
I bent the piece back to position and assembled the hand. Be careful posing your miniature folks!
So, next in line will be filling out the joins and sanding to a smooth finish. Then I’ll prime the pieces with the new Vallejo black primer I got a few weeks ago and the kit will be ready for painting. See you on the next post!
Filed under: Black Legion, Chaos Space Marines, Maulerfiend, Review, WIP Tagged: assembly, black legion, chaos, chaos space marines, daemons, maulerfiend, miniature hobby, new project, solo figure, warhammer40k, WIP
