KD: Monster Assemble! [Open]

[Melkavar]

This stuff looks so awesome.

[ub3r_n3rd]

@Auberon - wow, you are doing a fantastic job here!

[Auberon]

Well thanks, but I'm speeding the process up for the rest of them.  They do need to end up on the tabletop before next decade after all! 

[CashWiley]

I HEAR THAT

[Sanael]

My first wave has arrived! I need to send Poots an email since there was no Twilight Knight in my box, but otherwise I now have my Phoenix Dancer, Watcher and Adam and Anna. Still waiting on my Lantern Festival, but I knew that would come later. These models are amaaaaaazing...now I need to clear the junk out of the craft room so I can actually get to the craft table!

 

Meanwhile, I'll just watch y'all's progress and drool.

[vegascat]

I received the Phoenix in the mail yesterday and had a chance to open it today......and other than some immediate success with the two halves of the main body and how the wings attach, I was pretty clueless.  So I took to the interwebz to look for an assembly guide and came up blank - well, nothing useful for assembling the body of the phoenix.  Plenty of guides on where to glue the thousand tiny hands, how to assemble the face and tongue.   Undaunted, I cut most of the body parts off of the sprues and played with them a while until I figured it out.  As I'm off tomorrow for Veterans Day, I'll try to assemble it and post pics as well.  I won't be painting it anytime soon, but the model is too cool to not assemble.

[Pingo]

Still no assembly guides on the Kingdom Death site itself. :( So I way appreciate this thread! :)

[SamuraiJack]

Well I'd like an update on shipping.. once thats done.. I'm still waiting on my expansions.. sigh

[CashWiley]

Expansions won't ship until next year. Hopefully before CNY but I wouldn't hold my breath.

 

I'm still waiting for wave 1, though.

 

Assembly guides not up on the beta site, either. Poots has said his intention is to have them up in time for the retail launch, and he may use community written guides if they're getting the job done.

[Pingo]

So, it looks like the bases come in two parts, bottoms (with logos underneath) and inserts.

 

I notice it looks like people are using different approaches. Not just some using the sculpted faces inserts versus the plain ones, but some using inserts without the rest of the base and some not based at all. How's that working out?

 

What size base are people using for the White Lion? It seems a little large for the 50mm bases (I could be wrong) but there's only one larger base and I think it's for the Pheonix.

[CashWiley]

The 50mm base is correct for game purposes. It needs to fit within 4 squares like most of the monsters.

[Pingo]

Did you base yours? I thought I recalled it standing on the table when your human figures had bases.

[CashWiley]

Debating on how to base him, pondering making some face molds for the monsters since there are no 50mm face inserts. Barring that, I think it was Corporea that used a sprue lantern on the base to add detail and OSL, or wait to see what Hockley does and steal that idea :)

 

High probability I'll try airbrushing some on him, so I have some time to work out the basing stuff.

[Pingo]

I thought I might just paint faces on the bases.

[AGN1964]

This is a really useful thread.  I'll share some tips a tricks I use, I hope some people find something that's helpful.

 

Generic Tips

Use polystyrene cement in a bottle with a fine applicator.  Mine is a thin metal tube like a needle.  Get a small drop on the end of applicator, stop squeezing, and tap it off on some waste material to leave a tiny drop and apply it directly from the applicator.

 

Apply it near a desk lamp.  It is really easy to see the shiny glue in the reflection.

 

If there is too much, wick it up with something absorbent. A twisted tissue, a cheap open grain tooth pick, etc.  Do not wipe it, the glue will go everywhere.  Or just blow on it gently, it evaporates quickly.

 

Practice makes perfect and you can practice on the sprues.

 

Work several models at once.  Move from one model to the next so you can let the last glue joint dry.  If you are forcing gaps closed by squeezing hard, you will need to hold the model for a long time while it drys, but most joints fit well and setup in minutes, so long as you do not put any force on the joint.

 

Related, if you need to put some force on a joint, say you plan to hold the model by the leg you just glued on, take a break and let the joint set.  Overnight, if you have the patience.

 

Related, use the fact that there is some give in new joints.  This is very handy on the legs: glue them, let them set for minute so they are not floppy and carefully see how the mini stands.  You can tweak the positioning slightly to get a surefooted upright pose.  With nice flat feet, there is no need to pin these minis to the bases.  This also works for posing head and arms.  It's hard to see if the pose is good while your fingers are all over the mini.

 

If you press the pieces together, then open them very slightly, then press again, the melted plastic will "smoosh" around and really hides any gaps.

 

Generally, apply the glue to the bigger part, not the smaller part.  It will be easy to hold the big part without getting glue on your hands.  

 

Glue on you hands is deadly, but it's easy to check - it stinks.  Smell my finger ;-)

 

The glue has a high initial tack.  If there are parts that hard to fit because your fingers get in the way, apply the glue and let it set up for 10-30 seconds, then kind of "drop" the little part in place.  Get it close, of course, and make sure right surface of the little part touches the glue, but you don't have to get it perfectly pushed hard into place first go.  The tacky glue will hold it while you re-position your fingers to press it into place.  Same deal for using tweezers; if you squeeze hard with the tweezers to push the part hard into place, it's liable to squirt out across the room.  Hold it gently, place it in the glue and let the tack of the glue keep there while you nudge it around.

 

Dry fit to be sure the parts go together well, but also that you know how to hold them and move them together smoothly.  You don't want to smear glue everywhere.

 

Dry fit several parts ahead of the one you plan to glue next.  Sometimes, one order is better than another and you might not see this at first.

 

Try to glue parts in two or more places.  For example, the feather plume on the the King's Man's head or the sword of the King's Hand.  I glued the tiny peg on the plume to the slot on the head (it's not the best peg/slot) and the very bottom of the plume to the fur ruffle of the cape.  Mine is rock solid, even though I had tiny dabs of glue and very small contact points.  I do this where ever possible: the Hand's sword arm is glued at the elbow, to his hip and to his cape.  Again, tiny dabs of glue gave me a rock solid mini.

 

The weakest joints have "small areas-one point of contact" joints.  Think weapon hands for the survivors.  Make sure you trim the nub to give good contact at the wrist and don't use too much glue.  Plan to hold it longer than normal and make use you can set it down some where it's supported but not being pushed out of place (make a little holder or cradle from playdough or blutak).  Watch for "droop" when you set it down.  I like to do these in front of the TV, so I can hold the joint to 5-10 mins.

 

The polystyrene plastic is hard.  I guess that's why some people call it hard plastic ;-).  If parts don't fit, cut it carefully.  Use a sharp knife. Take many small shavings.  Support the part well so it does bend to break. Don't make large movements - the blade will skip and jump and bite you; I shave off 1 or 2 mm lengths at a time.  Scraping is good for mold line or the last bit of resizing. 

 

The White Lion

His face needs a lot of trimming.  It's the first model you need, but one of the worst to assemble.  Dry fit, dry fit, dry fit until it looks good.  The body and tail fit nicely, but leave fine gaps.  Perhaps do the starting survivors first.

 

The Phoenix

This is not has hard as it looks.  Dry fit the body and head, it's pretty obvious, but glue the hands to wings first.  The model is two big to be test fitting the hands in the holes after and the whiskers are delicate.

 

Start with the hands that have really funky shaped contact points.  It's easy to see that the hand and socket match.  Get them glued in.  Now you have 20-15 hands to fit, not 30, and you will find that you recognize the shapes and locations of the sockets much better.  What looked like a overwhelming random mess now looks like a recognisable jigsaw and you have already done the corners and edges.

 

Keep working on the hand or socket that is the oddest shape; most oval, deepest, longest, whatever, find something that identifies it.  Although at some point these all look pretty similar.  You may have many parts that fit in a hole (or a part that fits in many holes, depending what you are focusing on).  Check two things:

* The part looks good here - it mates well and looks natural.

* That you can fit those other similar parts somewhere.  Sometimes, you find that hand A or B will fit hole Z, but only B fits hole Y.  Tough luck if already glue B into Z ;-)

Once you are happy on both points, glue it place.  

As you progress, the choices get harder and harder, but the number of hands in the pile gets smaller and smaller.  If you have three hands that all fit nicely in three holes and you can't decide ... don't worry!  If all arrangements look good, just pick one.  So long as it looks good, it's good.

 

I really had fun glue my models up.  I hope you do too.