A Suggestion/Request to Reaper: Fixing the Baba Yaga's Hut leg warping issue.

[Dan S]

Dear Reaper

 

One of my favourite ever Reaper releases was Baba Yaga's Hut, I absolutely adore the model.  And after a couple of weeks spent lovingly painting it, it finally took pride of place at the centre of my miniature collection.  So imagine my dismay when barely a week later, the legs had warped so much under the weight of the house, that the model would no longer stand upright without toppling completely over.  I've since reset the legs with hot/cold water, and repainted them (as the hot water caused the varnish to go cloudy) and now I am too anxious to reattach the legs for fear of them warping again.  Its actually bummed me out that I am unable to display such a great model as intended.

 

After a little research (Forum posts, Facebook groups etc), it seems that I am not alone and this is a very common problem, the soft bones material is just not strong enough to support the solidly cast and weighty house.  

 

I am just throwing this out as an idea to see what others think, but would Reaper be open to releasing a limited run of chicken legs cast in either metal or a stronger plastic (such as bones USA) so that all us folk with warped, wonky and unbalanced toppling legged huts could replace the legs and fix our huts?  I cant speak for everyone but I know that I for one would be more than willing to pay for a replacement set of legs if it meant that I could actually display my hut as intended, and after reading a lot of the forum and facebook posts I'm sure I am not the only one. 

 

Thanks for listening

 

Dan

Edited October 14, 2021 by Dan S

[cycnet]

I agree. Honestly happy I didn’t end up pledging for this model back in the day though I was sorely tempted. I think Reaper is in some level of denial about the properties of their Bones plastic sometimes. This one should have been obvious to notice issues before production, and if not then, after KS fulfillment.

 

Dear Reaper: please please please please DO NOT put out figures on spindly legs in bones plastic! Especially not in softer formulations!

Edited October 14, 2021 by cycnet

[TGP]

Can you photograph the thing from the side so that the bend could be measured?

 

 

[Dan S]

 

17 hours ago, TGP said:

Can you photograph the thing from the side so that the bend could be measured?

 

 

 

Sadly I cannot.  As I mentioned in my original post above I have since reset the legs with the hot/cold water treatment, and because the hot water reacted with my varnish spoiling the paintjob and forcing me to repaint them I am now fearful of reattaching them to the hut incase it happens again.  Right now I just have it displayed as a house, with the legs set aside so that I can temporarily attach them if I want to use it in a game.

 

But I am certainly not the only one with a hut that would not stand up after a week:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/40821538884/posts/10159972751123885/

 

I'd just like a solution that doesn't require adding unsightly supports, which has been the most common solution people have used on the facebook group.  Others have suggested drilling and adding a long pin through it, but as the issue is at the knee joint I don't see how that would be possible.

[Halberkill]

Though it may be too late for you, what I did was hot water separate as much of the house as I could and then dremeled out the excess heavy plastic that was really not needed. This made the house light enough that it wouldn't bend the legs.

[Gary Pryor]

I had the same issue. I used a heat gun to readjust the angle. Now I just store it on it's side and it's fine. If you want to display it you will have to either remove some of the excess plastic from the inside to reduce the weight, or brace it up somehow (with flight poles or something else). It's just not going to hold the weight as is.