Assembly.
I spent too long yesterday cleaning up the Talos. I had to Dremel out the space under his right shoulder where his arm is supposed to fit since it was just about filled with resin. Thank fuck I have a dremel or it would have been even more of a nightmare. Some pretty bad mould slip on various parts of the model as well. So much for “premium resin”, but I think I managed to cover up the worst of it before assembly. He’s certainly a big boy, though. I need to decide whether to use the huge pie-plate base that he came with as a display base (and make a secondary square base for that to sit on for KoW. I could also fit him on a unit movement tray 105x55mm easily, which is a lot more “wargamery” but I’m not sure. A smaller round would be ideal, but with his wide, “Colossus of Rhodes” stance he ain’t fitting on any smaller round base.
The Marauder Giant was a much more pleasant assembly, though. The parts went together like a dream, and I think the only part that will need pinning is the wrist joint, since all of the other parts have nice integral plugs. I reckon superglue and greenstuff might be all it needs. What a well-designed kit, especially in metal, and doubly so for the era it was released in. I’ve started on his legs, and have painted his sandal straps in red, in a homage to GW’s “red period” that the figure came from, though I’m not sure if I should keep them or go with a duller brown instead. I’m also not sure how to paint his tunic. One thing’s for sure is that it won’t be a patchwork like the box art. If he’s managed to have paned/slashed sleevelets on his shoulder, I figure he could afford/threaten whoever tailored his outfit to do it from a single kind of cloth. Something heraldic, perhaps? He’s certainly not a completely feral giant, and definitely not chaotic. He also needs a base, since whatever he came with is lost to the ages, and I think it was a 40mm square, given his vintage. Maybe a slightly smaller Mierce round base if I can scrounge one up? With a secondary square aka the Talos?
Be’lakor looks like shit in the photos so far, I’m aware. I’m going for a fleshy underside/black back look – inspired by a photo on the internet – instead of the all-black box art or more typical “demonz = red”. One drawback is that it’s probably going to look awful until the finishing touches are done on it. He’s sitting on a lipped 50mm WM base for the time being. The plan is to mount him on a 50mm round, and then blu-tac that onto a 50mm square for actual wargaming when needed. Though that lipped base is starting to grow on me…
I’m also less than impressed with Mierce’s resin casting process. Shame, because they’ve got some of the most amazing sculpts in the business.
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I’ve managed to pick up a whole lot of Mierce stuff earlier this year from a local guy who was pretty much clearing out his KS pickings. I haven’t had a good look through them yet, but they seem decent. He said he’d gotten various replacement bits from them, so hopefully they’ll all be good to go without the Dremel being needed(?) I think I’ll need to drill out and replace more than a couple weapon shafts, though.
Agreed on many of their sculpts and sculptors, though. I think the biggest holdup on the Talos is going to be figuring out what to do with his base before I can get properly stuck in.
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Wow… that Talos is mahoosive! Can’t wait to see that take shape – I’m sure the pain will be worth it mate. Looking forward to seeing how you interpret the Marauder Giant too 🙂
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Thanks Alex. After a few days working out which way to go with the base, we’re going with the big round Mierce one instead of a 100x50mm movement tray. The movement tray is “better” for wargaming, but the Talos is going to spend more time just as a painted model than rampaging the table, so I’m going for form over function. Which has let me start to get on with it last night.
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Good shout mate, can’t wait to see it!
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