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Dear Wyrd. We need to talk about intuition.


Poko

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Or rather the thing called intuitive design.

 

I've finally bough me a plastic box. It's Victorias, as I was keen to get not-Arcanists finally. Don't get me wrong, the models are fantastic. They have a ton of small detail and great proportions. I applaud that.

 

One thing I cannot applaud is how many parts each model comes in. That was perhaps a bit disappointing, but I can understand given the poses on some of the models.

 

However, I do have to comment on one thing. What reasoning led to making the models connect by the wrist? Both Vicky and at least one ronin have weapons glued to the arm by the wrist. Literally the least structurally sound part of the anatomy, and literally the smallest flat surface on the model save for the high heels. That's just...mind-boggling to me. Likewise some other decisions are unfathomable to me- the standing vicky could have any pose. any pose at all.  So she's standing with her legs crossed, ensuring the slightest breeze will tip her from the base unless you pin the model down. The other viki has to connect her sword behind her back, lining up left arm with torso, right arm with torso, right arm thing with ground and left arm sword bit with right arm thing. There are more thought-out  card houses out there I have a feeling.

 

Overall, I love the style. I love the details. But I sadly will stick to metal models unless I have a proof the "artistic integrity" of the sculpts gave way to ease of construction in the plastic kits. I thought plastic meant easier construction than metal or resin, Wyrd managed to prove 10 years of modelling wrong.

 

Slightly disappointed, but still looking forward to actually playing 2.0.

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It's due to the planes of the plastic mold. Plastic molds are solid metal not rubber,  so you can't do undercuts in plastic like you could with metals. Where model is broken into parts is not dictated therefore to where it is easy to glue. It is not really a choice at all, if you want to change the plane of the model you have to add a new piece.

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Honestly, I prefer having better sculpts to having one piece models.

But then, I actually find the plastics much easier to prepare and assemble. The metal viks, the coryphee, the judge's chain... I've not had any plastics that were remotely that much of a pain for coming apart or getting assembled in the first place.

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It's due to the planes of the plastic mold. Plastic molds are solid metal not rubber,  so you can't do undercuts in plastic like you could with metals. Where model is broken into parts is not dictated therefore to where it is easy to glue. It is not really a choice at all, if you want to change the plane of the model you have to add a new piece.

I'm aware part of it is technical limitations, but if technical limitations are an issue, then maybe..a less challenging pose will do? It's not vital to the game that one of the ronin is kneeling with a sword by her side held with both hands...it's definetely not vital that one of them has 10 parts. A 28mm petite female character consisting of 10 parts. That's just over-engineering I think.

 

 

Honestly, I prefer having better sculpts to having one piece models.

See above. I have no bone with multi-part if they are simple to put together. It's not impossible, I have enough experience to do it, but it's very frustrating. I don't need single-part models, but if the model has more than 4 main parts, it's a bit much I think.

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4 pieces max seems low - space marines are more than that, they have torso (two parts), legs, left arm, right arm, head, backpack, weapon... that's at least 8 pieces before accessories. Most GW models are more than 4 pieces, and they're not feature characters but rank and file 'unit wound counters'.

 

I'm not saying some of the models aren't in many pieces, and some of the pieces are pretty small. They do take a bit more skill than a space marine to assemble. But pretty much all of them are character models, so limiting them to 4 pieces seems a bit unfair when that's not exactly a common number of parts.

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From my perspective, I really have no interest in simplistic poses for the perspective of shrinking piece count. There are plenty of miniatures out there that have simple poses, it's nice to see dynamic and interesting ones. I'm not a sculptor, nor a converter, so if I want a dynamic pose, I have to buy one. And Wyrd is one of the only game companies, and on a short list otherwise, that is doing complex posing like that for everything. I love the current Wyrd models, and yes, I've built the craziest of them, like the Archers and the Ronin. Can they be annoying at times? Sure. But the reward at the end of it is worth the effort.

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i like the detail and working with plastic is alot easier when it comes to conversions, but some of the small parts are a pain, I've already lost:

 

a punk zombie's head (he is now 'headless sid')

a number of hoses and wires from iron zombies and miss step

the hand the chihuaha's holding

and

the cylinder that's supposed to hang under the tray McMourning is holding

 

I unfortunatly have wall to wall carpeting in my current house (wich i hate, but rent, so it stays)  so those pieces are good and gone

 

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This will not help with attaching fiddly bits, but will propably save some models from being headless/beardless/....

 

 

tumblr_mbyijgeiua1qhkzpz1.jpg

 

 

 

Oh and i find cleaning a gazillion parts more annoying than glueing them together. Takes me about 30-45 min per model from desprueing to glued but i'm propably "overcleaning" them. How much time do you guys invest for cleaning/assembly?

 

Still love the dynamic poses though.

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4 pieces max seems low - space marines are more than that, they have torso (two parts), legs, left arm, right arm, head, backpack, weapon... that's at least 8 pieces before accessories. Most GW models are more than 4 pieces, and they're not feature characters but rank and file 'unit wound counters'.

How can you forget the shoulder pads? They are like 90% of the model by weight!  :P 

 

A bit more seriously, for a real pain to assemble, try some of the female models for Infinity, with their thin tiny arms that you have to superglue since they are metal. They might be thick enough to pin with 0.5 mm wire (I must at this point also register my dislike for fragile 0.5 mm drill bits). Give me a 10+ piece plastic kits over 3 piece metals any day of the week.

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try some of the female models for Infinity, with their thin tiny arms that you have to superglue since they are metal.

Seriously, the only really hard bits with infinity were the idiotic antennas they insisted on making separate, and the daikini bots, which i am sure to this day, were designed by a misanthrope. Either way, I'd rate the vikis models about as hard to put together as the infinity models.

Also an update- the student of conflict will not be getting the braids, they decided they dont want to play together anymore and went through divorce when i tried removing them. I was not suprised.

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These "horror stories" make me actually feel better and laugh out loud.

The first time I took a 2mm x 0.4mm magnet to look at it, it teleported movie-like in some other time or space instantly, disappearing from my fingertip.

The second time, a week later, I had been warned. In fact, I not once dropped a magnet. I dropped it twice.

The last time, one week ago, I took 3 of them to give me an idea of what 1.5mm was like. I dropped the three of them, again. I started reconsidering my university registration.

Took me two hours of research, discontinued cause I also had to meet a friend between, so I put on a temporary Crime Investigation Scene before leaving.

Wyrd related, I have the spiders. Needless to say that each exhaust pipe socialized with the floor. Black, grainy floor.

As the third one fell, I was thinking that the Gravity God and the Floor God were angry with me, cause I forgot to offer them sacrifices before.

It wasn't obviously the Exhaust Pipes God. He doesn't exist.

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A friend of mine lost Ramos' head THREE times whilst trying to glue it on. How that is even possible I'll never know. Most of our group that own him argue the worst Malifaux plastic part is Yan Lo's beard. I have yet to struggle with it but it is on the horizon.

 

My worst was Vanessa's hand. My god that thing was a pain! It's at an awkward place, small and fiddley and it didn't fit into it's slot properly! I had to file it down very carefully losing it on the carpet once or twice. I fail to see how that couldn't have been included in the original mold.

 

Also another pointless piece that needed to be glued on... Santiago's belt buckle! REALLY?! Come on! It's less than 3mm across and 1mm thin. Surely that could have been a part of him right off the bat? Alas, this is the price we pay for some of the nicest plastic sculpts out there. Damn you Wyrd! Damn you and your addictively awesome models!

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Yan Lo's beard was horrific, as well as most of the Yan Lo box. One of the Ashigaru's has it's spear in two parts so there's no way to get that glued, Chiaki had very small parts as well. The whole Yan Lo box was truly painful to put together, when I got them together finally, I got them basecoated and decided to start painting them and that's when the glue started wearing off as the joints are so small where you can apply the glue, so my Yan Lo is still somewhere, with Chiaki in pieces, Ashigaru in pieces, Izamu's back banners broken etc. They are way too fragile. 

 

The new Sonnia however, which I just got together, had some small parts but is a vast improvement from Yan Lo and Lynch boxes. 

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The new Sonnia however, which I just got together, had some small parts but is a vast improvement from Yan Lo and Lynch boxes. 

 

I must admit the Witchling Stalkers were a nice change from the nightmare that some models can be. I opened the box, saw them and was like "Oh... NICE!!"  :D

 

Admittedly I don't often struggle with many of the Wyrd minis but some of them make me swear like a machine gun going off. I'm eyeing up Yan Lo for the Ashigaru and Chiaki but given most people have had issues with them I may lay off for a while! 

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