Worst experience ever had assembling miniatures

[Tony Cona]

Hello everybody, I'm new with Malifaux. I'm not new to wargames because I've been playing, assembling and painting wargames miniatures for more than 20 years. 

I read Malifaux rules and I loved the game, I really loved Misaki and the last blossom keyword so I decided to buy a couple of boxes but unfortunately this was the worst experience I ever had in the hobby.  I don't know why they didn't number the pieces in the sprue and in the instruction so it was easy to understand which piece goes where. It's easier for humans, but for example Shang is a nightmare with so many pieces all lookling similar no tunderstanding where to put them and which piece I'm holding. It's something so easy to do but it does a huge difference, I can't understand why it's not implemented. 

Then the only angle shows in the instructions usually is not enough to understand where to exactly assemble the components. But the thing I hated the most is how thin and small some pieces are. There are some pieces thin like a hair that are so easy to break and lose. I assembled 3 toragake then I tried with Ototo, and that super small and thin knife he has on the waist, got broken and I lost half of it. Then I tried with Misaki, and the same happened with that object she has on the shoulders looking like a trident, it got broken in half and I lost it. 

For sure I'm the one to be blamed, I'm not good enough, but I'm not a newbie in the hobby. I never had any problem assembling miniatures, but this too hard for me. I'm not used to it and they are not for everybody. I tried to contact wyrd assistance to ask if they could send me those 2 parts I lost but they turned down my request. I lost all the desire to continue, my miniatures are ruined and I don't want to buy a new core box just to replace two small pieces. If I had known this before I would have thought carefully before buying...I'm sorry because I really wanted to play this game but apparently this hobby is not for me. 

 

 

[zeno]

Yepp, Wyrd's miniatures are the worst to put together.
You would think they'd be better at cutting their sculpts after so many years, but no. Still horrible.

[Regelridderen]

14 hours ago, zeno said:

Yepp, Wyrd's miniatures are the worst to put together.
You would think they'd be better at cutting their sculpts after so many years, but no. Still horrible.

To be fair. Most of Wyrds plastic models are 1st gen. And later models have become much easier – and they’re also going back to more dynamic and interesting posing.

That said… putting the Insidious Madnesses together was a true nightmare.

[zeno]

8 hours ago, Regelridderen said:

To be fair. Most of Wyrds plastic models are 1st gen. And later models have become much easier – and they’re also going back to more dynamic and interesting posing.

That said… putting the Insidious Madnesses together was a true nightmare.

I just put Titania2 together and that one was quite bad. The tree parts took a while to figure out and felt really over designed.
Her loose arm hardly had any surface to steer you at the correct angle on the body.
The crown was in two parts, because. And it was extremly fiddly to put together while trying to fit it on her head.
Ulix2 (from the same box) was a lot easier. Still the pig's head was split down the middle, and that never looks good unless you put a lot of work into it trying to hide the seam. Also the flames for the mouth really fiddly.
The bush pig was easy to put together. But looks really odd because its body consists of two halves. One of the halves is higher than the other one. I guess they're trying to emulate some kind of razorback because its a boar. Perhaps it will look better once painted.

Sorry, not impressed, especially not with this price tag.
Miniatures from another company are far superior when it comes to slicing (not sure thats the correct term) their miniatures.
Sadly for them the minis comes attached to some really bad games though
Wyrd wins that one, even though they seem to have taken notes when it comes to new releases and erratas. Luckily the Malifaux community have taken steps against this with Balancefaux, good stuff!

[Tony Cona]

 

Thanks for the replies, I'm glad I'm not the only one feeling this. And the fact I'm just new with Malifaux and never experienced assembling these miniatures, only made the things worse. 

For example, can you guys tell me based on this sprue, which are the pieces of shang described on the building instructions? I can't believe they didnt number the pieces on the instructions and on the sprue. It's somethng so easy to do that would make everything easier and yet they didn't do it. These boxes are not even cheap, they are very expensive. I can'tt believe it. 

 

 

[Adran]

Wyrd has some very dynamic models with a lot of detail and is more realistic scale than heroic scale, but that comes with the downsides that it has many parts, they are often quite thin and  therefore fragile.

They are certainly improving the layout and cuts of the plastic kits but I think they are only in generation 2, so there is probably still a lot to learn.

I'm certainly no expert on plastic models, but there are a few things I have learnt that help. 

Use a sharp knife or sharp cutters to remove obvious delicate pieces. The sharper the cut, the less force that is put into the rest of the plastic. 

Support the piece of interest - try and make it so that if the thing is going to move, its not going to add extra stress to the fragile parts, this can either be by cutting the connected piece of sprue lose first, or supporting the piece of interest with spare hands (or clips) or even just bluetack.

Cut over a tray or similar, preferably with a soft base to try and catch bits if they fly off. 

Its not perfect, and I still have a few things break on me, but it has certainly seemed to reduce the break/lost parts.

Most of the plastic malifaux kits I have put together fit well, and I can dry fit pieces to check its working, and work out how things are supposed to get together. 

There are a few that I haven't managed to work out exactly right, but the bodge isn't noticeable unless you look too closely 

 

 

 

 

[Tony Cona]

Thank you so much, those are really useful tips. I had to learn something in a hard way, nonetheless I expected more support from wyrd. 

I think those are really useful tips for assembling plastic miniatures of any company, but I never had to exercise so much caution because it wasn't needed. Assembling miniatures of other companies was always super easy and smooth. I can't tell the same for Malifaux.

The point is that the way it is, assembling Malifaux miniatures is really an hobby on its own. And It's not an hobby I like. I like to paint and I like to play, I dislike assembling miniatures, especially when it's hard, long and frustrating. So yeah, I think I will only consider buying used already assembled miniatures in the future. The lack of indications in form of numbers or letters on the sprue and on the istructions to understand which piece is what, it's a deal breaker. Also I can't stand those super thin pieces with another small piece that you cant say if it's something supposed to be needed or a piece of sprue. 

Anyway I still have to assemble Shang and another last blossom box. So, when I will feel brave and calm enough, I will try to assemble them using the tips you suggested

[Adran]

I learnt a lot of it from this thread

 

[TheOldGoth]

Coming from other systems, I have to admit that Malifaux models do have a bit of a learning curve. But then I stumbled upon the absolute best thing to ever work putting these together.

 

Tamiya Extra Thin Cement

 

This stuff is amazing. It's a rapid bonding plastic cement that is the consistency of water. It comes with a fine detail brush in the cap. When you've dry fitted your model together, grab the brush and hold it to the joint. capillary action will pull the glue into the crack. No excess, no blobs, and bonds in 30 seconds. You will love how well this stuff works.

[Andrea Cook]

I just gotthe English Ivan, Double Agent. Oh man, it was a pita. I could not get the spell effect to line up correctly. I ended up heating it up so that it looks ok. Its not in the spot where it's supposed to be, but its ok. 

 

Then there's his cane. The end of which broke so. many. times. Finally, I lost it, drilled out part of his hand, and the end of it is now part of a paperclip. 

 

The only other minis this annoying were the Spirit Hosts from a company I like to paint (normally) but have no interest in playing. 

 

Like the other posters, I'm not a newbie. I've been assembling minis since the 90s, but itty bitty, thin parts are the bane of my existance.