A daunting sight! 
And they aren't a chittering horde attacking you yet!
First, some thoughts:
- it can be tough to look at the pile of sprues and get started...
- you have to eat the elephaunt one bite at a time!
- figure out how long a "unit" takes, and go a unit per session.
The Termagants are very nicely done, IMHO.
- amazing sculpting results in easy to assemble push-fits,
- no mold lines, or they are hidden by the sculpting on the edges,
- assembly still takes as long or longer than metals that need to be cleaned of mold lines, etc, like Old Glory.
Time: I can assemble about 8 Termagants an hour. I do them in their matched pairs. This allows me to see where I cut them from the sprue if I am having trouble finding and cleaning off the nub.
This means a total time of 2.5 hours to assemble 22 of them.
Removal from sprue: choice - clippers v. X-acto blade?
- with clippers, there was a lot of "nub" from the sprue connection left, that then had to be cut off with the X-acto anyway.
- I found a precise cut with an X-acto blade resulted in nearly nothing left to clean up about 50% of the time. The other 50% I just had to make a quick cut / scrape with the X-acto blade. Overall, I found the X-acto blade better.
remember to use a cutting board or similar!
Generally, the pieces are closer or past one side of the sprue than the other. This means that you have to flip the sprue over once to cut each piece as close to the cutting board as possible, or else you will get some "bounce" or the piece will fly away, or even - possibly - break. Below, I have the sprue flipped to the side where that claw is almost on the cutting board. Flipped the other way, it is almost 8mm off the board, or a 1/4" or so.
Note how the arm is high off the cutting board, and the barrel is just near it.
Cut the barrel then...
...flip the sprue over to cut the arm.
Assembly:
- I trimmed the pegs shorter and found the pieces fit together more easily.
- I used medium to thick cyanoacrylate = 10-25 second cure on a few joints and the pegs.
Basing:
I do not glue them to the bases until after I prime them. I'm going with a "winter" coloration scheme to fight my "Not-Valhallans" so I will prime the 'Nids white. My bases will be a brown to match my table, so I'll spray them separately.
I hope this gives you some forward momentum to start your own batch of scuttling horrors, and a better idea how and how long it takes!
Nice break down of the process! I found the assembly of the Tyranids very relaxing. Actually, that's true of all of the monopose GW stuff I've assembled - except for the Necrons but that's because the previous owner had cut everything from the sprue and I had no way of identifying exactly which piece was what. Looking forward to seeing the final result!
ReplyDeleteYeah, I play music while I'm doing it, and it isn't so bad. Also, knowing the timing involved makes it easier for me to set aside that hour and know I can do X number of figs, etc. It has emboldened me to assemble my Doomsday Countdown figs, and I'm going to run thru the game.
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