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Looking at my Spartan and seeing the separations... and frowning now. Picked mine up preassembled (somewhat poorly) and second hand- definitely a recast I found out post purchase and I could but attempt to pull things gently apart to attempt a different fitting... not so much luck there.

Your beast is gorgeous sir

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I also have a half-built Fire Raptor in just as bad or worse shape, enormous gaps from terrible fit issues being one of the biggest problems, but I'm really liking what the GS and filler putty thing can do and will probably return to it in the near future to see if I can save it.

The horror stories I've heard of the Fire Raptor assembly have put me off from even looking at biying the actual FW ones, much less the others. Still, they usually look decent if you've got the guts, time, and talent to make them.

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Fantastic work as always.

 

It's great to see these fixer uppers and improvements that you do. Despite it making me never want to buy anything FW if it is bigger than a marine. Well, my storm eagle saw to that. 

 

It really is kinda sad how bad the fit is on some of these FW vehicles because they are NOT cheap. I have purchased some legit stuff from FW and if I ever had an issue, their customer service was excellent at replacing bad parts, but then I have to wait for it to get shipped across an ocean before I can start working on the thing I was so excited to get in the mail in the first place.

 

Man, seeing the stuff you do with tanks is always super awesome BCK! It seems like you turn what should be somewhat simple conversions into works of art, and I love seeing you make 40k tanks more realistic. 

 

Thanks, Vazzy. To be honest, if I still played the game and handled these models as much as I would for regular gaming sessions I probably wouldn't go through this much effort on the cleaning up and detailing. Since everything I build is essentially going to be a display model, the extra time and effort is worth it to me.

 

Looking at my Spartan and seeing the separations... and frowning now. Picked mine up preassembled (somewhat poorly) and second hand- definitely a recast I found out post purchase and I could but attempt to pull things gently apart to attempt a different fitting... not so much luck there.

Your beast is gorgeous sir

 

My intention wasn't to make other people feel bad about their existing models, but maybe help people building new ones take care of some of the fit problems.

 

 

The horror stories I've heard of the Fire Raptor assembly have put me off from even looking at buying the actual FW ones, much less the others. Still, they usually look decent if you've got the guts, time, and talent to make them.

 

 

Oh, I knew full well the reputation it had and the only I bought it is because the recaster had it on sale and I thought that for the price, it might be worth the trouble. So far, I've been wrong.

 

http://i.imgur.com/WGyWrLD.png

 

http://i.imgur.com/pxZzlA5.png

 

And these pics are after many, many attempts with heating up the pieces in an effort to close some of these gaps.

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That's impressive levels of bad.  Without any experience with the kit those side panels look like they ought to overlap the upper hull, but are wildly undersized.  I almost looks like you'd have more luck making your own out of plasticard.

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That's impressive levels of bad.  Without any experience with the kit those side panels look like they ought to overlap the upper hull, but are wildly undersized.  I almost looks like you'd have more luck making your own out of plasticard.

In my experience with it's sister airbrick I can tell you that these things just DO NOT FIT. I think some pieces of the centre section have to be trimmed to fit.

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Fantastic work as always.

 

It's great to see these fixer uppers and improvements that you do. Despite it making me never want to buy anything FW if it is bigger than a marine. Well, my storm eagle saw to that. 

 

It really is kinda sad how bad the fit is on some of these FW vehicles because they are NOT cheap. I have purchased some legit stuff from FW and if I ever had an issue, their customer service was excellent at replacing bad parts, but then I have to wait for it to get shipped across an ocean before I can start working on the thing I was so excited to get in the mail in the first place.

 

 

The horror stories I've heard of the Fire Raptor assembly have put me off from even looking at buying the actual FW ones, much less the others. Still, they usually look decent if you've got the guts, time, and talent to make them.

 

 

Oh, I knew full well the reputation it had and the only I bought it is because the recaster had it on sale and I thought that for the price, it might be worth the trouble. So far, I've been wrong.

 

http://i.imgur.com/WGyWrLD.png

 

http://i.imgur.com/pxZzlA5.png

 

And these pics are after many, many attempts with heating up the pieces in an effort to close some of these gaps.

 

I hear ya. I pride myself on building and painting my own minis but when I wanted a sicaran I bought one on ebay already built. I just didn't want to play Russian roulette with FW and their kits. It sucks to spend that much money on a fixer-upper when it should be new with no issues.

 

Seeing that Fire raptor makes my stomach turn upside down. I really wanted one but didn't need or want a flying gunboat so I bought the storm eagle. That things has so many oddities and gaps but at least it came together but those fire raptors are a whole different world of pain it seems.

I sincerely hope you can turn it around as it seems you have not smashed it and turned it into terrain or a base for another model. Sorry to rant about FW too.

Edited by hushrong
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I went to a birthday dinner earlier tonight for my friend, with his whole family there and all that. Nearby was a Half Price Books that we popped into after the dinner to see if there was anything interesting and I saw this on the shelf.

 

http://i.imgur.com/mcHumYH.png

 

Quick look at the FW site. 50 GBP which would come out to about $75 after shipping. About half price. Not bad. Checked Amazon and saw this.

 

http://i.imgur.com/qvkHYYv.png

 

So yeah, now it's mine. One of my favorite IA books in damn good shape.

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Oh man, that Fire Raptor looks horrible! I got mine immediately when it was released, so the mold was still fresh, I guess, because I had very little problems with the kit. But this, this is a different story altogether. Good luck, really... :eek: I´m sure you can fix it up - and suspect you'll secretly enjoy doing it. In any case, it's going to look fantastic.

 

Congrats on the Mymeara find. 

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Augs, I don't secretly enjoy fixing that level of nightmarish fit problems. Detailing out a tank to make it look more like the a real one? Sure! But this? No.

 

Reckoning... not sure what you mean. At my local HPB there's a small section of one bookshelf in the Games/Comic Books aisle that has RPG and table top stuff like 40k, and there it sat.

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Augs, I don't secretly enjoy fixing that level of nightmarish fit problems. Detailing out a tank to make it look more like the a real one? Sure! But this? No.

 

As much as i dislike recasters, I've heard they can have good customer service as the material costs pennies and they didn't have to deal with development costs, they can often just send you a new one. I'd get in touch.

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Augs, I don't secretly enjoy fixing that level of nightmarish fit problems. Detailing out a tank to make it look more like the a real one? Sure! But this? No.

As much as i dislike recasters, I've heard they can have good customer service as the material costs pennies and they didn't have to deal with development costs, they can often just send you a new one. I'd get in touch.

Most recasters actually list the Fire Raptor as a mediocre cast, with little to no after-purchase support due to the almost universal issues with it. Its just one of those models that almost noone can make perfect.
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Ikka kinda has the right of it, plus I waited way too long to start assembling the Fire Raptor after purchase to discover how bad some of it was.

 

Some good news is that I got a replacement head for Russ!

 

Some bad news is that I think I'm finally going to make an effort to start building some of the Eldar models that have been lurking in closets and storage boxes for years and years and I obviously can't post that stuff here. Shadow War and my New Years' resolution to work on some space elves have both made me want to shift gears, not to mention that two planned 30k group projects have been shelved indefinitely and the nightmare of trying to correct bad FW kit engineering has kinda taken the wind out of my sails with marine stuff recently.

 

Does anyone know of a good place on the web for Eldar? And wherever I end up posting the stuff, I will leave a link in my sig for those who wish to see it.

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Yes that does suck to hear... My Fire Raptor kit was actually not too bad and went together pretty well,the Storm Eagle was hell. I actually have a second fire raptor in a bag ready to build.

 

I would imagine that the Caestus should be a fairly simple kit to work with as there are not so many parts. I did find that the main chassis had a slight twist in it that I gave up on and worked around. The Caestus was a dream compared to the Eagle

 

Good luck with the space pixies :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Remember this guy?

 

http://i.imgur.com/Sy113Jv.png

 

I may have talked myself into doing more of my 30k scouts for Shadow Wars. I had planned on doing the whole squad for the TeD thread, but once the project fizzled, my urge to get them all done fizzled with it. Now with a new skirmish level game on the horizon (come on GW, I need that digital rulebook!) I might have the inspiration to do more of these guys.

 

And on the subject of space pixies, you can see what I'm working on here, but as before with the Blood Bowl stuff, please leave any discussion on the other site.

Edited by Brother Chaplain Kage
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Looking forward to the digital rulebook as well. I have some "improved" Kasrkin models that'll be on my buying list as soon as they're finished for an Inquisitorial kill-team. Shadow War looks like it will be a boon for conversionists.

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Did someone say...

 

http://i.imgur.com/ZsT44dO.png

 

Oh yes, conversions for all! 

 

And the original plan for my Crimson Sons scout squad was that each member had his gear customized so no two were exactly alike. I'm also going to be working on a space elf Shadow Wars team that I will link at a later point.

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