Forge World Model assembly - best and worst

[Lum]

Oh man, I still have a Storm Eagle NiB for over 1 1/2 years and am a bit to scared to crack it open^^

On topic, I had quite a few resin Marine parts and a Salamanders Contemptor Dread and I had absolutely NO problem, which I am quite grateful for. Best was probably the Alpha Legion Praetor in power armor, who needed next to no clean up. "Worst" were the two Kheres assault cannons, however they were still quite a breeze to put together, just rather spindly small parts and the tubes were ever so slightly crooked, yet nothing a little bendy bend could not fix.

[Claws and Effect]

Oh man, I still have a Storm Eagle NiB for over 1 1/2 years and am a bit to scared to crack it open^^

Yes, be afraid. Be very afraid.

 

I only resisted the urge to throw my Fire Raptor across the room by remembering how much I paid for it. Essentially the same kit.

 

Building a Leviathan now, and it's going together like Legos.

[General Strike]

All I've built is a Leviathan and Fulgrim, both were a breeze. But I avoid FW.

[MegaVolt87]

So far I have worked with the sicaran, contemptors and a Falchion. Unpopular opinion but I actually hate the sicaran kit. They sit flat, but I had way too many gaps as a result, some of the parts were chipped, so I fixed those with GS. Checked my Spartan, no dmg on the tracks however I still gotta remove the feeds so its too early to say that yet. 

[AnvilofFenris]

The only FW stuff I’ve built are the Legion Praetors (1 Cataphractii, 1 MK3) and the Emperors Children Palatine Blades. Only issue was that the sabres were a little squiffy, but a dunk in boiling water and they straightened themselves out.

[Bat33.1]

The MkIIB land raider sponsons were a horrible fit and required a fair bit of plastic card and filler to get them sitting correct. Leviathan, sicaran, diemos rhinos, predators, indicators, lots of HH infantry and upgrade kits, were all fine.

 

The Fire Raptor was ok, but it's not a beginner's kit, lots of dry fitting, shaving resin, and warp removal make it tricky. That said mine may have been one of the better ones or I was so aware of the pitfalls I double checked everything.

The old dreadnought drop pod was a poor fitting kit, lots of slack in joints with dificult alignment isues despite having hardly any parts. The dreadclaw was the closest I've come to test launching a FW kit from a 1st floor window, horrible thing and very, very difficult without some extra limbs to test fit

[kombatwombat]

The original Lucius Drop Pod door hinges are an exploration of the word ‘flimsy’, and the tracks on the Fellblade/Falchion/Glaive kit will make you question the very meaning of your existence.

 

Beyond that, I’ve never had any trouble with the newer fixed-track Spartan/Typhon/Sicaran, any of the Custodes range apart from the aforementioned flying stands, or Dreadnoughts. The Warhound isn’t for beginners, but with some decent hobby skills around pinning/dry fitting/cleaning it’s fine, though it will definitely teach you how to gap-fill on the torso.

 

By far and away the best kit I’ve ever done is the Custodes Achillus Dreadnought. It goes together perfectly, and every single joint is fully mobile. It can be posed in literally any position possible for the ‘real thing’.

[Chris521]

I didn't have an issue with by Leviathan or Contemptors.  I don't remember having an issue with the Artillery carriage either.  The Vulture was a pain since I had to carve out a lot of resin to get it together.

 

I actually have a Fire Raptor and 2 Xiphons on the way.

[Claws and Effect]

I actually have a Fire Raptor on the way.

You'll be missed.

[Sword Brother Adelard]

Moirax have been really straightforward so far.

 

The worst components were the shoulder pads, be careful removing the shims as I now have a few holes to fill on the rims.

[mughi3]

like other I have the storm eagle horror story, it came so warped I had to use a heat gun to get it straight and then the super thin pieces didn't line up quite right. in the end it came out mostly ok with a few gaps I hade to cover.

 

on the flip side all of my land raider mod kits-achilies, Prometheus, helios, as well as my contemptor dread went together like magic

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

The only problem I ever had with contemptors was in pre-assembly when I was trying to get the pose I wanted with the hips and legs, and it was a nightmare trying to hold it all together, even with blue tac. Once I started gluing, it was fine.

 

Fire Raptors are a well documented PITA, and the Macharius has some if the worst gaps I've ever seen in a model.

[Daimyo-Phaeron Lenoch]

Only 10% through building the Seraptek and I’ve already had a moment or two where I’ve wanted to throw something.

 

First off, the front legs are warped. Identical warpature, too, so I wonder what caused that. Nothing a hot water bath won’t fix (at least, it better), but rather interesting in how it turned out.

 

Guns are a tad tricky to put together, as there are 3 cables that are only for aesthetics but are rather important, and the whole setup goes together practically at once.

 

Also, some of the tiny cables that have shims in them are a nightmare to clean. Can’t hardly use an exacto to clear them because you will bend them almost too far—clippers had to be used to get it started.

 

I am thinking I may not have chosen the best model to start with as my first FW buy. All the same, though, I’m looking forward to assembling rest of it, and painting it as I go.

 

ETA: more on the guns—the parts are not a snug fit with each other. With one exception, everything has wiggle room. This is far less useful than you think.

[Tyriks]

My guns also had a lot of wiggle room - especially the ball joint where it has the cup that attaches the mount to the gun

[Son of Sacrifice]

I've wanted a fire raptor for so long, but why would I do that to myself?

 

Leviathan, Sicaran, Deredeo all easy.

 

I did tarantula heavy bolter last week, pretty straight forward.

[Blissful Brushes]

The Warhound titan is a pig to build. Mine is still only half assembled, you have to cut the two-part pistons to size depending on the pose, it's a lot more tedious than it needs to be.

 

I had real problems with the Sicaran, it just didn't fit, I had about 0.5cm gap in the front. In fairness, FW sent out pretty much a whole new tank but this one isn't much better truth be told, it'd just be a waste of time going back to them a third time.

 

Their marines go together well from what I've had though, and the contemptor kit fits pretty good.

[Blissful Brushes]

I didn't have an issue with by Leviathan or Contemptors.  I don't remember having an issue with the Artillery carriage either.  The Vulture was a pain since I had to carve out a lot of resin to get it together.

 

I actually have a Fire Raptor and 2 Xiphons on the way.

 

I watched one youtube video of a Raptor assembly and decided my marines could walk.

[Son of Sacrifice]

I think the fit of the tanks just comes down to the limitations of the medium (resin). The sicaran is possibly my favorite tank in the 40k universe, I'm very hopeful we'll get a plastic version at some point. Manufacturing and troubleshooting resin kits must be resource intensive for Forge World too, at some point I wonder if switching to plastic isn't more cost effective.

[Fajita Fan]

I have no idea how Magnus goes together with all the little bits of flying energy. The instructions are no help so that's sitting in a bag in a drawer. 

 

The absolute easiest, and I don't have much FW, was the BFG Thunderhawks.  

1) Remove from bag

2) Cut off gate

3) Glue on base

[Slips]

I have no idea how Magnus goes together with all the little bits of flying energy. The instructions are no help so that's sitting in a bag in a drawer. 

 

The absolute easiest, and I don't have much FW, was the BFG Thunderhawks.  

1) Remove from bag

2) Cut off gate

3) Glue on base

Honestly, can't be as bad/fiddly as putting together the Ynnari's Yncarne with their OTT Soul Vortex. That was one hell of a pain in the butt.

[Ayatollah_of_Rock_n_Rolla]

I think the fit of the tanks just comes down to the limitations of the medium (resin).

 

Resin is not the problem if handled properly. There are many companies making models in resin and with most you won't have these issues, even though by default you are expected to put some work into resin kits. FW makes its kits as if it was some indie company in your mother's basement from the early 90's. While archaic design of build up could be excused (only partially!) with size of FW's vehicles , the so widespread problems with fitting and casting have to be due to their faulty molding practices - I don't know, maybe their molds are overused. FW has so strong position on our niche market that they simply don't care, because you have no alternative really, just take it or leave it. They are getting away with things that would put out of business any normal modelmaking company.

[MegaVolt87]

Working on a Spartan, I have made a mistake somewhere, the front ramps don't quite sit flush with the hull. I think the bottom ramp indents tor the top door are not deep enough to sit flush. Though there is no flash/ chunky bits in the ramp recesses. Also the top door looks a bit short on the ramp with a bit of a gap. I don't know, seems the pre-drilled holes for the top door are too far forward? I think if I had cut the connector bits off to glue the ramp closed I could have avoided these problems, but I was pinning so I could drop the ramp and paint the interior...

 

EDIT- Never mind, I used my magnification lamp, there actually was less than 1/2mm of some flash in some places on the bottom of the top plate for the spartan top plate which was causing the excessive top gap due to not being a complete snug fit on the top part of the ramp door. 

[Zuvassin]

 

I think the fit of the tanks just comes down to the limitations of the medium (resin).

 

Resin is not the problem if handled properly. There are many companies making models in resin and with most you won't have these issues, even though by default you are expected to put some work into resin kits. FW makes its kits as if it was some indie company in your mother's basement from the early 90's. While archaic design of build up could be excused (only partially!) with size of FW's vehicles , the so widespread problems with fitting and casting have to be due to their faulty molding practices - I don't know, maybe their molds are overused. FW has so strong position on our niche market that they simply don't care, because you have no alternative really, just take it or leave it. They are getting away with things that would put out of business any normal modelmaking company.

 

 

YouTuber Leakycheese has (or had) a video on where he claimed to talk to someone who had worked at FW. I believe the specific context was an Armoured Proteus Leakycheese had put together where the armoured sponsons were too big for the Proteus' sides, and the track sections similarly were 'larger' than the hull pieces they wrap around.

 

The person he talked to claimed that FW makes a master mold, and then production molds from it, but sometimes all the molds break or wear out, so they're forced to reverse-engineer a new mold using a casted part. Each time this happens, the new production parts are slightly smaller than the previous, and if enough 'generations' of this pass, the newer parts fall out of scale with the parts that aren't on the same mold wheel.

 

Case in point: the Proteus casting molds had been (arguably) improperly designed so that the tracks and armoured sponsons were on separate molds from the main body. This made sense at the time because a separate mold for the body let them only need one set of molds to supply both the regular and armoured Proteus kits instead of duplicating them for both, but the downside became that as the body molds are used more than the armoured sponson molds, they quickly downsized in comparison one the original body molds started being replaced with successive iterations of reverse-engineered ones. I believe the tracks are on their own separate mold, but it doesn't wear out as much as the body mold so even with the same amount of use it's retained most of its original size.

 

I believe he mentioned that FW recognized this issue with their newer kits, which apparently are laid out on the molds to try and ensure dependent parts are on the same mold, and also why they've done things like updated the Spartan kit to have attached tracks.

 

TL;DR - the (old?) way of how FW lays out its molds and then replaces them can make different parts of their kits fall out of alignment with each other.

[MegaVolt87]

How strange, I would have thought having the first cast from a mold as a master would let you replicate the mould ad infinitum. 

[mughi3]

The Warhound titan is a pig to build. Mine is still only half assembled, you have to cut the two-part pistons to size depending on the pose, it's a lot more tedious than it needs to be.

blissful this is why I bought the one made by dream forge-plastic w/screws in the joints fully posable and 1/4 the cost for a similar sized model.

 

Better yet play 40K in epic scale and use titanicus models.

 

The only problem I ever had with contemptors was in pre-assembly when I was trying to get the pose I wanted with the hips and legs, and it was a nightmare trying to hold it all together, even with blue tac. Once I started gluing, it was fine.

Rare earth magnets are the key. magnetize the joints and you have poses for days.