Saturday, July 10, 2010

My First Forgeworld Order

So, I won a gift card at work last month, and decided to indulge in a bit of Forgeworld goodness. I had a lot of stuff in my wish list, and it was tough narrowing it down to my limit. Given I've started putting together a small force of Grey Knights, I decided to focus on that for my first purchase. I want to say it was a good first experience, as they had it shipped the day after I ordered it, and it was to my house in Virginia, USA 10 days later. All except one were perfect casts, and that one had only minor warping. I've read many complaints about poor casts and long delays with Forgeworld orders. I've no complaints here, except for discovering someone on the Internet is wrong!

First on my list was a set of etched brass Inquisition/Grey Knight emblems. I blame Karitas for making me want these, as I saw him use them on his AoBR to GK Terminator conversion post. Before that, I had thought them a luxury, but now consider this a must have for Grey Knight conversions. While I could create some of these with GS, the detail on this small piece of brass is great and will definitely save me some time. For information, I'm planning on a GK Dreadnought, a Land Raider, and converting some plastic Terminators. This will come in very handy!

Though I like the look of the Forgeworld Dreadnought arms, I wanted to try converting some instead (in other words, I already have some extra arms). So, I moved on to stuff I'd need for the Land Raider. I really liked the look of the tank commander, so I picked up one of those. It comes in five main pieces, the body, the arms, right and left shoulder armor pads, and a head. They also throw in two purity seals. As usual with Forgeworld bits, they have great detail and I'm looking forward to putting them together. Price-wise, it's not much different than you'd pay for a similar specialized GW mini, so I consider it a decent purchase.

Next up is the Psycannon upgrade for the Land Raider. I didn't think this was something I wanted to convert, so I decided to buy it. I do plan to try a psycannon dreadnought arm conversion, so this will be used to scale that as well. As you can see, there are three unique pieces: right and left psycannons, and a targeter. Frankly, I expected it to come with the mounting bits, and was disappointed when I found it did not. One more thing to add to my magnetizing "to-do" list.

Last up is a set of Aircraft Punisher Cannons. Now I know these aren't Grey Knight related, but I have a conversion in mind for this and did an impulse buy. Here was the lone bad spot in the order, as one of the barrels is slightly warped. Even though I have no experience with fixing resin pieces, this should be a simple fix. This set contains a lot of repeat pieces. The two cannons are identical, the two magazines are identical, of course the wing mounts are identical, and the two ammo belts were cast as one piece but are the same.

My plan is to make a turret, mount the cannons and magazines over-under, and have it count as a Hydra. I blame credit Admiral Drax for this conversion idea, as he suggested something similar on Col. Corbane's post about Kitbashing a Hydra. The only trouble so far is, all the turret ideas I had are too small to accommodate a cannon and magazine set up. Actually, I was concerned with this before I ordered it. It will be a couple months before I get to it, so have plenty of time to figure out how to make it happen. Other options I'm considering are Admiral Drax's Hydra turret, or buying a Forgeword Manticore Conversion kit and magnetizing it for both versions. Suggestions are welcome.

6 comments:

  1. I think it's a brilliant Idea to magnestize and have two-conversions in one. It will make a truly unique vehicle.- well, two actually :)

    I'm glad my project isnpired you, it was in turn inspired by Ron's Belial. those brass etch sheets are amazing. they are so detailed through that you have to take care gueking them in place, a little superglue overrun can obscure detail. but the can be pre-bent and just really help to finish a mini :)

    Regarding your warped cannon. a little heat will easily return the resin to an elasic state, and cooling will return it's plastic properties. use a dish of warm water (not boiling!) immerse the object, or the part you want to rectify, then use gentle pressure as it softens. once you have it where you want it, let it cool.

    I have heard of others using hair dryers, but i'm always afraid too much heat might distort the wrong part :)

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  2. Looks like a few good projects are on call. But when will they be painted...?

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  3. Very excited by those punisher cannon - jealous too.

    I shall ponder awhile on your behalf, if you like...?

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  4. I second the Admiral's comments, very envious. Can't wait to see them done.

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  5. @Karitas: Thanks for the tip on working with resin. I have heard of different ways to reshape it, and will likely try the hot water trick first. Glad you mentioned about not boiling, as I probably would have gone there. Thanks.

    @Col Hessler: Too many projects is one of my standard excuses for not painting, so who knows? I am getting better at painting up the figs. It's the vehicles that now suffer...

    @Admiral Drax: I think you pondered enough on turrets. I like the one you did, and will probably use it as the basis for anything I come up with if I decide to scratch build.

    @Col. Corbane: I should have the Terminators done this week, but am out of town the following week. Sorry to have to make you wait.

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