Gareth
11-11-2008, 02:40 PM
Forgeworld Tyranid Hierophant assembly guide
Contents
1. Introduction
2. Parts
3. Dry Fit
4. Clean Up
5. Reinforcement
6. Pinning
7. Bending Resin
8. Spikey Bits
9. Greenstuffing
1. Introduction.
This guide is specific to building a hierophant but a lot of the techniques and explanations relate to Forgeworld kits in general.
2. Parts
So what do you get in the box?
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i278/Gareth_tyranids/Tyranids/SA400116tpd.jpg
Left and right rear legs
Left and right front legs
Left and right biocannons
Left and right head mandibles
1x Rear leg support sprue
Left and right mini body claws
1x head
10x Sprues of spikes (62 spikes in total)
6x back exhaust vents
1x Main body
1x Tail
1x Sprue of lash whips
3. Dry Fit
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i278/Gareth_tyranids/Tyranids/SA400115tpd.jpg
Its important to do a dry fit of parts before rushing into a project. A dry fit will show you problems with the kit at the first hurdle, allowing you to plan and work out what needs to be done.
In this instance the dry fit uncovered 2 flaws in the hierophant kit!
A. The weight of the main body can not be supported by the thin legs. This is a shocking discovery and required a solution which is covered in parts 5 and 7. In the picture below the white arrows illustrate areas suffering under the weight.
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i278/Gareth_tyranids/Tyranids/SA400115-1tpd.jpg
B. The fit of the legs/tail left huge gaps in the joins. This was an issue as i was planning on painting the parts separatly and assembling once painted. But Greenstuffing parts once painted sounds a nightmare. The 4 legs and tail, will be pinned and greenstuffed before undercoating.
4. Clean Up
Forgeworld kits usually come covered in mouldlines, flash (excess material in this case resin) and require heavy duty cleaning.
Safety - Resin dust enhaled is bad for you, wear a dust mask when sanding down large amounts of resin!
I cleaned up each part by scraping with a craft knife and sanding with files. Some areas you can only get to with hooked and curved files.
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i278/Gareth_tyranids/Tyranids/filetpd.jpg
After that, i set about giving the beasty a soapy bath, this is important, you have to remove all the mould release agent from the parts otherwise when you undercoat you'll get a paint reaction or the paint won't adhere to the kit and will flake off.
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i278/Gareth_tyranids/Tyranids/bathtpd.jpg
5. Reinforcements
The next problem was the flimsy front legs. This is a heavy kit and the front legs and claws aren't up to the job of supporting the body. So i decided to cut the legs in half and and steal one of my fianceé's coat hangers. I cut the coat hanger in pieces using a hacksaw. A dremel also works, but clippers won't work. This is a very tricky and potentially costly part of the process so i must stress take time and care when cutting a £185 models legs in half.
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i278/Gareth_tyranids/Tyranids/heavymetaltpd.jpg
I also cut the claws into pieces and pinned those back together using paper clips, this will also add strength to the flimsy weak claws. The white arrows show the joins, these need to be tidied up with greenstuff.
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i278/Gareth_tyranids/Tyranids/pinnedclawstpd.jpg
This is where all the pins are in each front leg.
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i278/Gareth_tyranids/Tyranids/SA400230tpd.jpg
Contents
1. Introduction
2. Parts
3. Dry Fit
4. Clean Up
5. Reinforcement
6. Pinning
7. Bending Resin
8. Spikey Bits
9. Greenstuffing
1. Introduction.
This guide is specific to building a hierophant but a lot of the techniques and explanations relate to Forgeworld kits in general.
2. Parts
So what do you get in the box?
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i278/Gareth_tyranids/Tyranids/SA400116tpd.jpg
Left and right rear legs
Left and right front legs
Left and right biocannons
Left and right head mandibles
1x Rear leg support sprue
Left and right mini body claws
1x head
10x Sprues of spikes (62 spikes in total)
6x back exhaust vents
1x Main body
1x Tail
1x Sprue of lash whips
3. Dry Fit
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i278/Gareth_tyranids/Tyranids/SA400115tpd.jpg
Its important to do a dry fit of parts before rushing into a project. A dry fit will show you problems with the kit at the first hurdle, allowing you to plan and work out what needs to be done.
In this instance the dry fit uncovered 2 flaws in the hierophant kit!
A. The weight of the main body can not be supported by the thin legs. This is a shocking discovery and required a solution which is covered in parts 5 and 7. In the picture below the white arrows illustrate areas suffering under the weight.
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i278/Gareth_tyranids/Tyranids/SA400115-1tpd.jpg
B. The fit of the legs/tail left huge gaps in the joins. This was an issue as i was planning on painting the parts separatly and assembling once painted. But Greenstuffing parts once painted sounds a nightmare. The 4 legs and tail, will be pinned and greenstuffed before undercoating.
4. Clean Up
Forgeworld kits usually come covered in mouldlines, flash (excess material in this case resin) and require heavy duty cleaning.
Safety - Resin dust enhaled is bad for you, wear a dust mask when sanding down large amounts of resin!
I cleaned up each part by scraping with a craft knife and sanding with files. Some areas you can only get to with hooked and curved files.
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i278/Gareth_tyranids/Tyranids/filetpd.jpg
After that, i set about giving the beasty a soapy bath, this is important, you have to remove all the mould release agent from the parts otherwise when you undercoat you'll get a paint reaction or the paint won't adhere to the kit and will flake off.
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i278/Gareth_tyranids/Tyranids/bathtpd.jpg
5. Reinforcements
The next problem was the flimsy front legs. This is a heavy kit and the front legs and claws aren't up to the job of supporting the body. So i decided to cut the legs in half and and steal one of my fianceé's coat hangers. I cut the coat hanger in pieces using a hacksaw. A dremel also works, but clippers won't work. This is a very tricky and potentially costly part of the process so i must stress take time and care when cutting a £185 models legs in half.
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i278/Gareth_tyranids/Tyranids/heavymetaltpd.jpg
I also cut the claws into pieces and pinned those back together using paper clips, this will also add strength to the flimsy weak claws. The white arrows show the joins, these need to be tidied up with greenstuff.
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i278/Gareth_tyranids/Tyranids/pinnedclawstpd.jpg
This is where all the pins are in each front leg.
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i278/Gareth_tyranids/Tyranids/SA400230tpd.jpg