4Grounds Stoic Arms day 4

I'm on a roll, day 4 and the third and final floor. 

Starting this one with another issue, again its not a problem as its pretty obvious the numbers on the instructions are wrong. Its also pretty obvious what are the correct bits and where they go.

 
Again another issue, I have no idea why they are all in last few bits of the build? The first picture shows another connector that does not fit in the hole, Again this was corrected the same as before by cutting the connector off. The second picture just shows the inside of the third floor with the ever popular pegs.

 

The rest of the floor went together well and I done the same as before with the bay windows, its much easier to glue the supports to the window and glue it to roof that is in place. The doors all open and close and went in nicely using the bevelling idea I talked about in the previous blog.

 
The roof looks really simple to go together, but it was a bit of a sod! every time you add another roof panel one comes loose so you are constantly chasing yourself trying to get them to stick. So I got round this simply by gluing the bottom 2 panels and letting it dry before adding the rest. The second picture is more frame work with coloured insert.

 
As I was having problems popping the windows out of the frame I decided to remove as much of the frame as possible. You can only do this towards the end as the windows are so tightly cut onto the sheet you have to wait until lots of them have been removed, or you will break more windows than you save, but the good news doing it this way is that the last few windows come out nicely. The second picture show a momentous step, the last of the push, glue, insert and repeat!

 

More of the thinner wood interior colours, again they go in easy and just need holding while it dries.
The second picture is the completed third floor, nice simple and fairly quick.

 

The Stoic Arms comes with pictures you can cut out and glue on the side of the Inn and in sign posts. Nice as they were I added my own, so I have changed the name form the Stoic Arms to the Flaming Heretic. This was really easy to do, simply create the picture you want on any art programme and print to size. As you can see I had the picture and text already from the blog. Soooooooooooo nearly finished, just a few more final details.

 
The last frame! The chimneys are simple box builds that you can add details to. The sheet has a few more than you need, so you add more chimneys if you wish, but I'm gonna save the left overs for the other buildings I'll get to add to my village. Yes, this experience has not put off getting more.

 

The first picture shows some of the details you can add to the end of the chimneys. The second picture is all the roofs finished with chimneys. This is also the last piece of the build!!! The crowd went wild and there was much rejoicing all throughout the night, not really, I cleaned up and went to bed.

So without further ado... I give you the fully operational Death St... Sorry, watching Star Wars, still one of my all time favorite films!

The Flaming Heretic Inn

 

 

 

So there you have it, all done. What a monster! Its an absolutely amazing kit that I feel is worth the money. It was not without it issues, but I worked out a way around most of them. All in all in one word, 'IMPRESSIVE'

That's it for now, I was meant to be doing that wonderful Khador stuff my wife got me to do while she is away, but I am in full Menoth mode at the moment. I know when I started this blog I said my main Warmahordes faction is Menoth (hence the blog name), I have quite a lot of it but have never blogged about them or posted any pictures. Well with my next blog that will change... (he says).

Thanks for stopping by and hope to see you again soon.


 

4Grounds Stoic Arms day 3

Welcome to day 3.

So on to the second floor. It starts off with another box build that goes together nicely, but does need holding while the glue dries.
This photo shows you what not to do! Do not use a band in the middle, even with the bands on each end it pulls it out of shape. Also the piece between the doors has no connectors so it moved and glued in the wrong place! I just about realized what was going on before the glue dried and had to pull it apart, re-glue it and put it back together. This time with no band in the middle.

I said in my last blog that I had an idea for the doors. Well the plan was to glue the walls together and then put the door frame in and then glue it to the base with the door in place. The above pictures show what I mean the below picture show the result. 

 It worked really well but does need a bit of forward planning which throws the instructions out a little, but as long as you don't get confused as to which bits you have done you should be ok.  

 

It was while I was putting in the rest of walls I came across the first problem, which with a build of this size and complexity is pretty good. The connector on the bottom left of this piece is in the wrong place, or the hole it goes in on the floor is (depends on your perspective I guess). It's not a real problem as it glues to the back of another piece that did fit properly, all I done as you can see in the next picture is cut the connector off.

 

I glued it in place and held it there with the ever reliable pegs. The stairs are the same as the others and go together nicely. The supports in the second picture are in 2 parts that glue back to back and then to the wall. Its a nice touch as they are both a different design and cover the the big joins at the end of the wall.

  The frame work goes on as normal and needs to be held in place while it dries. All fitting nicely so far...

 

The second part of the second floor is built separately and then glued onto the first bit, this had me a bit worried, as the fit would have to be perfect if it was going to fit along the whole piece. After more frame work came the push, glue, insert and repeat retinue I have come to know well.

 

And some more , and then some more...

 This is the whole second floor together, I glued the 2 parts together but couldn't use my door trick here as the 2 parts were built separate, but don't worry I have another idea.

 

As you can see I was worrying over nothing the fit was perfect, the support frame on the first floor was exactly where it was meant to be. You have to take the roof off the first floor balcony to get it to fit, but that's why the instructions tell you not to glue that part.

 

The roof and the bay windows go in as before and work well. I didn't follow the instructions here to the letter but glued the left roof on, glued the supports to the window then glued that structure in place and then added the last bit of the wall. I done the same in the second picture but started from the right. Still all fitting nicely.

 

The balcony goes on in 4 parts and fits like the rest of the kit so far, well enough not to need holding or support while the glue is drying.

 

The interior of the second part is the same as before. I will say that as they are cut from thinner wood they have a tendency to fall out as you try and take one out. Again this is not a major issue as its fairly obvious where they go. In went the windows and the remaining doors (of which none broke this time, I'll show you what I done in the next photo). The windows did have the same problem of the bottom corner getting damaged, the only thing I can suggest at this point is to be as careful as possible... The roof that sits on top to second building part of this floor is a real easy build, roof panels go into 2 triangle pieces and a pieces goes on the end that you can see. The bar that goes across the top is another story. The roof that sits above the ground floor kitchen has the wrong number in the instructions, but its the right picture? I went with the number and not the picture, which was the wrong thing to do! I had to remove the bar from this part which was hard, but I guess that will teach me not glue it so well. It did crack a little in the middle, which I was not happy about, but  I cleaned it up and used tight bands to hold it in place while the glue dried on the right roof! Its not noticeable unless you look really closely.

To get the doors to fit when I couldn't glue the frame first I simply bevelled off the corners opposite the whole. This gave it enough room for it fit tightly but not snap. This is much quicker and does not require the forward planning of my other idea, so will do it this way from now on.






That's day 3 and almost there. The frames are looking empty and still excited to see this thing finished. Hopefully only one more day...

Thanks for stopping by and hope to see you again for day 4 real soon.

Khador All-in-One Army Box

Maybe this blog be should be titled 'I knew I Married Her For A Reason'

My wife casually brought up in conversation the other day she is going aboard to stay with her aunt for a week, fair enough. 'When' I asked? 'Thursday week' was the reply. Awesome a week alone... what will I do? can I blag more time off work? how much of a mess can I make in a week?

Then she informs that she is going alone and leaving the kids with me, oh well, I have no problem with this at all, but all them plans I had in them few seconds gone.

So, the postman knocks with a package this morning that my wife hands to me... I check, its not ticking, it has no haz-chem symbols so I open it.

 






'Oh', is about all I can manage. She goes on to explain that she doesn't want me to get bored while she is away. I now have 3 thoughts: 1, How awesome is this! 2. I obviously done a better job than I thought hiding all the stuff I got recently. 3. So you get a kid free week in the sun in a luxury apartment and I get a box of models. Again I have no problems with this.

So as Brad Pitt asked 'Whats in the box?'

This!

1x Epic Sorscha

2x Heavy Warjacks

1x War Dog Solo

1x Widowmaker Unit 

1x Winter Guard Unit with 3 Rocket Attachments

1x Winter Guard Officer and Standard Bearer Attachment

1x Kovnic Jozeg Grigorovich Solo

1x Lady Aiyana and Master Holt Mercenary Unit

Mini Rule Book

Strategy Cards with tactical tips

 

The mini rule book is exactly the same as the big one without all the fluff and faction backgrounds, plus its a lot easier to carry around. The strategy cards tell you a bit about the how to use the army and what they recommend for growing your force. Nothing special but the quality is top notch.

Sorscha, the dog, Joe, Widowmakers, Winter Guard Officer and Standard Bearer and Aiyana and Holt come in shell blisters with no card insert, the cards for these were tucked in the rule book. 

This is what I'm most excited about, Even though they advertised on the box you get a Spriggan and Demolisher you get the choice of all 3 Jacks that come in the standard box, so you can have 2 Spriggans, 2 Demolishers, 2 Devastators or any combination you want really. I really thought you would have only got the bits to make a Spriggan and a Demolisher, but I'm really happy to be wrong. Will have to have a look and see about magnetizing them... But 2 Demolishers marching down the field sounds pretty cool to me. 

Last but not least the Winter Guard, what more can I say, Winter Guard Death Star in a box! it has everything you can have! 

Not sure about Aiyanne and Holt, but I have the Widowmaker Marksman and a Manhunter so its an easy swap. The one thing about Aiyanna and Holt being mercenaries is that I can paint them however I want (I know I can paint anything anyway I want, but the other Khador stuff I have is red). So might give them a bit of attention and come up with something different.

That's it for now,  will hopefully be back with day 3 of the Stoic Arms soon and then I guess I'm on to Khador! 

Thanks for stopping by and hope to see you again soon.

Oh, and my missus is awesome! Don't tell her I said that...