Thursday 3 January 2013

Assyrian Allies and Assyrian Ram

So far I have finished about half the unit of HaT Assyrian Allies, and completed one of the Orion Assyrian Rams.

The Ram was a pain. It had warped panels, unclear instructions and rather too many butt-joints for comfort and accuracy. However, the final model looks OK. I had to rig up some cotton thread to hang the ram from the internal beams, as the plastic "ropes" Orion include are a joke, being way too long and needing to be twisted at 80 degrees to hang the trunk of the Ram. They just snap as soon as twisted, even using hot water to soften the plastic first. Using thread sounds a better way around it. but in fact it's quite tricky and fiddly work.



I tacked the finished figures onto spare Warhammer 20 x 20mm bases to help keep them upright, and I shall varnish them shortly. I am going to use gloss varnish, as it brings out the nice bright colours, and I do want an old-fashioned  'sixties plastic army look for this force. The bases may be temporary, as I have not yet totally settled on using WAB rules.



Last night I started work on the first couple of spear-men from the HaT Assyrian Army box. They are a great match for the Allies, but sadly there seems to be more flash on them. This comes in the form of pronounced seams which need a VERY sharp blade to trim off, as the plastic is so soft. I have not checked the other boxes yet, but this first batch is going to need a lot more pre-paint cleaning up than the Allies did.


2 comments:

Hugh Walter said...

I bought the HaT Airfix lookie-likie 'army' box of Assyrians and was equally disappointed with the plastic, whinging about it on the HaT forum at the time, but the sycophants all came to the rescue with a "I have no problems with it" chorus, you can't glue it either!!

I also commiserate with you on the ram, I had the same problem with the medieval one (Zvezsda?)!

Hugh

Poacher said...

Hi Maverick.

I checked the other boxes of the Assyrian Army and found they were not too bad. Only two figures on each sprue, both on the same side of the mould, had annoying seams.

The same applied to the Allies sprues.

That would suggest to me that HaT need to look at the mould for warp-age, or check that the clamping pressure is equal.

I have seen worse, even on Revell figures, but it's doubly annoying given the soft plastic HaT uses, which tends to tear if not trimmed with a very sharp scalpel.

The plastic is also soft enough to easily pull apart. I managed to ruin two spears trying to gently tug them through ring-hands.

I may try the old hot needle method, to melt the seam into the figure.

As for gluing... well now. About 5 years ago when HaT were first claiming their plastic was glue-able, I bought a pack of their Ottoman Artillery. Sadly, neither Revell Contacta or my tube of normal plastic cement (forgot the brand) would hold the parts together.

The current plastic, by contrast, bonds so well using Humbrol Poly Cement that the plastic will tear before the bond breaks. Much better.

Chrissie