Hellstar: Is there more than one sculpt...?

[Aotrs Commander]

I'm very carefully picking my way through making a list of mechs I want to get (in practise, the list is massively excessively beyond what I'll ever probably get, but never mind, it's something to do in these difficult times...!)

A limiting factor is that it basically has to come from Ral Partha Europe or (in theory) fantasywelt.de, as postage from the US to the UK is quite insane at the best of times and liable to even more so now (and as for getting anything outside the UK in the future...)

I cannot for the life of me figure out whether the Hellstar (DA):



available at fantasywelt.de and the one at IWM:



are different sculpts or not. The IMW looks a little.. chunckier? In the pictures I've found (e.g. campspecs), but I honestly can't tell if its actually different or just the photo angle.

[Sartris]

There is not

[Luciora]

When I bought the parts from IWM, for my bits box, I had no idea at first there were PPC barrels on the torso parts.  When I actually bought one to assemble, then it kinda made sense.  They are kind of tiny compared to the arm barrels.

[Aotrs Commander]

There is not

Cool, can add that to my list (near the top...!)

When I bought the parts from IWM, for my bits box, I had no idea at first there were PPC barrels on the torso parts.  When I actually bought one to assemble, then it kinda made sense.  They are kind of tiny compared to the arm barrels.

One gentleman on Camspecs had added brass tubes to increase the size of the torso guns. While that might be a little beyond me, I am a CADs jockey with a 3D printer (even if we're down to the back up as the primary finally keeled over and we have to wait for the new one), so I could probably do the same thing with a couple of bits, dependign on how big they actually are on the model. Its WAY more than I'd usually do on a model, but that gentleman's Hellstar did look really rather good...!

[Empyrus]

I'm very carefully picking my way through making a list of mechs I want to get (in practise, the list is massively excessively beyond what I'll ever probably get, but never mind, it's something to do in these difficult times...!)

Tell me about it...
If i went all the way, i'd probably get a battalion's worth of 'Mechs for the Republic of Sphere, and a lot more counting in all other factions. As it is, i'm trying to squeeze my plans down to a company of RotS. And then there's vehicles and battle armor...
This on top of my existing stuff, which amount to a battalion of CapCon, a battalion of Lyrans, two companies of Star League. And then there's my Kickstarter minis plus i'm gonna need few Star Packs more.


Anyway, good to know about the Hellstar, wondered about it myself. Also bad to know about it, because now i'm thinking i'll include the Hellstar in my "to-get" list...

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

A painted mini will almost always look different from an unpainted mini, especially if it's got highlights.  On top of that, the official images for painted minis are generally taken from dioramas where the light's much different from the table they put unpainted minis on before photographing them.

[Psycho]

A fair word of warning; the Hellstar has often been known to suffer from poor casting, and will likely require some time with a file to get looking good. The heavy mold lines running down the center torso/cockpit, and the legs. The first pic shows those issues, while the painted one has been cleaned up prior to painting. It's doable, just takes some time and effort.

[Aotrs Commander]

A fair word of warning; the Hellstar has often been known to suffer from poor casting, and will likely require some time with a file to get looking good. The heavy mold lines running down the center torso/cockpit, and the legs. The first pic shows those issues, while the painted one has been cleaned up prior to painting. It's doable, just takes some time and effort.

Got and assembled it yesterday - didn't particularly notice anything amiss[1], but I'm a wargamer, ultimately, over a modeller, so I, shall we say, don't have the same priorities as those of you who, like, paint and model all proper-like for Camospecs and stuff[2] - I get models and paint them to play, rather than taking any particular enjoyment in the assembly and painting in and of itself. (Honestly, I find painting almost a necessary evil these days, on a bad day.)



[1]At least not among all the swearing and cursing at trying to assemble everything else; dunno what IWM (from Fantasywelt.de) does different to Ral Partha Europe in material, or whether it's just the newer models, but it took much VASTLY longer to assemble the dozen mechs yesterday than the RPE ones I did the day before/previous week. The Loctite gel didn't seem to want to STICK, almost like it was being absorbed, or something, and it started to feel like I was trying to assemble them with ordinary liquid superglue and the horrendous nightmare that always was. Seemed to use a lot more glue on those twelve than the seventeen or so from RPE, too. Though some of that is there were a lot more parts to stick; I am - and I know the modellers among you are going to throw things at me, it's fine - not at ALL a fan of having seperate feet not attached to a base as all the new scupts seem to do.



[2]A job that verges on the necessary for poor idiots trying to work out which fracking way round the numerous hip-joints go, or where the blinking Dola's arm attach...!

Did spend about twenty minutes trying to work out where the "vanes" that came with the Couger Prime/B went, as I couldn't for the life of me see them anywhere and THEN belatedly realised they were not veins, but covers for the Prime's LRMs...

[worktroll]

Re the glue issues - it's probably mould release agent. Like non-stick spray inside the moulds so that the metal parts come loose easily and don't rip up the silicone mould. Usually a wash in warm soapy water is recommended for all minis before gluing/painting.

Could be RPE used less or cheaper stuff? ;)

[Aotrs Commander]

I wash metal models as a matter of course (except for that one time where I hadn't bought any metal models for ages and forgot because you don't need to wash 3D prints) so I washed all the mechs before I started - very carefully, since that was how I lost the top gun of the Osiris already - so I would be surprised if it was that.

(I mean, short of scrubbing each piece individually.)

[speck]

I wash metal models as a matter of course (except for that one time where I hadn't bought any metal models for ages and forgot because you don't need to wash 3D prints) so I washed all the mechs before I started - very carefully, since that was how I lost the top gun of the Osiris already - so I would be surprised if it was that.

(I mean, short of scrubbing each piece individually.)

I have not had the glue issue with assembly before. I use a Thick Super glue and the tack to hold parts while they dry. Usually doing group builds for release images.

[Aotrs Commander]

I have not had the glue issue with assembly before. I use a Thick Super glue and the tack to hold parts while they dry. Usually doing group builds for release images.

It could just be the enviromental conditions being explictly (for some unknown reason - it wasn't as hot yesterdey as when I did the others) against me. But I can't remember having that sort of trouble since I switched to using Loctite powerflex gel a few years back, since NORMALLY it is itself thick enough to hold everything nicely after not very long. But it almost seemed to be being absorbed by the metal in some of the ball-and-socket joints, and I don't remember that happening before.

With my luck, it could just be 2020 being 2020 and ensuring that it makes itself as nasty as possible. (Note this happened explictly during the period the forum went offline - I'd say I was becoming paranoid that it was indreicly caused by me existing it and wanting to use it while I was doing stuff yesterday, but 2020 has been the sort of year that suggests no paranoia is sufficient...!)

[GRUD]

but 2020 has been the sort of year that suggests no paranoia is sufficient...!

That needs to be a "Stickied" post!   :-\

[Colt Ward]

Yeah, my Hellstar mini has some bad casting- legs off is the biggest bit.

If you are trying to compare minis, the problem could be one of time- as in when they were produced.  Recent minis (last 5 years?) are much better designed than the ones 15-20 years ago when TRO Proj Phoenix and the MWDA minis were released.  Unfortunately the Hellstar mini dates from what I consider a 'bad period' and I am very careful before I get anything from the time frame.  More recent products?  I do not worry about the part count quite as much because they are better designed to go together.  The Juliano has 3 parts for each leg IIRC as an example (12 total parts?), and I would not hesitate to get another if I wanted to field a 2nd one some time.