Return of the Opinions/feedback on IWM sculpts

[Sartris]

put the stormwolf together. separate feet and legs was a throwback to the DA stuff, but at least the legs weren't multipart themselves. biggest issue was the TINY AMS. i dropped it and took 15 minutes searching the floor with my phone flashlight to recover it (no parts left behind in this workshop). definitely recommend placing it with a tweezers

11 parts - x2 feet, x2 legs, hip, torso, RAC, laser, x2 arms, AMS

[jwt708]

Today I assembled the Regent and Orca.

Regent was a breeze. I did pin everything but I'm still suffering from not pinning the DA Black Knight. Zero issues with the Regent, great model.

Orca is a beast! I pinned everything on the Orca and had some issues with the side torsos sticking to the center torso and ended up pinning the arm through side torso into center torso. Sadly the mould line ran right down the center and required quite a bit of filing to smooth it out. On the reverse of the center torso there is a casting void that will need to be filled with green stuff before I prime. All that said I really love this model.

[Prometheum5]

Putting a Battlemaster together right now.  I really don't like the legs on this mini.

Just putting together my first new Battlemaster now and want to second this. The design of the hips is terrible. Why go with this bizarre, sloppy joint design?

[worktroll]

Just assembled an Osteon, two Septecemias, and a Cephalus.

Firstly, kudos to the legs on these guys! They come as one piece base/foot/left leg (IIRC)/hip, and one loose leg/foot. Really easy to get a range of motion options, and great contact points! The range of extra parts for the torso mounted weapons is also great, albeit fit sometimes needed trimming the plates.

Downsides? The arm connection points to shoulders are tiny. Had to pin the Osteon's arms, will see how the Septs last. And the Osteon's foot covers? No actual connection point, you just lay them down on some glue on the foot, and hope.

But overall great minis, not for beginners.

[Colt Ward]

So Savage Wolf shoulders?

[Sartris]

Not nearly that bad

[Alex Keller]

I've recently assembled and painted some IWM sculpts.  Here are my impressions:

Prime Mover This big boy is easy to assemble (main fusalage, 6x weels, turret), looks proportionate to all scales, minimal mold lines/cracks.  Happy with this one.

Wheeled Scout BT-466  Really impressed by the level of detail on these.  Assembly was minimal (fusalage and turret).  Scale was appropriate.  No cracks in metal.

Cyrano VTOL This mini is perhaps the best VTOL in IWM's catalogue at the moment.  Parts included main fusalage, rotor, and turret/laser.  Details were crisp and symetrical.  No cracking/warping.  Size was appropriately scaled. 

Black Knight BTL-9KNT 20-5207  Definitely meant to be a showcase miniature for your ComStar forces!! This mini is slightly smaller than CGL plastic mini, however not as notable as others like the Battlemaster, Griffin, Wolverine, Stormcrow etc.  So great news on that.  Mini assembly was not difficult, but the mini does not offer much posability options other than choice of running or standing using leg selection and positioning of head.  I was able to cut and drill magets into the torso and waist to allow for torso twisting with no rubbing, so that was a major positive.  The parts included head, torso, waist, 3x legs, 2x arms, sword.   Unfortunately, the head has a laser on it and the BL-9-KNT is not supposed to have a head mounted laser.  But it was not difficult to swap with a plastic head from the CGL BL-6-KNT and cut the laser off and re-sculpt. 

[Kibutsu]

I just put together the Awesome 8T and there is both good and bad. The sculpt itself is great. Nice detail, great fit and very little clean up required. Unfortunately it is WAY smaller than its plastic counterpart. Height wise it's just a bit shorter, but it is much narrower and less bulky. The difference is drastic, and has, unfortunately put me off including him in my next group to be painted. Your mileage may vary.

[Prometheum5]

Hm, I didn't think to compare the metal Awesome to the plastic one, but I still feel like the metal version scales well against other recent IWM assaults on the lighter end.

[Alex Keller]

Yeah, its a real shame that the scale isn't matching up quite right.  I LOVE some of the latest IWM sculpts but the scale on some of the GoAC mechs has prevented me from obtaining more.  I wonder if its best to just kitbash the plastics to the variant you want and maybe take some parts from the IWM sculpts? 

[Luciora]

I include alot of IWM parts in my kitbashes, they generally work out well, especially to see the part and mini side by side.  My latest batch is a pair of HGR toting mechs and a Blazer Zeus that use all IWM parts for the weapons.

Yeah, its a real shame that the scale isn't matching up quite right.  I LOVE some of the latest IWM sculpts but the scale on some of the GoAC mechs has prevented me from obtaining more.  I wonder if its best to just kitbash the plastics to the variant you want and maybe take some parts from the IWM sculpts?

[pokefan548]

Slight aside, can I thank whoever designed the Minotaur sculpt for not just making it look good, but making it all one piece. I breathed a sight of relief that I wouldn't have to spend time assembling nearly a dozen of the little squirts. You know, unlike the other nearly three points of Procyons and Sprites I picked up, though thankfully those are still quite simple to assemble.

[Colt Ward]

Pretty sure all the Gen 1 Protos were single piece . . . wasn't the later Gens during that 3067/PP tons of parts craze?

[Sartris]

can confirm all 3060 protos were once piece

[pokefan548]

I will definitely bear that in mind next time I'm tempted to go Proto shopping, thanks :P

[Alex Keller]

How many pieces are the Sprite protos in?

[CranstonSnord]

Three pieces; each arm is separate, the body and base is one piece.

[pokefan548]

Yep. Same story for the Procyon.

Putting them together won't be the end of the world or anything, just convenient to not have to go through an assembly phase for a whole bunch of swarm units.

[abou]

I finally got around to painting my flatbed trucks. I have always wanted to use more of those support vehicles and am excited to finally paint up the wheeled scout and prime mover; however, the flatbed truck is... not good.

I am one to quickly defend IWM. Looking at the work they do for Dark Sword, it is hard to top. The flatbed truck though is rough. The details do not seem to pop, smaller bits like the sideview mirrors are deformed, and there are artifacts from the 3D master. Similar problems are noticeable on the recent Catapult. I am not sure if the mold making process or the 3D printer was the culprit, but I am glad to see that problem is absent from sculpts after it. It is just unfortunate that the truck is so poor in quality.

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

The Flatbed Truck mini is pretty old by now, isn't it?

[abou]

The Flatbed Truck mini is pretty old by now, isn't it?

2019. So not that old -- at least by our standards in BattleTech.

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

Huh, I thought it was from back in the late 90s/early 00s.

[Luciora]

Mastodon:

Torso parts are a bit loose when attached to the body and molding seems to make them want to lean on itself, making the tops kind of triangular instead of an E shape.  The arms to the weapon connection feels more rounded than a half circle, so when you are attaching the weapons to the arms, take the body into account so you don't skew them into the legs or body upon assembly.

Marauder:

Seems to be a molding issue with the arms and legs.  Found crystallization and flash on the right side of the arm weapon ports on 2 Marauders so far, have another 4 to check when I get home.   There seems to be some slippage on one of the legs as well. 

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

I'm putting a Mastodon together right now.  Didn't have too much trouble getting the torso into an E shape, but getting the arms put together has been a real pain- the upper arms do not want to stick into the ports in the PPCs at least.

Also, interesting idea making the arm sprues one PPC and one missile pod each instead of one sprue of PPCs and one of missiles.  Guess that does mean half the number of different sprues to produce.

[Kibutsu]

I built and painted the flatbed trucks pretty soon after they were released and didn't see any of the problems posted here. Mine were beautiful little castings. Sounds like you got a bad blister or maybe the molds have deteriorated.

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

Got a Mastodon Prime assembled.  Looks pretty good.  Working on a Jade Phoenix now.

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

Got the Jade Phoenix together and I have to ask: what the heck is going on with those legs?

Also, I do wish that it had been designed with the one-piece wing part like the Gyrfalcon 4, though the wings do fit together reasonably well.

I will say that it looks very nice now that it's assembled.

[Sartris]

legs were tricky, yes. i used the foot with the flexed toes on the right leg that extended back and the left leg forward into a stride. i then glued each foot onto opposite edges of the hex base.

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

I have the left leg flat on the hex base with the right leg and flexed foot coming off it, trying to simulate it being in the middle of lifting its foot.

[Luciora]

I keep forgetting to make one lifting the foot forward.   The plastic one does have a differently angled leg.