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Post by Jaymz on Oct 8, 2014 15:58:06 GMT
By Andrew Carter
Hey all, reposting this from the Facebook site. For those interested, here’s a quick write up of the Spartan.
Last night I put together the first mini, and tackled the notorious Spartan. To give a bit of background, I’ve been building and painting minis for a long time, so this is all through the eyes of a vet. Also, I used simple Krazy Glue, and it worked just fine. This is kinda in depth, but I’ll post a final verdict at the end if you wanna skip ahead. I assembled only one of them, closed missile doors and running/walking pose.
The good news is it’s not as bad as we feared. The bad news is it’s not necessarily good either. To start off, the details are sharper than we’d been seeing in pictures; I believe it’s that the brown plastic doesn’t photograph well. That’s not to say they’re sharp, just better than we feared. Many of the pieces are crammed pretty tight on the sprue, with connection to the sprue in very tight places right next to a tiny piece of detail that will make it very hard to file the remnant down (in the pictures you can see this below the missile launchers; I'll need a needle file to fix those) so be VERY careful when clipping them. This is doubly true with some of the arms and hands.
The 2 waists are very differently designed, one meant to pose the legs moving, one more static. The good news is the connections for the 2 halves of each waist are different; you won’t be able to pair them wrong, (IE back half a running waist, front half of a standing) so that’s a plus.
Couple of good things: The torso area looks good, goes together easy. The shoulder joints can rotate, and fit quite nicely. The waist also plugs right in. The single piece gun arm and also the gun pod work very well together. The legs fit very tight together, and this helps to minimize the seam issue.
Some bad things: The hip joints are complete shit. It took me three tries each to finally get them right. The left arm is in 3 pieces, shoulder to elbow, forearm and hand. The connections between elbow and forearm and forearm and hand are flat plastic, no connector. It glues well enough, but it’s still kind of a structural weak point. They could have combined some pieces into one here. The seams are minimized, but still present. For some reason, they put deep tread on the feet. Good for authenticity, bad for gluing a model to a base; this will make for a somewhat tenuous connection to the base, especially for the running legs. Finally, a lot of the pieces are extremely fiddly to work with.
Once it’s together, the mini doesn’t look all that bad. I wasn’t exactly salivating, but it was ok. All in all, some very strange choices were made alongside some good ones and while the process often had me scratching my head wondering why things were done, the end result isn’t all that bad.
Final verdict: C+. A decent mini, but takes more work than it should to get there.
Here's a link to the pics of the mini on twitter:
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Post by Deleted on Oct 8, 2014 20:38:47 GMT
i'm curious about a novice's perspective, cause vets like him and me can work miracles with garbage.
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Post by Jaymz on Oct 9, 2014 0:57:49 GMT
I plan to pass along my thoughts when I finally get mine as well and I'm as close to a newb that isn't a newb you'll get I think. LOL
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Post by Deleted on Oct 9, 2014 1:48:06 GMT
well so far the thought amongst "expert" modelers seems to be mixed at best.
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Post by Jaymz on Oct 9, 2014 2:07:53 GMT
yeah and not just about hte models but about the glue to use as well....
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Post by Deleted on Oct 9, 2014 14:45:39 GMT
well Glue is a no brainer but that's because I have delved into the world of LEGO a already heard all the horror stories about what certain glues do to ABS items, and even seen them first hand too.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 9, 2014 20:05:47 GMT
another review from the Spartan reviewer:
Andrew Carter 4 minutes ago
Hello all! I took a crack at the Defender (Or Rifleman, for us Inner Sphere types) and here’s some thoughts about it.
I’m seeing some consistent trends with the RDF minis here. While the layout of the sprue is more open for the most part, some pieces are wedged in there pretty good and on a few of them the connection between part and sure is in an awkward location. The gun barrels in particular are crammed in there and will need EXTEMELY careful cutting. The piece count is once again high. However, things are starting to look up with this mini, and it is overall better than the Spartan. As always, final grade is at the end if you want to skip ahead.
The Build:
The torso area goes together well, but still too many piece to do so; the back plate may initially feel like it doesn’t fit, but it does, it actually snaps on a bit to be more secure. Be warned, there’s a massive seam running down the cockpit, and some mold lines on the left and right torso.
The waist plug that connects to the torso is shallow, but works, and most importantly allows you to rotate the torso for your final pose. Just to be clear, this part will need glued together, but you do have some choice in it its final pose. This will also be true for a couple other parts of the mini.
The legs fit together fairly well, with two pin connectors that fit the two halves together; connection to foot is also very solid, while it’s a small tab a lot of the foot fits flush with the leg for a good glue surface, and the foot itself will give a stable gluing connection to the base. *HOWEVER*, of the pieces I put together both have a minor gap near the bottom of the shin and one leg half was slightly offset from the other. As mentioned above, the legs are connected with 2 pins inside, so there’s not much leeway to slip up or down. I suspect this is a manufacturing error, the good news is on mine at least it’s small enough that once the model is assembled and painted neither of these things will ever be noticed. We’ll need more data from other backers to see if this is consistent, or just variations in the casting process. I suspect the latter.
On first glance, especially after the Spartan, the hip joints looked bad, but even after a quick dry fit I felt better about them. They look a little tenuous, but there’s enough surface area there to form a good bond. Also, they let you manipulate the legs a little bit for your pose, which is another good thing. For the most part, I really like the detail of the legs. I feel like they got that right, minus the thigh hole. By now you’ll have noticed the strange hole on the thighs. If you look at some art images of the Defender, this is meant to be a spotlight or running light, or possibly access port. Its purpose seems to vary a bit from art to art, and in fact some drawings don’t have them. They chose to try and put it on the mini, however, and to be blunt they failed. At this scale, it doesn’t look like anything other than a hole. I suspect some thoughtful paint application will make it look better, though some may wish to fill it. The other issue with the legs is that they too have joined the seam party, and I actually think they look a little worse than the Spartan.
The arms are pretty good, and the shoulder joint can rotate to your desired pose as well. The bad news is this joint is quite shallow, but it connects well enough. The forearm gun barrels plug right in, but the piece is slightly asymmetrical so I would advise looking close at the directions to make sure they are put in the right way.
THE GOOD STUFF: Some good poseability at the waist, thigh and shoulders. Details are pretty good overall, this looks much more like what I wanted. Good connections for most the pieces involved, all of them have at least one pin ridge or plug that connects it to the other pieces, making it a much more solid model, as well as a much easier build. While the bottom of the foot is hollow, there’s at least more total connection area to glue to the base, and the pose is also much more stable. Also, as you can see the mini can stand on its own very easily.
THE BAD STUFF: That damn seam down the cockpit is always gonna be front and center. The leg seams are pretty apparent as well. The Thigh Hole is a thing. Part count is still a bit high; the torso in particular. The shoulder connections are very shallow; they should have been deeper. While functional, time will tell if they become a structural weak point.
FINAL VERDICT: B – We’re getting better, and it does look pretty cool. Once I had it all together, the front seam was not the dealbreaker I thought it would be, For many of you, your personal verdict will be lower than mine but for me despite the front and center seam, and some slight manufacturing defects, the detail on this one feels and looks much better, and the poseability goes a long way. I do think the waist could have been made better by making it a ball joint instead of a plug, adding even more options. That’s the kind of extra design choice and finishing touch that would have put these over the top (well, that and minimizing the mistakes and strange choices.) Some good ideas can be seen here, and some bad as well. As it is, so far the RDF minis range from acceptable to good, and this one is much better than the Spartan.
Something I’ll test something out on this one tonight; I have some liquid green stuff (think of Green Stuff as a sculpting putty if you’re new to it.) that you can simply brush on and I think a quick pass with it will be enough to fix the seam. But it’s worth noting, that’s a step that shouldn’t be needed in the first place. Still, it should be a quick fix; I’ll post an addendum when I do so.
Here's a link to the pics on twitter:
Tomorrow, we’ll try the Veritech Fighter!
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Post by Deleted on Oct 10, 2014 16:59:30 GMT
and another review from him:
Andrew Carter 1 minute ago
Hey all! Today’s review is the Veritech Fighter mode.
A quick caveat to all this: The flight stand won’t have any bearing on the final grade. I used it this time to see how it works and review it, and I’ll definitely be covering it, but I don’t think it’s fair to judge it as part of this particular model when despite their differences between minis they’re basically a product wide choice. The review is a little shorter this time as it’s a much simpler and easier model, and as always you can skip ahead to the end verdict and highlights if needed.
This will probably be the easiest RDF mini you build, and certainly the fastest on average! Provided you do it all in a certain order. The instructions don’t show any order to it, so I’ve gone over it in the build section. Follow that path and you should be just fine.
THE BUILD:
The main fuselage goes right together and it’s your starting point, but it’s a little bit of a loose fit where the wings plug in. Thankfully, once plugged in the wings fix this issue, and you can’t see it. Do take some care to line the wings up straight and level though. From here, assemble (if needed) and glue the head/lasers on underneath. Most of the head choices are single pieces, but for this I went with the quad, and you will have to glue that version's lasers to the head. Be warned, this part is extremely small and fiddly. Annoyingly so. It will attach to fuselage very well though, and the majority you build will be the basic one piece head which will be easier. Next, attach the Gun Pod in the center. It attaches from the gungrip, and it’s a good fit. As you can see, it will want to angle downward at the front, because of the slight angle of the undercarriage and one of the gun fins will also direct it that way. I don’t mind that so much on this on visually, but you may consider cutting that fin off the gun pod to secure a tighter fit to the main body. It’s very important that you put the Head/Lasers part on first, BEFORE the gun pod. If you put the gun pod on first, you will not be able to put the head/laser unit on. After that, the legs/engines should be assembled and then attached to the body. The legs/engines themselves could go together better and join the seam club, but at least they fit very snug to the body. (Side note, take a quick look at the instructions to make sure they’re right side up.) Finally, attach the tail fins. These don’t have a very strict fit or obvious attachment point. You can see how they’re supposed to attach, but it’s less plug and play and more hold it at your desired angle until the glue dries. I didn’t use any of the missile options yet, but you can attach those after assembly quite easily.
And now the flight stand. Ugh. The flight stands are ugly, especially in brown. I’ll suggest some ideas/alternatives for them below, but first the physical part. It’s pretty thin, and tapers from bottom to top. The bottom where it attaches to the base is narrow enough, but the connection to model is precarious as all hell. There’s a tiny slot at the top that attaches to the gun barrel, and it won’t take much effort at all to break that. A little downward force and it’ll snap right at that joint. And I’m saying this because mine did just that. I’m hoping the others are better. If you’re up for it, I’d suggest finding an alternative stand of your choice. Many other companies make clear flight stands, but these would require some light drilling into the base and mini both to use. If you are going to use the swoosh flight stand supplied on the sprue, be careful. Also, if you do use them and you’re painting your minis, you’ll need to consider what to paint them. If you’re not painting the base, I’d simply paint them black. Or you could also use them as a way to tell which of your squads is which. (I.E. Squad one could all have blue stands, squad 2 all red, etc.) This lets you keep some kind of squad consistency without them all having to have the same paint job.
Detail wise, I have no particular issues; it looks pretty much right and it’s much sharper than the pictures we’ve seen suggested. At this point I really believe the brown plastic just photographs ugly. Looking at it top down, you can see a lot of good detail. The wings look a little thick and flat on the front edge, but not all that bad. It’s something that’s magnified in the pictures, but better in person. There's also a small seam issue running down the center of the nose.
THE GOOD THINGS: A lot of good detail can be found here, and the mini goes together very easily once you know the order. There’s lots of good extras in the form of the missile options and head/laser options. Also, this is the first RDF mini that didn’t feel like it had too many parts. It does look pretty cool, even downright badass from the front. I may or may not have flown it around the room making engine noises.
THE BAD THINGS: Some of the connections are not intuitive and a little loose and require some fitting or adjusting on your part. Gorram those head/laser units are tiny…prepare to get glue on your fingers. Finally, I forsee a lot of broken flight stands in the future.
Final Verdict: B+ Piece count is way down, and easy build. Very cool looking, but needed some final polish and attention to detail to put it over the top. Still, once it’s built, it’s fun and does look pretty cool.
Here's a link to the pics:
Next up: Recovery Pod!
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Post by Jaymz on Oct 13, 2014 18:46:45 GMT
By Andrew Carter
Hello again! Back with another review, this time the Zentraedi Recovery Pod.
Quick Review today, overall this one's pretty good, but there's some major things to be aware of.
Initially, I had very high hopes for this model. It always looked very straight forward to build when I looked at the sprue, and it also looked to be sculpted much better...much truer to the source. Lookswise, it was indeed that, but when I assembled the first one I ran into several problems; the pieces just didn't go together that well. They were often just a bit off, but also inconsistent; for example the joint for one arm fit perfect the body, the other one didn't want to fit at all. Things just didn't want to work right or fit right. I was so frustrated with some it that I was almost considering going all the way down to a "C" on it and moving on, but something else occurred to me, and I needed to assemble another one to make sure.
Turns out my first sprue was very poorly cast. Not miscast mind you, everything was there and in good order, but poorly cast. Things just formed a little off. I'm happy to say the second one was much more what I expected, though there were still some alignment issues...different ones than I encountered on the first.
If you look at the 1st picture, on the top one you can long back antennae on the back are bent up. That's the way it came on the sprue. If you see something like that, brace yourself for a little more work.
The BUILD:
This one's pretty straight forward, but before you start be aware that the hull pieces each have a sprue connection to the front eye of the mecha. Be VERY careful when removing them; I had better luck cutting the connections and twisting the last one off, but whatever method you use be careful. Main body is 2 pieces, then I'd suggest the arm assembly (2 halves and a hand, very quick and the hand plugs right in) and attach them to the hull as well. The attachment points may be a little off, depending on how well yours formed. Next the thruster slides right on the back of the hull, and then comes the barrel like object that holds the rear antennae. It's also the tricky part because-
THE DIRECTIONS ARE WRONG.
The piece shown on the directions is different than the one you have. On paper it shows it to be round, but the actual piece has a cut out to connect to the hull. It took some dry-fitting, but just make sure the cut out portion attaches to the hull and that the flat edge is on the top side, and you'll get the correct fit. This will all make a little more sense when you attach it. Next, the large antennae fit right on it in the pose of your choice. After that, it's time for the tiny parts. two antennae go one top. They're not too bad, but the connection point on the hull is, so it may take you a few tries to get it right, especially if it's poorly cast. There are also 2 small fins that go on the bottom. These are extremely tiny, but plug right in. make sure to attach them before you attach the flight stand! Finally, it's flight stand time. I'm happy to say it looks much better, and the lack of "swooshy" sculpting on it, combined with the grey plastic, makes it acceptable. The attachment point is very good and secure.
THE GOOD STUFF: Detail is spot on, feels much better thought out, and most of the build is intuitive. Part counts is no bad at all, minimal mold lines and seams, depending on casting.
THE BAD STUFF: Casting quality will vary on this one, meaning parts may not fit as well as they should. The sprue connection to the main eye on the hull is just plain bad. Some of the connecting points were poorly thought out, and I have no idea what's up with the different piece in the directions.
FINAL VERDICT: B+ Overall this is much better, looks exactly as it should. The variations in casting quality I encountered could be a problem; you may have an easy time of it, or it may tick you off. I had both experiences, but even the well cast one didn't always want to fit right. I have a feeling there's going to be a lot of variation on this one; though it's possible I just drew the short straw. Please let me know if you guys are encountering similar problems. If not, if this one was just a one off, then I'll happily upgrade my verdict to and A-.
Next Up: Veritech Guardian!
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Post by InitiatedNeophyte on Jan 3, 2015 15:26:15 GMT
"I may or may not have flown it around the room making engine noises."
I laughed pretty hard at that one.
Guys, thanks so much for posting these reviews. I am not a facebooker, so would not have found these otherwise. If there are more, please add them to this thread.
I'm a newbie to any serious model building (hence the name). So, I will likely start a thread giving my impressions, once I feel I have enough knowledge to really dig in.
Cheers!
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