Hello Dakka!
Naturally, everything that can come up on your day off, does. Nevertheless, in between it all I was able to find a spot of time to go through the new plastic Deff Dread kit, and get pics of it and its components during the process. It took a little longer than I would have liked, but that's what happens when you build a preview model with no instructions! Here goes:
The main body and legs went together without much difficulty; I've learned through the years of building preview figs that the big pieces that have unfinished/undetailed spots are usually bits that fit onto or with others, and to look for symmetrical pieces that are opposite sides of each other, stuff like that. In general, you just get an eye for which pieces are part of the main structure.
The main body is made up of two side pieces that curve around and meet in the front, with sockets for all the limbs; a back piece with slots for the engines; the top plate with the manhole cover entry point; and a bottom piece that helps hold the two side/front pieces together and has the dangly wire wot-notz. The legs were all one piece; they fit into the hips with a ball-and-socket joint so you can get a little motion into the model's stance. There's some integral armor plates that slot onto the outside of the upper part of the legs, and you have the option of a big stompy steel-toe covers for the front of the feet, or some rippy hooked claws that slot onto the sides of the feet (kinda like Hive Tyrant or Lictor feet). I used the traditional vision slit for the top, and the big Iron Gob piece for the front. The gob sits on two hinge pieces that fit into the sides of the main body, so you actually have a little play with it whether you want it more up or down. There's four smokestacks and they all aim backward like that when you build it as-is. I like a more vertical stack (it's what my dad's Peterbilt had, so it's what I'm used to), but I decided to just build this one straight. I can always channel my inner Big Mek for the second and subsequent go-rounds.
Here's all the
CC arms and slashin' bits:
The larger upper arms were both single pieces, the lower arms were two-piece bits. One of the upper arms gets a big spiky wrist piece with a socket for a cuttin' bit at the end, the other one gets a more utilitarian socket box that fits at the end (a Grot musta built that side!)
Here's all the shooty bits:
You get a pair of Rokkits, Big Shootas, and Mega-Blastas, and one Scorcha. The Rokkits and Mega Blastas are one-piece; you have to glue the ammo bins onto the Big Shootas and the back of the Scorcha with the fuel tanks is a two-part piece. The all slot onto little ball-joints that fit onto the main body.
And here's the other front-plate options, the shoulder-pad/armor pieces that don't go on until the build is complete, and all the extra gubbinz you get:
I really like the tusked lower jaw bit, but I couldn't find a solid place to fit it onto the front by itself and I'm too much of a traditionalist to choose the full Ork-skull front over the classic vision slit/targeting bit combo.
Finally, here's some shots of the whole thing. I armed mine with a pair of Rokkits, and added some of the detail bitz. The only area of the model I'm really not happy with is the lip above the manhole cover set in-between the shoulders. It's a lot of open, undetailed space and it's really glaringly bland. I put a little glyph plate there to break up the plainness. Also, there are two sets of curved armor pads that fit onto the upper arms and shoulders of the main body, both of which aren't very intuitive. The smaller plates have a little detailed L-joint bit underneath with some bolts on the end of it, which, according the picture of the finished model on the
GW site just glue on to the top of the
CC arms. There's no designated space for them to attach to, so they end up covering other details. The larger plates that fit on the main body have an undetailed ridge and post underneath them; I couldn't find a place on the model in the general area these are supposed to go where they fit properly, so I ended up cutting down the post and curving it to sit on top of the shoulder, then set the whole thing up against the model, found three glue-points, and attached it. They both look fine, and weren't too big of a hassle, but it was a little silly to have such a bit of wonkiness at the end of what is otherwise an easy model to assemble. I suppose it wouldn't be properly Orky without a bit of bodging necessary somewhere
I really like the back, it looks like a couple of engine blocks stuck on!
And a shot next to a Big Mek, for scale:
I'm very happy with this kit, and the overkill artist in me already wants three or so more, so I have all options, and all the extra bits to add to the pile for finishing the Gargant. At one point in the past, I built a Deff Dread and a set of three Kans when they were only in metal, and those models were a fiasco. They were held together with superglue and a prayer. This is an unquantifiable improvement. On to the Kans!
Thanks for reading!
-Dis.
. The physical model is 3" from the shoulders to the table, 4" from the stacks, and it's wingspan from rippy sawblade to snippy cuttin' Klaw is something around 6" in width.
