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It's a lazy Friday, and I thought I'd get crackin' on some Starship Troopers!


Woo hoo, another three boxes of toy soldier gooness! This is in addition to the two box sets I already own. Who's in the wrong hobby now, huh?! >_<


Six freshly packed bags of Arachnid Warriors. Makes you want to drool, doesn't it? We'll be using two boxes worth for this

project, the extra box will be used for a conversion project


The first twenty sprues, laid out on my floor. These little bastards take up a ton of space, both on the sprue, and after being assembled. I decided I'd learn from my experiences for once and assemble these things better than the last batch. Thus, I assembled the top half with glue and the lower half were punched free and assembled WITHOUT glue glue. You'll want to clean all the pieces, especially the lower body, cutting off the injection mark on the inside of the lower torso halves.


For the next batch, I moved my workspace on top of my bed.


A basic sprue, ready to go.


Cut the rightmost part of the sprue off. It makes life easier.


Cut the upper body pieces free. Toss aside the spare sprue.


Extra sprue goes in the garbage. Or just toss it in the left over box top to be disposed of later.


Take the file, and file a bit off the top and bottom of the two tabs the jaws attack to. The jaws have a tendency to pop off if you don't. Don't file too far, or they won't fit snugly. Glue the jaws in place.


Cut free the torso halves. If this picture wasn't so damn blurry you would see I cut off the injecton mark in the center there. You should also clean off the injection mark that attached it to the sprue.


Guess what I did here. DON'T USE GLUE!


It should look a lot like this. If you want your Arachnid Warriors to ever fit anywhere else except in a giant tupperware container, you want want to skip the glue here.


A full forty Arachnid Warriors, ready to rock your face.


Okay, here we go, cut all the legs free. This is such a pain, and so is cleaning them.


I'm alternating the legs in this pic. It's almost ready to be glued into place. We're ready to go, right?  Add some glue to the sockets, place the legs into the socket, and very quickly, add glue to the top of the ball leg connectors. Hope you have the other crotch half on hand, cuz this step and the next step should be done in the space of a few seconds. Otherwise the glue will set, and you'll be in an world of hurt. Place the other half on and squeeze them together. You may notice that the pieces don't fit toegether perfectly. Well, it may not be exactly kosher, but I just "bit down" on both halves and they came together with a very satisfying "snap!" Once this is done, you're ready to turn the legs into their proper position. Do it quick, cuz the glue sets up in no time... If all went well, you've turned the legs downward and the model is properly assembled. Do this on a level surface so the legs come out properly.


Let's hope you didn't screw it up, huh? Just remember, the glue you should be using is the super high-grade kind, and should flash-glue the pieces in place. It's like uber-superglue and polystyrene cement, all in one. Brace thyself.


Now that's done, this is what you have left.


Break out the clippers, and start snipping.


This is all you should have left; the arms and the bended leg pieces.


Cut free the arms. Guess what, cleaning these is a pain too.


Now for the arms. Don't worry about mixing up the right or left arms, Mongoose Publishing have already taken the intelligence of the average gamer into account into account, and planned accordingly. Both the right and left arms, have pole-and-socket of two different sizes, so there's little chance of getting the left and right arms wrong. The arms are posable, but if you pose the arm too low, it'll cause problems when you attach them to the lower body later.


The first ten completed Arachnid Warriors have secured the high ground of my TV set, and patiently await reinforcements from their insectiod brethren.

And that's it! My hands are cramping up after doing just these ten, so I'll call it a day.

--Chris
www.chrisvalera.com

Edited by Waaagh_Gonads to compley with Dakka forum rule 1

NOOO,, get back to work slave,,cracking the whip,,I want ALL done and painted by Sunday night.

If you'd like some less stressful ways of assembling bugs might I suggest the Testors brand plastic sement?
Its great stuff, takes about 24hrs to get dry, but its usually in about 30 seconds.
I usually put the testors glue in the sockets of the bug legs and super glue in the pin and shaft.
Then I assemble, move the legs how I want and super glue the legs.
Little extra work but what isn't on these huh?

Posted By Foda_Bett on 04/08/2006 9:27 AM
If you'd like some less stressful ways of assembling bugs might I suggest the Testors brand plastic sement?
Its great stuff, takes about 24hrs to get dry, but its usually in about 30 seconds.
I usually put the testors glue in the sockets of the bug legs and super glue in the pin and shaft.
Then I assemble, move the legs how I want and super glue the legs.
Little extra work but what isn't on these huh?

Polystyrene cement doesn't work. I glued my first batch of MI together from the last two boxes I bought and watched as they cracked apart as I tried to add the shoulder pads. Good thing I found that out before moving on the AWs.  Superglue has poor tensile strength, the legs might eventually break.

The stuff I'm using is for lexan, and it works great. The downside is, once it's glue, it's glued, there's no more play with the figures. It's a lot of hassle, but you only have to do it once.

It's a lot like both superglue and polystyrene cement, so it's a lot like your idea.

--Chris
www.chrisvalera.com

Hot from the oven, a fresh new batch of Arachnid Warriors! Take a look:


Ten Arachnid Warriors take and hold my computer scanner.


Another ten Arachnid Warriors line up for inspection, basking in the glow of my computer monitor.

I have to say, doing these has made me remember just how much I hate assembling Arachnid Warrior models to begin with. Seriously, even splitting the work between yesterday and today didn't help.

And I still have ten left to do... plus another twenty or so for that conversion project... should be good times.

--Chris
www.chrisvalera.com

Alright, here's the last batch:



Arachnid Warriors make base camp in front of my VCR, and an old Genesis video game console.

I haven't gotten the shot of them all together, I thought I'd leave you something to come back to. I'm busy tomorrow so don't expect miracles, but I'll try and fit something in, so leep checking back for updates.

--Chris
www.chrisvalera.com