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I used greenstuff on every single SDE model. I wasn't taking any chances.

It is rare that I get completely apoplectic when constructing miniatures. Aside from the SDE minis the only other two times have been when putting together the 100% resin FW Stormblade (I almost threw that thing at a wall), and the second generation Iron Wind Metals 'Blood Asp' BattleTech mini (that did end up sailing across the room). I can't imagine a few gribbly Strain models would have the same effect.

ooh, I remember that stormblade. had to break out all kinds of power tools before that went anywhere. That bad, huh?
...for a product targeting boardgamers? yowza, that must have been quite the row

 OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:

 Andrew1975 wrote:
Would have been nice to see some of the actual miniatures assembled. I'm kind of surprised they pulled them off the sprue and bagged them, seams like an expensive and unnecessary process.

The moulds they have will produce single figures will no sprue to remove, they'll just drop into a bin.

Many will be single part so just need to be popped onto the bases. Only a few of them are multipart like the grendler

one of the moulds for a samaritan trooper is shown below, the picture was taken while it was being fine tuned, hence the red gunk use to show where it's meeting etc

Spoiler:

Instead of whining in advance we could just wait until the product arrives?!

There are literally thousands of thermo- and duroplasts and we do not know which exactly was used for the SW-minis. The only thing we know at the momen is that we need CA-glue as with most duroplasts.

Hm. Before that video I felt quite patient about the whole thing. Now having seen it I want my damned boxed sets right now!!!!

 Andrew1975 wrote:

Still seams like an extra headache and extra expense. You could push out on one or two big sprues instead of 50 individual models. Is this because of the type of material used to make the minis?

I think there are 2 factors at play

1. Multi-item sprues take a lot more fiddling to get right, as the plastic flows through the mould you can get backflow & eddies due to the shapes & complex sprue pathways leading to incomplete casts (this is one of the reasons old plastic sprues were so 'empty' to avoid it, the new GW 'full' sprues require a lot more time and money to fine tune(

a bit more speculative this, but it fits with what I've read about injection moulding and what Bryan from Reaper has said about their Bones project which is a different plastic but still going the sprueless route.

2. The single figure moulds are actually really small, and I suspect this is beacuse they are being done in a machine opperating at lower pressure (no need to force the liquid plastic so far)
possibly temperature than one used for conventional polystyrene moulding (Reapers plastic is liquid at 500 degrees and solidifies by 400)
this may be helping with either speed,
factory availability (no point going to a factory that just isn't up to standard, look at what happened with mantics goblins on traditional sprues, decent greens, horrible plastics)
or maybe cost again (smaller blocks of steel & less machining

*Edit* Not going to feed the obvious troll in this topic since it will only result in me being moderated for nothing and him staying in topic, flaming people.

 OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:

 Andrew1975 wrote:

Still seams like an extra headache and extra expense. You could push out on one or two big sprues instead of 50 individual models. Is this because of the type of material used to make the minis?

I think there are 2 factors at play

1. Multi-item sprues take a lot more fiddling to get right, as the plastic flows through the mould you can get backflow & eddies due to the shapes & complex sprue pathways leading to incomplete casts (this is one of the reasons old plastic sprues were so 'empty' to avoid it, the new GW 'full' sprues require a lot more time and money to fine tune(

a bit more speculative this, but it fits with what I've read about injection moulding and what Bryan from Reaper has said about their Bones project which is a different plastic but still going the sprueless route.

2. The single figure moulds are actually really small, and I suspect this is beacuse they are being done in a machine opperating at lower pressure (no need to force the liquid plastic so far)
possibly temperature than one used for conventional polystyrene moulding (Reapers plastic is liquid at 500 degrees and solidifies by 400)
this may be helping with either speed,
factory availability (no point going to a factory that just isn't up to standard, look at what happened with mantics goblins on traditional sprues, decent greens, horrible plastics)
or maybe cost again (smaller blocks of steel & less machining

Thanks. Makes sense. Plus not putting everything on one big sprue is less flexible I guess. There are plenty of miniatures GW put on some of those big sprues that people wish they could get separately.

true. I kind of do remember Mike sort-of confirming most non-limited models will be available separately or in squads from studio McVey at some point.

On a completely unrelated note, I suddenly had an idea last night. Does anyone think the Hellbrute from the Dark Vengeance set would make a really neat strain model, with it's semi-organic looks?

Maybe it could be some sort of bulk ship cargo loader that has been infected. Or maybe even a purpose-formed strain model, like the Cthonian or Grendlr, rather than something infected. It of course would be assumed that the obviously Chaos icons would be greenstuff-ed over as well, probably with more organic texture.

...naah, firstly it's organic on a mechanical base, not the other way around as the strain are, and aside from that it looks too... crude for the rather sleek SW setting.
the closest GW Chaos marines come to SW-suitable is that abominable maulerfiend thing, which, with a LOT of converting, might actually make a half-decent bigger brother to the grendlr.

I was just wondering as even though it's mainly mechanical, the Cthonian and Grendlr are described as the first of the Strain's purpose-build beings powered by some sort of Dark Energy, rather than corrupted humans.

Hmm. Well above all, the moment that thing arrives on your doorstep it's your game, meant for you to enjoy yourself with. If you think the hellbrute fits, if it looks good to you, go ahead and have fun! Taste is by definition subjective.

What I mean is that the whole premise of the model is different. it's bulky, angular and most of all, looks like someone plastered the interior of **the** most hideous over-9000sq.ft. gothic-styled palace over the top of it (which actually works for the model. draconically tasteless as it is, it fits the diabolic villains look perfectly and I rather like it - from the front at least!) whereas by contrast, SW Strain minis are sleek with lots of well-defined, but still relatively soft curves, with the 'mechanical' bits looking quite minimalistic and streamlined, at times.

Basically it's comparing a sportscar to an SUV. Both can be totally awesome, but they're hardly interchangeable.

Feth, SW Strain are closer to 40K 'Nids than they are to CSM...

You might be able to work it in as an 'infected' THI depending on how they scale together

Think an infected person last just long enough before 'straining' to have got into the THI suit, now the new strain is trying to get out through the suit, unsure whether it wants to use the human or new mechanical host

Didn't THI suits have something fancy that would prevent mutation in fluff, or was that a gnosis suit thing, or am I just hallucinating? I seem to remember something like that from some thread on the McVey SW forum.

Oh I dunno, I can see the Hellbrute working for the strain, albeit with some heavy converting. I just bought pledged for heaps of aliens in the trollforge kickstarter though so I have enough allies for the strain as it is!

Bolognesus wrote:
Didn't THI suits have something fancy that would prevent mutation in fluff, or was that a gnosis suit thing, or am I just hallucinating? I seem to remember something like that from some thread on the McVey SW forum.

That was the Gnosis Armour as that is a specifically designed high end battle suit

The THI is basically as futuristic forklift truck & maintenance unit so would not have anything that fancy (maybe those the Firebrand rebels are fielding might have been upgraded but not all of them)

Oh right, that would figure.
...it is bloody well armoured for a forklift truck though

A armoured forklift that can be used in the vaccuum of space no less!

...Right. That would help

The idea with the Hell Brute is nice...especially if you would like some custom Scenarios.
Good Job!

 OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:
You might be able to work it in as an 'infected' THI depending on how they scale together

Think an infected person last just long enough before 'straining' to have got into the THI suit, now the new strain is trying to get out through the suit, unsure whether it wants to use the human or new mechanical host

the thi suit is terminator sized the hellbrute is about trice as high and wide so wouldnt work for a thi , but could work for a hvy lifter or maybe a cheaper older version of the knosis armour ?

Well looks like we all missed this update, Mike added a new blog post last Friday November 16th
http://studiomcvey.blogspot.co.uk/

most relevant part (the rest is worth a read as well):

.....Battle for Alabaster in 100% finished and waiting to be loaded onto boats in China - as soon as it touches down the Kickstarter orders will be shipped and dispatched, followed shortly afterwards by the regular retail release.....

...We have also been hard at work creating all the new content generated by the Kickstarter campaign - with some really great sculpts being made and exciting scenarios written. I'll post some of the material here as soon as I get the chance.....

Good spot! This is exciting news. I look forward to wrapping it up for Xmas. Then unwrapping it on Xmas Day!

 DaveC wrote:
Well looks like we all missed this update, Mike added a new blog post last Friday November 16th
http://studiomcvey.blogspot.co.uk/

most relevant part (the rest is worth a read as well):

.....Battle for Alabaster in 100% finished and waiting to be loaded onto boats in China - as soon as it touches down the Kickstarter orders will be shipped and dispatched, followed shortly afterwards by the regular retail release.....

...We have also been hard at work creating all the new content generated by the Kickstarter campaign - with some really great sculpts being made and exciting scenarios written. I'll post some of the material here as soon as I get the chance.....

I thought we were at that point a month or so ago when the pictures of the pallets were posted...

~Eric

Zwan1One wrote:
Good spot! This is exciting news. I look forward to wrapping it up for Xmas. Then unwrapping it on Xmas Day!

Not on the boat yet = not a good chance of getting this in time for Christmas though...

So much for December...

Ah well. Plenty of Deathwatch to play in the meantime!

Gogo early February!

Taarnak wrote:

I thought we were at that point a month or so ago when the pictures of the pallets were posted...

~Eric

Remember 1/3 of the copies were delayed due to Chinese printer shenanigans. Even if those pictured were sitting in a warehouse in the UK, they won't ship till they can meet all the orders. The anger and outrage over the Zombicide fiasco shows supporters will have zero tolerance if it seems that some people are not getting their copies the same time as everyone else. Let everyone wait instead of having a fraction get angry and cancel because they didn't have theirs when everyone else is showing off their Christmas copies.

Great Spot DaveC

The most important part of the news is that Mike & Ali are back online so if they want to communicate they can