More boots approach

One of these things is not like the others.

Due to some schedule swaps, I had a larger than usual amount of hobby time available yesterday.  As such I packed up quite the laundry list of potential modelling projects:

• The 2 player box, save the Destroyer chassis which is now Black Ivan
• Old Witch + Scrapjack
• Aiyana & Holt
• eIrusk
• Trollblood starter box

I also had my usual huge stack of books for flipping.  (As a side note, I want an all-inclusive Warmachine app that lets me flip through full entries for all the stuff in the game.  I realize this won't happen because it would invalidate the Forces books, plus all the cards, and basically give someone the whole of the game (minus the rules) in the one place, but isn't that what that program that rhymes with Smarmy Guilder does already?  iBodger is great and all, but sometimes I want to see the exact wording of a feat while on the crapper, in the car, at work, or elsewhere when my books aren't handy:)  While I didn't get as much out of that time as I hoped I would, I did make some progress, as you can see on the left.

Something is very wrong.

My first thought was to lead this paragraph with "I ran into a minor setback," or something in a similar vein.  That would be a misleading though, as the setback was not so minor.  As the pictures attest, the Annihilator Blades are warped worse than anything I've dealt with before.  The leader's blade was close enough to be glued on, but the others will all require work.  Trawling the forums confirmed my initial solution: dip into hot water and bend into the desired shape.  It looks like I'll have to boil the water and will also need some cold water handy to set the pieces when I'm done bending them.  This doesn't sound so bad at first, but it must be noted that there isn't much cooking that goes on here.  Using the stove, even for something as mundane as boiling water, constitutes an adventure.  Hopefully the process goes smoothly.  While building this set of Men-O-War I put the lessons I learned with the Bombardiers to use and puttied all the joints, except for the feet (but they'll get a sort of puttying when I fill in the gaps in the base).  Even so I had an arm come off on me, though I'll chalk that one up to pressing too hard on a shoulder join that wasn't even close to dry.  That said, this batch feels more stable than the Bombardiers did.  Still having issues with the loin cloths though.  In playing around with lists I used two full squads of Shock Troopers, plus Demo Corps, so chances are good that I'll have more bites at this particular apple.  Definitely disappointed with overall quality though (some of the pieces looked like they didn't fill the mould enough).  Since it will be a while before I look to more Men-O-War I can hope they clear the jams in the system between now and then.

Alternate angle.

In unexpected news, NGF asked after models yesterday.  He couched it in his usual manner ("So I guess all your marines are Blood Angels?"  "Pretty much, I have some odds and ends floating around."  "I don't suppose one of those might happen to possibly be a Devastator?  Those guys are kinda awesome."), but the gist of it was "I want a marine for my desk at work."  My gamer shame runs deep, so this motivation makes me a little skittish, but NGF is not hampered by any such notions.  I had him pegged for an Assault Marine guy, but the Devastator doesn't surprise me.  I'm calling it now: Heavy Bolter, wide stance, possibly a Dark Angel but more likely from the grey plastic chapter.  Assembly should be an easy sell as NGF likes putting things together (actually it's taking things apart and then putting them back together, but it's the same idea), but I expect painting to be akin to pulling teeth.  Still, the long con takes a step closer to completion.  I'll be making a trip to the FLGS today or tomorrow to get a box of Devs, and if that goes well then maybe I'll look into the Gears of War game.