Dire Troll Assembly Guide
I should have photoed along the way, but with at least a few Trollblood players in the targeted audience of this Blog I though I’d run through how I assembled my Mauler. I took several weeks to accomplish it (Bought him the day Game Parlor got him in and just finished him last night)but I spent probably a total of 1-2 hours working on him, it could probably be done in as little as 1-2 hours over 2-3 Days. You need that curing time to ensure good adhesion of some of the pieces with the green stuff. Thus I don;t recomend putting this off until the night before a tournament. (Speaking to both Khador Players who tried to assemble a Behemoth just before the Disorderlies Warmachine tourney.)
First thing go out and pick up some green stuff. It will make your life easy in the assembly process and later painting process.
Parts
Left Upper Torso
Right Upper Torso
Lower Torso and Left Leg
Right Leg
Spine mane
Face
Left Fang
Right Fang
Left Arm
Right Arm
As usual clean all the mold lines flash, and weird crap found on the miniatures. Sometimes the Mold releaser can affect miniature assembly. I always wash minis before priming but lately I have also started washing up the pieces before assembly. Do what you normally do to prep complex minis for assembly
Day 1
I started with the upper torso. All I did was roll out a snake of green stuff and ran it all along the joint between the left and right upper torso. Press together and hold for a minute or so, then set it out of the way for 30 minutes.
Next, I drilled a pin hole into both the lower torso and right Leg. Test fit and ID if you have any glaring gaps. I had a decent size gap on the bottom of the mini so I set a short snake of epoxy on one side glued the pin in place on the other side and then pressed together. Hold for about 30 seconds to make sure the super glue adheres, set aside for 30 minutes.
Go back to the upper torso and clean up the semi-hardened epoxy to get a smooth joint that looks good, do the same on the lower torso and legs. Now let this cure for a good 12-18 hours, I let mine go for almost 24 hours. The only thing holding the upper torso together is the green stuff. I’ve discovered it has marvelous adhesion properties, but only if you let it cure properly.
Day 2
Get yourself some more green stuff made up and roll out a nice snake on the joint for the upper and lower torso. Follow the same steps done for the upper torso halves. Let it cure at least 30 minutes and then clean up the joint so it looks nice and smooth. Again let this cure for a good long while. I let mine go for another 24 hours.
Above are the two time-limiting events. The steps below can be taken in pieces during the 30 minute curing times or whenever you feel like it.
The Arms
Once again make up a fresh batch of epoxy. I drilled pin holes for both the left and the right arm joints. Test fit to ensure the pin holes line up acceptably, then roll out a snake of epoxy for the joint and lay it around the outer rim of the upper torso side of the joint. Glue the pin in place on the upper joint, add glue to the bottom of the pin (I used pretty long pins to keep super glue/Epoxy interaction to a minimum) Squeeze together and hold for 30s to let the super glue cure, Repeat on the other side and let the upper torso rest for 30 minutes. Clean up the epoxy around the joint to make it smooth. In this step the epoxy is mostly aesthetic. Otherwise you will likely have an exposed joint seem just above the biceps that will look pretty bad. But the green stuff will assist the pin holding the joint and should provide a very strong joint for gaming.
Face
I pinned both of the fangs into the face with a sewing pin, small enough to drill into the bottom of the fang but sturdy enough to help hold it. I them placed a ball of green epoxy onto the top of the joint in the back of the face, and a little super glue in the bottom. Squeeze the face onto the torso and hold for 30 seconds. As usual after it’s cured for 30 minutes go back and clean the joint up.
Spiney Mane
I did something similar with that that I did with arms, pin and green stuff. I had a pretty significant gap between the bottom of the mane and the top of the torso that was supposed to be under it. I drilled pin holes at the top of the mane/torso juncture and snaked out epoxy along the entire length of the mane. The difficult part on this one is finding the pin hole through the green epoxy. I found it without too much trouble and didn’t bother with the Super glue/epoxy interaction. Green stuff was shoved up into the pin hole during the process and there was plenty of epoxy left unmarred by super glue along the rest of the mane. Once again after a 30 minute cure time go back and clean up the joint.
In the end I’m pretty pleased with the way it came out. I’m still working on my Green stuff sculpting skills, I’ll never be as good as Jeff M., but I’m beginning to manage my way around joint filling better, and still making it look decent. I’m a little disappointed with the size of the Dire Troll. Wish it was a little bit larger, at least the size of the Carnivean! But he’s pretty good looking. He’s somewhat down on the paint que right now, but I’ll post pics when he is done.
First thing go out and pick up some green stuff. It will make your life easy in the assembly process and later painting process.
Parts
Left Upper Torso
Right Upper Torso
Lower Torso and Left Leg
Right Leg
Spine mane
Face
Left Fang
Right Fang
Left Arm
Right Arm
As usual clean all the mold lines flash, and weird crap found on the miniatures. Sometimes the Mold releaser can affect miniature assembly. I always wash minis before priming but lately I have also started washing up the pieces before assembly. Do what you normally do to prep complex minis for assembly
Day 1
I started with the upper torso. All I did was roll out a snake of green stuff and ran it all along the joint between the left and right upper torso. Press together and hold for a minute or so, then set it out of the way for 30 minutes.
Next, I drilled a pin hole into both the lower torso and right Leg. Test fit and ID if you have any glaring gaps. I had a decent size gap on the bottom of the mini so I set a short snake of epoxy on one side glued the pin in place on the other side and then pressed together. Hold for about 30 seconds to make sure the super glue adheres, set aside for 30 minutes.
Go back to the upper torso and clean up the semi-hardened epoxy to get a smooth joint that looks good, do the same on the lower torso and legs. Now let this cure for a good 12-18 hours, I let mine go for almost 24 hours. The only thing holding the upper torso together is the green stuff. I’ve discovered it has marvelous adhesion properties, but only if you let it cure properly.
Day 2
Get yourself some more green stuff made up and roll out a nice snake on the joint for the upper and lower torso. Follow the same steps done for the upper torso halves. Let it cure at least 30 minutes and then clean up the joint so it looks nice and smooth. Again let this cure for a good long while. I let mine go for another 24 hours.
Above are the two time-limiting events. The steps below can be taken in pieces during the 30 minute curing times or whenever you feel like it.
The Arms
Once again make up a fresh batch of epoxy. I drilled pin holes for both the left and the right arm joints. Test fit to ensure the pin holes line up acceptably, then roll out a snake of epoxy for the joint and lay it around the outer rim of the upper torso side of the joint. Glue the pin in place on the upper joint, add glue to the bottom of the pin (I used pretty long pins to keep super glue/Epoxy interaction to a minimum) Squeeze together and hold for 30s to let the super glue cure, Repeat on the other side and let the upper torso rest for 30 minutes. Clean up the epoxy around the joint to make it smooth. In this step the epoxy is mostly aesthetic. Otherwise you will likely have an exposed joint seem just above the biceps that will look pretty bad. But the green stuff will assist the pin holding the joint and should provide a very strong joint for gaming.
Face
I pinned both of the fangs into the face with a sewing pin, small enough to drill into the bottom of the fang but sturdy enough to help hold it. I them placed a ball of green epoxy onto the top of the joint in the back of the face, and a little super glue in the bottom. Squeeze the face onto the torso and hold for 30 seconds. As usual after it’s cured for 30 minutes go back and clean the joint up.
Spiney Mane
I did something similar with that that I did with arms, pin and green stuff. I had a pretty significant gap between the bottom of the mane and the top of the torso that was supposed to be under it. I drilled pin holes at the top of the mane/torso juncture and snaked out epoxy along the entire length of the mane. The difficult part on this one is finding the pin hole through the green epoxy. I found it without too much trouble and didn’t bother with the Super glue/epoxy interaction. Green stuff was shoved up into the pin hole during the process and there was plenty of epoxy left unmarred by super glue along the rest of the mane. Once again after a 30 minute cure time go back and clean up the joint.
In the end I’m pretty pleased with the way it came out. I’m still working on my Green stuff sculpting skills, I’ll never be as good as Jeff M., but I’m beginning to manage my way around joint filling better, and still making it look decent. I’m a little disappointed with the size of the Dire Troll. Wish it was a little bit larger, at least the size of the Carnivean! But he’s pretty good looking. He’s somewhat down on the paint que right now, but I’ll post pics when he is done.
posted by Stahler77 at
10:12 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home