Sunday 5 May 2013

Plastic Apocalypse Survivors

This week, I feel that I've finally got some of my painting and model-making mojo back, after a long winter when I didn't make any real progress.  Several projects have advanced usefully, though not by enough to counteract some new purchases :-( .

Like many people who game in 28mm, I ordered a box of Wargames Factory's Apocalypse Survivors as soon as they became available.  I don't need the figures as I already have many models painted up (and quite a few unpainted), but this promised to be more interesting miniatures as well as a rich source of spare parts.

There's already a very good review of this set on The Colour Blind Painter's blog here: http://thecolorblindmodelpainter.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/review-of-wargames-factory-apocalyptic.html , so I'm not planning to write such an article.  Rather, these are a few of my early experiences.

Fitting Together

The parts on this kit are all labelled, so that arms C1, C2 &c fit onto body C (for example).  That's fine, though it does suggest that there is a limited set of ways in which the miniatures can be built up.  More on this later.  Anyhow, I particularly wanted a crossbow-armed survivor, so the first thing I did was to identify the parts for the bow (they're really small and fiddly).  I then cut out the corresponding body.  At least, I think it was the corresponding body; I checked several times over.  However, as can be seen from the picture above, it just wasn't possible to fit the parts so that the left hand supported the crossbow!  I must have chosen the wrong body, though I cannot see how.

The next models were made with more care.  Generally speaking, these went together without any fitting issues.  Have I mentioned before how much I dislike gluing both arms for a 2-handed weapon at the same time?  I've only got a limited number of hands myself, so any pose that requires 3 items (body, left arm, right arm) to be glued at the same time is tricky.  I don't enjoy it much.

More figures, of whom the majority have 2-handed weapons.  This is getting a bit frustrating!  At least the glued models look well animated and the parts do fit well (when tested first to make sure they're correct).

Oh, look - more 2-handed poses.  I was caught out a bit with the boy (body C), as there are 2 weapon options (C1 and C4).  There are also 2 left arms (C2 and C3).  I thought that these would be interchangeable - that I could use either left arm with either right arm.  That's almost, but not quite, correct.  I think that I used the "wrong" left arm for the rifle; I had to use filler to cover the slightly odd fit.  Hmm.

Take Two...

Finally, I thought that I'd try another crossbowman.  This time I ignored the tags on the parts and chose the body I thought most likely to fit the selected arms.  Now that's much better; the pieces go on with barely a gap and the pose looks a lot more natural!

Conclusion

This is an excellent kit and cheap enough for some mistakes to be made.  I'm a bit concerned about variety, though.  If/when I make up the boy from the 3rd sprue then I think he'll have to look pretty much like either the first or the second version as the weapons options in the kit are not as easily interchangeable between different bodies as I'd like.  Still, that's the price one pays for having animated poses.  It would always be possible to do some conversion work to make subsequent models more distinct - but probably I'll not do that yet.


20 comments:

  1. Oh, those are really nice. I've just spent my money tho, so I will wait with them.

    As for the crossbow that doesn't fit, put a piece of wire (a bolt) in the open palm - voila!

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    1. Thanks. Yes, I could put a bolt in his hand. Of course, I'd need to remodel the fingers as well...

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  2. nice job mate Its not the first time i've read these require some planning before gluing, there a great set still and on my list of to get this year.

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    1. Planning is definitely a good thing. With a little forward thinking, this is shaping up to be a great set!

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  3. I wish I'd have picked up some of these when I had the chance, though I don't think I'd have the patience further at the moment! Look forward to seeing them all finished mate

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    1. Ah, well now - assembling the models is a *lot* quicker than painting and finishing them. So I don't think you should hold your breath waiting to see the final result :-( .

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  4. They suffer the same as all sets with "interchangeable" parts; the designers have one thing in their mind and the buyers another, so that each figure looks good with maybe only only one or two variations. Nevertheless these type of kits are a real boon for skirmish gamers, even those among us like me who have little conversion skills can probably still pull off a unique figure.

    Your efforts look good to me C6.

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    1. Well, I think the word "suffer" is a little negative :-) . Technically, this kit is state-of-the-art: well-moulded, cheap and loaded with spare parts. It's a shame that the 3rd or later builds of the same basic body will start to repeat, but I don't really see how the designers could have overcome this.

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    2. Its like any kit of this type its either a lot of effort to get the pieces to look right if they are made too generic or they make matching parts which are obviously only going to work on a few bodies. I wonder if splicing the spare weapons onto the existing sets of arms would work to give you more variety.

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    3. Certainly there are a lot of spare weapons in the kit :-) , though most of them are assault rifles of various sorts :-( . What's missing completely are any empty-handed right arms, so to change a weapon will first require carving away an existing weapon. Not a disaster, but takes the kit down to 4.5 out of 5!

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  5. Pretty cool looking and I've heard the price is pretty good. I hate gluing the arms and weapons on 1/72 but sometimes you have to. I like Mathyoo's solution, it seems like one might be able to rotate the arm on that first crossbow figure. I also noticed that the guy with the Ball cap is missing his left t-shirt sleeve. No big deal. I think uou put together some interesting minis. Save the rest for bits or trade with somebody else.

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    1. The price is certainly good, though I also am not a fan of gluing on arms. While I'm sure that I could salvage crossbow 1, I'm wondering if it's worth the effort!

      "Ball cap guy" (with the tyre iron and can of beer, right?) *does* have a short sleeve on his left arm. It's just not easy to see with the camera angle!

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    2. Actually it is picture three, backwards ball cap and assault rifle with banana clip. It could also be the camera angle.

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    3. Yup, just the camera angle. Fat guy does have 2 complete short sleeves on his tee-shirt :-) .

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  6. Thanks for the plug for my review!

    On the Crossbow, yeah, the arms are labeled "I" but they certainly don't fit body "I". I just went with the figures that were built up for the box art as a guide.

    On gluing both arms at the same time, I found it's easiest to first glue the off hand (usually the left) and eyeball the position and let it cure for about a minute before gluing the other arm. That off hand arm should be set enough to rotate a few degrees to allow for a proper fit.

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    1. You're welcome - it was a good review.

      All the other parts I've tied seem to fit the bodies with the same letter quite well, so the crossbow looks like a mistake. Shame it just happened to be the first model I tried to make!

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  7. They look really good! I've got them on my wish list for modern/ superhero/ zombie gaming.
    I may even use them in conversions for the Zombicide season 1 exclusives I missed!

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    1. I think they'll paint up very well; the sculpting on these figures is excellent. Should be very easy to convert.

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  8. Nice post Colgar - and very helpful for when I get around to making mine!

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    1. Well, I'm very pleased that it's so helpful to you. Mind you, I'm slightly perplexed as to why a somewhat lightweight article (I thought) has created so much interest

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