Forge World Model assembly - best and worst

[No Foes Remain]

So this is something that I have always wondered, which of Forge World's models are the best and worst in terms of building.

 

I only own the Power Armour variants from FW but the motivation drained from me before I could do anything with them, and with my motivation seeping back I keep catching myself browsing the FW site at what lovely models I could own then a question hit me.

 

Which models are a dream to build and what are a nightmare?

 

I've read about the Storm Eagle and Fire Raptor being terrible but not so much on whats nice to build.

 

 

 

 

 

Mods, if this is in the wrong place I apologise.

[Vykes]

Oh man, FW flashback stuff.  

 

Honestly my top 3 'worst to build' list is probably pretty similar to a lot of Marine builders: Storm Eagle, Fire Raptor, Anvillus Dreadclaw.  

 

But easiest to build and to keep together?: Sicarans, Xiphons, and Contemptors of all stripes. 

 

The simple snap fit lines of the Sicarans and Xiphons were always nice and they rarely required more than a few mould line files for the most part (aside from the crazy thick gates on the Sicaran that I just use a razor saw to get rid of).  But they go together well.  The Contemptors always seem to fit well and the sheer amount of possibility and variety in those kits are just... just delicious. 

 

The new Thunderhawk would be on the list too as far as 'big models' go, aside from the slight irritation of having to drill a spot for an acrylic rod and make my own stand.  Less fun there but went together a lot nicer than the Mastodon, Glaive, Warhound, and FW knights I dealt with.  

 

Post Scriptum: Death Korps of Krieg would be on the list as dream models for detail and atmosphere but I didn't want to rebend every finicky single las gun.  

Edited July 22, 2019 by Vykes

[Oshikai]

I somehow messed up my Sicaran and now it doesn`t lay Flat on the Tabletop. I reckon I would need to break it apart completely, which I tried, no chance. Quite miffed about that.

 

Still have the Leviathan, a Spartan and an Ironclad on my Table but after that Sicaran Thing I am a bit wary about starting with them.

Edited July 22, 2019 by Oshikai

[Slips]

So far I've built:

 

• Old Spartan with tracks separate from the hull
• LR Achilles
• Dorn
• Sigismund
• Polux
• 20 Cataphractii
• 20 Tartaros
• 50+ PA infantry of all stripes (Destroyers, Recon, Templar Brethren, Phalanx warders, etc.)
• 5 Contemptors
• 2 Leviathans
• 1 Deredeo
• Thunderhawk
• Sicaran

Of all of these, the absolute worst for me was the Spartan and that ONLY due to the MASSIVE gates at the base of the hull sections AND having to manually slap on the tracks.

 

Everything else has gone together hilariously easy especially the dreadnoughts.

Edited July 22, 2019 by Slips

[Oshikai]

Seing how easy all of you seem to have dealt with the Sicaran, I feel even more Daft  . I luckily got one of the newer Spartans with attached Tracks although I had to replace both Sides once since the Tracks had partially broken off in Transit.

[Vykes]

I wouldn't say too much about that, Oshikai, I know exactly what you mean as I did to a Punisher when I leaned it on its side when drying and the rubber bands I put around it shifted the thing juuuust a little so it was like a rickety chair   It still actually looked perfectly normal until you put it on a flat surface and it kinda clunked back and forth a bit.  But it was just the one time and got pretty good. 

 

Oh man, yeah, the new Spartans with their reaaaally fragile attached tracks, About half a dozen of the track segments broke off in transit on mine too, had to superglue and greenstuff the life out of it.  And given how the Proteus tracks for the Land Raider were detached (albeit they by all accounts fit a lot better than the Spartan) I loved those.  

 

I guess I should give a 'So far' list so maybe we can compare.  It's, uhhh... pretty Marine-oriented. 

 

Troopers:

Tactical, Command, and Assault mk. II-VI, Breachers, Destroyers, Recon, Rapier Crew, Palatine Blades, Reavers, Rampagers, Khenarthi, Praetors (Standard, BA, AL)

 

Terminators:

Tartaros, Cataphractii, Justarian, Phoenix Guard, Grave Wardens, Deathshroud, Praetors (Standard, BA, AL, TS)

 

Dreadnoughts:

Deredeo, Leviathan, Contemptors (Standard, IW, SoH, BA, IF, AL)

 

Tanks:

Sicaran (Standard, Punisher), Deimos (Pred, Rhino, Damocles), Proteus Land Raider, Spartan (New tracks)

 

Superheavy Tank:

Glaive, Mastodon, Fellblade, Cerberus

 

Aircraft:

Xiphon, Fire Raptor, Storm Eagle, Anvillus Dreadclaw, Thunderbolt, Thunderhawk

 

Skimmers:

Javelin, Scimitar

 

Characters:

Horus, Alpharius, Dorn, Mortarion, Fulgrim, Purturabo, Russ and pups, Lorgar, Gulliman, Manus, Dynat, Khârn, Loken, Abaddon.

 

Not Marines:

Warhound, Knight Acheron, Death Korphs of Krieg infantry (advance, shooting), Thallax, Skinwolves, Plague Toads

 

 

Post Scriptum: Keep forgetting a few resin kits... I may have a problem now that I look at this list. 

Edited July 22, 2019 by Vykes

[MARK0SIAN]

Warhound Titan is a pain when you’re aligning the main body because there are some big gaps in places (at least on mine but I did some research and it seems a common issue). The shoulder joints on some of the cerastus knights are a bit awkward depending on the pose you’ve chosen.

 

Absolute worst in terms of being far more of a pain than they should be were the Phoenix spears for the Emperors Children.

 

Sicarans, contemptors and leviathans were all great to build, as was most of the Custodes stuff, apart from the flying stands for the tanks.

 

Ive also heard the fellblade can be a bit of a pain but I’ve never built one so couldn’t say for sure.

[Gederas]

For me I've assembled these models from Forge World:

Marine Stuff:
Sanguinius with Scenic Display Base

Hecaton Aikos (The Named Contemptor Dreadnought)

Deredeo Dreadnought

Javelin Landspeeder

Zhufor the Impaler

Numerous upgrade and shoulder packs

 

Non-Marine Stuff

Blood Bowl Mutated Chaos Minotaur

Mourngul

Cerastus Knight-Lancer

 

Of those, I've had literally no issues assembling any (the closest was the Mourngul, but that's less on the assembly and more that it's got VERY spindly limbs).

 

Despite what some people say, Forge World models go together amazingly. It's just the ones that are notorious for warping (the Fire Raptor and Storm Eagle) tend to get focused on.

 

Warhound Titan is a pain when you’re aligning the main body because there are some big gaps in places (at least on mine but I did some research and it seems a common issue). The shoulder joints on some of the cerastus knights are a bit awkward depending on the pose you’ve chosen.

Absolute worst in terms of being far more of a pain than they should be were the Phoenix spears for the Emperors Children.

Sicarans, contemptors and leviathans were all great to build, as was most of the Custodes stuff, apart from the flying stands for the tanks.

Ive also heard the fellblade can be a bit of a pain but I’ve never built one so couldn’t say for sure.

The Fellblade, Glaive and Falchion tend to have the worst kind of warping: One that looks fine until you go to start assembling unless you dry-fit everything together. It's usually a SLIGHT warp which won't be obvious unless you dry-fit, but once you do it shows it throws everything off ever so slightly in a manner that it's blatantly wrong when it's all together.

Edited July 23, 2019 by Gederas

[Biscuittzz]

I wouldn't say too much about that, Oshikai, I know exactly what you mean as I did to a Punisher when I leaned it on its side when drying and the rubber bands I put around it shifted the thing juuuust a little so it was like a rickety chair   It still actually looked perfectly normal until you put it on a flat surface and it kinda clunked back and forth a bit.  But it was just the one time and got pretty good. 

 

Oh man, yeah, the new Spartans with their reaaaally fragile attached tracks, About half a dozen of the track segments broke off in transit on mine too, had to superglue and greenstuff the life out of it.  And given how the Proteus tracks for the Land Raider were detached (albeit they by all accounts fit a lot better than the Spartan) I loved those.  

 

I guess I should give a 'So far' list so maybe we can compare.  It's, uhhh... pretty Marine-oriented Expensive.

 

Troopers:

Tactical, Command, and Assault mk. II-VI, Breachers, Destroyers, Recon, Rapier Crew, Palatine Blades, Reavers, Rampagers, Khenarthi, Praetors (Standard, BA, AL)

 

Terminators:

Tartaros, Cataphractii, Justarian, Phoenix Guard, Grave Wardens, Deathshroud, Praetors (Standard, BA, AL, TS)

 

Dreadnoughts:

Deredeo, Leviathan, Contemptors (Standard, IW, SoH, BA, IF, AL)

 

Tanks:

Sicaran (Standard, Punisher), Deimos (Pred, Rhino, Damocles), Proteus Land Raider, Spartan (New tracks)

 

Superheavy Tank:

Glaive, Mastodon, Fellblade

 

Aircraft:

Xiphon, Fire Raptor, Storm Eagle, Anvillus Dreadclaw, Thunderbolt, Thunderhawk

 

Skimmers:

Javelin, Scimitar

 

Characters:

Horus, Alpharius, Dorn, Mortarion, Fulgrim, Purturabo, Russ and pups, Lorgar, Gulliman, Manus, Dynat, Khârn, Loken, Abaddon.

 

Not Marines:

Warhound, Knight Acheron, Death Korphs of Krieg infantry (advance, shooting), Skinwolves, Plague Toads

 

 

FTFY.   That's an impressive collection may I say.

[Tyriks]

My Seraptek was the worst for sure. Leviathans were a lot of fun, individual characters were all good. The Achilles was a lot of fun, too. The Seraptek was fun until I got to the legs. Had to rig together some supports to keep it together while they dried and it still came out a bit wobbly.

[NiftyVT]

I have assembled a bunch of the various Mechanicum vehicles, robots and infantry. Everything fit well with just the occasional heat and bend needed. . .except for my Tech Thralls. Overall the Thralls needed very little clean up but I had to heat up and fit+glue every set of arms on the 20 that I have. It wasn't difficult but it took a while.

 

The one big tip I have for working with FW is to get a variety of micro chisels for getting at mold lines that are recessed between other details.

[Jolemai]

Struggled with my Sicaran the most; she still doesn't sit flat and has a large gap at the front which I'll need to fill eventually. My Cerberus (separate tracks) was fine, as was everything else. The best for me may well have been my Scorpius as she only required minimal fixes to warping and filings to fit.

 

As a general rule, the older kits are usually the hardest to do things with but a mate of mine has had terrible trouble with the Realm of Battle boards...

[Vykes]

-laughs- thanks Biscuittzz, but more than a lot of that was because I'm a bit of a push over and some of me mates tend to lead with, "hey dude, I need a favour.  You know how to work with resin, right?"  That :cuss  line has seen me put together no less than 5 of those primarchs... Dorn twice.   

 

Gederas and Markosian definitely got something for the Glaive/Fellblade/Falchion.  Admittedly I didn't find it terrible, in fact they were a breeze... up until that sliiiight roll of the resin drive wheel you have to attach to the plastic baneblade kit threw out the tracks just enough to become a serious problem.  It's definitely one of those 'Be aware' kinds of things they should have in those old photocopied black and white instructions they gave before the present run of full colour fancy instructions. 

 

Tyriks, NiftyVT my dudes, it's the Necron Seraptek and Mechanicum big ladz that always had me squeamish as it does look like some of them would need some pretty hefty rigs on par with titans to keep aligned.  They look like a pain.  (and not the subtle one, like Markosian mentioned for the phoenix spears which are, 100%, weirdly difficult.  I'd almost forgotten). 

[Magos Takatus]

I don't recall having problems with any Forge World model assembly which included the Warboss on bike, Ork Kommando upgrade sprue and my Secutarii Holites but the Hoplites were pretty irritating because the spears wouldn't straighten properly. This is probably a breeze for some people but I just found it difficult. Some of the still have slightly eccentric spears but it doesn't really bother me that much. I've still got some Forge World stuff to build and I'm hoping that the things I have ordered don't end up on this dreaded list. :P

[STC Logisengine]

The Proteus landraider is tricky, the tracks (who has to be added by hand) are too big for the model so you have to cut/file down parts of the tracks to make them fit properly, other than that the kit is quite ok.

The ammofeeds on the vorax rotorcannons are paper thin, reheat, reheat, reheat as you fit them or they will snap like spun glass.

 

Word of caution concerning the Malcador assault tank: it comes together quite well but things will be bent, wonkey, there will be lots of gap-filling any you will need to replace parts due to mold-misalignments. It really shows that it's one of FWs earliest products. I love it but whooo boy it was a lot of work. :)

[NiftyVT]

 

So I  have assembled, successfully  , 2 Cerastus Knights. The key for the Knight  sized models is blue poster tack (or grey or whatever color you happen to find it), lots of blue tack. I rough up each joint a little to aid the tack and then go from the bottom up. I get everything to the waist posed how I like and then glue starting with the toes. 

 

This guy is currently being painted right now but here is a progress shot of when I was building him. The legs are all glued up but the arms and head at tacked for posing.  Notice that I had to use some brass rod to extend an actuator. Another tip is that it's always good to have a supply of various diameter brass rod on hand. 

 

 

If anyone else has experience with the really big guys and how to pose them please chime in!  Whenever I get around to a big guy I am going to try the poster tack method and hope for the best lol. 

Edited July 22, 2019 by NiftyVT

[Obscura]

The Old Spartan with separate track.

 

God, I hated putting that thing together. . . and I did it twice, because I clearly hate myself.

[DuskRaider]

ANY of the FW vehicles with separate tracks. I can never get them to align or it seems like it's missing a link or something.

 

The original Dreadclaw was hands down the worst model I've ever assembled. It was horrible.

 

The Warhound is another one that was horrendous. The areas where the arms meet the body and the body meets the torso were so thin that brass rod was impossible and I couldn't find magnets small enough that would still hold reliably. I finally just used two part epoxy and recently sold it (kind of regretting that).

[Marshal Reinhard]

Of all of these, the absolute worst for me was the Spartan and that ONLY due to the MASSIVE gates at the base of the hull sections AND having to manually slap on the tracks.

 

Seriously, those were nightmarish

[Marshal Rohr]

Krieg arms aren’t bad buts it’s impossible to tell which ones have warped slightly (besides just the barrels) so you’ve essentially got to match them up by the instruction packet, glue the arm to the rifle at the wrist, then blast the thing with a hairdryer and hold it into the correct shape until cool before going back and gluing it. It’s an easy fix but it’s also a pita to hold them under a hot hairdryer :D

[No Foes Remain]

Right, so from what I am reading it seems the older and/or larger a model is the harder it is to work with? Damn, thats one of the reasons I didn't really get into much FW stuff as I am not a patience man. I hate having to wait to soak the models before kitbashing let alone having to dry fit and tweek them, also having asthma (which has just recently resurfaced) I am hestiant to delve into FW beyond just the standard SM stuff.

 

 

So how do newer models like the Aurox and the Carnodon pair up to older stuff? As I assume the older stuff was done more by hand with the newer stuff done on PC (comparing the BA Praetors to the older generic Praetors) they seem crisper and the details more pronounced.

[Marshal Rohr]

CAD designed things will be easier to work with. You don’t have anything to worry about.

[MARK0SIAN]

It also seems like some of the newer stuff has been designed with more thought as to ease of assembly than some of the older stuff. That could be my personal take on it though but it seems that way to me.

[PeteySödes]

Sicarans have been good for me except the giant gate on the backs. I also really enjoyed my Deimos Rhinos, I remember the old days of fitting the armor kits and was really scared when I got them but they were a joy to do.

 

My worst was the old Lucius Pod. Cleaning the engine coils and fitting that rickety thing together properly was nightmare.

 

I still have nightmare about those doors...

Edited July 23, 2019 by PeteySödes

[USNCenturion]

I enjoyed Ferrus Manus except for the fragile little tools on his back.

 

The Tyranid Dimachaeron wasn’t terrible to put together but there was a reason I swore I’d never do another.

 

The Cadian respirator kit was nice except for the small utility objects; they broke or were just too small for the Cadian plastics.

 

The 2x2 trench line/bunker terrain piece was my favorite because it was in one piece :p