A shocking development

As part of the new ratkin full army release, Mantic has put out a resin kit to convert ratkin warriors to Shock Troops.

This is a 'web' only kit - and does NOT include the plastic ratkin warrior sprue you will need, only having the new heads and arms that use these bodies.

So first, a reminder of the plastic ratkin warriors

And what will you need from these sprues?  The bodies.  And the 8 legs that go with 8 of them.

What DO you get then?  

Heads.  Three copies of each of the resin heads

left arms.  Four copies of each of these left arms

and right arms.  Again four copies of each of right arm

RTS3 is the one halbeard that only has a single hand on it - this pairs up with the left arm on the end of the RTS2 sprue (the one with the closed hand).

I have not yet been able to determine if any of the other four arms are specific to the right arms, or if they are completely interchangeable.

UPDATE:: After seeing this, I got a marked up picture of the left arm sprue from David Symonds at Mantic showing which arms go with which sprue.  When I put together more, I'll make sure I follow these and see if they work better.

Thanks to David Symonds at Mantic for letting us know which left arms fit which right arms

The heads are very easy to assemble.  They require super glue to connect the hard plastic to resin.

RTS3 (and the corresponding arm) are fairly straightforward to attach as well - simple flat joins.

I'd like to say the rest of the arms are just as straight forward.  Honestly, I'd like to be able to say that.  But, unfortunately, I can't.

I thought the clawshots were a bit challenging to assemble.  However with the pavises actually make them a little easier, as you can use them to help stage the assembly.

I've actually had issues with all of the Mantic models with two handed weapons, especially those that require super glue to assemble them.  (I remember having issues with Elohi way back in the day, and when they made metal centaurs I ended up reworking my demo list to take them with bows instead of the two handed weapon option because I didn't want to deal with them.

I think that part of the issue is in trying to make the kits flexible - so that ANY left arm can go with ANY right arm.  This ends up being a problem because there is no way to know how to position the two arms together.  If they made these instead where each left arm only fit a specific right arm (in a keyed position) - then you could assemble the arms together, then attach them to the body.  (If I recall correctly, this is how the Ogre arms work (and I don't remember having issues with Ogres)).  (Or make the arms only attach one way to the bodies - again sacrificing flexibility for ease of assembly).

Instead, we have three separate points of contact that all must be attached simultaneously (and can be at any angle with the body).  Or maybe it is because in these other instances, there were a small number of models to do this (3 to a regiment, or 6 to a horde (or in the rare case of Ogres, 12 to a legion)), instead of needing 10 or 20 of these.

It could be just me, of course.  Your mileage may vary.  However I have so far only put together five of the 20 I need, and I ended up with more super glue attaching my fingers to models than I can ever remember.  (Maybe if there were a 'sticky' super glue - one that would hold parts together but still give you a few seconds of working time before they are fixed (super glue does have some working time, but it isn't 'sticky').  A super glue that would work like plastic cement does (now there is an idea for all the chemists working on the next big thing for 3M or whoever)).

I did manage to get them together in the end, and I like the way they look (and will be even better once painted).

I will most likely be doing ranks or 4 models (for a regiment of 16).  Not only due to the issues (so I only need to assemble 11 more, not 15), but also because I have generally found I like the look or 4 models per rank in most cases - they are simply less crowded.

Of course people will want to know how these fit against the Skaven stormtroopers.  (I can't compare assembling them, as the ones I have I got pre-assembled (and partially painted) from ebay.  (Which I repainted and multi-based).

Granted, it may have been easier if I had glued the models to bases before trying to glue the arms on (one of the few drawbacks of multibasing - you don't have a base to hold on to).

As for the sculpts, I like them.

Ok, before I go, I want to show off one more model (that was so much easier to put together).  I figured I needed some inspiring in my demo army, and the easiest way is a Swarm Crier (also known as an army standard bearer).

Now to get some paint on them!

Because it is all fun and games . . .