Tuesday, February 12

Arabian Knights: Manjaniq

Project Arabian Knights is still on the table and today it's a manjaniq figure (obviously a trebuchet) what I'm presenting. I was planning to built the trebuchet models from scratch. There were many schematics online on how to build a -working- treb. But when I saw this figure on Round Table of Bretonnia forums, I changed my mind. Albeit considerable bigger than the original (reaching a towering 6" at the highest point), it looked decent enough, had no bret decorations and crew members so it was a good deal for me.

What a nice load of flash!
WRONG! The reason I went on and bought this one was saving time. You know, basic tradeoff between monies and time. Normally, I consider myself to have a knack for finding alternative models for my armies; but this time I botched... big time. The bits I received from the Lazy Forger did not make my life easier. Basically I received a bag of flash and carved my way into the actual bits. To add insult to the injury, some of the bits were cast badly, with many hollow points and cracks...

Oh well, you cannot just order something and don't build and paint it. For the crew guys, I used civilians from Perry Miniatures. Like my chaos dwarf army, I spent considerable amount of time making the bases. For the base, i use cork board over balsa. Using cork on top greatly helped when cutting the spots for the crew members. As always, I laid down magnetic paper inside the crew spots.

Another thing to mention here, this was the first time I used tufts. I must say they are a win. Although they stick to the surface themselves, I didn't want to take my chances and used some superglue in the process. 

I think my next update will be troopers, as I just learned that the package I've been waiting from Black Tree has been cleared from the customs. Yay...?

7 comments:

MrLee said... [Reply]

Looking good mate.. really good. Sad about the casting and assembly though, but cant't always win though right? Can't wait to see it in person though :)

dionysus said... [Reply]

Arabian Nights is a great theme for a counts-as WFB army. I play mythic Greeks as stand-ins for lizardmen.

Unknown said... [Reply]

@M R Lee
you have no idea about how bad the casting was mate. photo doesnt make justice to them, and i mean it in a very negative way. it was like you buy a pack of chips; but most of the package is air...

thanks for the nice comments btw.

Unknown said... [Reply]

@dionysus
your idea is also sound mate, using greeks as lizzies. how did you conjure substitutes for the likes of slann, terradons, stegadons and such?

Jack said... [Reply]

@BuRock

Hi BuRock

I'm sad to hear about the cracks in your package, that's the first bad review that i recieved about the condition of the pieces i sent.
For the casting quality, that's sad as well to read that you didn't like it, and i'm sorry for that. Although i've to note that a picture of the previous treb "out of the package" were on the Roundtable (the only place where i've released it), and cleaning resin bits is kinda routine.

That said, it is possible that you got a particulary unlucky piece, and if you contact me i'll provide you a new cast, completely for free.

Jack said... [Reply]

Just a little update:

I checked your order, and you took two trebuchets. So, excluding the possibility that you was so unlucky to recieve two miscasted pieces, i'm gonna assume that just your standards are ways above my level.
I'm sad to hear that, but in that case there's nothing i can do for it, sorry.

Unknown said... [Reply]

@Jack
hey mate,

as you already wrote above, i had ordered a couple of them. both of them were full of flash and had a few cracked/broken pieces. The flaws were in such a manner that you couldnt have missed it with a basic cosmetic inspection. Moreover, I have a friend at our club who also bought a copy from you. According to what he says, his copy was like mine too.

I also have to add that some of the pieces, especially the counterweight bits do not align well and forced me to do massive GS work on them.

You wrote about my high expectations about the quality in your message. Believe me, I dealt with resin stuff, coming out of various small businesses like yours. Neither the amount of flash nor the quality was acceptable mate, sorry.

Thanks for your -now withdrawn- replacement offer btw :)

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