Welcome back everyone! I hope you are all recovering from your holiday illnesses (paper cuts from opening presents), and new years hangovers. I'm finally feeling better, and have dived back into the hobby spectacular! Santa Ork brought be quite a gift this xmas, and the great Gork and Mork looked down upon me, and felt I could use the Dakka of a Stompa!
This box is huge!
The second I had a chance, I tore into this box, and started building it immediately. As you'll see, this was not the easiest of builds, and I dare say, one of the hardest models I've put together. (right up there with my mega dread!)
First off, here is a look at the sprue's. There is a ton of them, and they are literally covered in bits. In fact there is a giant sprue of just accessory bits! All optional! All the bitz have numbers next them for easy reference...oh so you'd think. The instructions have no such numbers listed in them. Just poor one sided photos. This build is going to require a lot of reference material to figure out where things go!
I had already started clipping when I took the photo!
The instructions also don't make logical sense. They want you to put the feet together almost near the end of the build, but the way the skirt of the model fits over the base, it makes it impossible to "glue and forget" without assembling the feet first. Something else they don't really mention, is that the entire model leans forward about 10-15 degrees, and if you don't build it on the feet, you might line up magnets, limbs, and other parts incorrectly (for posing purposes) not knowing it's going to be leaning forward! So as you can imagine, I put the feet together first. I used Macathu's necron lord for scale purposes...just to let the FYN guys know just how big the stompa was!
With the feet properly attached to the base, I can now glue the skirt on. You can see almost immediately (especially in the first photo), how tilted the stompa is when it's glued onto the feet. Each of these sections went together pretty well, but boy was there a lot of cleaning up of sprues and mouldlines! You'll also notice I started drilling pilot holes for magnets. I want the arms, head, banners, smokestacks...all magnetized for transport.
Given the scope of the stompa, I decided to use plastic glue (in many layers), and rubber bands to hold the entire assembly together. Gave it quite a lot of time to dry. I also set two magnets in at this point, one for the smoke stacks, one for the head. At this point, I've spent multiple hours just getting parts ready, cleaned, and lined up. This is one heck of a build.
Decided to cheat at this stage. I dropped a batch of magnets down the center stack, and it created enough of a magnetic pull through the plastic to hold it in place. Not enough if you start shaking the stompa, but enough for picking it up and moving it around. Later when I realize there is an entire gangplank that attaches to this, I'll need to actually drill and mount a second magnet!
Next I started on the other portable sections. The head and smokestacks were working well, so I started testing the fitment on the arms. This proved immediately troublesome. I had been hoping that four smaller magnets could hold the arms in place. This is impossible. The arms are quite heavy (weight of a smaller dread!). I had to re-drill, and remove the old magnets, and replace them with much larger pieces!
The larger magnets did hold, unless you wack the end of the sword arm. I made a little rig so it doesn't fall and hit the table when that happens, but catches on the plastic. Then I went back and started beefing up the sword arm...so many bits and pieces. I attached the instructions so you can see my frustration. Poor images with no #'d parts. Absolute puzzle pieces.
Starting to love the model!
It worked out just fine in the end. Got all the cables on, and everything turned out. This shot shows my current status. Did the should armor, various guns, rockets on the main gun, magnetized one of the banners. I still have to do about a dozen little planks, rear gang plank, crows nest, and decide if that is where I want to stop or not. You really could spend months on this model. So much space to work on!
I love dreads!
Threw up a dread comparison pic for you guys! I still have a good deal of work left to do on the stompa...but this sunday it's supposed to be 60F in Maryland, so I gotta get him to a stopping point so I can prime him! Who knows when the next warm weather will come!
I hope you all had great holidays, and a wonderful new year, and can't wait to see what you all work on this year! As always, thanks for stopping by! Happy New Year!
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