Thursday, October 11, 2012

Chaos - Heldrake


I was unable to meet the deadline for the 2012 charity project and so told the winner he could pick any one model for me to paint. This is that model. He wanted the classic black/bronze scheme but I took some liberties and went to town with the idea of weathered bronze. From assembly to this stage I'm probably 4 hours into the project.



And now a quick review of the kit itself. First, I'm not a fan of the concept. While the other Demon Engines look like they were designed to function and then stuffed full of demon - this looks like a jet fighter that turned into a duck. That just doesn't do it for me. It is, however, an INTERESTING model and I like it more now that when I first saw previews. But I still don't like it.

The model itself is very well engineered - but also very fragile and very limited. Assembly was incredibly easy but I'm disappointed that while Games Workshop has been giving us more posable, dynamic models this one is really a fixed position, banking to the port, demon duck.

It is also the most fragile plastic model I can remember working with. The wings and neck are fitted with ball joints - and even a liberal application of MEK over a scored surface left me having to re-glue the model several times after only light handling. While I would generally pin a model like this the body is hollow, and the walls thin, so there's not much to be done.

The most disappointing thing for me, however, is the big open cavity in the back where the jet engine would be. It really looks like a trussed turkey from the back. Because there are exhaust ports on the torso, top and bottom, you can also see completely through the model from several angles.

Love it or hate it I'm glad to have had a chance to paint this - but don't expect to add one to my collection for anything but a must-have army item... and I'll resist that if I can.


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