I've very nearly finished gluing my Batallion together. It has been without doubt the least amount of fun I've ever had doing anything GW based! It'll be worth it, because they're great looking units and I have a nice little colour scheme worked out (I hope) but it's taken pretty much a full day and I've still got to put the skinks together. Maybe it's my age (30) or my patience levels (little to zero). Meh. Anyways, enough of that negative nonsense! By this time next week I intend to have them base coated, ready for my first game of WHFB in about oooh, 13 years. I'll be on the tactic and army list sections for plenty of advice during the week. LUSTRIA PREVAILS.
Skinks are easy. I got some VC models a couple of months ago. I have had to put to gether about 20 skeletons and 10 grave gaurd. I have to say if I knew they were going to be that much of a pain, I would have went with wood elves or something. They are together now, and need painting now (eventually).
greetings, I had pretty much the same experience as you when I put most of my Batallion together as well. I started with the Skinks, then did the Temple Guard, then Saurus. Last but not least were the Cold Ones. These were the worst models to build ever. The others weren't too bad, but those Cold Ones, ugh. My biggest problem, and perhaps it's my OCD, is mould lines. I hate em, and all of the Lizardmen models are brutal. It takes forever to remove these lines, and even after careful examination (and a few layers of thin paint) more are exposed. It's maddening. now that I'm actually painting more though, the army is really stunning. Once you get past the building part, painting them is a joy.
Really, the Cold one cav? I found everything in that box was tolerable (the skinks were a pleasure at the end), except for the temple guard, which nearly drove me up the wall. Those earrings/teeth helmets/etc... oh man. So small for such clumsy fingers. Did you leave off on gluing the shields on, or not bother? It makes it a little more difficult when you try and spray or paint the model if you glue it first
Most aren't too bad, but yeah the small stuff on the TG is annoying.. And I agree there are a lot of awkward to remove mold lines on the LM models, some very hard to get without taking a bit of detail.
I build the models completely, then paint. Shield, weapons and all. Also, I never spray paint. everything is done by hand. Very thin, dilute coats of primer, then thin coats of base, etc. I'll post some pics of my models very soon, to show you the results!
I thought it was just me! Cheers guys, feel much better now! FTR, I have left off all shields to add after painting. RE the cavalry. Yeah, they were PROPER annoying. They're all shaped the same! I prefer the old Godzilla style ones.
I do like the new ones though, they really look like they suffer from stupidity with their tongue hanging out, perfect for window cleaning!
The worst by far are Daemonettes, multiple bits, small heads, arms and legs and they all have tiny tiny contact points. Best model to build so far are the new Plastic single models (not the finecast) that come in the clamshell cases. So far I have built an Old Blood, a Tzeenth Herald and a Dark Elf Witch that I converted into a Herald of Slaanesh.
Try building an scorpion from the Tomb Kings, I build 2 of them and every time i wanted to smash them into the wall.
I was helping a friend put a treeman together and get in on a base, Man all it wanted to do is fall apart.
Pinning is your friend! I pin almost all of my models. Mold lines are annoying as hell, but I've found that the new cleaning kit that GW puts out has been tremendously helpful.
I usually paint my models in the sprue, 1 unit at a time. Now I am not much of a painter, so all I want is that they have a nice color and look decent on the battlefield. I start with 1 model, completely finish him and then use him as an example to the rest. Color scheme is tested out on the first guy and after I finished him I start thinking how I can finish the unit the fastest. Start with blue for basecolor...then white for this....etc. Then in paint sessions, I try to have different models in different stages of completion. That way, you can always find something to work on. This guy still needs a basecolor, this guy needs details, this guy needs his scales touched up.. Effective: Yes. Quality: Pretty Low. The Hunted
I totally feel your pain and share the OCD about mold lines. Add to this the conversions that I'm making and it's taken me the better part of a year to put 2000 points on the table. Hang in there, because once you get past the building the painting will make up for it. With painting LM you can really let your imagination run wild