In a few weeks I'm going to a Kings of War learn to play event, and I have promised to bring a 1000pts of abyssals. So my goal is to have a completely assembled force ready. Clearly I'm a bit limited in my army selection due to just having the KS army. However, I think it will be good for me to play with such a limited selection so that I can learn all the units I own, not just the ones that look good on paper.
Also, this was my first run at putting together Mantic models. All of my other armies for KoW are GW models. And I've pretty much sold off or traded all of my Deadzone models before I did anything with them. I think I did try to put together some enforcer models before...but they didn't impress me. Well, here was a chance for Mantic to redeem themselves. Quite honestly, the models were pretty good. I started off with the lower abyssal models. I knew these would make up the bulk of my army, so I wanted to get going on doing them. The models themselves looked pretty good. Also, they actually assembled quite easily as well. I was even using just normal superglue for this as well as I'm running really low on my gel stuff. So see for yourself:
My first five.
By the way, despite the large bottle of zapp you see in the background, I wasn't using it. I was actually using Loctite super glue (you can see the black cap to the right). As to the models, they were pretty decent. You had to put the arms on, and the head. Other than that, you just glued them to the base. Now here is where I'm going to get a little pissy with Mantic. While the photos don't show it, those bases have the circle indent on the flip side. But for some reason, Mantic did not choose to add the round insert to the bodies. Three of the five bodies only have one foot attached to the base. We know the hassle of gluing a model to its base with only one foot. Thankfully, these weren't bad at all. But I think Mantic could have added the round insert to the bodies to take advantage of their previous system.
To the models themselves, I was pretty happy with them. I am concerned as to how well they are going to rank up though. The tails and arms are all quite a good distance away from the bodies. And the bodies are all single pieces that are basically pointing directly forward. So if you angle the bodies diagonally across the base, then they are all facing a corner instead of forward. If you line them up forward with the base, then their arms are bumping into each other. You'd think that after 30 some years of ranked up mini games being out there, they would have worked this shit out. Oh, and there are no instructions anywhere either. That isn't cool Mantic. Every model you make sure come with instructions...and have them available online at the very least.
All bitching aside, for the most part, things went well. The models were nice, they didn't take forever to build, and they didn't leave me cursing up a storm. So overall, thumbs up to Mantic. I assembled close to 50 models over the course of the weekend (it was a rough weekend) and more pics will be forthcoming as soon as I take them. Next post, abyssal molochs, flame bearers, and heroes.
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