"Review of Scibor's new resin gyrocopter model" Topic

Scibor Miniatures recently released their own version of the classic Warhammer dwarf steam/gyro-copter.

Link to their site:

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I have never liked the aesthetic of Games Worskhop's gyrocopter models, at least the newer ones from 7th/8th Edition. They are much too modern-looking to me in my opinion. The older vintage gyrocopters from earlier editions from Warhammer are better, but I still didn't care for them all that much either.

There aren't that many mini. companies out there who actually produce a fantasy gyrocopter model, in fact I only know of maybe one or two that make them, but they are more for human steampunk than they are for dwarf fantasy perse.

When I saw Scibor's version of the gyrocopter I instantly fell in love with it! I jumped at the chance to get one and ordered it straight away.

What I love about this particular copter is that it has a wooden exterior. Even the gun barrels of the cannons are made out of wood! I just feel that the wooden plank construction-look makes it feel much more like classic fantasy than GW's do.

The detail of the model is really excellent, the pieces are all crisp casts with very little flash. There were a number of little cylindrical-type attachment areas on the main structure piece that had to be cut away, as well as on the central rotor support piece.

The model overall has a lot of character. The terrain base that comes with the model is fantastic, in the form of a mountainous face.

Here's some views of the components after they had been washed and cleaned of flash:

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I have only one primary complaint about this model, and it's a baffling one from a gamer's/modeler's perspective.

Scibor does NOT include any kind of wire or plastic support piece to attach the model to the terrain base! Even more baffling, is that Scibor doesn't even include a hole in the terrain piece to insert a wire or other kind of support. Still worse is that underneath the gyrocopter itself there is no obvious or easy place to create a hole for a wire/support insertion. Scibor simply gives you the copter and the base and leaves it to the modeler to drill/fabricate the holes and supply the wire/support.

For nearly 40 Euros, I found that to be a really disappointingly cheap shortcut with this model.

But overall I highly recommend it as a great alternative to GW's gyrocopters, finally a nice, rustic-looking dwarf copter in true 28mm scale.

So I just completed the assembly of this kit.

I STRONGLY recommend using a thick, gel-type super glue like Gorilla Glue Gel. I attempted to assemble a few components with thinner super glue and it has absolutely nothing to grab onto, I could not get a bond to form.

The gel creates that "tacky stick" effect as it sets which helps the components to stay straight when the bond forms.

Part of the reason a gel super glue is necessary is that this model has absolutely no tabs or slots! Every component is simply "flat on flat" and the surfaces that are supposed to be joined are not perfectly flat and have to be filed and sanded a bit to make a flat to flat connection.

For a few moments I contemplated pinning components like the rotor blades to the central rotor shaft. But I think that would be rather sort of overkill and not effective, rather a waste of time since the parts are very light, it's not a weight issue at all. I feel like a kit like this would break one of its rotor blades if you dropped it, whether you pinned it or not. As long as you get a good, solid super glue bond I don't think any pinning is necessary.

This is the first resin model I've encountered where normal consistency super glues did not work and that required a thicker gel glue.

Models made of the kind of resins like you find in Tabletop World's buildings or like Citadel Finecast form perfectly solid, strong bonds with regular super glue.

I'm glad I made this discovery during the assembly process. Gorilla Glue gel super glue is awesome because it provides that super glue bond but also provides that tacky effect that helps components grab hold while setting!

Really good follow-up report on glue. Very helpful.