"em4 Orcs + Shield Pack - formerly resin, now plastic" Topic

I bought a bunch of em4 Dwarves and Orcs, back in the late 1990's to the early 2000's. Those were made out of a resin material. I sold those off, but I re-visited the em4 website recently, and I decided they were such a good deal back in the day that I decided to buy a bunch more Orcs and a pack of shields.

I ordered their variety pack of 48 Orcs: 16 Swordsmen, 16 Spearmen, and 16 Short Bowmen. I wanted some shields for the swordsmen and the Spearmen, so I also ordered a pack of 25 shields of three different types (25 ordered [Correction: I ordered 50 shields, two packs], 59 shields received!). The total order, shipped from the UK to the USA, was <$40, delivered.

I got the order today. The current models are no longer cast in resin, rather they are injection molded. The sculpts are slightly softer than I remember. There is a small amount of flash on the right elbow of every Spearman, but otherwise, they are really decent. They have more pronounced mold lines than I ever remember, but I have sanding sticks which will remove these easily. If not, I can use an X-acto razor blade to remove the mold lines quite easily.

What surprised me, however, was that my order of "25" shields multiplied during shipping to a whopping 59 shields of three distinct types! I will be sure to store them separately so as to avoid any more reproduction of plastic shields, as I already have way beyond the 36 that I can use!

I plan to use these figures to supplement my existing Orc army: the 16 Spearmen/Swordsmen/Short Bowmen will be segregated into two Units of 8 figures of each type.

The plastic seems to be hard, and I am fairly certain these are made of styrene plastic (liquid glue will dissolve this type of plastic, creating an actual weld of the two pieces where the melted plastic fuses together as the solvent evaporates -- the plastic hardens). I am fairly certain they are not made of High Density Polyethylene -- HDPE (doubtful as this type of plastic is soft, and flexible -- Army Men figures are made either of HDPE, or LDPE -- Low Density Polyethylene; no known-to-me glue dissolves PE plastics, but Hot Glue sticks to PE plastics with a strong enough bond for gaming purposes…).

Styrene plastics allow paint to adhere beautifully; HDPE/LDPE will not allow paint to adhere except superficially, rubbing off in a short time, especially with rough handling/flexing.

I am looking forward to cleaning these up, priming and painting them. I am nearing the point of army building wherein I will have sufficient Orcs, Goblins, and Kobolds to stage some large-sized battles against (Hill and Mountain) Dwarves and Gnomes, in the Underdark. Cheers!

The em4 orcs and dwarves were never made in resin – always been plastic ever since they first appeared in the Fantasy Warriors boxed set. If you had resin examples, someone was making unauthorised copies.

DBDD

The em4 figures I ordered years ago, were some very different type of plastic. I agree, now that I think about it: they were not like any resin I've seen. They just did not seem like typical injection molded plastic: it was very smooth, dark gray with very thin white striations of plastic filigree in them. I remember reading that they were resin, decades ago. I was never certain what they were made of. Cheers!

Check out this Facebook group for some good looking conversions on the EM4 miniatures.

Grimm

link

Don't forget the chronicles for more conversions:

link

link

link

DBDD

Grimmnar:

I closed down my FB page more than a decade ago, and that site is for members only, unfortunately. Thanks for posting the link for FB users who may be interested.

Darrel B D Day:

Thank you for those very interesting links. I never realized that ABS Plastic could be injection molded -- I should have known that from my motorcycle riding experiences, as I have made repairs to ABS Plastic fairings, several times, and it is pretty blatantly obvious that those items were injection molded… Another, "Duhhhh!" moment.

For anyone interested, your local hardware store will have Pipe Glue, on their shelves: ABS Plastic will dissolve in Acetone (also on the shelves of every hardware store outside of the State of California, where they warn you about everything, including the 'fact' that, "Life causes death."

Seriously, though, Pipe Glue is ABS Plastic dissolved in Acetone: it is quite thick, and messy -- too messy for such small figures, but it is an option if you utilize a small, throw-away, School Paint Brush (available at Wal-Mart).

Otherwise, you can buy yourself a bottle of Nail Polish Remover, which is -- you guessed it -- Acetone. Again, apply a small amount to the joint on both pieces, and it will soften the plastic (same method as styrene plastic model glue, but a different chemical required), creating a weld.

I am sorely tempted to modify my figures: adjust arm positions, swap out weapons, etc. It is extremely tempting. I do plan to replace one weapon on each figure casting, with a brass wire spear, and add a flag to it -- these will serve as leader figures for each Unit (six Units of eight figures for each Unit). The rest, I am on the fence about.

Yes, it would improve the group appearances, drastically, but it is also a lot of fiddly work. I am leaning more towards just painting them to be done with them, so I can throw them down on the tabletop. I am gonna have to ponder this a spell… Nail Polish and throw-away brushes are easy enough to work with. I also have a UV Epoxy Repair Kit, with a UV Penlight, which might work. Some experimentation is in my immediate future… Cheers!