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| Dwarven Flying Machine with Flamethrower | |
| Product # | 4421 |
| Manufacturer | |
| Suggested Retail Price | 8.13 EUR |
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| Revision Log | |
| 4 November 2002 | page first published |
Rating: 
Editor in Chief Bill 
digs into his stash of discounted collectible pre-paints.
3,287 hits since 4 Nov 2002
©1994-2024 Bill Armintrout
Comments or corrections?
Finalist comicbkguy writes:
I had a couple of first impressions when I received the piece. First of all, the level of detail is fantastic. It is so detailed that the rigging lines that run back onto the wings even stand out and are really sharp.
Secondly, the wings aren't quite what I thought they would be. The initial images I saw made me think of an actual bat's wings. Now that I can see the piece up close they seem more like canvas or sail cloth. So I'm going to lighten the color I was planning to paint the wings. It shouldn't make that much of a difference.
Another change I'm planning on making is to add some freehand flourish to the tail section if time allows. This will be my first attempt at any kind of freehand work so you will all get to see up close how it turns out.
After looking over the piece, the next step was for me to begin to remove flash and seam lines. I use needle files and finest gauge steel wool to remove the lines.
Unfortunately, the seam lines run across the wood grain on the frame of the bat. This makes if difficult to remove the lines fully. To do so would remove all the detail of the wood sections. So I just rubbed it down enough so that the lines aren't obvious. The lines will still be there, but the wood grain should hide the lines when fully painted. At least, that is the hope.
After filing and sanding was complete, I assembled the piece and then applied putty to the gaps. I prefer to assemble most of the minis I work on before painting, since I putty all gaps. After the putty sets I sand it all to remove any excess texture. Therefore it is necessary for me to do final assembly before any painting is started.
When I first checked the piece, a few things bothered me despite how good the sculpt is. So I set out to change them.
First of all, the flame cannon has a flat barrel opening with just a small hole in the aperture. I drilled the hole further with a Dremel, and then used a rounded Dremel head to carve out a gentle depression in the barrel.
Next, there were two bits of detail on the top of the wings that weren't duplicated on the bottom of the wings. These were a patch on one wing and an area of stitching on the other. I turned the piece over and added small amounts of sculpted putty to detail the areas out on the underside of the bat.
The final area was a hole on the top of the wing that was sculpted in relief. I simply used a pin vice to drill straight through the wing and carved out the edges of the hole with a hobby knife. I then added putty to the carved areas and sloped them inward to soften the look of the puncture as the sharp sides of the initial hole looked wrong.
I followed this up by priming the entire piece white. At this point I am ready to lay down my base coat and start painting. My next update will cover the beginnings of the actual painting.
