Wednesday 7 March 2012

Grymn Walker arrives.

This week I received a very nice surprise from Kev and Sally at Hasslefree Miniatures...I was sent the Grymn Walker along with a seated and standing pilot:


This appears to be the one that was used for the various photos on the Forum of Doom because it arrived in a partially assembled state.

When I took it to pieces (a simple task of breaking the super-glue joints) I had a few minor repairs to carry out but it gave me an overall appreciation of how the kit will assemble when it gets released.

Components:
2x weapon arms
2x identical gun shields
1x pelvis
2x legs
2x feet
2x leg shields
1x body rear
1x body front

Everything has idiot proof joints so it was easy to assemble. both of the weapons can fit either side on the ball joints on the sides of the rear body. The legs are handed (so the right leg will go on the right side and the left on the left side - no mix and match) so there is only a small amount of pose-ability but enough for a little variation in a unit... the ball joints at the hips and ankles will further add to the range of poses. The body can be fitted to the pelvis through quite a range of rotation (only limited by a beam that projects from the rear of the pelvis). The guns are on ball joints as well so they have a huge range of positions.

From a model making perspective it is a lovely little model and would look great painted up by a professional and mounted on a scenic base. As a war-gaming piece there are a couple of things to be aware of:

1 - The leg shields have a very fragile join that will need some form of beefing up. I used some Green Stuff.
2 - The front cover would be awesome if it could open and close but the hinge is not quite large enough to drill a pin into. I have put magnets in the front so that I can remove/fit the front cover instead.
3 - The gun shields are also quite fragile but I fixed that by gluing a small piece of sprue between the shield and the gun to add an additional connection point...now it is solid.

I love the kit (I always knew I would) and will be buying more when it gets released. I doubt if I will be making too many with a pilot on display so the hinged front cover won't matter to me. It is easy to carry out the small additions to beef up the gun-shields and leg shields so I am not worried about that (and I expect a bit of careful gluing would probably work just as well as my ideas).

Hopefully, at some point more weapons will be designed (a missile pod for one) but there is no reason that either of the existing weapons couldn't be converted.

As it stands, I have received a wonderful gift that will sit very well with my Grymn forces... and I look forward to being able to purchase more when they are released.

Thank you Kev and Sally at Hasslefree Miniatures.



2 comments:

  1. Thanks for the review Inso, really nice to have extra info about the walker, really looking forward for the release of these models.

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  2. No worries :).

    I can't wait to build a squadron of these (they will all be sealed shut so I don't need to paint all the pilots though!)

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