Thoughts on Assembling Plastic Bloodletters

Today: some random, unassorted thoughts on building and constructing plastic bloodletters.

From the outset, let me say that I'm biased - I really like the new plastic daemon range. I know plenty of folks don't, but I do. That said, here's the thoughts alongside a picture of one of my bloodletters for reference.

* The heads of the bloodletters are rather unusual for Games Workshop miniatures. The front of the head slots over the tongue and rear of the head! This should be a reasonable process, but more often than not, it results in a poor fit between the front head and the rear head. This can be seen in the picture where there is a small gap just behind the horns. This can be annoying, but its nothing that a little bit of milliput (greenstuff) won't fix.

* Plan how and what the base is going to be prior to affixing the miniature to it. Some of the claws of these bloodletters are really long and noticeable. Some careful pre-thoughts can save a bit of effort later (and some unusual paint brush angles during the painting stages).

* Speaking of paint brush angles, consider how you're going to paint the rune of Khorne on some of the bloodletter's shoulders before gluing. Often, the horns of the head can get in the way.

* There's a sword-arm and off-hand combination that can result in the daemon looking like he's got a two-handed hold of the hellblade. Before assembling these ones, pick out the head carefully. Otherwise, it might not all fit together well and the daemon might end up with a lop-sided head as it cannot fit in the place it is supposed to (yes - I fell in to this trap myself).

* If building a bloodletter with an icon, then check out the angle that the icon pole makes with the base. Sometimes, it can make an angle that is way off vertical. This is bad as the icon is rather tall with a significant amount of weight positioned toward the top of the icon. A poor pose can cause wobbly miniature syndrome. Dry fit before gluing! (Or, if like me, you ended up with a wobbly one, then consider placing a mass / off-cast lead weight as a counter-balance somewhere on the base).

* Have a think about whether you really want a bloodletter with an instrument of chaos. My thoughts on this issue are that they shouldn't need them: they're very likely to win any close combats, and win them big. I'll post a more detailed analysis on this idea at a later date.