This week we’ll be looking at assembling fennblades! Fennblades were one of the first few plastic models to be released by PP and I’ve been looking forward to getting them painted and in my Trollblood army for quite some time now.
As you can see the models are really well designed. Not only do they look good, but there’s no way you can wrongly assemble the models since every piece has nub and a matching divot in the correct corresponding part. Very nice.
But I have to say, the one issue that I have with the models is the amount of flash that needs to be cleaned. There’s flash on the sword…
Flash on the pants…
And flash on the face! I don’t mind so much if it’s on a flat, easily done surface like the pantsleg or sword handle, but when you have mold lines in between fingers and on a troll’s face (as well as the weird rocks encrusted on his face), it gets a tad annoying. It doesn’t help that the plastic is different from GW plastic or pewter, so the normal methods of cleaning flash (needle files) tend to just gunk up the model. You need to use a hobby knife and even then because the plastic is a bit rubbery it feels a bit different/more difficult to clean.
After a lot of cleaning though, everything goes a lot more smoothly.
One thing about the matching nubs: You literally can assemble all the models without any glue. That’s how tight the fit is. You really need a lot of force to squeeze and snap fit all the models together.
You can see how big of a deal the nubs are.
I much rather cut off a bit of the tabs, making it easier to fit in, and then use superglue. Saves a lot of hassle.
And after that, assembly’s a cinch! Just repeat it for all the rest of the models, hit up the base with some superglue and sand, and the models’re ready for priming and painting!
Final verdict: 7/10. I’d have given it a 9/10 for ease of assembly and beautiful models but I really can’t stand the amount of moldlines I was saddled with. I suppose that in the end we’ll come to learn how to deal with the mold lines in PP’s plastic after a bit of practice.
