Ludik bazar is a French online store that took all the Rackham's metal range, and when I received a newsletter talking about Alkemy new army deal I checked it out.
The deal called " Les enfants de L'autome" is for the Aurlok Nation race, and contains the army starter set, the last two waves boxed sets, a free lithography and includes the darn hard to get limited miniature Tha'pioca...
I ordered ASAP for 70 Euros plus 15 Euro for shipping and a week later arrived ... since my time is short this is a "quick first glance review" I will make a more in depth one about minis and rest of the stuff in detail... but for now it’s a quickie also because these deals seem to be VERY limited... On the box said 9-33 meaning not many left.
Noticed the box seemed way to little for 2 box sets and starter set... then noticed they had taken everything out of box sets and squeezed it in the starter...wow, and it fits.
Lithography is very nice and would give a nice painting with a frame... a run down:
There are lots of cards with nice artwork and stats, a small rulebook with 35 pages, which is very colourful and with plenty of images and illustrations, miniatures in some kind of strange bag (you guys know the ice cube plastic bags to put in the freezer? It’s similar), 6 colourful dice and probably the ugliest tape measure on earth (its small piece of plastic).
Miniatures are some kind of plastic, but with a more resin like quality... It’s the new material they chose.
For more in detail pictures and the full review you have to wait probably for the weekend or go to the Alkemy website in Kraken Editions.
http://www.kraken-editions.com/en/
And some quick photos:
Opening the box (Ludik Bazar also sent me some free goodies: some World of Warcraft card decks).
Thapioca mini and plenty of others miniatures in the box.
Litho
Content
Little fella is very hard to get but he can’t escape me now!
Quick pics of the miniature's detail.
Back for a more detailed review about the models.
I have washed, cleaned, filled and drilled these plastics and here are my thoughts about them.
First I washed the plastics in water and dish washer just in case. Then I picked up mold lines (very small and discreet) with a hobby knife and to be honest the plastic doesn’t behave well with Xactos, since the results look messy, so I opted for sandpaper for most of the cleaning and it worked out in the end.
The mini design is very clever since all loose bits have some kind of already sculpted pins, so you don’t need to pin anything really because everything fits very well and is very strong.
For example an arm has a plastic bit at its end that looks like a pin, and the body part has a very deep hole to accommodate the arm... very clever.
I had to use super glue since normal plastic glue doesnt work on these.
The assembly with the already sculpted pins only needs 1 small drop of glue and that’s it, it’s all very simple and quite fast.
I only assembled and glued the big fat fella the rest of the warband I just assembled with no glue and it holds okish.
The plastics are different from the normal plastic kits we work every day, they seem to hold detail better and sharper and they bend a bit making them more resistant... well if you employ a big stress on them they will snap like any other plastic.
The best way I can describe these are: they mix the resin capacity for accepting detail work and the flexibility and durability of plastics in one formula.
But it’s not only good news there are some problems... first one is avoidable since the pin design system kind of solves it but your normal plastic glue does not work well on them.
And the matter for bigger concern is that much like those Forgewold warping issues these plastics, specially the very thin parts suffer from warping also... so you really have to steal your wife's hairdryer to warm it up and correct them.
And some photos with some scale clarifications...
This photo shows a bit of the pin system, check out the deep hole on the arm pit... this arm once glued there will not go anywhere.
The first mini I assembled and based, ready for painting.
Some scale shots.
Check out the warping on the spears, not good... funny thing notice the huge gap on frog torso? The arms design have a huge kind of pin that goes there and makes it so simple and fast to assemble.
Finally a family picture. I accidently noticed that the starter set box is done in such a way that your assembled troops fit in just nicely, making it easier transport them. I don’t know if it was planned by Kraken, but it’s cool nevertheless.
Overall it was a pleasure and quite refreshing to work with these new plastics and experience the clever model design... Can't wait to assemble all other sweet miniatures in this army deal... I will be busy for many months with just this boxfull.