Today we build some space elf – I mean Eldar – I mean Aeldari (TM) – foot soldiers from the Warhammer 40K wargame: the guardians. “Eldar” is the old name from before GW changed to “Aeldari” for copyright reasons. I hold the opinion that such copyright shenanigans caused by the irredeemable mess called intellectual property law should not stop me from using the old name. And I would rather save two letters every time I name this race of pointy eared humanoids in power armor than keep up with GW’s legal games so for now I will to refer to them as “Eldar.”
Rant aside, let’s explore the assembly of these models from the ground up!
We begin with a sprue like the one pictured above. A sprue is a whole plastic contraption containing plastic bits. GW makes these sprues using 2 part molds that get injected with hot plastic.
I use the above pictured clippers to clip parts off the sprue. I do not clip as close to the part as I can though. I clip a hair of extra sprue off with my part and then cut the rest of that sprue nub from the part with a hobby knife. I do this to avoid damaging the part. For some reason the nature of the clippers makes them deform whatever they clip whereas the hobby knife can get smoother cuts. I only bother with the clippers because then I can use my knife on the individual parts more comfortably once they are off the sprue.
Notice that sprue is marked 1999. I got this second hand from someone who probably bought these sprues in or soon after 1999. But these same guardian sculpts still get sold by GW today! This guardian design is old enough to buy a drink in the US. If anyone has bought this kit recently let me know if the sprues still say 1999. That would suggest to me that they are still using literally the same molds for these sculpts since ’99. But I hear that molds wear out so GW may still use the same mold design but cycle out the individual molds they use when molds start making miscasts.
The age of the guardian sculpt and other Eldar sculpts has lead many an internet user to write paragraphs, memes, and one liners about how GW hates the Eldar. Especially in light of their recent output of a myriad of updated Space Marine sculpts. In competitive Warhammer 40k games (for which there is a scene of considerable scale – go look up “40K tournaments” and you can see pictures of huge halls filled with players), armies can only include models from a single in-universe faction. In other words, Space Marines (TM) and Eldar can’t fight alongside one another. So it hurts for longtime Eldar players to see their opponents get new toys while they play with models from 1999. Or so I have gathered in my internet investigation of the 40k community. I live like a $%@& hermit these days in the time of coronavirus so I haven’t exactly gotten to ask many people about this stuff in person since I bought my first 40k models.
Here you can hopefully see the mold line running down the front of this leg (and some dried super glue on my index finger!). A mold line forms at the seam between the two parts of the plastic injection mold. Because I want my guardians looking as slick as I can get them, I do my best to scrape these mold lines off all the parts before I glue them together. I use the back of my hobby knife blade scraping at a 45 degree angle to do most of the work. For the tricky corners I might use the sharp side of the knife to do some careful cutting. Here is the leg again after I’ve done some scraping:
Less than 100% flawless but I think I lack the patience and knife finesse to try and get those corners between raised and lower parts of the leg any cleaner. I know the GW staff painters get even better mold line removal results because I see it in their picture. If you have some special tricks for moldline removal that could up my game, please comment below (I think that can happen on this website I am new here I don’t know).
These legs are designed with a push fit nub-and-slot system to line the two legs up for gluing. All good except… The nubs are way too big for the holes so if you try and push the legs together there’s a big honking gap in the crotch.
I solve this problem by cutting most of the nub away. I say most of the nub and not all because having a little residual nub helps me get the legs lined up just right when I glue them. Without the residual nub it can be a nightmare trying to get the legs lined up just right. I have two guardians already that are standing on “rocks” I made from clay because the way I glued their legs made it impossible for both their feet to lay flat on the base. Fun to mess with clay but I want the ability to get it right without the clay if I want to. I swear that one leg pose id finicky as hell though lol, the one with one foot bent. Any fellow guardian owners let me know if you share this issue or if this is only a me problem. I sadly only have words and no video or diagram to illustrate this cutting of the nub and lining legs up thing so I hope I just helped some struggling Eldar players out there but would not be surprised if I confused some others. Here is a picture of the residual nub after I cut away the majority:
And here are some assembled legs glued to their bases:
I hope this doesn’t awaken anything in me…
Messing with these parts and the mold lines makes my arms feel funny so I quit after building eight pairs of legs today. Like when I sit up and hold the knife and parts up where I can see, after a while it’s like the blood drains out of my hands and builds up on my elbows. Let me know if this happens to you too and whether you have a solution besides taking breaks which is how I deal with it now.
Anyways, Wile E., signing off.
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Wile E Painter's Hobby Blog 