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Saturday 16 February 2013

Building the Puppets War "Dragonfly"

Well, my Puppets War Dragonfly arrived a few days ago! First impression was good, it was very well packaged and arrived in very similar condition to Forge World items (that is to say, bits of flash, a few mould lines and air bubbles, nothing more than you'd expect).

See, a wee baggie of goodness

However, once I had taken the parts out, done the usual clean up and washing (being resin, Id advise the usual wash with warm soapy water first), and I had laid the parts out, I realized there were no instructions, and the ones on the PW website were sub-par.
mmm, unassembled goodness

That being said, its not a terribly complicated kit to assemble...

The first step was to cut some blister plastic and make "windows" for the cockpit, as I would want it to match the other flyers in my army (I.e, painted windows). Expect lots of swearing and missed cuts here, as each window pane is an "odd" shape, there is no easy way to go about it...
finally done, goodness gracious me...
Once made, the cowling was fixed to the main body of the cockpit section.

Step two was to attach the base of the cockpit section, make sure this part is fully cleaned of flash, as tiny bits can be a real problem here. Then, join the two "halves" of the plane together, simples as they literally slot together.
Pay attention to the orientation, for goodness sake!

Three, well, its tail boom time. First step is to slot the tail boom end into our assembled body (fin up), making sure the hole in the protuding tag is clear. Next, fit the "interior/exterior" body section, mine fit very nicely and flush, YMMV, but take care to join the "nib" and "hole" at the tail end. Finally, fit the little dorsal fin to fix the two ends together (you may need to trim the rods on it to get it to fit).
 
goodness me its coming together.
Now its time for the tail elevators. My part was warped quite badly, but no matter, as I was going to be swapping it for a Storm Eagle elevator section anyway. This is a doddle, simply slot the part in.
(if you wish to swap parts, its a simple cut-n-paste job)
"like a glove" goodness
Propellers are easy to assemble, though I have left mine separate for ease of painting, like the main wings (as I have not yet decided on how to arm the beasty, Im thinking of it as a counts-as Vulture Gunship.
To fix the part to attach to the flying stand, it goes right underneath the open interior section.


Now, I decided not to attach the grapples and tail boom, instead replacing it with my own engine section, but more on that later. If you decide to go ahead with it, its easy to see where it goes, and the powercell component is placed just in front of it. For now, I shall leave it with a scale shot versus the GW Valkyrie, and 
you can make your own minds up on what you think...

running out of things to say that include goodness...
But Im finished now, so thank goodness! 
Hope this helps anybody with their own Dragonfly!

Later
JP

2 comments:

  1. Small trick for the next time you do windows like that. Put painters tape over the window, outline the window with a pencil from the inside, then put the tape on your blister, and use scissors to cut it out, leaving a glueable edge of whatever size you feel you need around it. Perfect fit, quick, easy, no trial and error. The tape is awesome because you can just transfer the pattern right to the plasticard/blister, and it doesn't leave any gunk on the piece when you peel it off.

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    1. thats a really good idea, curse my laziness! I'll have to try it on my next DF...

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