Post by tenchuu on Jul 6, 2016 6:24:56 GMT
First off, I don't intend this to be a gripe thread. What I'm attempting here is to kind of look through the models that were available from AD and provide some starting points for eventual, way down the road, not even thinking about an actual time for fixing, improvements and/or replacements. To reiterate, this isn't a "THIS SUCKS" thread, it's a "This could be improved in this way" thread. Hopefully it will help Ironclad in the future once they've got everything running smoothly. OK, to start with mine.
Directions: None of the kits come with directions. Some of them desperately need them, in particular the very complicated metal kits like the heavy field gun battery. Even online directions would be great, if they were available directly on the website.
The base plastic tank kit: one side of the tank is more detailed than the other side. It's quite visible even on the sprue. If they could be made to match in some way, that would be great.
Metal tentacles: These snap very, very easily, particularly the ones on the lobbers. They have some structural weak points that could be thickened a bit to prevent breaking. The plastic ones are fine.
Metal legs: There are a couple varieties of these, but the fit on the lobber legs appears to be off. They're not very adjustable but they can seal improperly in their slots and be very loose. Not sure how to fix this one, myself, other than the easiest solution...
Lack of bases: Both the slaver, lobber, and I would guess all other specialized tripods don't come with bases of any kind. It makes them stand out among the tripods and leads to some of the stability problems I mentioned above. I have "fixed" my legs by gluing them to bases I took from assault tripods, but including them would be nice.
Dominator tripod: The current dominator appears to consist of an assault tripod with a turtleneck and a hat. The original drawings of it made it appear much more imposing and unique. Given its cost in points, it should likely stand out more than it does. A custom resin head would be good, and maybe some scaled up legs if possible, though I feel that's less important. Though I have not seen the current model first hand, it appears to lack gravitas.
Heavy Field Gun Battery: Currently this kit requires a fair amount of drilling to make the guns mount. This is a significant amount of work for a kit that is already very labor intensive. At my count the gun without crew consists of 13 pieces. That seems like a great deal more parts than should be required, though I am not a mold maker. If this could be simplified somehow, I think it would be much more saleable.
Roughriders: The rough rider handlebars are very hard to put on the bikes. I'm not sure why this particular part is separate from the rest of the bike, but it's extremely fiddly and difficult to attach. If it were part of the main bike mold, that would be a huge improvement.
That's all I've got from the models I have, but feel free to add your own thoughts; remember, we're not going for a debate here, more just a list and maybe thumbs up if you agree with something.
Directions: None of the kits come with directions. Some of them desperately need them, in particular the very complicated metal kits like the heavy field gun battery. Even online directions would be great, if they were available directly on the website.
The base plastic tank kit: one side of the tank is more detailed than the other side. It's quite visible even on the sprue. If they could be made to match in some way, that would be great.
Metal tentacles: These snap very, very easily, particularly the ones on the lobbers. They have some structural weak points that could be thickened a bit to prevent breaking. The plastic ones are fine.
Metal legs: There are a couple varieties of these, but the fit on the lobber legs appears to be off. They're not very adjustable but they can seal improperly in their slots and be very loose. Not sure how to fix this one, myself, other than the easiest solution...
Lack of bases: Both the slaver, lobber, and I would guess all other specialized tripods don't come with bases of any kind. It makes them stand out among the tripods and leads to some of the stability problems I mentioned above. I have "fixed" my legs by gluing them to bases I took from assault tripods, but including them would be nice.
Dominator tripod: The current dominator appears to consist of an assault tripod with a turtleneck and a hat. The original drawings of it made it appear much more imposing and unique. Given its cost in points, it should likely stand out more than it does. A custom resin head would be good, and maybe some scaled up legs if possible, though I feel that's less important. Though I have not seen the current model first hand, it appears to lack gravitas.
Heavy Field Gun Battery: Currently this kit requires a fair amount of drilling to make the guns mount. This is a significant amount of work for a kit that is already very labor intensive. At my count the gun without crew consists of 13 pieces. That seems like a great deal more parts than should be required, though I am not a mold maker. If this could be simplified somehow, I think it would be much more saleable.
Roughriders: The rough rider handlebars are very hard to put on the bikes. I'm not sure why this particular part is separate from the rest of the bike, but it's extremely fiddly and difficult to attach. If it were part of the main bike mold, that would be a huge improvement.
That's all I've got from the models I have, but feel free to add your own thoughts; remember, we're not going for a debate here, more just a list and maybe thumbs up if you agree with something.
