In this post, I will be taking a quick look at the Avatars of War Corrupters of Apocalypse, recently released in plastic. It's been quite a wait for these figures - ordered in early October, expected end of December, arrived end of February. Not so much a late xmas present then, more of an early easter egg.
As I showed in
this post, the packaging is a robust plastic case - a video cassette case in fact, if you are old enough to remember these things. Inside the case are a number of sealed bags containing the components, no sprues are involved. The components were obviously attached to some kind of frame/sprue as there are little remnants of these on most parts, some larger than others. Click on the photo for a closer look, I have kept the photos large so you can get a good close look at the bits.
The photo shows the contents of one bag - enough bits to make eight figures, including a command group. There are two each of four designs of legs and torso, plus a spare torso for a command figure. There are eight pairs of arms, which seem practically identical to me. There are also eight weapons being held by two hands, plus a couple of weapons held by one hand, a banner and a pointing hand, and a few other command bits. Finally, there are ten heads. Oh and there are square plastic bases included.
After cleaning and assembling one figure I can make a few observations. I am unsure if all torsos fit all legs, the first I grabbed at random did not fit together well, so I would make a dry run before you stick them together with glue. The instructions state you can use plastic glue. I tried my usual Revell Contacta but it did not stick the bits together. I have used it on GW, Perry Miniatures, Gripping Beast, Wargames Factory, all with the same results. So I would recommend super glue for this harder type of plastic.
The plastic is not the same as GW plastic. It's a fair bit harder, so it's more difficult to clean away mould lines and any extra bits. You will need clippers to remove the extra little tags, a knife will prove hard work. Some of the weapons are a little bent, but it's easy to straighten them out with a little gentle bending of the handle. I would say that the level of detail held in the plastic is good, maybe marginally less crisp than GW can achieve, so less sharp edges than you might be used to.
Assembly is fiddly, as it often is with great weapon armed figures. I would suggest glueing the arms, the weapons and torso first, then fix this sub assembly to the legs, then head last. Be prepared for some frustration, it took me about half an hour to get this one figure cleaned and assembled. If you are going to use them in a regiment, be aware that ranking up will be difficult, so assemble them as a whole unit and number your bases. The plastic is very hard, so conversions will be challenging, easier than metals, but not as easy as GW plastics. It should be possible to mix in GW bits - head and weapon swaps should prove reasonably simple.
That's all I can say at the moment, it will be a while before I get round to assembling any more figures and painting them. Hopefully the large pictures and my initial observations will prove useful if you are thinking about adding these to your collection.
