Hell Talon SLOW WIP....and I mean SLLOOOWWW

The Hell Talon is coming along, and it is really a beast of a kit. I have had some bad Forgeworld kits before, but this one is bad combined with being an old mold. The wear is really obvious, and the kit design is such that the pieces just sit up against one another. There are quite a few flaws even after HOURS of hot water re-shaping and clamping.

First up, this is a BIG kit. I know that tape is hard to see but this thing is 14-15 inches long. It is HUGE. That in itself, when combined with the long flat front nacels should raise alarm flags for anyone who has worked with Forgeworld resin before. Those long flat pieces seem to always be warped. These weren't bad at a glance, but the resin is JUST thick enough to make straightening them a total bear. After 4 hours on these alone they look like this....

Obviously not optimal....

Then there is the central hull assembly. The two wings glue to either side of a central core that houses the cockpit. You then add the top fuselage and wing, then flip it over and do the underside details including the engines and bombs. This is a lot like a plastic model airplane unless your joints look like this after you clean them up....

Now this stuff can be cleaned up with green stuff....a lot of green stuff....but still. I mean look at that line above the engines.....At least it is hidden by the engines and retrieval hook! The worst offender IMHO is the engine intake pods that sit on top of the wings. These are meant to tie the wing parts to the fuselage behind the cockpit and solidify that joint. But as you can see they are more joint than solid.

Again, several hours of repeated hot water and clamping and this is the best I can get. I can cover SOME of that with green stuff, but either I go Nurgle and add muscle and tissue strings to make it look intentional or they will end up out of balance. Now I have two of the Hellblade fighters, and they had the same issues with their intakes. The shape of that smaller model allowed me to clamp them down with glue, and that fixed them....I don't own a clamp large enough to reach these. Might be time for a trip to the hardware store for bigger clamps!

All the assembly gripes aside this is a gorgeous kit that has one hell of an intimidating profile. This thing most certainly will work on an opponents nerves!

I hope to have primer on it in the next few days, and MAYBE paint after I decide on what direction to go with the putty on those intakes and engine exhaust!