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Showing content with the highest reputation on 07/13/2022 in all areas

  1. This is my review of the new DualCast King Cobra. Things to be aware of, DualCast is not as rigid as the KS3 material was. It is easier to cut. Also any filing, sanding you want to do, watch yourself, and your details that you do not want to lose. Please read through. If you dont know what the King Cobra is, take a look here. Yep thats right its a DT 8 recon.. So here are all the parts that come in the blister. You get a Left lower leg, Right lower leg, Hip with both upper legs, Right arm, left arm and torso. Now you will notice that there are extra parts on these. Due to the new DualCast process we will see these on some of the newer items. They are molded like metal casts, but its thermoplastic resin. So some of the minor imperfections that we would see with metal we will sometimes see here too. These are most of the tools I use. Some clipers from the hardware store for the larger gates, smaller ones for the small gates and anything else I need to nip off. A sharp hobby knife, a mold line scraper, some files and sanding sticks. So I use my larger clipers to get the big gates, nips them right off. Then I use the smaller clipers to get the smaller gates. Now I take the gates off the back of the upper legs. Then the Smaller gates. Now I use some sanding sticks to help level out where the large gates were at on the back of the knee joint. Didnt work as well as I would have liked so I got one of my files out. You may find some extra bits here and there, if you dont like them then use a sharp hobby knife to remove them. Sometimes I need some speed so I break out my dremel, I have some diamond dremel bits and this one here works great at removing mold lines, and other imperfections. Its not as harsh on the material as well. Once I'm done with the lower legs, and hip parts I move on to the Torso. Found a small piece on top that I felt needed to be removed. Then I went to work on the arms. Once I was done removing all the mold lines and fixing a few trouble spots, just a little bit of CA glue and some CA Accelerator, and it went together like a charm. So overall, I really like the fact that the minis are made in the USA. The details on the new minis are just as clean and crisp as the KS3 minis, maybe more so. The new DualCast is easier to work with in my opinion. I can see lots of conversions in the near future for me. I can never have enough parts.... I do dislike having to deal with mold lines but with the tools I have it makes dealing with those easier to handle. It is odd to me that this is a plastic mini but it has some of the same issues as a metal mini. I'm sure that is because they share some similar steps. I ordered 2 of the King Cobras. My first one did not have a lot of issues just the normal clean up for me. Second King Cobra did have some pesky mold lines I had to deal with on one of the arms, the one with the extra flashing you see above. My dremel and hobby knife helped me to remove those. One of the lower legs did have a detail that didnt quite get filled out. The lower legs have 3 raised squarish details and on one of the legs one of the raised parts was smooth and glossy kind of like it didnt get quite enough of the material to it. I was able to square it up and remove the glossiness with my tools. All in all though I would have to say I am quite happy with the model. Yes they may have issues that needs some creative thinking or some elbow grease to get worked out. At this price point I am happy to do that. Some may use the slight imperfections to show as battle damage, I dont have a lot of luck doing that myself so I just do what I can. All I can say is im not paying a "Preimum" price for a "Preimum" model that has issues. So tell me what you think. I may do more of these for the other new units. Thanks
    1 point
  2. Here is my review of the Dual-Cast Warden B. So this is a new variant of the Warden, that to me is closer to the unit card than the original model was. So lets show off the package. And here is what is in the blister. You get 2 hulls, 2 sets of 3 axels with wheels. (Notice how 1 set is a single wheel on each side while the others are dual wheels on each side), 2 Light RACs, 2 Radar Dishes, and 2 Radar Dish mounts. So what is the Warden B? And how is it different? So this is what CavBoss posted in the Facebook group March 2021. I think it's changed as its now just 1 Light RAC, with the SA Ultra so damage starts out at 3/5. So let's get one of these models cleaned up and put together. Here are all the part you need to make 1 Warden B. So I start off with one of the hulls. And I clip off the extra overflow gates. Next I clean up the Dish Mount. Then I move on to the RAC. I get the overflow gate. Then I get the main gate. Next is the Radar Dish. Now it's time for the Wheels and Axels. I cut the main gate off, then I remove all the axels from sprue. After I have 3 separate axels I clean off the extra parts, because there is no extra space on where you insert them onto the hull. Once I finish that up, I start adding the axels to the hull. I start with the front wheels. These are the ones that only have a single wheel on each side. On this model the clearance between the axel and the hull is nothing, so I opted to not use any glue as I think it will hold without it. If you do use a glue I would use something thin or use a small amount there is not a log of clearance here. First set of Dual wheels go next. Then the last set of dual wheels. Next I glued the Radar Dish to the Dish mount. Next I glued the Light RAC to the hull. Last step is to add the Dish, I opted to not glue mine. And with that I have a Warden B ready for painting. So you want to see how the Warden B compares to the Warden? So in the pictures above you can see the difference. The Warden B has so much more detail than the KS 1 Warden. It's also a little larger as well. In this last picture you can see the pickaxe and other tools on the side of the hull.. The original couldn't show that kind of detail. So my thoughts on it. It is a great model. Didn't take me long to get it together. You do have to watch where you are putting your wheels (I almost put the single wheels on the rear) . I am liking the new Dual-Cast material. It is easy to work with. About the only downside that I have is I have to use more caution when using my hobby knife. The material cuts very easily and if you have a sharp knife you can cut away more than you want. But I will trade that with not having to wait 6 months to a year for CavBoss to get models from over the ocean. Let me know your thoughts and questions. I could really use some pointers to help make these posts better. Thanks
    1 point
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