Ok, purchased this last month, saw down with a razor saw this week, started cutting away the rather large casting blocks* and did a bit of dry fitting. Thats the good news.... I removed all casting blocks in an afternoon, only need to clean up the rifle with hands attached. There are a number of small items to fit the figure, but in 1/9, nothing too small.

I removed the locating blocks from the arms and still cannot get a flush fit at the shoulder. I will need to bust out the Dremel and remove small amounts around the inside where both arms meets the torso until they sit flush at the shoulder. Not ideal, and not a big deal, either. Also, left arm, there is a small tab(?) at the top of the shoulder which prevented the arm from sitting flush that I removed. I believe it is a loop on the plate carrier that I will recreate with foil later. Someone remind me, please.

The helmet fits the head, as do the shoes to the legs. The torso has a gap at the right-hand side waist which will need packing, whereas the left has a minor gap easily filled with either glue or putty.

On the back of the figure, there are four grenade pouches as a single piece, which proved a little problematic. I removed the casting block, test fitted, and could not get them to sit flush with the back of the figure. I removed the locating block, and then started to cut into the figure itself, trying to get the pouch to fit. There was a small knob, not sure of the technical term, fouling the placement of the pouch, which I removed. And I still need to remove more from the pouch to get it to sit on the figure's back.

I did notice a small air bubble at the rear of the left shoulder, not worth worrying about. And there is a spare mag, which I will fit somewhere on this guy once I know how everything else looks.

The pistol on the right hip, the pistol twin mag holder on the left hip, the first aid pouch in the small of the back, and the NVG mount to the helmet all fit perfectly. I haven't tried the hands to the arms, yet. Or the neck to the torso.

I will upload some images shortly. At this stage, I am holding off buying the second figure, which I am sure will be similar to this one in terms of work. I don't mind some work required on a figure, it is modelling after all.

*outside with a dusk mask on

opps, thanks for the nudge, Nap; sorry gents, I cut my typing finger the following day and usually I press it close and glue it (intentionally), but this is refusing to close, so I have taped it up. It will not need suturing, thankfully, but it does make bench time difficult. I did take a bunch of images prior, and here they are, with commentary.



There is a bit of a gap there that will need attention, and removing the locating tab will not help. Some nice detail to be seen, too.

The shoes fit to the legs perfectly, so that is a bonus. Knowing that, I will leave them off for painting.



I removed the locating tab from each arm for a better fit, but will need to move in the Dremel and remove some resin for them to sit flush.



Looking at the detail, there is some real crisp areas, and some areas that are a little soft, which is surprising given other releases from AM have been amazing.

Right, a bit more dry fitting and some routing, these things will fit like the proverbial in no time.

Back soon

Sounds like an interesting project, will watch with interest. Re the cut finger, if superglue alone won't stop the flow of blood I glue bits of tissue across the cut, seems to strengthen the barrier a bit.

Cheers Simon

right, progress... cut is healed, and I am back at the bench. Clean-up is done, with only a minor bit here and there to do, I've assembled the figure to test fit the joins: Both shoulders, both hands, and the rifle butt. All held in place by the adhesive qualities of Tamiya putty. Once dry, I will try to fit / shape and fill any minor gaps with superglue.

I use Tamiya super thin cement to smooth out the putty, and then push it into the cracks, before using proper super-glue to fix in place. The beauty here is that I can test for fit, snap off the arm for painting without snapping the arm, and glue back in place knowing it will fit. Brillant.

I expect to have this primed this week, with a coat of paint on next week. Well, that is the plan anyway... chores may get in the way. And weather, too. But it is looking likely to be in my favour, with some foul weather this week keeping my indoors. Bother.

A minor point, I removed some tabs on the webbing at the shoulder, these are loops which I will replace with foil closer to painting, rather than drilling out the eye of each. Because I am lazy like that.

In contrast, here is another Airborne Miniatures figure, also not glued, held in place by good design



Because why do one figure at a time, when two is one and one is none after all.

Looking good, neat idea with the Tamiya putty. Having more than one on the go is often ideal as there are times when you are limited to.how much you can do on just one.

Cheers Simon

Looks like a really nice detailed figure, but with so much cleaning up to do.
Credit to you, you've made a good job so far.
I'm looking forward to the next update.

Malc

Ah. huge kit, excellent! That second kit does look nice, too.

Excellent work.. looking forward to more..

Ok, tomorrow I'll prime and lay down the first colour on each. The fit of the arms for Multicam guy is perfect, and I need them off to paint the torso. Tropentarn man is a little less perfect, but tropentarn is dots of mid brown 20% and dark green 10%, over khaki tan, which I can do with one arm in place... here are the twins.



Looking at images online, tropentarn khaki tan can be either a cold grey tone or warm "butter" tone, depending on manufacturers. I'll work out one before the morning, and post images of progress in the afternoon.

Ciao

Going to be interesting see the two camouflage patterns come to life, I've seen both in real life and there's a lot going on.

Cheers Simon

Cheers, also check out the difference in detail between the two, from the same manufacturer, too.

Blimey, the difference between the two, is worlds apart. Looks like a. 6 year old sculpted the one one the left.
You have done a good job sorting them out. Following.

Gents, good morning from new Zealand...

With one hand on the rifle, the other hand holding the left shoulder, I applied glue to the shoulder join and got this. A real benefit that the camo is a series of dots, and that I don't need airbrush access to the armpits. I found that the left arm was under tension from the rifle, and shaved a bit off of the left hand locating tab, which was cone shaped. The rifle now sits nicely in place. I will fill the gaps and clean up the joins, in between a dram.


Yeah, crazy to think the rear figure is an earlier release

And real life,

Oh boy, more camo work ahead, brace yourself. These figures are awesome, but it's the modern camo that has me concerned. Maybe some day I'll tackle one, but I'm in for the ride on these two figures, standing by for more.

Ruck On, Bby!

Seeing how you tackle this may give me the incentive to get one and have a go myself..

Ok, there has been progress over the weekend, I spent a day painting, you should see the bathroom, looks like new. Yep, wife was home, as you'd expect for a weekend, and had "other priorities" that did not include scale modelling... its a conspiracy, I tell ye. But back on track this week as I've taken another week off from work - I'm a high leave holder and need to reduce it.

I expect I'll get the second KSK figure in this scale and finish it in flecktarn for the challenge and variety. Maybe even mount it on a small base among pine trees. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Pictures!

Ya, when moma says paint, she means paint! Lol, ya had us going there for a second