Wyrd Plastics - Assembly Guide, Tips and complexity reviewed

I've seen a few articles recently with people's feedback on assembling the new Wyrd plastics. I'm not denying that some of these kits are fiddly and the lack of assembly instructions doesn't help, but I've been surprised by some of the criticisms I've seen.

I wanted to create a more impartial guide to those kits and so I'm dedicating a page to a Wyrd Plastics Guide, a mechanism that gives you a simple score on the complexity of assembly and things to look out for with each figure. You should see it appear on my blog in the next couple of days.

I'll be giving each mini a score and then the box set overall, so you get an idea what you might be letting yourself in.

Now because we are all at different skill and comfort levels, scoring works on the premise that you're a hobbyist who has undertaken a few conversions, maybe done a little green stuffing, you certainly know how to drill and pin. A typical example is maybe you've converted a marine to a new pose, drilled out the gun barrels and green stuffed a symbol or two on his armour.

So how will scoring work? Well its a simple 1-5 scale as follows:

One out of Five - A kit or mini so complex and delicate it will take a team of artisans many weeks to assemble the nerve to simply open the box. People have been known to loose their sanity simply by gazing at the contents. Not for the feint hearted and is likely to test your assembly mettle significantly. Be prepared and follow advice and recommendations very carefully.



Two out of Five - A kit or mini with many assembly challenges. It might contain really fiddly bits that leave you feeling you need a third hand, just to hold that bit just as you want it. It will challenge you and requires a fair bit of thought and preparation.

Three out of Five - A kit or mini with one or two assembly challenges. It might challenge you a little but with a bit of thought, it should go ok.

Four out of Five - It's a pretty easy mini or kit to assemble, there's nothing out of the ordinary here for someone of your skills. There might be one or two little things to look out for.

Five out of Five - Seriously you'd have to have a blood alcohol level approaching 100% to cock this one up. No instructions needed and a blindfold is provided for those wanting a challenge.


Lastly, to round out this article, I'm sharing my tips for assembling these minis, some are obvious, some not so. They are my personal take on how to ensure every mini you assemble not only looks great, but causes you the minimum of fuss during assembly.

So my 10 general assembly tips for Wyrd Plastics are as follows:

Keep the back of the box, the 3D renders of the minis can help you find out where those elusive bits should be fitted.



If you are going to wash, to remove mould release agents, do it whilst everything is on the sprue and check carefully for missing components afterwards.

Don't blindly cut things off of the sprue, this isn't a GW kit where you make a little pile of bits, then decide how they go together. Each piece probably has only one place and each mini has specific parts. You can only mix and match if you are prepared to convert, which will not be easy, and arm/leg swaps are non existent in the kits I've seen.

Only snip off the sprue the bits you need for the next assembly step.

Snip things off the sprue over a table, preferably covered in something with a high contrast colour to the grey of the kit and isn't cluttered with other things. Make sure your entire sprue is right over the table/matt and watch carefully for where pieces drop, if they are small.

Make sure you have tools up for the job, you want a needle sharp and pointed set of clippers, some needle files, a needle delivered plastic glue solution and a sharp hobby knife. You may also want a pair of tweezers and a magnifier for some of the kits.

Cleanup small and delicate pieces very carefully. I know this sounds obvious, but I've seen a few pieces broken because people didn't think through the cleanup strategy.

Build from the legs up on a mini unless otherwise suggested in my guides. Decide if legs need pinning to your bases before getting into full assembly.

Consider as you build if adding the next component will hinder your ability to paint. Some prefer to part assemble and paint, others don't mind the challenges that full assembly might bring.

Dry fit every component at least twice before gluing. In the first instance make sure you have the fit right. In the second instance look to your remaining parts to see if what you're doing might hinder the rest of the build.


Lastly and not really an assembly point, but one last piece of advice. Consider how you are going to transport the minis, custom foam is best.

Some Construction Required - Kirai and Crew

Some construction required continues this month with the low down on assembly points if you're looking at putting together a Kirai crew.

First up, here's my Kirai crew as it stands. I'd found some bamboo bases care of Malcontent's effort that looked just perfect. Bamboo as I found out however if fairly difficult to drill into. You tend to find your drill bit slipping until it finds a recess between two bamboo sections. It's just a little fiddlier.



Kirai isn't really an issue to assemble but her avatar form was a different story. I fumbled with the join between Kirai and her spirit form for hours before deciding that there wasn't a good join and a whole lot of green stuff was going to be required.

I had to enlist the help of a friend with significant experience with green stuff shaping to extend the spirits dress, rework the shoulder and he even extended kirai's hair to make it more natural in its position on the bamboo.



Next up were the Shikome with their ridicoulsy long upper arms. I tried to give them two different poses, because I hate duplicate sculpts but both needed strong pinning to achieve.




It goes without saying that you'll need to bend and dry fit until you have a good pose before pinning. I had to pin almost all the way through the chest cavity before I was happy with the strength of the join.

Last up were the Gaki and I'm glad I only opted to do two of these. The shoulder joints were quite fiddly and had to be gently drilled out. You have to drill into the shoulder, not the chest, meaning you don't have a lot of space to work with. It was as I was doing this and dry fitting the arms that I realised how unnatural the pose of the fitted arms would be. A quick bit of web research showed most accept this and I even began to think of this as the natural pose, until I finally looked at the Wyrd web store. There the poses looked a lot more natural and I came to the conclusion that the arms needed to be bent and repositioned to get the same, or at the least, a more natural pose. Some tweaking later and here they are with a little liquid green stuff to fill out the join at the upper bicep.




Well now Kirai and her minions are all assembled its time to turn my attention to Nicodem and his crew of lackeys. Hopefully I'll be able to smash them out before Xmas, in which case I'll share a similar article soon.

Some Construction Required - Seamus and his Belles

I have to admit that I really enjoyed the challenge that returning to metal brought when I went from my GW to my Malifaux crack habit. Now all of a sudden I was pinning every model and really considering every conversion. Plastic kits had made me lazy and then along came Wyrd's minis and it forced me to up my assembly and conversion game.

Nonetheless, not every mini is equal and some proved particularly challenging. This then is part 1 of my list of Resser minis I think you should take extra care or put extra time aside for when assembling.

1) Seamus & Avatar Seamus

That right the mad psycho himself is first on my list. The original pose Seamus really only has one assembly point, where his bag of tools attaches to his right arm. Be sure to pin this because it'll be a very dry joint otherwise. You'll need extra time because that arm needs to be gently cradled or held in a vice whilst you slowly drill into it. The bag of tools is straightforward to pin and is probably the hole you want to drop your pin into.

Avatar Seamus being part resin and part metal presents slightly different challenges. The resin around his feet, shoulders and backside will need liquid green stuff applied and you may want to consider pinning his metal fist to that resin arm. Take the time to round and dry fit the fist until it sits well and looks natural.

Lastly turn your attention to his metal pocket watch. This should wind around his hip and fall between his legs. Gently bend the chain until you have it fitting well, dry fitting until you're happy with the position, and then glue a good portion of the chain along his hip to avoid it snapping off.

2) Belles

By far the biggest construction point about the belles is where the parasol shaft connects to the canopy. You'll want to gently drill out the canopy connection point so the shaft has a greater contact point. Be sure not to drill to far or you'll have a hole in the top of you canopy.

You should look in particular at this pose and decide upon how to reinforce the connection of the elbow to the torso.

I did this mini twice (can't have enough Belles). The first time I was lazy and just applied a bit of extra glue at the point the shaft went over her shoulder, whilst its quick, it's a weaker join and might ultimately fail. The second time I did this mini I took the time to pin the arm, it wasn't easy and it took a while but it was totally worth it.

So that's it, this first article should get you through the Seamus boxed set, subsequent articles will talk about some of the other little challenges awaiting you as you expand your collection of Resser Masters and Minions.