I know, I didn't get around to posting my final finished Stormlord. I will, I promise! But I'm just so excited to finally get my hands on the new Imperial Guard Valkyrie kit. Not because I play IG, but simply because I think the IG faction of Warhammer 40k have the coolest looking mechanical designs. They look grounded in real Earth technology but at the same time, taken to extreme ridiculousness.
The first thing to notice is that the kit is jammed into just 4 main sprues. But thankfully, a casual glance will reveal that most of the parts from a given sub-assembly are within the same sprue. We're still a long way from Bandai's individually numbered pieces, but it's manageable.
My made a few notes going through the manual. There are lots of moving parts rather than options on this kit. Unlike my very first Tau Devilfish, I won't need to glue a hatch permanently open, it seems. And the deploying guns are on free-swinging hinges. The rear access ramp is also hinged. I'm liking this build already.
Those guns are going to be a problem, however. With all the detail on those sprues, you'd think by now Games Workshop would design a multi-part Heavy Bolter so that I wouldn't have to drill my barrels anymore. I don't know what it is, they can put reasonable dents in exhaust pipes to simulate hollow-ness, but they can't put a similar dent for a weapon barrel. Oh, and last note about the gun: pay attention to the images in the manual. It's supposed to have grips for a soldier... but for some reason this bit is ommitted on the detailed blow-up of the assembly (if you look at the port-side version you'll see it does have the grips - and there are indeed grips bitz on the sprue for this.
After test-fitting several of the panels, I started glue. But here's another tip to save some trouble. Do the sides of the main fuselage first: That is, do one side, slot the gun in place and then glue on the top part of the hinge to hold it down. Then position the rear hatch and glue the other side in place to hold that down. Slot in the gun for that side and glue down the top of this second gun hinge. The reason you must do the front LAST is simply because the side panels have a little tab near the fore that fits right between the floor and the edge of the fore panel. Just trust me on this, I know it's counter-intuitive. If you've built any of the Cities of Death kits, you know you should connect and glue 3 adjoining panels to make a stable structure first. However in this case, because of those tabs, that strategy goes right out the window.
After that, page one is done. Just glue on the "roof" of this crew compartment. You might try tying it down with an elastic while it dries. Past experience with Citadel Miniatures kits is that large chunks warp a little. I don't know if that's to do with the plastic they use or if it's just the Canadian cold. More to come soon.
A friendly reminder: test-fit EVERYTHING. At a glance, the tail stabilizers look the same for both side, but they are indeed side-specific. The ridges slotting into the tails are angled, so try each bit before gluing. And be sure not to use too much glue. That’s common sense but is extra important in this case because those doors that are resting in the bottom guide slot will be secured by those tails at the top. Just a drop too much and you’ll wind up gluing the doors.
Another note about those tails, the diagram in the manual indicates there’s a bit that fits underneath next to the main fuselage… but I simply cannot find the corresponding pieces. I’m guessing this is some kind of left-over from the original Forge-World resin version of the kit. For example, there’s a bit in the front corners of the fuselage that, even with camera angles in consideration, it will not align exactly as in the photo. I surmise that parts of the documentation are recycled from documenting the old version of the model.
