Sunday, September 13, 2009

Planetstrike kits

Today I'm bringing you a look at the Planetstrike scenery kits (which if you got a chance to check out the new expansion book, serve as more than just scenery). We'll start with the Aegis Defense Line kit.As you can see, there's very little to the set. There are 4 long walls and 4 short ones coming on a pair of sprues. Slap some paint on and you're done. The only thing to assemble is the quad-cannon model which will come in handy if you decide to leave the base and the gun unglued. The Planetstrike line has a common feature in most parts: the hatches or mounts for turrets are all the same size so they're interchangeable.
The Imperial Bastion comes on 6 sprues. The walls for the main structure are on 2 pairs while the rest of the stuff including the Comms Relay and Lascannon are on their own.
The first thing to do is to start with adding corner joints - you need that angle to start off the structure just like the Cities of Death kits from a few years ago. Next, use a main deck panel to help text fit the walls together, this will help get as close to a proper 90-degree angle as possible.Don't worry about perfection. The plastic has just enough give that you will be able to press the next parts together on top. More importantly, lay down the deck without glue. Friction between levels will keep the parts together! And that's how this kit becomes modular as described in the Planetstrike book. Just remember to test-fit everything on top of the previous level and glue only the walls you want to hold. In the end, you end up with this:
Note the deck panels are reversible so you have the option of reassembling the Bastion with or without the mounting point on the roof like so:Of course, building the kit to take advantage of its modular nature means you can do this (using the quad-cannon from the Aegis Defense Line kit and removing the middle level from the Bastion):
Or change the prop on the roof to suit the mission scenario you are playing:


Or try to use everything since the Bastion kit comes with a variety of ground-deployment bases. Mix and match parts to offer some dynamic looking setups.


Remember, if you shop smart, you can assemble an Imperial Strongpoint (a limited direct-market release from earlier this year) simply buy collecting 2 Bastion kits and 3 Aegis Defense Lines. It's tricky, but it can be done for the same price as the limited offer.

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