[Adept Zero] Not your father's close combat arms.

Hello, techmarines, I hope you are all well. Chicago STILL is not warm, and our gas prices are the highest in the country (YEAH! Go Chi Town!), so what better time to talk about sitting at home in front of some models? Let's get right down to it!



I'm not sure how many of you know of my love affair with those horribly mangled and maimed Space Marines who are too valuable for the apothecary to just harvest...I'm talking, of course, about Dreadnoughts! Oh, I do love me some two ton walking goodness, and I'm not talking about that truck stop waitress I met in 1988. I love 'em, but they are not cheap. I wrote a 3 part article about getting three dreads out of the Furioso kit and two AoBR dreads.

Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

Now, the one thing that cannot be kludged together are the blood fists and blood claws. I attempted to actually cast them, and it failed (but I learned a lot). But then I found close combat arms at Forgeworld, and they were totally affordable! So affordable, in fact, that I ordered two pairs. So let's look at them:

You can click on any of the pics in this article to get an extreme close up. So each of the 4 arms came in a baggie. All pieces were present, and they didn't look like they had much mold release on them. The arms are nicely proportioned, and the assembly scheme was self-evident, which is not always the case with GW/FW items that come without assembly instructions.

These relatively large bits of sprue were actually not that bad to manage, since the resin is surprisingly soft. The only case where it was an issue was in the separate claws below:

It's much too easy to cut these too close to the ridged line and ruin the claws, but my I got through it without harming them. There was a bit of miscast on a few arms like the one below:

A little bit of filing, and it will be as intended. NOTE!! Breathing in resin is VERY VERY bad for you. Even with a light job like this, I wear a mask when filing or cutting. So after a mild bath of warm water (you don't want to get resin hot, it will deform) and dish soap, I carefully trimmed off the flash and then simply assembled the arm with super glue. And voilla!

I think it looks awesome when assembled. But here's the big revelation. Look at this CC arm next to the plastic one from the Furioso Dreadnought box (click to enlarge).

I'm not seeing a lot of difference in detail, are you? In fact, I would say that the Blood Angels arm, even when discounting the iconography, is just as detailed if not more. GW has really become skilled with plastics. But these resin CC arms are really great, and they are a breeze to assemble. They may also be the most affordable item that Forgeworld sells. Next time, I will show you their eventual home. Until next time, stay healthy and comment or email me!

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