1) I managed to catch a bit of a summer flu, which has the lingering effect of making me a bit loopy, and had the more immediate effect of knocking me out for a few days. And,
2) I had some unfortunate issues with the model I received.
The first issue was a surprising, but thankfully easily fixed one - the left leg (a metal piece) snapped at the ankle. This is a kind of break I've run into before; either their was an issue with the molding, or the piece has been stressed, and the metal just kinda gave out. The good news is that it broke in such a way that made it very easy to glue back together (the two pieces fit pretty much perfectly back together, and almost stuck without glue).
The second issue was also surprising, but unfortunately not so easily fixed. I'm chalking this up to the fever, but for whatever reason I didn't notice until I was almost finished assembling Ruin that I didn't have his right shoulder/arm bit. I was hoping that I could hack together something using pieces from another Khador plastic heavy kit I have (don't ask me why I have a spare heavy kit floating around), but Ruin has apparently been taking plenty of vitamins because it's arms are way, way bigger than any of other plastic kit arms. So, now I'm awaiting a replacement part from PP. The good news is that it's already processing, and I know from past experiences that it shouldn't take too long to get the replacement.
Which leaves my Ruin model in this state:
Not quite finished, but good enough to get on the table if I need 'im.
Despite these setbacks (and recognizing that they're almost totally random happenstance) I still feel confident in saying that Ruin is one of the absolute best model kits I've ever worked with from PP. And this is coming not too long after having assembled my own Transfinite Emergence Projector (a stunningly well made model) so that is well earned praise.
Much of what makes Ruin such a good kit comes down to smart modeling decisions. Many of the pieces are cut and arranged in such a way that they go together very easily and naturally, while also allowing for a lot of flexibility in being able to assemble as much or as little as you want as part of painting. Ruin comes in enough discrete pieces that you can break it down almost as much as you want to prior to painting; or you could just slap the whole thing together and paint it that way (my original plan, possibly revised as I await the arm).
One detail I thought was interesting is that warpwolf pelt is almost totally optional: Ruin has a fully featured shoulder underneath there, so the only thing you'd have to do if you wanted to leave off that particular item is come up with a replacement idea for the missing spike. It's a nice option for anyone that would rather do without that particular grisly trophy, though after years of Circle induced gaming trauma I actually wish I had a second warpwolf to glue on it.
Ruin is roughly evenly split between plastic and metal pieces, and thankfully they are distributed intelligently: the lower body is almost all metal, and the remaining metal parts are used for highly detailed items on the upper body, or weapons. All of the pieces have an excellent level of detail, and everything looks pretty much as I'd expected it to.
Clean up on the model was about average for a model with this many pieces. The resin pieces took the longest to clean on account of each of them having some tabs that had to be clipped and flash to be trimmed, but thankfully it is much easier/more pleasant to work with than the old PP warjack "plastics" and thus isn't as time consuming. None of the metal pieces had any major incidents of mold lines or flash, though the face-shield-thing did require a good "once around" cleaning that was a little tedious due to the shape of it. Overall though, not at all bad in terms of clean up or assembly.
Bottom line: Ruin is an absolutely fantastic model, and if this is what we can expect of future metal/resin hybrid kits from PP, I'll be very excited to see them continue to come down the pike. This is easily the best produced heavy warnoun kit I've bought from the company, and I've bought more than a few.
Now I just need a right arm, and I'll be set! Can't wait to actually start painting it.
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