My copy of Dust Tactics came today. Unfortently I had a very hard time putting the smaller pieces of the robots on. The machine gun that goes on the Ludwig broke off the piece that goes into the main part. I have not even played yet and I have broken pieces to this game. I also thought the instructions on how to put the robots together could have been alot clearer. What is the differece between a "clic" and a "clac" anyway?

Ken on Cape said:

I had the same problem. I broke both. Even after I was being careful with the second one.

Think FFG customer service will send me a replacement part if I ask?

These Mech's are very detailed and extremily delicate. I would almost say they are too deleicate to game with. I normal let my 5 year old play with my game pieces but these i'm putting on a shelf when not being used. I thought the assembly instructions were OK but not great. I put the models together before I even found them. the only thing I did wrong was put the gun arms on upside down. the machine gun and spot light pieces took a little fiddling with but eventily i got them installed without damage. Hopefully i can disassemble them without damage when comes time to paint.

I suspect the parts fit fine prior to the priming process. Now the holes are a bit clogged. Here is the fix:

Safely use a modeling knife to open the hole. Gently insert the tip into the hole and twist the knife around a full 360 degrees. Repeat for each hole, then check for fit. Do not force it. If the piece doesn't fit in nicely, you just need to open the hole a bit more. Repeat this process until the opening is large enough and the piece fits nicely. I found it took approximately 2-3 revolutions of the knife to open the hole sufficiently. Then I used CA+ glue (gap filling super glue) to attach the piece. Use a very small amount of glue. It doens't take much.

If you already have small plastic bits broken off in the hole, leave them alone. Open the other holes, then glue in place, matching the broken bit to its original spot on the piece so that it is now being glued back in place.

My models now proudly have their machine guns and searchlights in place. But I read about the problem on the forum, so I simply left them off while we played our first few games.

TW

My main concern is with the storage of the walkers - repeated assembly/disassembly will either lead to damage or loosening of the smaller pieces, so once they are fully painted it is my intention to glue the pieces in place. I may have to see if I can knock-up some kind of storage that will fit in the game box, possibly vac-form something (a little neater than hacking lumps out of sheets of foam).

The important thing is to no get your 'clics' and 'clacs' mixed up, as this can be devestating...

BigStoo said:

For storage, I actually purchased the special customized Battleform designed by Salinas. You can see the video in the corresponding forum at Boardgamegeek. So far, it works well for me. Battleform also makes its own verson for the 432 carrying case but its seems that you have to take the walkers apart each time to fit them in.

A nice thing I did for all my robots is that I magitised the whole model so nothing would be about to break off and i just cut into the model to fit the magnets and then cut the joint to make the magnet be about to apply to the gun. I did this for every thing torsos arms and accessories. This is also nice because at the store I go to we have a house rule that when the robot is destroyed it is basically like 40k and we leave the robot where it is. It blocks LOS and is impassible.