Unboxing Malifaux - Creative Taxidermy

'Smoky Bacon...'

I purchased this as part of one of Wyrd Games special event sales and if you're not quick off the mark they sometimes run out of boxes, lol. If you purchase this at some point it'll look more like the picture above than the pictures below...one would imagine...

The 'Creative Taxidermy' Story Encounter contains enough parts for eight miniatures though six of those are the same three Stuffed Piglets twice. It also contains several scenarios for use in the game of Malifaux and a scenario for use in the Wyrd Games 'Through the Breach' RPG. The models are a perfect compliment to many of the Gremlin box sets...

The 'Creative Taxidermy' models have been based on the Wyrd Games 'Bayou' base inserts which I purchased from my FLGS Titan Games.

For those of you who are interested in such things the soulstone value of the box is...

Gremlin Taxidermists (7, 7), and Stuffed Piglets (2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2) which is a decent 26 soulstones worth of models though in practice some of these models will appear as the game progresses through summoning rather than being deployed as part of the crew. It's also worth noting that as it contains no Masters or Henchmen it can't be used as a stand alone crew box.

Sprues

The box has four sprues in it as well as the aforementioned cards. Here's pictures of both sides of them all...

..and some close-ups of the individual sprue sub assemblies...

 You get two of these stuffed piglet sprues but showing two pictures of what is effectively an identical sprue seemed a tad redundant...

Stat Cards

Wyrd Games didn't like my publishing pictures of both sides of the stat cards so you'll have to make do with just the fronts...

Story Encounter Booklet

Here's some sample pictures from the aforementioned scenario booklet.

Lets have a look at each of these models in turn. Should there be any assembly issues with any of the models then they will be listed in the appropriate section and you can view larger versions of the smaller pictures or instruction pictures by clicking on them.

Instructions

Some General Notes on Assembly

Many of these models contain quite small parts so depending on how dexterous you are you might consider getting yourself some tweezers. Dry-fitting is also always a good idea in case a part needs a tiny bit of extra filing or filling as some of the fits are quite tight. Where the parts on the sprue are quite thin (chains, weapon shafts, cables and the like) then it might be better to remove parts with a sharp scalpel rather than cutters.

Gremlin Taxidermists

There's not a lot to the assembly of these two models. Obviously some of the pieces are a bit on the small side but none are prohibitively so. One of them has a separate foot but by Gremlin standards at least it's fairly substantial.

Gremlin Taxidermist A - Assembled

Gremlin Taxidermist B - Assembled

Here's a comparison picture between the original metal version and the new plastic ones...

Stuffed Piglets

You get two identical sprues of three Stuffed Piglets each. The fuses on the dynamite and the tails on two of the piglets are on the thin side with the aforementioned fuses being particularly delicate so handle these parts with care both when removing them from the sprue and when assembling. It's also important the surfaces are clean and smooth due to tightness of fit on some parts. A couple of mine need some minor filling.

Stuffed Piglet A - Assembled

This model consists mainly of four large parts. Fit the inner sections first, outers over...this might seem obvious but they do slot over rather than slot in. The barrel top closest to the head doesn't like a great fit on the model because I think it's meant to look slightly open but if you don't like that then some creative trimming would solve the issue. The ears fit across the head in a convenient slot and at least they're not individual ones. 

A comparison picture between the new plastic and original metal version.

Stuffed Piglet B - Assembled

Other than the previously mentioned delicate fuses on the dynamite this one is issue free.

A comparison picture between the new plastic and original metal version.

Stuffed Piglet C - Assembled

The underneath piece will attach if body sides already together but it's much easier to put in first. This ones ears are separate but do have relatively decent attachment points.

 A comparison picture between the new plastic and original metal version.

Here's a group comparison picture as well just to be thorough...

Thoughts and comments are (as usual) most welcome.