Unboxing Malifaux - Som'er Teeth Jones's 'The Bayou Boss' Starter Set

Looks like Som'er Teeth Jones is getting ready for action...

The 'The Bayou Boss' box contains enough parts for nine miniatures (though one of those is a bonus 'Johana' miniature which is unlikely to be a permanent inclusion. I'll cover her in this article but won't count her for purposes such as the points value of the box)...these miniatures are Som'er Teeth Jones, his two Skeeter Totems (2SS each), Lenny (9SS) and four Bayou Gremlins (3SS each). It also contains stat cards for each one and six upgrade cards four of which are for Som'er, one for Lenny and one that can be given to any Master or Henchman (though for the purposes of this box set that basically means Som'er...).

This makes the Soulsstone value of the box...

Som'er (0), Skeeters (2, 2), Lenny (9), Bayou Gremlins (3, 3, 3, 3) Total (25) or (28) with a maximum Soulstone cache and (35) with maximum 'out of the box' upgrades.

Note : As Johana has the Mercenary characteristic you could use her with the crew and that would up the total to 42 (her value plus the soulstone cost of hiring a Merc.). However as she's unlikely to be a permanent addition to the box I don't include it above. 

The box has two sprues in it which divide into six sub assemblies (one of these is the bonus miniature Johana) as well as the aforementioned cards...

Lets have a look at each of these 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 by clicking on them.

Here's some instructions as well. Simply click on them for larger pictures.

Som'er Teeth Jones.

The Sprue

Stat Card

Upgrade Cards

Assembled

Some Close-ups.

His face is in two halves and mine didn't line-up perfectly with his head piece so may require some filler or a bit of filing...

Lenny.

The Sprue

Stat Card

Upgrades

Assembled

The pig is in four pieces (one of which is the tail) and for some reason Lenny's feet are separate pieces (this is a trend that continues with the Bayou Gremlins) but other than those minor points there's no issues with this model.

Some Close-ups.

Bayou Gremlins.
There are four of these and we'll look at them in turn...

The Sprue

Stat Cards

Assembled - General

All the Bayou Gremlins come with at least one tiny fiddly part and in most cases it's a separate foot. As the 'separate foot' issue applies to all of them, I won't mention it every time...

Bayou Gremlin 1

The fishing rod is a single piece for those of you concerned that it might be multi-part. I had some issues attempting to align the one arm that's separate from the rod to both it and the body while having enough clearance to avoid the Gremlins hat and subsequently had to fill a few tiny gaps. This is the only one that give me any real problems...

Bayou Gremlin 2

The rifle stock is separate from the rifle itself but also has a rope piece which aligns with some more rope on the model and I strongly suggest testing the alignment before gluing as it's quite a precise angle.

Bayou Gremlin 3

No issues with this one.

Bayou Gremlin 4

If you want the frog hanging off the gun barrel as it is on the box cover then you'll need to do that before gluing the end section of the barrel on as it has a wider end.

Skeeters.

The Sprue

The one side is effectively a mirror image of the other so you end up with two Skeeters facing in opposite directions.

Stat Cards

Assembled

There's some specific assembly issues that we'll discuss after the main pictures of the assembled models but the main issue is that they won't fit on a 30mm base...my solution to that is at the bottom of this section...

The 'Antenna' are very thin and there's a lot of small spikes or thin parts all over the model that are quite easy to break while assembling other sections. For that reason I'd attach the legs to the body before adding other parts so you don't damage other bits when pushing them into place. I would also suggest putting the head on last so there's the absolute minimum chance of breaking those spindly antenna bits.

As you can see in the pictures below the leg parts each has a very specific location in the recess in the models body that's not apparent in the instructions so I've taken a couple of close-ups for you.

On both my 'Skeeters' the part of the wing that slots into the body needed a tiny bit of filing down before it fit nicely in place.

As I mentioned earlier these Skeeters are too big to fit on the 30mm base that their card specifies and unlike with the Brass Arachnid (which can be made to fit with some effort) you're going to just have to accept it. I've got around it by mounting them on clear plastic poles to give them the appearance of being in flight though it's possible that with some heating and bending you could model them rearing up from the base on their back few legs.

For those of you interested in how the new crew figures compare to the original metal models I've provided some comparison pictures.

Now lets have a look at the bonus model 'Johana'. If you're lucky enough to have a box with her in it then it will have the following label on it...

Johana.

Sprue.

Stat Card.
The Stat Card clearly states that she counts as Johan in all ways so you can't use both her and her male counterpart in the same crew...sorry...

Assembled.

No issues at all with this model other than the fact that the hammer arm crosses the models hair so you'll want to put her head on before the arms. I'm guessing most of you would do that anyway though...

Some Close-Ups.

Thoughts and comments are (as usual) most welcome.