Rather surprisingly, my small box of Crusader Miniatures WWII Germans courtesy of Dave at Caliver, arrived yesterday, having only been dispatched from the UK on 10 November! 11 Days would be pretty good any time of year, and given its less than 5 weeks until Christmas, I was qui impressed with an 11-day transit time!
The six packs are - 1 x SMG troops, 3 x riflemen, 1 x LMG crews (2), 1 x kneeling LMG and command and 1 x AT Rifle crews (2), a total of 28 troops to represent the dismounted versions of the motorcycle troopers.
And after my last post, complaining about the challenges of assembling the 1st Corps motorcycle combinations, I took a couple of pics to illustrate the issues.
Red circles mark problems with the next one - the motorcycle has a rider's seat - but the rider has the seat sculpted onto his derriere - so I have had to prize the one on the bike off then file it to let the rider fit in place (with the single motorcycle, the rider's seat was absent from the machine, as obviously intended). Also, the side car above is missing the part that is supposed to attach it to the rear wheel of the bike.... you can see how it's supposed to be below!
Minor things really but just a tad irritating - it would probably work better if the fragile linking pieces were modelled in metal on the motorcycle, with a hole for them to fit into on the resin sidecar - all in all, the 3D printed versions were a lot easier to deal with - zero assembly!
Well, that is my grumpy old man moan for tonight - I will try to be a bit more positive next time!
As to the title of this post? Well, we shall see how that goes - but I almost certainly won't risk any more overseas purchases till 2024.
Nice I do like crusader miniatures, I try not to be grumpy but those kind of design mistakes do annoy me it means the figures and the motorcycle are not meant to be together ?
ReplyDeleteThanks Matt...yes, that possibility occurred to me too...might just be they picked out the wrong version of the bike...a bit annoying though!
DeleteThey will look good when you are done, Keith. That's all that matters. As for the next order, isn't January after the holidays? New troops for the New Year?
ReplyDeleteThats my plan Joe - apologies for the late response, I just found this amongst the 11 "spam that were not spam" dating back to late Oct when I remembered to do a check just now!
DeleteSpeedy delivery for sure Keith! I really get peeved with these sort of simple assembly issues, as it's not rocket science to thing which is the best way to go. Sadly I've seen it far too often with wargames models and during my time in the design industry.
ReplyDeleteAh well it's a first world problem, that's for sure Steve!
DeleteLovely looking stuff!
ReplyDeleteThanks Michal!
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ReplyDeleteSpeedy delivery, but what is this term 'last reinforcements before Christmas'? Just say they are for January and they came early. Works for me
ReplyDeleteHaha....could well be some locally sourced "stuff" appears, Scotty!
DeleteOdd that these pieces would be molded incorrectly. Someone in QC must have noticed at some point.
ReplyDeleteAfter your last 1st Corps package post, I send off a small order. I told them “Keith sent me”! My package arrived quickly too.
Yes, a minor irritation rather than a show stopper Jon, but would be better if one of the seats wasn't there!
DeleteWhat have you been buying from 1st Corps???!!
This time, I ordered a couple of ox carts with driver, Renaissance mounted command, and SYW French infantry.
DeleteAha..."this time" being the operative phrase!
DeleteVery nice work. 11 days is about as long as stuff takes to get to me and I’m only across the ruddy channel. Lol.
ReplyDeleteC'est La Poste, JBM!
DeleteZero assembly is good, my one dislike of plastic 28’s! I have been doing a wild sale of stuff via e-bay over the last month and within the UK infrastructure have noted delays from postage of an extra 1 -2 days. In one case, I posted two items’ same postage, one to each end of the country, one arrived two days later, the other seven days late … Go figure! So there are early signs of delay and clogging …… but, it is also Black Friday week, so the parcel volume must be well up ….. partly my fault, with some of that e-bay money spent 🙂
ReplyDeleteYes I find some of the plastic figures (and vehicles) a bit of a pain to assemble too Norm!
DeleteLook forward to seeing what you have spent your ebay loot on!
Nice to have a package of minis delivered any time, but especially nice during the holiday season. BTW, that is weird to have a seat on the motorcycle and also one on the rider.
ReplyDeleteThanks Dean, it was a nice surprise, how quickly it arrived! And yes, I don't know why the motorcycle with the sidecar has the seat but the solo one does not.....you can buy a motorcycle only, which would need the seat, obviously, so maybe it's just a pick and pack error?
DeleteI have a few packages being delivered at the moment, and figure this is a good time of year to purchase them as the deliveries can be camouflaged among all the other Christmas household purchases. I'm glad no-one keeps a tally as there is a wide variance between the deliveries addressed to me and the number of presents placed under the tree. A couple of annoying defects there, but hopefully not too diffciult to correct.
ReplyDeleteLol, very clever Lawrence....hiding in plain site is a well established technique!
DeleteUnfortunately with adult children we have devolved to the secret Santa pick a name out of a hat and buy one family member a decent priced present, so I have nothing to camouflage my incoming freight...which, apart from the name etc, all stand out like the dogs proverbials, as they are brown cartons from the UK with customs declarations attached, not plastic courier satchels like everyone else's purchases arrive in!
11 days for such a far away delivery is very good. I'll keep that in mind for next time I am buying figs.
ReplyDeleteThe bike makeup looks a tad poor for sure. And the broken bit on the sidecar.... no quality control?
Thanks Dai....I was happy with the speed of delivery, that's for sure. As to the damage, could easily have happened in transit, but that's part of the issue, it's a very small, and therefore fragile, piece of resin....
DeleteGood to see that the postal times are in your favour Keith….
ReplyDeleteI would say U.K. post is variable 😁
I think you are right in that it is a case of miss packing.
All the best. Aly
Thanks Aly - having just hacked the last two seats of the final pair of motorcycle combinations, I think that must be the case - a bit annoying but I have managed to overcome it!
DeleteRapid delivery, sound's like just a mistake in packaging but still irritating!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
Thanks Iain...it's strange, they got the right bikes (minus seat) for the two single riders, but not for the four sidecar combo's....I finished the last two yesterday, amid renewed frustration and bad language.....they are all done now!
DeleteNB...by finished, I mean they are assembled...still need to be painted!
Deletedoes this mean the Blitzkrieg motorcade is postponed ?
ReplyDeleteCertainly not Bruce...I can multi task! The completed motorcade should be revealed this week!
Delete