Assembling Phoenix Guard Without Going Insane

[Anvilarm]

Assembling GW Phoenix Guard without going Insane
By Steve Llewellyn

When I assembled my first 10 Phoenix Guard for my new High Elf (HE) Army I made a total mess of it.
I like to paint fully-assembled models and I like to put them together quickly. I usually take a quick glance at the instructions and away I go with the glue.
(That is why my Terrorgheist half looks like a Zombie Dragon. I used the wrong shoulder joint. But I digress.)
You can't do this with Phoenix Guard. I bought my first 10 Phoenix Guard after I had Sword masters and White Lions done because I like the PG the least of the three elite HE infantry, at least in pictures. Now that I have the figures I like them a lot.
But they require careful, thoughtful assembly.
I bought my second batch of 10 PG after placing second in a local tournament. (Thank you Banner of the World Dragon and my condolences to the Daemons of Chaos player I faced in the third match. Hey, I told you to ignore that block of 40 White Lions with the BOTWD and go after the rest of my army, but you didn't believe me.)
When I got my next 10 PG with the prize money, I got them out of the box and carefully studied the written instruction. This being GW that didn't help too much. Then I studied the sprues and carefully examined the various letters identifying each element.
Then I went to the web and googled assembling PG and read a few forums. There were lots of reports of how insanely hard the figure is to assemble and how the various pieces don't fit together. There were videos of grown men crying and jumping off cliffs. Hmmm. Then I got a cup of tea and had a deep think.
I already have a command group so I wanted 10 rank and file (RnF) guardians. The elements on the sprues are grouped by letter. A and E were regular rank and file figures holding their halberd with two hands.
B,C, and D were the command figures which could also be assembled as rank and file.
So I started with A and E.
Here is my recommended way of assembling PG without going insane.
First clip off and glue the chest plate to the back. The back includes the cloak. Make sure you are gluing an A chest to an A back and an E chest to an E back.
Then glue the A right shoulder and fold of cloak onto the A chest and back assembly. Don't be intimidated by that fold of cloak. It looks tricky but it fits easily IF you attach the right letters on the right assembly ie. A to A.
Set these four assemblies aside to dry BUT keep track of which is A and which is E. I wrote the correct letter on the newspaper on which I was assembling the figures and then placed the assembly next to the written letter.
Then get the A and E legs and glue them to their bases. It is very, very important that you glue the legs so that the figure will be standing at the diagonal. (Did I mention it was very important?) If you glue them square (like I did with the first 10) they won't rank up because of their cloaks.
I repeat, glue the legs so they are standing diagonally. Repeat diagonal. (There, if you glue them square now it is your own fault.)
Then paint A or E on the base so you know which is which. Leave everything to dry solidly.
DO NOT GLUE THE UPPER BODY ONTO THE LEGS BEFORE PAINTING THE INSIDE OF THE CLOAK AND THE LEG SKIRTS.
I know. It gives you something to hold onto when you are painting and it looks like the figure is almost done, and in a pinch you could even use them in a friendly battle. But just, you know, don't.
If you do the cloak will cover the skirt on the back of the legs and the skirt and the inside of the cloak will be almost impossible to paint. (I know I had to try for my first 10 PG. Just thinking about it makes my twitch come back.) So first paint the skirt on the back of the legs (I painted mine white) and then paint the inside of the cloak. (I painted mine turquoise).
When that is dry you can glue the body assembly to the legs. Make sure the body assembly is set at a diagonal like the legs. (See above for importance of diagonalness.)
Well done. You are making good progress. Now before you attach the arms, paint the rest of the figure, particularly the chest. It is easier before the arms are attached. Just don't get paint on the areas where the arms will be glued onto the body.
Don't waste much time painting that chest jewel all fancy because it will be covered by the arms.
Done yet? I'll wait.
Now get a left A arms and glue it into place on the A figure. Do the left arm first. The A and E left arms each have two flat surfaces where they contact the A and E chest and the shoulder. Put glue onto both flat surfaces and it fits into place snuggly. Give it a minute (literally 60 seconds) to set up a little firmly but not so hard there is no wiggle room. This is easy with plastic glue but not crazy glue. If you use crazy glue you're on your own, my friend.
Now apply glue to the right A arm, the one holding the halberd, where it will contact the shoulder and the position on the shaft of the halberd where the left wrist connects to the hand on the halberd. I used a pretty healthy dollop.
Hold the figure in your left hand, (if you are right handed) and position the halberd correctly using your right hand. I held the halberd by the bottom of the shaft so I did not block the view of the connection between the arm and shoulder.
I am not going to lie. This is a bit tricky. But not as tricky as trying to attach the wrong arm to the wrong body at the wrong angle. (I know because ... sigh. You know.) I used the thumb on my left hand, the one holding the figure, to gently hold the right arm against the right shoulder. (I have fairly long finger nails which helps a lot.) Try not to smear glue on your paint job.
In 20 or 30 seconds it should set enough that it will stay in place.
Tah dah. You have now completed the toughest part of assembling PG. The head just pops on top. Paint and enjoy.
Whether you assemble the command group as a command group or as more RnF, just follow the same directions and make sure you are pairing B with B, C with C and D with D components. Put the legs on the base diagonal, paint the inside of the cloak and the back of the skirt before gluing the upper body to the legs and all will be well.
Good luck.

[Ferny]

Then I got a cup of tea and had a deep think.

Lol .

I need to get more PG to cut down on my proxies and will refer to this post when I do - thanks .

[NexS]

Good read, good chuckle.
For me, however, I like things painted quickly (don't we all?) so i painted the base colours on the sprue. My issue was not getting them together, but getting the damned things to rank up! So I guess the only thing else I can offer here is to try and keep the models central on the base when glueing them in place, and try and keep the halberds as high and central a possible, or you'll be spending more time ranking these mongrels up than you will playing them!

[Malossar]

I've now done 40 PG.

the best way for me was to assemble one figure at a time but leave the helm off the model. I then attached each model to its base as I ranked the unit up and finished by posing the head to be looking in the proper direction.


I didn't have any trouble on the individual assembly and if you attach them to the base as a final step it makes the ranking process even easier. Paint some numbers under the base (i go left to right) and viola! A lovely ranked unit that's impossible to remove on the table

[Necrotix]

I did a unit of 30, they can be a little fiddly and you have to be careful with ranking them up. I found that a couple of 40mm unit fillers actually help as you can have edges for the cloaks to overlap a base without pushing another model aside.

[Prince of Spires]

Thanks for the overview. It should help if I ever need more PG.

2 other tips you (or other people) could try:
- get the old, metal model and assemble those. Only risk with them is glueing your fingers together. Not fun either of course, but better then insane...
- get someone else to do it for you.

Rod

[Brother Dimetrius]

I found them quite easy to assemble actually .

I am, however, still in therapy over removing mould lines from spearmen.

[Sarcon]

I assembled and painted all 20 phoenix guard at once, assembly line style. Who cares about the insides of the cloaks, stuff your brush in there with your shade colour and leave it at that. It's not like anyone is going to see it.

[Cold Phoenix]

I assembled and painted all 20 phoenix guard at once, assembly line style. Who cares about the insides of the cloaks, stuff your brush in there with your shade colour and leave it at that. It's not like anyone is going to see it.

I did something similar with my 2 boxes of them. I even refused to follow the instructions and use the parts according to their letter . Had a few problems but nothing that couldn't be fixed with some sanding and the removal of a little plastic . As for ranking them up, I just did this as they were assembled, keeping in mind that some combinations of parts (such as the ones with halberds out to the side) had to be able to stay on edge of the tray. It was time consuming, fiddly and a little vexing but didn't cause me anywhere near as much trouble as some other things I've assembled (such as the tiny antenna on Fire Warrior helmets).

[Shannar, Sealord]

Thanks for the overview. It should help if I ever need more PG.

2 other tips you (or other people) could try:
- get the old, metal model and assemble those. Only risk with them is glueing your fingers together. Not fun either of course, but better then insane...
- get someone else to do it for you.

Rod

The 6e metals are still one of the nicest rank and file model sets I've ever seen.

[Gizmos]

The 6e metals are still one of the nicest rank and file model sets I've ever seen.

Can't agree with you more.

@Anvilarm
I have read this about 4 times now, and I still chuckle. Ive bookmarked it for when I have to go through the trauma of doing my own.

Then I got a cup of tea and had a deep think.

Only problem is I dont drink tea. lol