Mastodon Progress Part 1

Hello all!

As you may have seen I was one of the lucky ones to get my hands on the new Mastodon at the Forgeworld open day! I completed an Unboxing video for the kit as so as I got it home and this can be seen here if you missed it. I have spent most of my hobby time in the last week getting it assembled. It has been fun but not without its challenges. To help any of you along that may be purchasing one soon, I took photos as I went to help with any difficult bits.

For the most part the instructions Forgeworld have provided are great and I have basically followed them during my build. Usefully each resin piece is numbered so you can match up the parts in the instructions with the correct resin part. This is a great idea however it appears that none of the numbers match up!! I think I have only found 1 piece with correct number on it so far, so it was back to visually matching up. Thankfully the instructions are very clear and it hasn't caused any problems.

First up was getting the kit washed. I washed it twice and some parts still came up shiny. I will be purity sealing the model prior to base coating.

The gluing has to start some where and the Mastodon gives you a nice easy start! Attach the secondary meltas to the front doors! 8 pieces down!

The next step is to get the insides together. I had 2 issues with this part. The bottom hinge on both front doors didn't fit into the bracket as it was full of resin. I had to drill the excess resin and trim the hinge on the door down a bit. The second issue is with the push fit Pistons on the door. One of them won't stay in place, I have tried heating and bending the bracket. Each time I think I have it, it falls out again!! 

With the sides done, it was time to tackle the floor. It is split into 3 parts and you need to get each to them to fit together correctly or the the rest of the tank won't go together right. I spent a good few hours dry fitting/filing/cutting/heating bits to get them to the point I was happy. I found it really useful to turn the tank upside down to help wth the flooring. You also need to be checking the roof sections, bulk heads and rear door during all of this. The rear door is very useful as it will hold the sides to the correct width. Elastic bands also came in very handy! Keep checking the front doors as well, as you could end up with a large gap between them if you're not careful. 

To ensure that everything was ok in the dry fit, I made sure that I checked with the top two panels in place so that I didn't have a nasty surprise and end up with large gaps on top! I used elastic bands to hold it all together while checking fits and making adjustments to the various parts. 

During this I came across a problem with the rear of the Mastodon. The ramp doesn't sit very well with the top of the superstructure. With the ramp closed fully the top sits on top of the ramp and not on the sides as it should. 

The photo above shows the 'large' gap of several millimetres. The photo below shows the superstructure in place as it should be and that the ramp doesn't close correctly. I will need to remove some of the inside of the ramp to get it to fit correctly but I haven't done this yet. 

Once I had all the parts going together as I wanted it was time to glue! The instructions says to do each side to the floor separately but to ensure it all glued together correctly I decided to glue all the bits at the same time and then wrap it in elastic bands to hold it all together while it dried! I laid it out like this and applied the glue to all the parts required. It needed to be quick and I wanted everything ready and to hand. 

It went surprising well and everything went into place as planned! All glued: 

With this all done, life gets a lot easier! The tracked sides go on very easily and I made good use of elastic bands to hold them in place. Again I did both sides at once. 

Whilst this was setting I sorted out the top. Very straight forward, glue two large pieces of resin together and add another underneath. 

This is where I am up to now. Very happy with the progress so far and how it has gone together. All that is left is adding the weapons and finishing details. I will also be adding magnets to the front and rear doors to keep them shut. The front doors have a tendency to fall open at the moment! Usefully Forgeworld have added pre-drilled holes for magnets on both sets. 

Finally Commissar Ibram Gaunt asked for a size comparison with a rhino, so here it is!

I will be continuing work on the Mastodon this week when I can. I have Throne of Skulls at the weekend so hobby time is a bit limited this week as my days off will be spent battling the forces of the Imperium! 

Happy Hobbying!

Darien