Dystopian Legions Kingdom of Britannia Terrier Ironclad - Unboxing, review and assembly instructions

Kingdom of Britannia Terrier Ironclad

The Terrier drives into battle in a large Spartan Box

The back has an accurate render of the model along with some fluff and a detailed listing of the box's content:

The three game cards contained afford the terrier increased durability and a potential to destroy terrain.

Construction

Here are the steps I took to assemble the Ironclad; this took me about one and a half hours including time to take photographs and allowing the glue to dry. To follow these instructions you will need: A sharp craft knife, super glue (brush applicator or gel type is best), pin drill and material for pinning. You could replace the pin drill with modeling clay (green stuff) if that is what you have. Thick protective gloves are highly recommended!

Step 1

Remove all of the flash and excess resin with the craft knife; if you aren't sure of something leave it for now. I wear a glove on the hand I am holding the part with while I do this and recommend that you do too! There was some pink mould related material on mine that was a pain to remove; if you encounter this you must remove it. The mould lines on the metal track bits are easier to remove if you use a needle file.

Step 2

I chose to assemble the tracks first. Starting with the metal track bit:

These attach to the end of the track to cover the bald area, if you clean the parts up and press them together there is a good chance they will look like this:

See the gap at the bottom :(

I was expecting this as the same thing happened with the Prussian tank. To fix it, put on thick gloves (I use a pair of gardening gloves, they cost ~£1 from a super market and should be part of everyone's toolbox), now hold the metal track bit between finger and thumb of one hand and gently crush it into a slightly tighter curve; I find it helps to push into the part with the thumb on my other hand at the same time. Pretty much straight away the metal should give a little with a small creak, let go and try it against the resin track - it should fit slightly better.

Repeat this several times and you should achieve:

Now do it all over again for the other side.

Step 3

Before attaching the tracks to the sides, paint the inside areas of the track sections first. 

 Next, I attached the tracks to the body of the tank. This seems simple, just fix the tracks to the sides and done, right?

Except that is about as square as your average orange!

I can think of three ways to adjust this: pinning, modelling clay or basing the tank. If you go with the base option you are going to want to attach the body of the tank to the base as well otherwise your tank is going to break in transport. I chose to pin the model as it is what I am used to and modelling clay takes around 24 hours to set. To use modelling clay: apply liberally to the side of the track and push the parts together, then find some way to hold the tank in the correct position for the next day.

When pinning this model I used one pin for each side, the reasoning is that this allows some freedom of placement if the holes don't align perfectly (Contingency!). As this will be the primary join for the entire model an inch long pin is not excessive.

I first drilled a hole into the side of the body of the tank, I then placed a smaller pin into the hole and applied some paint liberally to the end:

I then fitted the tank track to the tank body, this forced the pin into contact with the track leaving a small spot of paint where I needed to drill the hole in the track!

four carefully positioned holes later and the result was this:

A vast improvement!

Step 4

The hard parts are over now. Next I assembled the sponson guns:

 I held these in place with blue tack while the glue dried. Immediately after are the tack guards; take some time to align them correctly

 Resulting in:

Step 5

Next up was the doors on the top of the bridge. These I found were too small. Too address this I placed a blob of blue tack under them to hold them in place while the glue dried.

 Step 6

Now I glued the bridge to the tank body:

Step 7

 Finally the smoke stacks, barrel and headlights can be glued into place:

 Complete tank:

Contents as list:

1 Ironclad

1 activation card

3 game cards

Quality:

The terrier is an intricate resin model with detail equalling or beating that of anything else on the market.

Appearance:

I like the terrier and its self propelled gun design, I look forward to both painting it and killing things with it.

Table Top Usage:

Like all Ironclads the Terrier is a complex tactical choice. Armour 4 and a shield generator give the Terrier the ability to shrug off most attacks and a reasonable chance in an ironclad duel, whilst its main gun obliterates infantry. Counter balancing this is the fact that the Terrier is a whopping 60 points, putting it at more than a fully tooled out mainstay section or unit of sky hussars.

To get the best from the Terrier, I think it is important to look at the 'Lethal' Weapon Assigned Rule (WAR) that its main gun has. This means that any attack from the main gun only has to reach the Injury Rating (IR) of a model to kill it rather than the Kill Rating (KR). Against regular infantry who already only have an IR this does nothing, against an expensive veteran unit this doubles the number of models you kill!
A final consideration that applies to all ironclads is that many infantry sections pack both anti ironclad and anti infantry attacks; try to position the terrier such that they can only optimise one of those each turn.

Price per model:

At £45 or £40.50 from FireStormGames or TheTrollTrader The terrier is a large amount of cash to put down at once. It is, however, an impressive centre piece for your army and a finely detailed model. Personally I think the price is fair for what you get.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, the terrier is a nice kit. My only suggested improvement would be some optional upgrades. A solid 9 out of 10!