Work in Progress: KDM (Order of the) Phoenix

The Phoenix, mocked up on the base.

It is time for some demon chicken action!

The KDM Phoenix is such a big model that I'm going to break up the post.  This is the "build" post and the "paint" post will follow that, hopefully as a HotD.

And then there were sprues. And it was good. And Zoxe did grin.

Build Notes:

• I say this every post, but take your time and dry fit everything.
• This build is more intimidating than most but I found it to be surprisingly enjoyable.  I followed the Official Build Notes with peeks at Vibrant Lantern and found assembly to be straightforward despite all the pieces.
• As is typical for KDM, most of the sprue gates are on mating surfaces.  Trim them carefully to eliminate gaps between parts.
• In a few places, there are little circles caused by ejector pins (metal pins that push the parts out of the mold).  All of them are on mating surfaces, and a few of them need to be trimmed to minimize gaps.  There's one in particular in the tail that caused me some trouble.
• My worst gaps were on the tops of the "drumsticks" but these are perhaps the easiest to fill because of the smooth (non-feather) texture in most of the area.

Sprue gates between mating surfaces throughout this piece. Trim carefully and dry fit it all.
Also, an example of an ejector pin imprint (the circle, top center of photo). This one was fine but others caused issues.

Even with trimming, because of multiple pieces coming together, there are still gaps. The worst for me happened on his left drumstick. Pushing this closed caused worse issues elsewhere, so I went with it.

Gaps at the head closed nicely.

Iterating:

Normally I build, then fill, then prime - in sequence, one pass.

For the demon chicken, I chose to iterate.  I assembled the body/tail and feet but didn't attach the wings.  This let me fill the seams on the body with easy access everywhere.  I also installed all the little hands in the wings before installing on the body.  Once all that was done, I glued it all together and did another pass with filler.  (This took more time, maybe, but kept my blood pressure down).

• Those Notorious Hands
• For the small hands, clip ONE hand at a time off the sprue or you'll get them mixed up (.... he says with experience *wink*).  
• If you don't have a good set of clippers, do yourself a favor and buy some from Amazon.
• Most of the hands have an obviously "happy" resting place. It's quite satisfying when you find it.  Most go in fine, but some needed some nudging with the back of a hobby knife and my fingernail to get just the right tilt or rotation.
• I tended to use more cement than strictly necessary; a little extra 'melt' seemed to help get them into their happy place a little easier.
• A lot of people seem to struggle with this, but I worked slowly and it went so easily and quickly I didn't even take any pictures.

Filling:

This is a huge piece with a lot of parts and several seams through the demon chicken's head and body.  I debated not filling anything but couldn't let it go.

• For most seams, I used Milliput to fill. If you're not familiar, it's pretty cool.  It's a 2-part "molding clay" that you knead together to activate (like GreenStuff) that's water soluble (unlike GreenStuff).
• Generally this meant rolling out a very thin "snake" of Milliput then working into the gap with carving tools, scraping off the excess and then working the seam with a disposable brush and water to blend and smooth
• In a few places on the sides of the body I was able to sculpt some ripples to (hopefully) match the feather pattern.
• For the record, filling is my least favorite part.
• For smaller seams and spot areas around the small hands, I used Vallejo Plastic putty. I was able to work it (unthinned) with a brush and (hopefully) replicate the feather pattern on his right wing joint.

Overhead shot showing which lines I filled and which I left alone.  Yellow is Milliput and white is Vallejo Plastic Putty.

Repeat picture: Front view, temporarily sitting on the base.  This is the uncropped version showing that he FILLS the photo light box I got for Christmas.