So the Manticore is here at last. We are really happy with the quality of the cast. However, as we told you in the last blog post, there have been some last-minute technical difficulties that had a big impact on the whole production process. Basically, the foundry created some great moulds that made perfect casts, but after 20 runs, the moulds suddenly refused to behave in any consistent fashion. The foundry ended up throwing many many casts to the refuse bin and it became clear that we had to take some emergency decision and completely had to create new moulds with a different approach.

This forced us to resplit the master in a different fashion. In just two days, the foundry got back on its feet and delivered some great casts but in the end, as a result of this new splitting, the assembly of the piece is not as simple and straightforward as we had originally planned.

So here are a few tips to assemble the Manticore:

1.  You should start by gluing the Manticore's left front leg in place.

2.  Then, you'll have to glue the hind legs in place. The tricky part here is to glue the hind legs while, at the same time, testing the correct position of the branch to the base so that the branch and the left front leg correctly fit on the base.

3.  However, do NOT glue the miniature to the base just yet. You just want to make sure that the positioning of these parts is correct.

4.  Once the three legs are glued, you now have a solid start to build on. Glue the Manticore's right front leg in place while still testing its position with the base.

5.  Once all the legs are glued to the body, you can now glue the Manticore to the base, and add the head and wings, which will fit easily.

In the end, a little bit of putty will help to create perfect joints between the legs and the other parts.