I Built a Forge World STORMBIRD: The good, the bad, and the ugly... 

It's insane to me that the **VERY** expensive models that Forgeworld make often seem to fit together rather poorly. For the amount of money you spend on these models they should fit together perfectly and the instructions should not be wrong.

For those wondering, forge world is asking 1,457.50 USD for this kit that doesn’t assemble right and damages itself after a short while.

This video sings all the reasons I will never buy Forgeworld. It breaks my brain to think a company would spend so much time designing such detailed models then go ahead and sell them at extreme costs just to have them arrive full of mold lines, covered in release agent, and warped all to hell. Nah. Sculpt what you can, 3D print what you can’t.

You're telling me this thing costs $1500 USD and you have to boil parts of it just to get it to fit together??? I could buy every perfect grade kit Bandai has ever made and have change to spare! GW really crazy for this one.

I'd strongly suggest either drilling out the landing struts and inserting metal rods, or put some supporting blocks under the fuselage, (particularly at the rear) otherwise the weight of that thing will slowly crush those legs.

Murray is a creature that manages to make me smile just by looking at the camera, i bet he's a kickass person to be around.

As someone who owns a thunderhawk, and watched a few prominent channels build this, the manta & a WLT It really shows how absolutely garbage GWs quality control is when it comes to forge world. It's so incredibly frustrating how expensive these kits are and how poorly they fit together. There are certain parts that have nice crisp angles and should fit perfectly but instead they have 1-3mm gaps

This simultaneously makes me want to get larger kits and also never look at anything above a centimeter again

I feel like with both this and the Manta on Squidmar Minis, it nice to look at these sort of things but building it is a nightmare due to the quality control of games workshop or whoever is in charge of that.

For thick resin bits you can dril and put a thick wire or metal stick to unite the 2 parts prior to glueing to make it harder tobreak in parts.

It looks great, I can't wait to see it painted all up. That said, the condition of some of those parts is utterly unacceptable, especially for the amount of money they have the gall to charge.

Why is the price so high? Coming from military models you can get kits that are the same size and more/equally as detailed for much less than 1/2 the price, and those won’t have any qc issues. Is it just the fact that the company has everyone by the balls or what? I know it’s not quite the same size, but I bought a large Lancaster model for $300 and it’s by far the most expensive kit I’ve ever bought. The fit of the parts was spot on and the molded detail was exceptionally sharp. It came with a ton of photoetch parts and other little goodies. No way this pile of junk cost 4x more to produce, especially since resin kits are cheaper to make than polystyrene.

Tabletop time should ABSOLUTELY run a campaign but all the minis are Lego and every prop, set, etc. are too. I think that’d be really interesting.

"What happened to the engine, Pilot; bird-strike?" "Flyrant Strike."

Forge World models are the best advertising for 3D printing. It is like GW does not even realize that at this point they basically work against their own interest.

As a humble 3d printer, I'm perfectly happy removing supports by heating up my print and pulling them off by hand. But if I was buying massive forgeworld kits like this, I'd definitely be looking at picking up that Phrozen ultrasonic knife. Bet that would have made the cleanup process way easier.

The lack of brass rods used as pinning or 2 part epoxy is stressing me out 😬 Good video on the least optimal way to build a large forge world model.

Man, I love the stormbird. But it can’t beat the Dakkajet.

fellow stormbird owner here, good to see I'm not suffering alone building the thing have fun painting it... :)

Think this is the first build I've seen that includes the interior. Always wanted to see the inside.. thanks!

I'm so glad people make Forgeworld videos so I can just reinforce my view that I'm never going to buy Forgeworld stuff outside of a single knight kit. What a nightmare

Don't know what Warhammer is but glad you had fun

Fun fact, planes use red light because it doesn't destroy your night vision, otherwise your eyes would constantly have to readjust to the darkness outside everytime you glance at your instruments.

For future reference those are called Ailerons, Flaps are a component of the Ailerons that extend during takeoff (to provide more lift) and landing (for more drag) :D great build as always

Can’t believe it’s finally happening

This is cool. I don't see myself going after one though. I'd really like a Thunderhawk tricked out as a Shadowhawk for my Raven Guard army/collection. I know some people hate it. But I think I'd rather find a decent set of files to print a Thunderhawk proxie and then figure out how to trick it out to sell it as a Shadowhawk.

I’ve been waiting for the Stormbird video. First time ever seeing one of these on video, especially the build process. Thanks for sharing.

How can forgeworld/gw pretend to ask this much money for something that's not even built right? If they were any other company they'd be long forgotten with such mistakes

Loved watching you put together the Stormbird and listening to your commentary during the process. But after watching this video and others, I won't be spending money on large Forgeworld kits. Seems like the bigger the parts the worse QC it has.

That looks even bigger put together. And so many details in places that probably won't be seen that much. Very much looking forward to all further steps along the way.

Thank you very much for the step by step process you followed to build your Stormbird. It will help me avoid a lot of headaches. You rock!

Bear Force 1! 🤣 That's great. Still waiting on a plastic version before I think about one.

Great video. Looking forward to seeing how everything turns up.

Wow, this sounds like a great learning experience, that’s what my drill sergeant called my misfit rifle parts back in the day.

as good as your work is, this video shows me once again why i would never buy FW stuff... for the pricetag i can't stand that extra work you have to do just so you can use the thing you buyed

I literally cannot wait for the conversion/customization. Please release asap!

i like these series episodes, its cool to get detail information on each part of the build, and it gives a much more realistic showing of how the hobby actually is c:

I really love the FW models and don't mind all the work required. I haven't bought any for 15 years though (and never will again) since my 75% painted An'ggrath decide to start sweating release agent. Pretty crushing when large flakes of paint start coming off randomly. I've seriously soaked and cleaned that thing for hundreds of hours in all sorts of industrial cleaners and the resin is still slippery. And yes, it was prepped correctly before assembly.

that looks sick

6:20 could be flaps, could be ailerons, ailerons are what makes the plane go up and down and they tend to span the entire wing, flaps are used to create extra lift while landing and extra drag while diving, and im not sure if they span the whole wing, but theyre longer than the ailerons usually are, so when deployed they stick out into the wind more.

Loved this episode!

Just realised now that the tabletop time logo is not only 3 T... but also makes two chairs around a table! :O *mind blown* !

The red light is a common military thing. It doesn’t affect your natural night vision the way white light dies. Not something space marines would have to worry about. But a nice touch regardless

Airplane nut here! Given the location and the shape of the stormbird, those inner flaps are either flaps, or flapevators (a combination of flaps and elevators) This is a big'un and I am looking forward to seeing the completed model.

Looks amazing!

Really looking forward to seeing it used I'm batreps for kill team, ithe thing is so big it's hard to imagine using it as a model in a game and the plan for using it as terrain makes so much more sense to me. I do that with my old Necron monolith quite a bit and it's a 3rd the size and weighs almost nothing lol. Great video and really cool to see it come together. I definitely don't envy you in that though!!

This is sick! I've had a proxy model of this I've been working on, but it's been on my backlog for a while since its such a big task.

The “ambient red light” is actually a tactical decision employed by most militaries as red light is the lowest wavelength and has the lowest travel distance, allowing personnel to operate and move within a vehicle without drawing attention with white light.

Thank you for building this in a video showing off all the troubles with it as well as its beauty. Looking forward to seeing this all painted up and ready for action. This video has told me that spending a fortune on this is not for me, as I really suck at modifying things to fit. Think I will stick with mostly plastic models...

It's coming out great, see you next time. :D

It looks so funky.

So $1k for a warped pos, what’s new from FW. I enjoy watching the series, but man I could never buy this personally.

I recently built a Forgeworld Leviathan Dread and I had a hard time assembling and magnetizing the whole thing. It' was pretty heavy for a solid resin kit. I can imagine your pain having to assemble that thing. 😄🤣

11:26 "Anally fix every crack and crevice." I see what you did there. Nice word play 🤣🤣

So you paying almost 1.5k$ for be able to cut, wash, cut more, bend, glue, cover up the cracks and paint it? Sounds like a good idea. (Glory to the 3D printing!)

Can’t wait for the battle report ❤️

I love the fact that Dave has an OneyPlays t-shirt. I'd kill to see that crossover happen.

My god this kit is a beast. I know it would slow down the production side of things but if you've got a piece that's warped or won't fit, Forge World customer service is amazing. They'd send ylu replacements in a heartbeat

Currently building the Orion Dropship and I can't believe you made it through the stormbird

If you do go through with the rig repair diorama, I think it’d be a nice touch to add some marines honouring a charred, dead space bear; as if he died during the combat that caused the turbine to fail

Gotta love GW models in which the more expensive it is the more shoddy QC is.

I was hoping for a longer video!

God I can't imagine the metal version how hard and annoying that would be to build and the scare of it falling over and flipping the game table lol

love it, most forge world kits are like that. When you put the fire raptor together, was it warped and not square? there do you get the Bob Smith supa glue from in Australia?

What a beast!

hype for the next battle report

Looks like it went ok other than the ailerons. Your lack of pinning bothers me. I actually love pinning everything when making FW kits. They're more involved than plastic kits, but it's a fun pastime.

You had me at " Bear Force One "

As someone who owns 2 forgeworld Macharius tanks for my imperial guard, I can say that sometimes forgeworld stuff arrives looking good and requiring minimal work in fitting together despite their idea of packing(throw it all in a zip lock bag, what could possibly go wrong with chunky hull components bouncing around with machinegun barrels etc?). And other times it's just god awful. Although unlike the poor bastard who bought that forgeworld horror story directly from them(my 2nd tank, from Ebay) I knew what I was getting into, was paying a quarter the price, and was completely happy to work the thing up to the standard that it should have been to begin with.

Here’s a thing to note RESIN DOES SHRINK, so it is to be expected there will be some work with this no matter what.

Between 2 warhounds 1 reaver 1 thunderhawk and now a warlord titan investing in a good heat gun solves most issue. I used glass glue 1 minuting set time put it place the parts together hit heat and it almost will mold them together.

This video was what convinced me to just print one instead of going to forge-world.

Its a cool kit not something I'd personally ever buy but as a collectors piece it's very cool.

How fucking insulting is it to sell a product that expensive that need that much work, experience et know-how. Forge World is selling this resin garbage 1200 USD and the instructions doesn't even work? The pieces doesn't even go well together? As many of you, I'm a collector and I can appreciate the value of expensive things. BUT, expensive and that deserve their prices!

you should also make a playlist for all the bear force 1 episodes

I need 1 or 3 of these

All I could think of at the end was "For the love of Mike, Dave, DONT DROP IT!"

this is why you just print these types of things yourself and mod it anyway you want

i feel like this is going to fall apart without pinning every single part haha

Yea, things like this video are why I'll just scratch build my stuff... Well that and Customization.

I've watched a lot of these videos now with people building large Forge World models. A Tau Manta, a couple of Stormbirds, various Titans, and every single one has been a shitshow. Missing parts that don't get replaced for months, misshapen parts that don't fit properly, broken parts, mistakes in the assembly instructions, essential parts that are sold separately in a way that's deliberately misleading (Titans without heads). Where do they get off providing such terrible products and such awful customer support for something that costs as much as a new gaming PC? People buy these things expecting a premium experience because they're paying a premium price tag and they're certainly not getting what they pay for. They don't even wash the goddamned thing before they send it to you.

It's not even the fact that I can't afford one. It's the fact that I don't want to build one lol.

Im actually surprised to say this but seems like a kit best left for a crash diorama or part of a map for a terrain. Since when youre done gluing there will literally be areas you can never again access.

the fact that GW can charge that much and people buy their resin (myself included) is nuts.

Should of magnize those ball joint so you could move the weapons around in different ways.

I want a Thunderhawk, but resin model quality scare me

Lego does some good ball joints I think if gw did something similar maybe uses a similar type of plastic it might get a better fit?

I'm sorry but for the prices GW charges for those Forge World kits there should be no warped or incorrectly sized parts. I've seen multiple people put together these larger kits and they all have so many problems that the end user has to fix when they shouldn't need to...

You guys need to make a space bear imperial knight.

CoD's Warzone Resurgence has a glaring, blinding light in that damn cargo area. I hate it so much.

Missed opportunity to put a red led inside the cargo bay.

Wow quality from forge world, you pay alot of money for all that resin, you would think for over 1000 dollars it would all fit nicely

Your a better man than me I would have given up

I had to magnetize the ball joint mounts because they wouldn't stay in my Stormbird.

I'd just like to point out that Land Raider sponsons would fit snugly in the place of the two front hatches that fell off. Twin-linked las-cannons or even a set of hurricane bolters from the Crusader variant. Just saying... #HintHintNudgeNudge

I'm going to 3D print this model for 10 bucks. Screw the 1500 dollar price tag. Never pay that much for anything other than real life necessities

not pinning stuff is a huge mistake , i have a storm bird and 7 titans and have had them for years ,you will have nothing but probs just using glue pinning and epoxy is the only way to go

What glue did he use for this? i've been looking for a good heavy duty resin glue for a while

I still don't know where you people get the patience to build a Behemoth model that weighs almost as much as my cat. It looks great though and I can't wait to see what you add.

For the price of that piece I'd expect it to not have gaps and be better prepared for mounting