Gorram’s Side Quests

Halfway through last year the Games Night channel put up a great video of Bolt Action 1st edition being played with not-Lego. I loved it and then promptly forgot all about it…

Last month I finally got round to subscribing to Brickskrieg‘s Conscription service. For £17 including postage, you get a unit of models, a card for the free game that Brickskrieg have on their site (though you do have to give them an email address to get access to it) and a cool info sheet written in the style of a classified document.

It’s not a lot of money for a wee evening of building not-Lego and slowly building an army over time.

Sure, it’ll be ages until you have a full force but you can buy individual units or army box sets through the site as well. I didn’t want to commit to a lot of stuff because the quality of not-Lego varies pretty wildly. I don’t remember what the first month’s building experience was because that happen weeks ago and I have the memory of a jellyfish.

Let’s get the bad out the way first:

The instructions are only available through a QR code on the info sheet or if you specifically request access to the files in your account on the website. I get that this is to stop everyone just building without paying them anything but it is a real pain in the arse. I hate companies not including instructions with kits. It is especially irritating that it is such a hassle and involves waiting for permission. Once you get the instructions they aren’t even a file you can browse properly, just an annoying flipbook. The other company I’ve found that does similar kits email you a PDF which seems much more consumer friendly and might actually be enough to sway me over to them in the future.

There was an email to say that this month’s models were stuck in customs so they have changed the order but as there’s no way to know what you are getting on the website, who knows what it should have been. There was no unit card in this month’s box but I’m assuming that’s connected to having to hustle to get replacement kits sorted.

The vehicles come individually wrapped but I’ve found the instructions such a pain to work with that I just opened all the packs and build all three at once. The build itself was fine apart from two pieces

• one hole wouldn’t take any of the bits for making the tracks so I ended up just gluing it
• One of the pins didn’t have a hole all the way through… which was unfortunate as it was meant to hold the axle. Thankfully I have spare bits but otherwise the drill would have had to come out.

The good? They look cool and price wise don’t hurt too much. I haven’t priced it up vs BrickOwl for parts but it’s reasonable. Will I stick with it? Certainly for another month but I might try ordering a couple of kits from Build Army to compare quality.

It has reminded me how much I loved building mechs out of Lego for Mobile Frame Zero years ago…