About the broken foot , I'm using the right foot from the Witch King , While I wait for another one, and I glued the horse's leg myself with epoxy glue
I gave him a new shroud, repainted the saddle , repainted the armor, gave him more metal glints and rust, gave the horse some gashes and blood on one side ( because I wanted the option to show him clean, so I just have to switch him to the other side, and he's clean.) Tried to make the Nazgul more to my liking according to the movie scenes...
Well done for making good of a disappointing situation - and you just whipped that all together? Very nice work
That's just crazy talk. With all those problems? And can the horse really not stand on its own?
Seriously though, glad you like it. I have no idea what I'll think of mine... but I'm still keeping my order.... so far.
Very curious what you'll have to say.
I've just unboxed mine, and here's the problem with the horse's stance - the front legs are pretty close together, as are the rear legs. So stability is an issue, from a design point of view, from the outset - it's top heavy, like an inverted pyramid. Another issue that I have with my example is that, like Sankari's, the rear legs aren't symmetrical in how they've been assembled. So one leg is 'shorter' than the other. Compared with a Dragon horse I have, which can place all four hooves evenly on a flat surface, the Asmus horse I have can place three hooves on the floor and the fourth can only touch the ground with both rear legs posed far apart, and with the ankle of the front-placed rear leg angled down - ie, - the tippy toe of the front-placed rear hoof can touch the ground while the rear-placed rear hoof is flat but posed well back.
It
can stand up in a neutral pose, and would support the rider, without the stand. But if the display surface takes a bump it'd more likely than not take a dive.
I didn't know there was an exclusive - if simply getting the figures as a set means 'exclusive', then I have an empty spot in the tray too.
I haven't taken a close look at the clothing, lighted eyes etc, I was more concerned about checking out whether the horse can stand on its own in the limited time I have today. I'm not sure how I feel overall, I'll have to live with it for a while. Honestly, my initial impression is, "I got pretty much what I paid for".
If I could change one thing about the Nazgul: remove the seam.
If I could change one thing about the steed: better tolerancing on the leg assembly so all hooves can touch the ground flatly and evenly.
The initial positives about the Nazgul are: some water treatment and futzing will really lift the stock figure. Anyone handy with weathering to rag up and dirty up the fabric will make this a good looking figure.
The initial positives about the Steed are: despite the lack of battle-damage, the flocking does work really well in concealing the joints, and the textured surface provides a decent degree of realism. Compared with the all-plastic Dragon I have, it is way more convincing. The clothing I haven't had a close look at, but as with the Nazgul, some weathering would really lift it. The sheen that comes off the hair and flocking in some pics is not anywhere near as apparent in hand under regular lighting.
Asmus is obviously prepared to help out with any QC issues, but my example out of the box I think is as perfect as it's going to get. The issues with both figures are, I think, design related (ie Nazgul ankle joint and steed's uneven rear legs).
On balance, this is really the only chance we'll ever have of picking up a 1/6 articulated steed with rider. If your standards are 'high end' all the way, you should probably pass. But if your love for the character will let you overlook some irritating but in my opinion liveable shortcomings, I'd recommend it.