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You've heard of modular Tau Vehicles.. with swappable parts to make the model be one of many different configurations? Well, this is how to make Boys that can be either slugga or shoota boys, easily changeable.

Its also has a side point to make: that pinning becomes insanely easy IF you get the proper parts/tools.



Here we have some Boys that I've been working on, and now that the beginning basecoats are done, I was at the point where I was agonizing over whether to make them slugga or shoota boys, and how many of each, etc.



So, I sat there trying to think of a way to easily make the weapon arms interchangeable, so that rather than agonize over the issue, I could just mix and match, change setups however I wanted. I was wondering how to do it. School glue was the simplest answer- where the paste could easily be peeled away to change weapons, buts its a bit messy and a pain to deal with. Magnetizing the arms would be great, as the arms would be poseable... but the number of boys and the cost of mini magnets would have added up quick...



Then I remembered that I had a Pinning Kit... a "P3 products" version of a Pinning Kit. And they did it right: they included the perfect size drillbits to go with the pins they provide. These drillbits are just a minuscule size too small [1/128th?], meaning that the pins push in snugly into the holes you make.



So I gathered all the tools/parts I would need, and shaved the flashing off of all the arms I would use, and got ready to just dig in. Believe it nor not, pinning all of these took about 10 minutes, and was rather effortless, as you will see, below.



Ork Boy arms are very nicely modelled in that, unlike space marine arms, the centered shoulders over the torso positions results in perfectly fitted hands holding the gun. Further, the shoulder joint is a perfect circle, meaning that its easy to eyeball the center of each side, and simply drilling a hole dead center will automatically result in lined up pin holes. The torso hole needs to go deep, so that theres more pin holding area there, to keep the pins in the torso, and not in the arms. You may think that the drillbit/pin is going to be too big, but actually the diameter of them make the pins act a bit like bearings, and dont bend/flex at all, making the arms pivot smoothly up and down.


After jamming the pin into the hole, I mark the snip point with my mini cutters- I just eyeball the gap to be just about so (as seen), then pull the pin out and get the REAL cutters [I use a leatherman that is up to the task of cutting the big copper pins] to lop the pins at the marked/scratched mark.



After doing both sides, and fitting the pins in the holes, the torso is done. Point of note: NO GLUE REQUIRED



Moving on to the Slugga arms, you can see that the arm sides have the perfect circle join surface- even if the circles aren't complete all the way around, you can still see that its simple to just Eyeball the center and drill the holes there- being carefull not to plunge through the outside of the shoulder [although mistakes could be left orky and simply called "cybork serjery"]. But its also important to get as deep as possible into the meat of the shoulder without punching through- my trick to getting it just right is to carefully drill slowly, until I see the outer surface beginning to turn white- that's my hint that I'm about to penetrate, and my warning to stop right there. The "just so" amount of pins sticking out of the shoulder is known through experience doing several boys before hand- I know that this amount is the right length.


And here you see the fit of the arms to the torso. snug, flush, and.. NO GLUE REQUIRED. Its amazing what the right sized pins/drillbits does to make things so simple.


The arms are snug and need a bit of force to pull off, so they wont ever really fall off mid-game, and the circle joint means the arms are poseable, while still looking like its glued there.



Moving to the shoota arms, again its as simple as finding the center of the circle, and not going in too deep.



The arm fit of the shoota arms reveals, under the harsh perspective of a digital camera closeup, that the right arm is a bit off- with a gap. This means that I didn't get the drillbit perfectly perpendicular when I drilled the holes, and the hole is at an angle. Luckily, all it took to fit this arm snug was to "manhandle it" a bit- crushing the arm down to the torso to make the pin adjust to the right position. Problem solved.



I decided to pin the shootas to the hand, in case Id later want to make the weapons swappable to rokkit launcher, flash git weapons, etc. Knowing where to put the holes requires a bit of foreknowledge. the gun gets a hole as far towards the rear of the gun as I could drill, while leaving enough plastic to keep the hole solid. In the hand I place the hole centered on the trigger assembly, And know how far back to drill the hole by lining it up to the "V" where the thumb and fingers meet at the grip. OR, I guess you could know where to make the holes by simply looking at this pic.. hehe



Drilling the holes as deep as I feel safe without blowing a hole through the hand/gun, I cut the pin to the lengths as so.




Then I fit the gun to the hand, and see if the pin is too long, or a hole is too shallow, and correct the fit one way or the other until its perfect, and looks like this.



The fit test of the arms now show that everything is flush and lined up with no gaps. Perfect. I just LOVE how the holding arm actually holds the gun... unlike every single space marine gun arm Ive ever tried to fit.


The arms are poseable, too... and I happen to like this pose, imagine a howling ork head in there, and shoota waving wildly overhead [He might actually hit more targets that way- lol], and, with a little finger trimming.. the other hand can be seen to give the "Zog Off!!" gesture. ;D



And there you have it! A swappable Boy, quickly done, and with no glue or hassle required.

Hurray for P3 Pinning Kit!

why would you bother when aobr boys are so cheap....

...Because it's an awesome technique! It can let me paint the bellies of my shoota boyz with minimal hassle. Great stuff, I owe you one!

Wish this was up when I started. Great idea.

Very nice. I must find something to use this technique on. Looks like it works really well.

@Paintbrushturkey
Its an awesome way to NOT have to paint 150+ boyz. This way, you can only paint how many ork boyz your EVER going to use and just swap the weapons depending on the list. Its amazing and i wish i would have done this.

but it takes about 4x as long to assemble....

Paintbrushturkey wrote:but it takes about 4x as long to assemble....

Warhammer isn't exactly a speed game, when it comes to modeling or gaming.

Who cares if it takes longer? The fact that we can effectively swap slugga/choppa boys to shoota boys is a great bonus worth the time. Plus, AOBR boyz are only slugga/choppas, There are no removable arms to make them shootas, which are more valuable in my oppinion.

We're not like you, and we frankly don't give much care for your concerns about time or convenience.

Thanks.

----

To the OP,

Thanks for this idea. I just got a hobby drill the other week and a couple boxes of boyz.

I'll give this a shot and do pics too Thanks again

Seems like overkill. However, it IS very awesome. Nice work! Can we see the finished Boyz, too?

PS - I figure the Shoota Boyz will be the toughest to assemble. Getting those arms to go together AND hold the gun is tough enough when gluing individual models. I'd say it would be even harder if each arm had to remain separate permanently - and be able to connect properly with every other shoota arm in the box.

Great tutorial, I'm sure this will save me money in the future.

Bookmarked.

Its all fun and games, till someone loses an arm