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I've put together three metal miniatures so far, Pedro Kantor, Terminator Chappy, and a Deff Dread.

I recently went to Chaos Daemons and I'm sad to say the army is ridiculously fun for me but the majority of cool minis are metal.

idk about anyone else but metal miniatures pose serious issues for me because they tend to not want to glue well.

Anyone have tips or a better way of doing things? right now I just use the standard zap a gap.

When putting together, do you pin them?

Do you use green stuff to fill in gaps, but not to hold in place?

Do you not use a glue meant for plastic?

If all three answers are yes, then you just have a natural hatred. If any are no, then there's one problem right there.

Green Stuff always works, and it can be fun to see what you can do with the gaps. I just replaced a Commissar's arm with a bare one covered in the tattered remnants of his sleeve.

LoL 3 and your complaining! Never switch to Grey Knights. Or even worse half plastic half metal models with no instructions and areas that need to be cut off an perfectly good model to make it fit (Vect). /endrant I must be in a gakky mood today, heres some help:

The trick to gluing them is putting a small pin in each joint. All you will need is a pin vice and some paper clips.

Is there perhaps a tutorial somewhere someone could point me to? Before 40K I never really did any modeling so this is all new to me I have no idea where to get Green Stuff or pins or anything of the like.

make sure you pin the joins and use Zap a Gap to glue the pieces together. Also, make sure you clean the flash and extra bits before you try to connect the pieces. Some models I paint and then assemble for ease of picking up details. It is harder to work with metal, or metal plastic composites - but it is not that hard as to make me not want to use the figs. I have been collecting Dark Angels since 1991. Good luck with your hobby.

A very simple way that I have found very effective is to just add one drop of glue to the area where the super glue is applied. It bonds like no other. Hold it for about 45 sec to a min and it should be fine.

When I put together metal model or metal parts I always use an accelerator. Zip kicker is great for any CA glues and there are a couple others out there too. Pinning really helps too and makes it so you dont have to hold it together and let the bond set a little before using the accelerator, because the pin will hold it for you. And when using an accelerator you can go right to priming after assembly.

kenneydee wrote:A very simple way that I have found very effective is to just add one drop of glue to the area where the super glue is applied. It bonds like no other. Hold it for about 45 sec to a min and it should be fine.

Add glue to the glue?
I think you could be clearer...

Never ever start glueing straight away. Always do a "dry fit" first to see if any part of the join isn't flush.

If it is flush then wahey, get the super glue out (NEVER USE GAMES WORKSHOP SUPER GLUE IT DOESN'T WORK).

If not, and you can get away with it, file the offending section till it is flush.
Always file the areas flat that are going to be joined.

If you can, use elastic band to hold the two parts together (this can be tricky on small models, not recommended then).

If it doesn't stick once, try try again. It WILL eventually!

Corennus wrote:
If it is flush then wahey, get the super glue out (NEVER USE GAMES WORKSHOP SUPER GLUE IT DOESN'T WORK).

Sure it does. o-o A friend of mine has put 1000+ points of Grey Knights together with it. A friend even accidentally sat on 5 of them, and the only broken parts were bent weapons. :(

To your dilemma: I've heard that sometimes mold release is still on metal models from GW, and require a good scrubbing to get it completely off. Maybe that's why you're having glue issues? Pinning isn't really necessary on models Hive Tyrant size or smaller. As long as you don't drop your models, they should hold just fine with a nice blob of super glue. Any brand.

For metal models:

ALWAYS wash them with warm, soapy water before you assemble them. Let them dry, too. Both glue AND primer will stick to them better.

Take a knife or some other sharp object and etch lines on the areas where glue will be. A slightly rough surface will bond far better and easier than a flat, filed surface.

These tips make metal models easy. Not that they are actually hard to assemble or anything, it is just plastic makes it idiot-easy. I have assembled thousands of metal models, it really isn't difficult.

What Mattlov said above is very true I was having problems gluing my chaplain on his bike along with the other metal bits so after several tries I took them off washed them with hot water and soap etched a few lines on where the metal and plastic would join on the metal parts scratched up the plastic to and tried it again and wallah everything stayed!

TheBlackVanguard wrote:Is there perhaps a tutorial somewhere someone could point me to? Before 40K I never really did any modeling so this is all new to me I have no idea where to get Green Stuff or pins or anything of the like.

Sure, there are a few. I did a google search for Pinning Minis, and got a couple that look right.

From Reaper's tutorials, pinning is mentioned as part of a conversion: http://www.reapermini.com/TheCraft/9

From a site I don't know, pinning is discussed at lenght: http://www.totalmodel.com/workshop/pages/workshop_324.shtml



There are a lot of pieces of advice here. I'll go ahead and chime in with my methods.

I used to be intimidated by pinning, but since then I've found it to be pretty easy, and not terribly time consuming (less time consuming than trying to get the mini to stick together by holding it in place). The tools needed are fairly inexpensive too.

Another technique I use is scoring. What you do here is take two fairly flat edges where you want a join, and cut a # type pattern into the surface with a hobby knife/razor.

This gives the glue about three times the surface area to bond with, and makes for some strong minis.

One thing i have found to be a tried and true solution to metal models that continue to resist glue, continue to break etc. is fast bonding Epoxy, specifically those meant for metal. It takes a bit more patience to wait for the substance to set. Can be anywhere from 1 min - 10 depending on the brand. However, once this stuff sets in, your models can withstand a beating and will still last.

If you choose to try it, i would recommend using a well ventilated work space and gloves. I have used this to glue on blood thirster wings and the Empire steam tank
(when it was full metal)... no pins used.

I have yet to use it to bond metal to plastic but i would be careful i am unsure if it has a potential to erode your plastic minis.

Epoxy can be found at any of your local hardware stores, walmart/kmart/target.


Green stuff = Kneadatite outside GW. If you buy it from games workshop you will be paying way to much. I would suggest looking on ebay or doing a google search. If i remember correctly GW charges $10 for 6 to 8 inches. I am sure you can find 6 - 8 feet for that price elsewhere. I recently bought two 8 ft rolls for either $20 or $30 total, cant remember.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZlXxf6Zbcw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bNSWW8Bb-w

Two part tutorial from Jawaballs here, hope it helps

I use a 2 component epoxy glue for all my metal models (UHU plus 5 minutes). Never had a problem, never had to pin (except metal wings on an old dragon). All this pinning and adding glue to glue is overkill for the normal human sized metal miniature.