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I seem to snap the arms off of my Bane Knights constantly.

And have you ever seen a MKI Satyxis Raider with the tiny, tiny horns as separate pieces? Every time I snap one off, it's an instant sense of dread.

 Skinnereal wrote:

 mattyrm wrote:
The antenna has snapped off my landspeeder storm and been glued back on so many times it has a deposit of old glue in the center so it looks more like my grandpas leg than a nice straight aerial.

I luckily saw this one coming, and pinned the antenna mount. I'm dreading the hole expanding, but there's always a way to drill a new hole and patch up the old.

My current issue is Finecast. I have the axe-waving shouty-Libby model. No matter how I pack him, his axe bends in the foam tray.
Last week, the axe snapped off.
. . .
Finecast seems to handle being drilled when left in hot water, and pinning the axe-shaft went quite well.
Try bending now, manky horrid Failcast!

Oh yeah, i used tons of superglue on my LOTD sargeant and his backpack with banner falls off almost weekly.

Finecast is an abomination, I didnt buy any for what.. 2 years? Then I figured I had waited long enough for all the issues to be fixed, finally got them, and true enough there were no holes or detail problems, the material just sucks!

With regards to the skink javelins, take my idea
I simply cut it off, drill the tip of it and the hand and use brass rod instead.
Never breaks or bends then.

I also do the same for any other spears / lances etc.

Granted, it takes a bit of time, but it means you wont have to fix them anymore.

 gunslingerpro wrote:


And have you ever seen a MKI Satyxis Raider with the tiny, tiny horns as separate pieces? Every time I snap one off, it's an instant sense of dread.

Bleh! Those were the worst!

I'm not entirely sure how my Tau communicate with each other on the battlefield, because I think maybe four models actually have the little antenna communication systems.

I decided long ago that if something fiddly on a model ever snapped off, it wasn't going back on. If I've got a good chance of gluing my fingers together just trying to attach a single spike or (with the Tau) an antenna, I can live without it. If it's actually a piece of wargear that needs to be represented, that's one thing. If it's something that's entirely aesthetic, I can live with broken models.

Pp models are the worst for this. Despite pinning and green stuffing, my trollblood force arrived in germany in pieces. The constant maintenence has put me off PP games to be honest.

Playing Tyranids and Dark Eldar I find that I have spikes, claws, chains, ankles, and poles break just sitting in a case. They look awesome with all the dangly bits, but it doesn't take long before I decide they look better without.

 Bobaram wrote:
I keep a thing of superglue and an exacto knife in my case for just such emergencies.

This! My gaming routine involves at least five minutes of field repairs before every battle. I have a good carrying case and play orks and dark angels, two of the sturdiest ranges in GW's catalogue. Yet, no matter how careful I am, invariably someting will break in transit...

I once dropped a Defiler down a flight of stairs.



There were many tears.

15mm renaissance figures. Tiny pewter hands holding brass rod banners? Not a single one has lasted more than a few games.

Cold weather and metal/plastic figures make them fall apart.

Only cure I have for models falling apart are these points:
1) Always use styrene glue for plastic on plastic: they melt together and is the strongest bond you can have.
2) If bonding metal to plastic, try to pin it wherever possible, if you cannot do that at least drill a holes in the surfaces for the crazy glue to bond/pool into for strength.
3) All thin shafts, poles, antennas replace with brass rod. Safety note: try to cap the ends with a drilled plastic piece (or at least file it flat): I have a tank that cuts me with all the raw cut brass antennas on it.
4) ALLWAYS remove paint on any surface you intend to glue: styrene glue will not work and the crazy glue may pull off the paint. Saw some newly painted Rhinos fall apart during a game due to this.
5) Detergent raw sprues to get the mold release off (especially resin) or it weakens the glue bond.
6) Find all kinds of clever ways to add weight to the base of a model: it prevents the wobbly model syndrome, they tend to fall base first if completely dropped and they tend to slow the fall of the model if they do tip.
7) For delicate joins either drill through and glue a rod in or make it a magnetic connection so it would have some give.
8) There are some less brittle more "rubberized" cyanoacrylate glues out there that are more durable, "Gorilla-glue" I found to be much more durable.
9) I tend to use containers that are open pockets lined with a thin layer of foam glued in so the model can have its thin little spikey bits not get compressed.
10) Not having anything at all touching the model is ideal, I tend to put fender washers in the base and rare earth magnets on a sheet of metal in the case and they all stick to that. You can drop the case and they do not move.
11) Magnets or pins where you can remove the more delicate bits for travel may be a consideration.
12) Plain-old choosing to fill or omit delicate parts may be the final option.
13) Using rough sandpaper on the surfaces you intend to glue makes a huge difference to increase surface area and "tooth" for the glue to stick to.
14) Use the thicker plastic glues for the initial joins and follow-up with the thinner wicking glues after the join. I find the bond is stronger and the side benefit of the thinner glue smoothing out any blobs you had made.
15) Always test-fit, gap filling pastes/epoxies can save a great deal of pain when model fit-up is too big even for crazy glue and tends to be a stronger bond.
16) Wash your hands well! Amazing how a bit of oil or grease on your hands prevents cyanoacrylate glues from bonding and creates moments of fun-filled frustration.

Hope some of this helps.

Jackal wrote:With regards to the skink javelins, take my idea
I simply cut it off, drill the tip of it and the hand and use brass rod instead.
Never breaks or bends then.

I also do the same for any other spears / lances etc.

Granted, it takes a bit of time, but it means you wont have to fix them anymore.

This is a very good suggestion. Historical players have been using brass and steel rod/wire for their minis for years. Some companies such as North Star even sell them with the end already flattened and shaped into a spear head.

http://northstarfigures.com/list.php?man=62

Agent_Tremolo wrote:

 Bobaram wrote:
I keep a thing of superglue and an exacto knife in my case for just such emergencies.

This! My gaming routine involves at least five minutes of field repairs before every battle. I have a good carrying case and play orks and dark angels, two of the sturdiest ranges in GW's catalogue. Yet, no matter how careful I am, invariably someting will break in transit...

Might this be an indication that superglue is not the ideal glue for these plastic models?

Didnt know that!
May have to pick up some of them and see how i get on.
Could make life even easier.


Also, ive just started stripping the paint from a lord of change ready for re-posing, gluing and painting, so this should be interesting.
Loads of long thin metal limbs on a tiny body supporting huge metal wings.
And ill make to make 10-12 cuts for the re-pose, so should make this very interesting.

I generally use really strong plastic cement on my models so stuff doesn't generally fall off (including bits of my fingers when I'm not careful ), but i find that the antenna on my suits tend to snap if I'm not careful.

I've Just started using a trick that works like a charm- use foam!

that's right, the foam that most wargame blisters use to safeguard the models in transit actually works exceptionally well to help the model parts stay adhered.

How you do it is you take the two model parts you want together, put a small amount of superglue on both sides, then take a small sliver of foam and sandwich the foam between the two parts. hold together for about 10-20 seconds. The bond is very strong, just be sure to trim the foam that isn't covered by the model parts.

No joke! the trick is that the glue melts the foam almost instantly and fills in the small gaps between the molds. For extra adhesion, score the areas to be glued and then follow the steps above.

Interesting Gealgain,
My guess is that the effect is sort of like the rubberized superglues (Gorilla "Impact Tough" or BSI "instaflex") in that the gel fills the holes and the rubber in the formula provides a bit of shock resistance.

The weakness of superglue is that it has a low shear strength, so bumps can shatter the join. Rubberized glue resist this shattering effect much better.

Still, a proper solvent based plastic glue (plastruct "Plastic Weld" is my favorite) holds plastic parts together better than any superglue because it isn't an adhesive, but rather it fuses the two parts into one.