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So I picked up my very first box of Shock Troops today and after clipping off the parts and cleaning them up, I decide to start gluing. Legs to base, body to legs, head to body, etc.

Then comes the arms. I pick out a matching pair ( labeled with a letter D on the sprue ) and begin to clean them up, so I go to dry pose them on the model and find that the left arm doesn't quite align with the left hand ( holding the gun from underneath. )

I just figure it's no big deal, it'll probably all fall in place once they get glued up. So I decide to start gluing and this is completely not the case. The arms do not match up with where the hands on the guns are at all. After an hour of trying my best to get them aligned and re-gluing them many times, I just can't get them to connect without a gap either appearing behind the shoulder or between the hand and arm.

Yes, I double, triple, quadruple checked that they are the proper matching arm and gun pieces. They came from the same sprue, right next to each other, with the same letter mark. Did I get a faulty batch or something? The models look fine, apart from mold lines. Are " D " and " F " cursed parts? What's the deal here, I just absolutely cannot get one single guardsman built. I even tried using mismatched arms, hoping that GW mislabeled the matching parts somehow, and that they would line up, but still no luck.

What's going on with my models? I can't believe how frustrating this is, I just can't get a single model built without a horrendous misalignment.

Some arms just do not work on certain torsos I believe. Try using a different pair of arms. If that doesn't work try shaving down the arm flats so that it fits better.

what kind of glue do you use? I like model master liquid cement for plastic models. The reason I like it so much is issues you are describing. The cement literly melts the plastic so form the bond. If used in the right amount and a bit of pressure you change the contour of something for a ckean(ish) connecting and painting generally covers up any evidence. The trick is too much glue and the melting is a bit more obvious. and harder to cover up in paint. How I usualy assemble arms is I put the left arm on 1st in a position I think its going to need to be in, then I put the right one on right away. The left arm usually needs to be adjusted but if you time it right it will rotate on the seem with out coming off and a dab of glue in the left hand or however it connects to the weapon and all I need to do is pinch the model in two places for about 15 seconds.

Check diffrent angles for the gun, with the guard models a lot depends on how you position the arms asto how well it fits. so an arm combination that is designed to be helad at head hieght asif the guard is aiming down the barrel wont work if ts put down as though being held at waist height to go with a pair of running legs

 DJGietzen wrote:
what kind of glue do you use? I like model master liquid cement for plastic models. The reason I like it so much is issues you are describing. The cement literly melts the plastic so form the bond. If used in the right amount and a bit of pressure you change the contour of something for a ckean(ish) connecting and painting generally covers up any evidence. The trick is too much glue and the melting is a bit more obvious. and harder to cover up in paint. How I usualy assemble arms is I put the left arm on 1st in a position I think its going to need to be in, then I put the right one on right away. The left arm usually needs to be adjusted but if you time it right it will rotate on the seem with out coming off and a dab of glue in the left hand or however it connects to the weapon and all I need to do is pinch the model in two places for about 15 seconds.

This is generally how I do it too, but I use cheap ol testors orange tube, which does the same thing really. And yea it works really well to making parts fit better.


But in general, I always do a dry fit of the parts to see if there is a problem, because as youve found out, it does happen and its actually kindda common depending on what youre putting on.

I feel like I have built hundreds of IG at this point but do not remember ever having an issue except possibly with some special/heavy weapons arms combined with certain poses but not to the degree you suggest.

I can not fathom how you don't have a single guardsman built.

Try gluing the rifle arm on first then getting the supporting arm lined up and glue when you are happy with it. Plastic cement is the way to go if you do not already have this.

Well by some miracle I finally managed to get a few put together. I'm not sure what caused so many problems for me the first time around, but I can see how it only got worse as more and more glue got caked on to the torso. Finally I just scraped it all off and temporarily gave up on that mini, having a fresh start with another. It went much better, it was still a little tricky getting the arms to line up properly, but I managed it. I think another problem I was having is that the shoulders weren't lining up with how the model wants them to be, slightly higher than the torso and resting upon these subtle grooves on the arm sockets.

But anyhow, the important thing is I got some built finally. Sorry about all the fuss guys. I guess having no experience with building Guardsmen and being overly confident after 10 years of building Marines threw me off.

 DJGietzen wrote:
what kind of glue do you use? I like model master liquid cement for plastic models. The reason I like it so much is issues you are describing. The cement literly melts the plastic so form the bond. If used in the right amount and a bit of pressure you change the contour of something for a ckean(ish) connecting and painting generally covers up any evidence. The trick is too much glue and the melting is a bit more obvious. and harder to cover up in paint. How I usualy assemble arms is I put the left arm on 1st in a position I think its going to need to be in, then I put the right one on right away. The left arm usually needs to be adjusted but if you time it right it will rotate on the seem with out coming off and a dab of glue in the left hand or however it connects to the weapon and all I need to do is pinch the model in two places for about 15 seconds.

I use some generic brand super glue, " Loctite " I believe, which actually works very well, better than GW's I'd say. I stopped buying GW's since it was hilariously overpriced for the amount they give you. I'm usually careful about applying it too, using a toothpick if need be, except this time where I just started getting frustrated and making a mess of things. But as I said, I got that sorted out and cleaned up.

I completed most of my guard army gluing within the last couple of months and ran into this a couple of times. It's generally just a problem with the flat area on the torso not quite being the right size or shape. With some exacto knife magic and filing you can just alter the angle on the torso to accomodate the arms in the right position.

That's not a superglue Sir Bubbles, its a polystyrene (liquid) cement which melts the contact area so that it can rebond as one solid piece.

its much more effective on plastic models than superglue and quicker. Its less messy too.

There are many brands and pretty much standard kit in all model shops.

Okay. Let me say this clearly as possible. Do not use plastic cement. With small minis like guard, you can easily damage detail if it smears where it isnt wanted as yes it will melt the plastic. Stick with a good super glue. Gale Force 9 do agl good one. Do not touch GW stuff. Its far too weak.

Now then. The arms problem is a common one. Just get yourself some green stuff or milliput and use a tiny amount of the putty to fill any small gap. Usually around the shoulder is the most forgiving spot. You can smooth it with a simple metal tool like a spoon, knife, whatever and itll sort it out for you. The added bonus is that the putty will hold thd pieces together while the glue sets.

Allow me to say this as clearly as possible, I could not disagree with Ravens more. Plastic glue for plastic models. If you get a decent glue (NOT GW glue) it will set faster and still give you a little bit of time to adjust the parts.

I use Testor's Model Masters myself and it has lasted forever.

This is what I've been using



Do you both mean to say it's not a super glue? I've been using it for some time now on resin and plastic miniatures and they both work very well, even if it gets in places I don't want it to be the clean up is easy and it leaves no visible damage when painted.

Sorry if I caused a scare over potentially damaging my mini, he looks fine as I said. Got him cleaned up, and I'm very careful with my application. I understand the bonding that occurs between the plastic and plastic glue, it's just that super glue has been serving me just as well, not to mention I've mostly been using Forgeworld resin models for my Mk 4 Space Marines.

SuperGlue is a different chemical than plastic cement like GW's or Testor's. The latter basically melt the plastic pieces together, so it's a much stronger bond (which is usually a plus, sometimes a minus like when the joint does take too much force or you need to change it).