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So my beloved metal hive tyrant, whom I spent hours pinning his torso to his hips, has broken in an unfortunate way. The lash whip which I had painstakingly move to be in an extened posistion broke about midways, and I've been scratching my head on how to best fix it. The first idea was to simply pin it, but due to the small size of the point where it broke, most pins would be less than useful in actually fixing the problem. Another possibility I've been looking into is trying to use some sort of cold-formed metal weld/adhesive, but I'm unfortunately not too familiar with how it would react to the pewter. I'll try to get a pic uploaded of the point where it broke so hopefully someone can offer some advice.

Pics:

You could always use a thin wire as an armature for a green stuff remake of the lash whip. Just pin the sure into the existing lash whip part then roll some GS around t and shape. This would give it some flexibility so it wouldn't snap and be so brittle. If you could post a pick of where/how it snapped we may be able to give better ideas as well.

Have you considered soldering it?

Pinning is probably your best bet. If you can then reinforce it with a nice, solid putty, even better. There's pretty much nothing you can use on a metal model that is going to do anything bad to the metal.

You might consider cutting it back further and making a greenstuff replacement.

Hm i looked up soldering it for you but apparently its melting point is extremely low so youd have to get your hands on some even lower temperature solder and flux to even do it. They are saying welding it youd have to make the joint edges just about molten to work.

You might try putting the two pieces together and greenstuffing an extended shell around it and that may modify the look but it should fix it. You could even bridge the two pieces together maybe.

Aye, soldering this stuff is a skill but it'll probably give you the best join unless you want to remake the whip. The trick is to use a standard soldering iron and wire in your standard household dimmer switch. Slowly increase the temperature until the solder starts to melt, gently clean up both sides and off you go.

Any sort of plumbing flux will do, and a decent low melt solder.

Like I said, I have seriously considered pinning it, but the only drill bits I have access to would seriously compromise the structural integrity of the surrounding part, and likely just have it break elsewhere. I've been doing some google-fu on metal epoxies, anyone have any experience with that stuff?

Metal epoxies really won't work, I'm afraid. There's simply not enough area.

Buy a set of small drills on eBay. I always use paper clips to pin, and I think that requires something like a 0.7 or 0.9mm bit, which I'm sure will work with the lashwhip.

Otherwise, new ones do go for pennies on eBay. If all else fails, PM me, we might have a spare one.

K too bad about the epoxy, so I think my first try will be a mesh/greenstuff combo and see how that works. Thanks for all the quick replies dakka!

If you go the pinning route, Privateer Press do a 0.5mm set (3 or 4 bits and 4 or 5 lengths of brass rod) which should be small enough. Link below is from my favoured UK supplier so you can see it, but there must be an easy US source.

http://www.modeldisplayproducts.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&path=119_126&product_id=499

I've just received this kit mysellf but haven't used it yet - their 0.85 mm kit has been brilliant for me.