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So I got a hierophant. Ive been cleaning up all the parts and it's been working out so far. I am near ready for assembly. But I have never built anything this big or with this much weight. I got some pins. Pinning will be happening. I figured I would start this thread and see if I could get any general advice for putting this things together. Mainly I have 2 questions.

1) What glue is recommended? I have worked with resin so I know super glue. But I imagine due to the weight something even stronger might be worth a shot. Recommendations?

2) where the hell do all these spikes go? Is there any instructions someone has made? A guide with images?

3) any other advice?

The bio Titan tends to sag..... Like the weight of the model crushes the legs, I would advise a brace.

Even without any sag the thin legs and heavy central body would be a risk if it does anything but stay on a shelf. You might consider looking at some conversions on google images nad seeing how people have modelled the terrain around it. Having it clambering or standing over something so that you can hide a support under the main body might well be a huge saver for you.

Glue wise you could look at the two part epoxy resin glues

I was considering getting 3 ting clear acrylic rods and cutting them into a little tripod. Put some soft rubber caps on the bottom and that way the weight would all be on the rods.

I don't know how well it works but I've seen some people drill and cut their way through the legs and insert one thick long pin all the way through. It might have been posted on The Tyranid Hive forum.

A lot of work but I think using the clear acrylic rods to support the body ruins the aesthetic. On such a big expensive model I think it's probably worth spending a day bracing the legs.

As for glue, superglue if the faces mate really nicely, 2 part 5 minute epoxy if they don't. Superglue is a really poor gap filler and dries slowly and brittle unless the faces mate perfectly.

If you've never used 2 part epoxy before, it's worth practising on something you don't care about first. Squeeze out two equal sized blobs, start a timer so you know how much time has passed, mix it for 1 minute***, apply it to the parts, around the 3 to 4 minute mark actually push the parts together, wait another minute or two and it should hold. Wait a couple of hours before applying too much load to it. (Also read the instructions first, my times are based on the 5 minute epoxy I've personally used, but some have different working and bonding times).

It's worth setting the timer because if you're wondering "why won't this hold!" looking at the timer will tell you whether you've reached the time when it should be holding.

Because of the nature of epoxy, it's hard to glue more than 1 or 2 joints per mix, but once you get in to a groove it's not too bad.

Use in a well ventilated area (which you should be doing for superglue and plastic cement anyway!).



***(the number of times I've had people tell me they think they've mixed it properly and then it doesn't cure.... just set the timer and follow it religiously regardless of whether you feel you've mixed it)

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
I don't know how well it works but I've seen some people drill and cut their way through the legs and insert one thick long pin all the way through. It might have been posted on The Tyranid Hive forum.

A lot of work but I think using the clear acrylic rods to support the body ruins the aesthetic. On such a big expensive model I think it's probably worth spending a day bracing the legs.

Ive got some thin pins in the legs right now. It helps with the bulk of the leg, but the blade feet are too thin to reliably drill into without causing damage. Its the feet bending out im worried about now.

As for glue, superglue if the faces mate really nicely, 2 part 5 minute epoxy if they don't. Superglue is a really poor gap filler and dries slowly and brittle unless the faces mate perfectly.

If you've never used 2 part epoxy before, it's worth practising on something you don't care about first. Squeeze out two equal sized blobs, start a timer so you know how much time has passed, mix it for 1 minute***, apply it to the parts, around the 3 to 4 minute mark actually push the parts together, wait another minute or two and it should hold. Wait a couple of hours before applying too much load to it. (Also read the instructions first, my times are based on the 5 minute epoxy I've personally used, but some have different working and bonding times).

It's worth setting the timer because if you're wondering "why won't this hold!" looking at the timer will tell you whether you've reached the time when it should be holding.

Because of the nature of epoxy, it's hard to glue more than 1 or 2 joints per mix, but once you get in to a groove it's not too bad.

Use in a well ventilated area (which you should be doing for superglue and plastic cement anyway!).



***(the number of times I've had people tell me they think they've mixed it properly and then it doesn't cure.... just set the timer and follow it religiously regardless of whether you feel you've mixed it)

By a mix epoxy are you talking about a fluid or something like milliput? I have super fine white miliput and green stuff. Ive never used either to actually bond, only gap fill/modeling.

Mix epoxy isn't a modelling material its a bonding material like superglue. It's basically a much stronger form where you have to mix two parts to get the effect because once the two parts are mixed it cures and goes hard.

I still think the leg bowing would be best served with some kind of terrain feature underneath the main body so that you can hide the support. Having it's body scraping over a torn apart tank or rocks or even a few bushes would let you have strong support stick there and not have it visible.

Trees/bushes might be easy to work with depending how you model the foliage; and also a likely kind of object that it could just crash through.

 Lance845 wrote:

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
I don't know how well it works but I've seen some people drill and cut their way through the legs and insert one thick long pin all the way through. It might have been posted on The Tyranid Hive forum.

A lot of work but I think using the clear acrylic rods to support the body ruins the aesthetic. On such a big expensive model I think it's probably worth spending a day bracing the legs.

Ive got some thin pins in the legs right now. It helps with the bulk of the leg, but the blade feet are too thin to reliably drill into without causing damage. Its the feet bending out im worried about now.

Yeah the one I'm thinking about from memory used one long thick pin all the way through and it even when though the blade foot and the guy who did it had to do a little bit of resculpting.

Here, I found the post on The Tyranid Hive...

http://thetyranidhive.proboards.com/thread/47314/hierophant-model-bending-breaking

3rd post down he has a diagram of where he cut and where the wire runs.

As for glue, superglue if the faces mate really nicely, 2 part 5 minute epoxy if they don't. Superglue is a really poor gap filler and dries slowly and brittle unless the faces mate perfectly.

If you've never used 2 part epoxy before, it's worth practising on something you don't care about first. Squeeze out two equal sized blobs, start a timer so you know how much time has passed, mix it for 1 minute***, apply it to the parts, around the 3 to 4 minute mark actually push the parts together, wait another minute or two and it should hold. Wait a couple of hours before applying too much load to it. (Also read the instructions first, my times are based on the 5 minute epoxy I've personally used, but some have different working and bonding times).

It's worth setting the timer because if you're wondering "why won't this hold!" looking at the timer will tell you whether you've reached the time when it should be holding.

Because of the nature of epoxy, it's hard to glue more than 1 or 2 joints per mix, but once you get in to a groove it's not too bad.

Use in a well ventilated area (which you should be doing for superglue and plastic cement anyway!).



***(the number of times I've had people tell me they think they've mixed it properly and then it doesn't cure.... just set the timer and follow it religiously regardless of whether you feel you've mixed it)

By a mix epoxy are you talking about a fluid or something like milliput? I have super fine white miliput and green stuff. Ive never used either to actually bond, only gap fill/modeling.

Nah milliput and greenstuff are epoxy putties, not epoxy adhesives. You can buy the adhesive from a hardware store, it'll come as a thick liquid in 2 tubes (usually small toothpaste style tubes).

Google "5 minute epoxy adhesive" and you'll see what I mean. Over here our most well known and reliable brand is "araldite", but I don't think you can get that in the USA. When I was living in the USA I did buy some other 5 minute epoxy from a hardware store that worked well, but it's been too long and I can't remember what brand it was now.

As someone that's had 2, I'm all too familiar with them.

First one I just built as I would a basic model.
Within a few weeks on the shelf all 4 legs had began to buckle and it basically collapsed in on its self.

The second one I spent 2 weeks assembling.
Legs need to be cut and rods inserted to hold them steady.
You can drill the blades but it requires cutting them in a few places and then inserting a thinner rod.
You'll find it takes alot of work and then you will have to use green stuff to hide any seems from cuts.

While it's time intensive it's the only way to have it free standing without all of its legs bending.




The other option is a clear rod or scenic piece to prop up the mid section.
That's possibly the easiest method for doing it and one that's commonly seen.

I have 2 bio titans i have to build and i have seen a few blogs that show how to do the assembly.

I am going to get a fairly thick acrylic rod and make a hole in the body so that the rod supports the full weight of the model, the scythes at the end of the feet are to thin and flimsy to bear the weight.

Go to Home Depot or Lowes and get yourself self mixing 2-part epoxy for gluing any of the joints. Super glue will not cut it.

As much as i would love to have it free standing i think a clear rod is going to be the best for the models longevity.

 Deathklaat wrote:
Go to Home Depot or Lowes and get yourself self mixing 2-part epoxy for gluing any of the joints.

I wouldn't get a self mixing ones. They waste a lot of glue and the mixing heads are only good for 1 use. They're nice if you're building, I dunno, a real aeroplane, not so great if you're building a model of one

I have a new idea for the legs. Let me know what you guys think.

I can bend the back legs to get better support like in the Tyranid Hive post. Easy peasy. Also I have a brass pin in the last joint of the leg so I'm not too concerned about them.

I have a pin going down the bulk of the front legs, but again, im concerned about the damage to the blade with the pin being too thick so it doesn't make it all the way down the blade.

But what about this...

I am thinking of cutting off the bottom of the blade just below where my pin reaches now.

I would take the part I cut off and make a press mold using legos and green stuff. I would make the new bottom of the blade out of Milliput since it dries hard as hell and is basically as tough as plastic. Pin that to the resin leg with a small pin in the thickest part of the blade. This would give me a pin from the "elbow joint" down into my significantly stronger and not going to bend or warp bottom of the foot blade.

Thoughts?

It could work. I don't know if I'd trust milliput with that much weight on it though, a long thin piece of milliput may bend slightly before snapping off completely.

If you're going to all the effort of recasting the talons though, why not just embed a pin all the way through it? As in, cast the milliput around the pin in the shape of the talon. It may be a bit tricky to get the alignment right, but you could then have a long continuous pin all the way through the entire leg right through to the ground/base.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
It could work. I don't know if I'd trust milliput with that much weight on it though, a long thin piece of milliput may bend slightly before snapping off completely.

If you're going to all the effort of recasting the talons though, why not just embed a pin all the way through it? As in, cast the milliput around the pin in the shape of the talon. It may be a bit tricky to get the alignment right, but you could then have a long continuous pin all the way through the entire leg right through to the ground/base.

I was thinking of doing that. You think the miliput will bend? Everything I have read about it says it's like a solid rock when it cures.

As far as glue goes, i would do the super glue and get the Activator spray, it accelerates the drying to a few seconds.

As far as bracing, i have no idea, would love to see what you come up with.