 April 24, 2009 - 7:13pm | Ok I got the big boy with 8 engines all primed and ready to go. get you some pic by sunday. If memory serves the light cruiser is a 2 piece- I simply glued it with zap a gap and its held together Which ships do you have ? I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 April 25, 2009 - 3:19pm | What's the best adhesive to use? I used a 2 part epoxy on my battleship and super glue on the sathar heavy cruiser back in the 80s. To date I've only lost one or two drives from the battleship and the cruiser lost all its drives (still got all the drives, just loose). And my biggest hang up was getting the stands to stay together... |
April 30, 2009 - 11:34am | Sometimes super glue is enough to hold in assembling minis depending on the weight of pieces and the shape of the joint to be glued. often with a calvary figure you can squeeze the riders legs to get some extra grip on the mount. However in this day and age of multi piece minis it can be neccessary to resort to a technique called drilling and pinning. (I never recommend the 2 part epoxy any more as it's far messier and not as strong as some of the super glues out there) I took one look at the engines the battle ship and drilled and pinned them as well as the extra battleship engines that I glued onto my frigates; some of the sathar engines have little pins molded into the end of them but these sort are not as strong I've both let them be and replaced them. Basically You will put a pin into holes drilled into both sides to the joint. You use a pin vise drill that can be held and drilled with one hand- the index finger pushes on the end applying firm steady pressure while the thumb and middle finger twist the drill. http://www.greenwayproducts.com/buy_tool_drills.htm After sinking a hole into one piece I super glue in a bit of wire (usually from a small paper clip- the bigger ones are a different diameter and the small ones are strong while flexible enough to bend a little during assembly) I then line up the piece with the "pin" in the joint of the as yet undrilled piece to see where I should drill and drill then dry fit the two pieces to mark the pin where I need to trim it. Always confirm the fit after trimming then super glue. This is a very strong joint and I can't remember one mini that has let go of this joint on me. I use this technique for basing as well- after carefully straightening a paper clip (or using other stiffer wire) I drill in a long wire or two if it seems I'll need two wires to hold a model- the big KH ships really need 2 - just make sure they're line up and have the same "angle" then mark the base and drill it. Now I'm never satisfied with that so I make a groove in the underside of the base for the wire to go through and be bent into an "L" shape to help lock the wire into place and with the groove the base still sits flush If you look at my avatar pic the mini there demonstrates the drill & pin basing as I carefully trimmed and filed away the original base and created a custom base with a piece of a light cover and a black "slotta" style warhammer square base. the pin is drilled into the dral and it was drilled through my custom base and bent over against the underside then a final drop of super glue is applied to the bent portion. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
