Data Sphere

hi people i`m in the proces of building the miniatuurs of the operation ice storm starter box, but i hid a snag that i started to notice a while now with the miniatuurs.

some are straight forward to build but others (aspecialy the females) are quiet delicate.
i have a fragging hard time to glue the arms and stuff on because as how it
go`s now for me it seems i need to have 3 or 4 arms to do it right.

are there any tips or tricks i can use for these parts please.

(ps yes i cleaned the models)

Infinity has always been challenging when it comes to assembling the finer minis, it's the price we pay for metal sculpts and realistic proportions. Thankfully the 3D sculpted minis have better contact lugs than some of the older models although I still find myself cursing when the wrist on a supporting arm doesn't exactly match the hand on the separate weapon arm and the superglue just decides it will mimic the sticking properties of water!

First tip is to get yourself some thin drillbits and a pin vice. I exclusively use a 0.5mm drill and brass rod from this P3 pinning kit that I can obtain in my FLGS. I think the drill bits have since been replaced with a pack of ten I got cheap off eBay. I used to use a 0.8mm and snipped rods from paperclips but found that was too fat for some of those wrists, ankles, antennae, etc. It was also more effort to drill so I switched to the thinner method.

The 0.5mm drill is good for even thin wrists, etc, though a tip is to use a safety pin or something to put a dent where you want the hole to be. Sometimes the drill bit can wander when you're starting the hole and this can be a good guide to keep it in place.

One of the trickiest parts I find is the shoulder where the angle of the arm is tangential to the torso and there's not much depth to drill into. In this case I just drill right through the shoulder of the arm so the drill comes out the other side and then after it's glued then I'll snip it right back and file it flush. Pretty sure I used that trick on my Op:Ice PanO female Fusilier.

Because the contact points are better these days I tend not to pin as much as I used to and only really do it on load-bearing joints.

For all joints, after gluing with superglue (over the optional pin) I then reinforce with a green stuff / Milliput mix. I mix the two because I like the malleability that the grey Milliput adds but the GS means that it's less inclined to crumble.

Anyway, hope that helps. That's the method I use and have got fairly proficient at it so the assembly phase is not as stressful for me as it used to be.

I'm sure there are plenty of other approaches that people can share as well

I don't pin nearly as often as others. My go-to method is to scratch each contact surface with my exacto, making crisscross patterns. This greatly increases the surface area for the glue to grab onto. From there, just glue as normal.

I suggest you give this blog post a read (WARNING: juvenile humor ), i agree with Reimu that pinning is not always needed, scoring the joins is typically more than enough.

And I keep reading that for CA, you want the gap to be as smaller as possible... maybe use sand paper or don't push hard with the blade (so it doesn't create big ridges)?

The bigger the grooves, the better, I've found. The goal is to increase surface area.

But CAs work poorly over "big" distances, so you can increase the surface, but also the distance, because the ridges of one side collide with the other, pushing the deep parts far apart. Also they don't like shear forces, so I wonder how much ridge to ridge becomes a shear force vs a plain pull.

http://www.bsi-inc.com/Pages/hobby/how.html
http://www.bsi-inc.com/Pages/hobby/ca.html

Scratching surfaces works fine for me, but I do this with rough file rather than knife.
Also I use CA gel instead of liquid. Gale Force Nine super glue is good example, Henkel's Superglue Gel t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRdaLAeC-lAXsipAVwyZzGDwa_9b3q8s8dBDPRGfDPZqd7RGctsUUZGxBga also is good.
And I use small balls of Blue-Tac putty to hold the parts while the glue dries.

wow thanks for all the repleise people and yeah i always use CA gel my self because it fills posible gaps to.

Greenstuff (sandwich), bicarbonate (add later) and talcum (pre-mix) are also good gap fillers with CA. Sawdust too, but that ones is mostly used when you want to match the wood.

The smaller the join area, the more important pinning is to strengthen it.

Given that these miniatures will be used on the tabletop, and not sitting in a display case, I pin almost everything.

The up front pain is worth it when I see a friend's miniature with a missing am or weapon.

Once I saw really interesting solution for fixing broken antennae/hand weapons problem. The guy inserted steel rods into weapon/antennae and a rare earth magnet into hand/antennae basement.
The first time I broke his Avatar I was confused when he said "Ah, nevermind!" and popped them back onto place.