The irony of a metal guy asking about metal minis....

...is not lost on me, but I'm asking anyhow:

I have a bunch of metal spaceships that need a'painting. However, when I tried to superglue the bits together (they require assembly) they don't fit all that snug, and they don't seem to respond well to superglue.

1. Do I need to wash them?
2. Is there something better than superglue for metal minis? (I know epoxy, but it's going to be a bitch to hold each piece in place for 5 minutes while it sets.


Any suggestions?

I use this stuff for Pinewood cars and their metal weights:



The directions almost seem crazy when you read them, but I'll tell you what. When you press the pieces together make sure you do it right because you won't get a second chance.

The bottle is good for about a two months once you open it.

S.

SuperflyTNT wrote: 1. Do I need to wash them?
2. Is there something better than superglue for metal minis? (I know epoxy, but it's going to be a bitch to hold each piece in place for 5 minutes while it sets.

Any suggestions?

1. Yes.
2. No.

Get a set of needle files and work the joins if necessary. Get some green stuff, or other modelling putty, and carefully smooth it into the gaps.

For loose joints, I like to drill mounting holes and attach the pieces with small bits of piano wire. It allows the pieces to fit together and then you can sculpt putty around the gap or use gap filling superglue.

Pinning works as described above, I tend to use metal paperclips but whatever works. You are just trying to increase the surface area of the bond. I have also hatched the surfaces, scoring across them with a sharp knife which again increases surface area.

Sam

I've used both epoxy and pinning. Pinning produces a better bond, as sometimes the gaps are bad enough that even epoxy won't really work so well.

Sometimes, I still use epoxy, especially for parts that are just too small to pin, but don't QUITE fit together well enough to superglue without pinning. At that point, I reach for a 60-second Loctite epoxy. It doesn't have the strength of the 5 minute, but it is reasonable.

I've recently discovered superglue combined with an accelerant. Zap has some good products.

www.zapglue.com/Accelerator.html

Yeah, these are too thin to pin easily and the surface features would suffer.

Short version: fuck metal minis. In the ass, razorwire condom and no vaseline. Maybe some sand for lube, too. Rough sand at that.

I reiterate: fuck metal minis.

billyz wrote: I've recently discovered superglue combined with an accelerant. Zap has some good products.

www.zapglue.com/Accelerator.html

I'll have to track that down.

One product I recently discovered but have yet to actually try is the "liquid greenstuff" GW is now selling. It looks like it would be a real boon for dealing with small parts and minor gap-filling, and really great for backfilling chips and casting flaws you get with resin minis. Anyone ever use the stuff have a report on the value of it? Also, is there an equivalent "not Games Workshop-branded" product I can find at a hardware store or hobby shop?

Mixing superglue with baking soda or other fine material is a gap filling and sandable solution I have used in plastic models. As for other putty type materials, you can use the 2 part plumber's putty that is used around metal pipes. It is sandable, drillable, etc.

rubber toughened superglue fills gaps and makes reasonably strong bond, while probably being least of a hassle.

It's official:
Mongoose Publishing Miniatures (Starline 2500 Metal) are inferior in every way to the 2400 Series (Zocchi plastic) miniatures. What a motherfucker. I mean, seriously, I wouldn't wish this assembly upon someone I didn't particularly like.

Mother fucker!

I have some of the GW liquid green stuff. It is pretty good, but not quite as durable as proper epoxy. Basically, it is a thick, toughened acrylic green paint.

It DOES work pretty much as advertised, and is rather easier to use because it is thinner. It also almost doesn't require sanding as it definitely easier to work into resin bubble gaps.

As to Pete: Which minis are these? You'd be amazed what you can pin. And do you have a Dremel?

First, I'd get new glue. Superglue when it sits open for a while loses something - Not sure what, but I've had old glue that was just a little bit more effective than water. Get a thin fast setting glue like Zap-A-Gap CA+.

Second, use a very small amount of glue. I've had issues where using too much glue doesn't allow it to set properly and when I think something is secure a slight bump will set it off revealing wet glue underneath. Use a small amount to get the two pieces to stick and then use a dab of Zap-A-Gap CA+ to seep in between the two pieces to reinforce your connection.

Cyanoacrylates (super glue) is moisture cure, which means humidity (ie. blowing on it with breath) cures it fast. Thin coats are always better than thick.

I used to sell a fuckload of that stuff with the old career, among other chemicals. The problem I'm having is that even after soap-n-water the glue doesn't want to hold (super glue gel) and worse, the contact surfaces need so much work that it's a bitch to get them to even fit DRY let alone to get good contact for a permanent bond.

I'm thinking I'm just going to snip all the tangs off, gorilla those fucking bits into one another, and use 1M epoxy to get a bond. This is ridiculous. At the end of the day, I'm assembling enough to show them off for a review, but I'm going to use my Heroclix Star Trek ships with the bases from Mongoose (or other) to play A Call To Arms, as I have been. I was hoping that these would be far superior, and while they are more detailed, and larger, the amount of effort required puts me off more than a little bit.

I've played almost every version of every game in the Star Fleet Universe (SFB, Starmada, Fed Com...) and all of the older minis I've been privy to have been superior in fit, form, and quality than these new metal ones. This is not to say that they're wholly bad, just not good.

Frank: I'm really familiar with pinning plastic mini's, I'm an old hand at kitbashing and converting plastic models. I have a great pin vise and I've used my dremel with a #1 miniature drill bit to put plastics together, but with these I'm afraid that if I were to pin the saucer to the body I'd damage the saucer lines (I suppose I could recarve them if I put a pin in one) and for the Klingon ships, the edges are not even .100" wide at the contact point. All in all, these are a motherfucker.



1 min epoxy, here I come.