Tuesday 26 January 2016

Giving broken slotta tabs the finger....like a Boss!

Welcome to another tutorial, where upon I presume that you have no idea how to fix a broken slotta tab & then I commence lecturing you about the best way to suck eggs.

Ok, are you ready? Or even vaguely interested?....No? Well fuck it! Here goes anyway....


I received these Ork Nobz in the mail a few weeks ago (I know, I know, I'm not supposed to be buying minis anymore), but their slotta tabs were missing and I had to fix them. So I thought that while I was at it I might as well do a little bit of a tutorial, showing you all how I go about fixing'em.


Step 1: Find some minis with broken tabs.

Get some shitty old bases, no point in using clean skins.

Drill up through the soles of their feet up into their legs.

Pin the bastards! But don't glue them in place yet!!!

Put the mini on the base in the position you'd like and
 push it down firmly while rocking it back & forth.
Your trying to leave an impression in the base.

Here's those impressions that I just mentioned.

Now drill through the base at those two points and
insert the mini.
Using a pair of pliers I bent the pins over. It will
require a bit of force, so make sure you've had a hearty
breakfast before you begin this task.

Look at those bends! Stellar work there...perfect :)

Grab the little bugger by his noggin with a clothes peg....or something. Rest him upside
down on a slight angle. You'll see why in a jiffy.

Now, here's the magic ingredients that you'll need. You could use any other glue
if you wanted to, but this is what I used. Basically it's Super glue & Filler powder.

Apply a little drop of Super glue at the "end" of the pin, furthest from the hole. Then add a
little powder to set it. You just want to glue the pins in place, not the whole damn thing! You
can probably see why I suggested to sit 
the mini on a downward angle while you do this? It
helps
 to stop the Super glue wicking along the pin up into the feet of the mini. 

This is what you should be aiming for at this stage.


Remove the mini.

Then slam him back down onto the base again, but
this time glue him in place permanently.

Then you can go to town on the underside of the base.
Just do it in increments though, as this powder glue
dries rock solid almost instantly. If your not patient
you may end up with a glue mountain! 

These sexy beasts are now ready to be painted......probably in my next lifetime :P


Ok, job done.


Notes:

Some of you may be wondering why I just didn't glue the whole thing together in one go. The reason is that if I glued the pins into the legs, then inserted it into the base and bent the pins over, I'd run the risk of breaking the bond in the legs. This way, doing it in a few stages allows me to glue it "properly" at each step of the process.

You could do this with any other glue (as I already mentioned) like Areldite or straight Super glue, but the former takes an age to cure. While the latter runs all over the place (including my fingers) and if you don't use it sparingly it too takes an age to cure! Whereas, the powder & Super glue combo dries instantly and it's as tough as fuck!. Hence, why I chose to use it for this application :)


Hope this was somewhat helpful to some of you out there. Maybe not, maybe yes? It's hard to tell from over here :)


Anyway, cheerio everyone.




8 comments:

  1. Great tutorial. I've never heard of filler powder. I use a similar technique but using gluestuff to fix the pins.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Matt,

      Yeah, I suppose there's a million and one different ways to skin a cat. So whichever one works the best for you is the right one in the end. Probably not a big deal what ever glue we use. It's only holding a little bit of lead to some plastic anyway! :)

      Cheers.

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  2. Well, you are way much conscientious than I am! I just glue the mini to a base and that's it! I already thought I was a lazy bastard, but you just confirmed it! However, I pretty much like your methods!

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    Replies
    1. Ha-ha :D

      I'm not conscientious Suber, I'm just a clumsy sod, who often knocks his minis off the table. That's probably why I suffer from a predilection for over engineering everything I tinker with :)

      Cheers buddy.

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  3. I'm a pinner. I just don't trust glue. That said when I pin models I first glue pins in the model and then drill the base to then bend the wore like you do, I'm far more confident in my wire which though flexible is very resilient. and I do exactly the same with glue. If it's worth doing, it's worth doing right.

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  4. Cool Minis!
    As it happens I just painted those three. They've been in the closet for nearly twenty years.
    Nice to see more of the same.

    Oh yeah I pin when possible.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, I reckon they look great, the old Nobz. They can be a bit expensive though, that's why I don't mind buying one's with missing slotta tabs. I can easily repair them & their cheaper than undamaged examples.

      My you live long & pin often :)

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