Repairing tiny joints?

[Vermis]

So I got a Malifaux mechanical attendant and in typical Wyrd fashion the the tiny mechanical arm joints are about 0.5mm at their thinnest points. One's already broken off after repositioning and very (very) careful filing, and the other's about to go. I can pin well enough but I'm not so sure it'll do the job here - even if I break out the tiny drill bits and wire, the latter'll have to be so thin it'll whip around like a whippy thing and suffer the same fate.

Can't think of anything better to do though. Unless anyone has a better Plan A?

[Dewbakuk]

Remove thin piece completely and just replace with a bit of wire? I've had to do that with some minis in the past.

[Cubs]

Yeah, that's what I'd do. If you can snip off the thin bit of the armature and replace it with a pin (by drilling into the elbow ... if there's an elbow) this will probably be your sturdiest repair.

[Vermis]

I take the point, and thanks for it, but I'm a bit hesitant about losing even what meagre details are on the middle sections of those arms. For the price of the thing it would've been nice if it was designed to not need immediate repair and makeshift replacement...

[snitcythedog]

I take the point, and thanks for it, but I'm a bit hesitant about losing even what meagre details are on the middle sections of those arms. For the price of the thing it would've been nice if it was designed to not need immediate repair and makeshift replacement...

You could reinforce it with a pin externally.  Pin along the spine of the arm into some of the ticker metal and make it look like a new piston.   Hope that gives you another option.
Snitchy sends.

[Major_Gilbear]

I'd also suggest pinning it, but with a small difference: use multiple pins.

Specifically, I'd either drill a hole big enough for two pins or two small holes. Then using either brass wire or brass wire and some wrapped guitar wire, pin the parts back together.

The double pin will add some of the lost detail back (especially if you use some wrapped guitar wire), and stop the parts swivelling around too.

The pinned assembly will be much stronger this way too.

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If you prefer though there's another alternative again: you can simply clip the maniples off at the "cuff" and the shoulder, and replace the whole lot with wrapped guitar wire arms.

This would be the simplest and strongest method of all, give you something cool-looking and retro to paint, and also allow you to pose the arms however you want.



In either instance, I agree that this model and Hoffman's armature are very stupid designs from a practical sense, especially given that a lot of Wyrd's metals are not the best castings.