Strengthening too soft metal

[ErikB]

I recently purchased General Grievous and Magnaguard.  The figures are very, very fine and the metal is far too soft.

Is there any way to strengthen the metal?  These light sabers and shock sticks are as soft as butter and very likely to break soon.

Thanks.

[grant]

[nic-e]

You could try a micro thin layer of superglue on the delicate joins.

[Major_Gilbear]

Short of replacing the sabres/rods with brass or steel rod: no, not really. Sorry! 

[audrey]

OK, while you are talking about the metal figures this is what I did to my plastic ones. Maybe it will help.

What I did with my star wars figures was cut them off the base first. If they had thin legs I drilled up into their leg from underneath and inserted a thin brass rod. Then I mounted them onto a hard plastic base. This helped the figures that looked like they had a few too many to drink. I also used the brass rod or paper clips to reinforce or correct bent arms, weapons etc. Here are some photos I took long ago. You can see how the Droideka's shoulder was straightened out with the rod. I also replace my light sabers with rod that matched the same thickness. Since I repainted them the visible rods blend in.

The highlighted area is the glued in place rod


Same thing without the highlight


Image on the left shows the original droideka figure, the one on the right is after I glued the rod in place to straighten the "shoulders".

[Connectamabob]

I almost always drill and replace weapons like that. Partly for these reasons, but also because I hate the look of phone-pole spears and paddle swords.

With the specific weapons you're dealing with being basically just plain rods/sticks anyway, there'd be no reason to faff with trying to find a way to strengthen the original metal. Drilling and replacing with brass rod would be the easiest solution.

[SotF]

I recently purchased General Grievous and Magnaguard.  The figures are very, very fine and the metal is far too soft.

Is there any way to strengthen the metal?  These light sabers and shock sticks are as soft as butter and very likely to break soon.

Thanks.

Not entirely sure about the shock sticks, though a layer or two of thinned down glue brushed on might work to harden it. For the lightsabers, one thing that worked for a similar project I did a while back when making a custom for my Dawn of Defiance character could work here. First off, remove the saber blade and get a colored acryllic rod to match what color you want the lightsaber to be in the end. Can't remember the right size, but you might find it on some of the WotC SW minis game sites that are still around for a good start. The end result tends to look a lot better than a painted lightsaber does.

[ErikB]

Great ideas, thanks.  Awesome job there, Audry.

Unfortunately, the hands are too small for drilling and using tube or hard wires.  These guys are the finest, tiniest minis I've seen in my 30 years in this hobby.  Dang, I'm old....

These minis are so fine that Hasslefree minis look like big clunky GW orks.

Liquid reinforcement will have to be it.  No wonder this line went out of business.