Pinning

[Ogryn Crazy!]

Im no good at pinning, am i mad to be considering soldering?

[Deleted]

I'm not sure about this, but I think soldering is very much out of the question.

Because lead/tin minis can't stand very high temperatures, soldering is not the way to go. I remember being in the miniature shop once, listening to someone being very upset because he tried to strip the paint of one of his metal minis by throwing it into boiling water... He was left with a blob of metal...

Now I believe that when you solder two pieces together, you use the very mallable 'soldering tin' which instantly melts when touching the soldering iron. And remember that there is also tin in the minis (or used to be)... But a soldering iron is far hotter than boiling water...

So I don't think you can solder minis together... Especially as metal conducts the heat almost immediately (I remember that there was an expert soldering excercise long ago at school where you had to try and use 12 pieces of copper to solder together a cube; you had to use metal pliers (to conduct the heat away from the rest) and quick soldering skills to see to it that when you soldered one piece together, the heat wouldn't unsolder previously soldered pieces; I was very bad at soldering so I never got very far )

I'm afraid you'll have to try and use a manual drill bit to gently drill a fine hole so that you can insert a small rod/pin... I usually use a kind of 'pointy screwdriver/needle' to make an little inital 'pit', so that when I am gently moving the drill bit, I don't slide away from my chosen spot...

So I think you'll just have to try and practice (and yes, pinning is not an easy thing to do... )

[Mabus]

I have a friend that soldered a cave troll together. It looked fine but I have no idea how he actually managed it...

[newcomer]

dont try soldering, the last guy to do it lost his cave troll when it suddely started to run like water

[3ff3ct]

DONT SOLDER!!!!! ITS SAD!

Get a Pin Vice (a little hand drill) from somewhere (hobby shop, model trains, GW if desparate) and some superglue, and some wire. The GW one is just right for using paper clips with, which i find amazing that they havnt released GW Paperclips yet.........

I found it stupidly hard at first, although after a few attempts i became hooked and pin most resin/plastic, metal/plastic, resin/metal and metal/metal pieces now. Even some minis to scenic bases! Its nice to know they wont fall apart ;D

[ssgtdude (M.I.A)]

Pinning isn't hard.

THe hardest part is the alignment. There is an easy way to do this.

Step 1. Apply a dot of paint. While it is still wet marry the two pieces together and the dot of paint will mark the two parts where your pin hole should be drilled.

Step 2. Drill the appropriate sized hole for the pin on both pieces.

Step 3. Insert pin in one side and glue into place or use a bit of green stuff if the hole was too large to hold the pin.

Step 4. Push the two pieces together and glue into place.



Alternate method is called the Drill through method.

Step 1. Marry the two parts in position of pose. Tape, or use poster tack to hold them into place.

Step 2. Using the pin vise drill through the outer piece into the second piece to be pinned.

Step 3. Glue pieces together with pin in place.

Step 4. Using a bit of green stuff cover the hole on the outer piece to hide the hole's location.

[3ff3ct]

Never tried the "Drill-thru" method, the paint dot one is a winner tho ;D

[ssgtdude (M.I.A)]

There is a third method, but it is usually done on the larger pieces made of resin.

Step 1. Align the parts and tape in place.

Step 2. Using a pencil draw four lines across the part. One on front, one on back, one on each side.

Step 3. Remove the tape and using the pencil marks connect the lines to make a + across the piece where you will be drilling.

Step 4. Repeat step 3 on other peice.

Step 5. Drill hole.

Step 6 insert pin and secure in place with some CA glue.

Step 7. Marry the two pieces and you will find that you have made the perfect hole alignment.

Step8. Clean up and paint.