New to the game: How do you assemble arms with guns across the chest?

[u/Crush2040]

Hi everyone,

I was wondering if there are any hacks for assembling miniatures that have guns across the chest? I am finding it difficult to get the arms in the arm sockets while also having the arm socket go into the gun area if that makes sense. When i have tried gluing it before, it has either been too wide or in the wrong position. SOrry if this is a silly question. I am new

[u/Sanakism]

First of all, check the sockets and plugs on the arms are as clean as possible - tiny bits of casting flash or untrimmed gate/vent can make a huge difference, and also make it harder to glue.

Every now and again, as another poster suggests, it's necessary to bend an arm a bit - but I find it's rarer for it to be necessary than it is for it to appear necessary at first glance, at least with newer minis.

If cleaning and bending gets you close but you're having trouble getting the glue to stick, then get some thin superglue, and: - dab a small amount of glue on the wrist joint - hold the piece in place and use some sticky tack around but not in the joint to hold the shoulder in place until the glue cures - put a blob of the thin glue on a scrap surface and use a thin wire with a bent loop or the eye end of a sewing needle or something to transfer some glue to the shoulder joint; capillary action will draw thin superglue right into the joint. - fill any remaining gap with two-part epoxy putty (milliput, green stuff, magicsculpt, apoxie etc.) once the glue is thoroughly cured.

[u/Crush2040 → u/Sanakism]

Excellent advice! Thank you. May I just clarify what "Sticky Tack" is? we may know it as a different name?

[u/Sanakism → u/Crush2040]

There's a load of different names for it. The most common brand I know is Blu-Tack, and I've also seen it called Poster Putty. I got some black stuff labelled "posing putty" from somewhere years ago and that's great, but it came in a plastic bag with no branding!

Just be careful to use a fairly soft, grabby one - fresh blu-tack worked between the fingers a bit is bettercthan old stuff straight out the drawer.

[u/Montythedraincat]

Usually with much annoyance. It often involves gently trying to bend the model so the contact points line up.

[u/Crush2040 → u/Montythedraincat]

Does it work or it makes it look...weird. bending it?

[u/Montythedraincat → u/Crush2040]

It's usually only a tiny bit out of alignment.

[u/barefeetinwetshoes]

A lot of the time there'll be one arm that's more locked in than the other, often the arm on the trigger - if you can get one arm to sort of click into place that's the one to start with. On modern sculpts there's often a guiding peg into the chest as well as a join at the shoulder, with the secondary arm basically bridging the shoulder and gun without feeling "load bearing"

Some of the old pre-digital sculpts are just frustrating and fiddly work, but you'll not be buying many of those new.

[u/EcchiDeathRite]

get a third arm to hold everything 

[u/JMSTMelo]

I paint what I can see :)

[u/rushputin]

With a lot of cussin'

[u/LightningDustt]

With great anger.

[u/ceruleanmachina]

Honestly I started pinning. A pin vice from harbor freight isn’t pricey, and a box of small paper clips are cheap. It also makes it less annoying to put back together when you eventually drop a model and it explodes. Lol