Whats the best gluing technique for miniatures?


Miniatures


I have terrible luck trying to glue metal or plastic miniatures that come in more than one piece. Regardless of what I do, nothing holds in place and dries.

Can someone tutor me in making gluing miniatures more successful?

What kind of glue should I use for metal Miniatures? How about plastic ones?

What is the best way to get the glue to take hold and dry?

Is it better to paint the pieces separately or after they are glued together?

Really, any advice would be appreciated.


Here's a couple of points that may help:
- Use a cyanoacrylate (superglue), for either metal or plastic.
- Make sure you thoroughly rinse the miniature before gluing. There can be a residue of mold release agent, which prevents a good bond between the pieces.
- Use a tiny drop of glue on one part you want to do, and press firmly against the other pieces. Don't try to use too much glue, because that will cause the drying time to grow longer, increasing the chance that you'll accidentally move the two pieces.
- If you're working with very large or bulky pieces, it might be worth it to pin the two pieces together. This involves drilling a tiny holy in both pieces, and using a pieces of metal (a bit of paperclip, for instance) to strengthen the bond. You should be able to find some tutorials on youtube for this.
- As for painting, it depends on the miniature. For 32 mm fantasy miniatures, I've always done gluing first, and then painting. That way, you don't have to handle the miniature after you're done painting, with the added risk of rubbing some paint off.

Hope that helps. Don't hesitate to ask more questions if you have them!


Okay, let me put on my seat belt. *click* Allright, starting the engine, here we go!

For glue, I reccommend Gorilla Glue, its a little more expensive but it WORKS. Solid for both plastic and metal.

That said, get a dremel. You can get a cheap one, usually with a few tool attachments, at Harbor Freight for like 6-9 bucks. This can help with cleaning up flashing, carving out miscast areas, and most importantly, drilling holes for pinning. I always try to pin metal miniatures, and sometimes I pin plastic ones.

If you don't know what pinning is, its simple: drill a hole in each part (lined up) so you can put a small stiff object (wire usually) inside to give support and more interlocked glue surface area.

Pinning helps hold parts together as glue dries, and makes an overall much stronger bond. If support is still an issue (can be with big metal minis) you might be able to find a Helping Hand at Harbor Freight as well. I use mine a lot, great for painting detail with the magnifying glass. (Although I probably use my magnifying visor more, also Harbor Freight, 5 bucks)

As for painting, this turns into a lot of "personal preference". That said, here is mine: I primer black, with automobile engine primer. Slightly more expensive, but that stuff is formulated to deal with heat, motion, and general abuse. One of the few primers I've seen that works on Reaper's Bones line of plastic. (Big tip, if your working on a Bones mini, it needs to be washed, residues from casting play hell with primer and glue.)

I paint unnassembled only when I couldn't reach a part when its assembled. Mostly because I "stress test" my minis after assembly (they are going to be played with after all) and I don't like risking paint damage if I can help it. Ultimately, its about how easy you want your painting. Some swear by individual painting for access, some dislike for difficulty visualizing light and shadow effects or making sure colors blend properly.

I tend to paint on the side of "fast and loose", using a lot of drybrushing and such. Most of my stuff would rank in at "upper end of prepainted mini quality". I'm not winning awards or getting 10/10 ratings on Coolminiornot, but I'm getting things done fast, and they survive play on the table.

Finally, SEAL IT. Spray sealers are spendy, but WORTH IT. The durability improvement is a literally order of magnitude higher. You can get clear or gloss, which can be used to improve your paint jobs. Use clear sealer on an earth elemental, gloss on the water. Gloss can be used to make dragon scales shiny, or you can even get fancy and mask off parts to hit only certain spots with gloss sealer, like the inside of mouths to make them wet looking.

Hope this helps, maybe I'll try and get some of my pics up and linked for you to see if you want.

EDIT: Ninja'd, point for point! What I get for being verbose!


Thank you for the responses. The miniatures I bought yesterday were indeed Bones. I was already assembling them before I posted so I didn't realize they should be washed. I use to do that to my metal ones years ago but as I am out of practice I forgot about this step.

I did use two types of glue, the first type did not hold well and I then used Gorilla glue and redid the areas that have come apart as well as starting gluing new pieces. The gorilla glue worked much better on the plastic miniatures, thank you.

Pinning sounds difficult and I will refer to YouTube to watch it being done.

The miniatures seem to be holding well at this point so I shall leave them to dry. How long would you recommend I let them dry before painting? I don't want to risk pieces not being properly glued before I handle them.

Last time I bought Bones plastic miniatures I sprayed them with an undercoat. That was a huge mistake as it literally took weeks to stop being sticky. I don't know why it made the plastic incredibly sticky but it really did takes weeks to get back to normal. I always spray with an overcoat and will continue to do that for both plastic and metal miniatures.

One of the larger miniatures is unbalanced when it stands, this particular one leans backwards which lifts the base up off the ground on the front of the miniature. Any suggestions to fix this?


Gorilla Glue is done by the time you finished posting, that stuff works superfast. As long as you aren't drenching the mini in glue, it would be dry by the time you get the paint out.

Bones minis don't usually need pining, but on the bigger ones it can help them hold shape (I have Kanjira and he likes to lean under his own weight, I drove spikes up his ankles to prevent it.)

Bones + primer undercoat = sticky. Yep, I have a few sticky ghouls in a box as a reminder. Can be solved with 2 steps. The first you know: Wash well. Use soap, preferably degreasing soap. Or in the dishwasher if you have a mesh bag or such to keep them from flying around and melting on the heating elements (Don't ask, poor gnoll.) Even if you have assembled already, do the wash, just do it gently by hand with a tooth brush or such. If it comes apart, its more the residues than the glue, so clean the break point as well and re-glue when dry.

The second step is use the auto engine primer. Chemically, it will fuse to Bonesium, pretty much everything else just won't. I really do reccommend it as without it your standard paints are just going to lightly stick to the mini, and after a bit of handling even with a sealer coat they will basically come loose, giving your mini a creepy paint-skin sliding around it until it tears off like some horror movie monster.

For a leaning mini, as mentioned you may want to spike up the ankles from below (see pining tutorials). You could also weight the base. If its bigger the base likely is hollow, I've actually just screwed a bunch of washers into the inside of Kanjira's base. Smaller minis can just have a washer glued to the bottom, or you can add a small, real rock to the base decor as a counterweight.


EileenProphetofIstus wrote:

I have terrible luck trying to glue metal or plastic miniatures that come in more than one piece. Regardless of what I do, nothing holds in place and dries.

Can someone tutor me in making gluing miniatures more successful?

What kind of glue should I use for metal Miniatures? How about plastic ones?

What is the best way to get the glue to take hold and dry?

Is it better to paint the pieces separately or after they are glued together?

Really, any advice would be appreciated.

Lot of preferences tossed around, here is mine :)

1) I use Krazy Glue. It's sold cheap at any Walmart, Meijer, Gas stations... pretty much everywhere and you can get a pretty fine tip on it. It's also pretty cheap.

For 90% of my stuff... that works just fine. For anything truly large or heavy metal wings and the like... I may step it up to some 5-minute Epoxy in the auto department. Also pretty cheap, but it's messier and seems to take longer to dry for me. But it holds those metal dragons together pretty well! I've never used Gorilla Glue for miniatures... though I have for other things. I found it very messy and gloppy and can't picture it doing a clean job... But there may be different bottles then the one I used on my car.

2) Pinning. I don't get too fancy with Pinning. Mostly I've used it for switching hands/weapons or changing heads. Plastic and Bones is pretty easy. Metal tends to frustrate me, but I find it MORE necessary for them... For the most part that Krazy Glue comes with a pin, and I use it to poke a small hole in both sides. Then I pop loose an ordinary staple and BAM... you have a small wire that's easy to cut that will give the glue something to grab onto when you shove half in the wrist, and the other half in the hand. Or neck and head, or shoulder and wing... whatever you're doing. There are fancier ways to do things, but this is cheap and easy, and I've had great success with it.

I eventually DID pick up a Dremel. It can make it easier, but I have trouble keeping that drill bit steady for the tiny detail work.

As for painting? Honestly, it depends on the figure. If the figure is wide open, then I prefer to glue them together first. The glue will fill in the seams and the paint will look more uniform. Done well you won't even know where the pieces meet. However, some models that gets tricky. If an arm or wing ot something is going to block some detail or leg or armpit or something then it's easier to paint them separately and then glue... then try to touch up the seams a bit.. Depends entirely on the figure.

Priming is a well debated topic. It takes a very specific type or primer to work on them... and for the most part you do not actually need primer. .
Reaper has a thread with tips on priming

Myself, I use Army Painter brand. It was on a short list of things that work, I've had zero issues with it, it comes in multiple colors... and it works. 200 Bones in, and I've had zero problems. I REALLY dont' want to wander paint aisles looking at cans for chemical ingrediants. When I find something that works, I stick with it. Though I have run out this month, and been just painting them without since... but I do plan on getting some more ordered before the next kickstarter arrives.

That said. there are different techniques for Metal then there are bones. I didn't like Army Painter on my metal... the standard auto primer worked better for metal. Metal needs sealer more then bones (though I seal everything). I recently tried a couple of metal PC minis after over 200 bones and found myself getting frustrated all over again. Just takes practice.


Holy crap I completely forgot to mention that its Gorilla SUPERglue, not regular Gorilla Glue!

Phantom1592 is totally right, regular stuff would be nightmare to work with! I never use it anymore actually, struck it from my brain completely, which is why I forgot to mention specifically to use the superglue version!


The gorilla glue superglue is what I used. Its a good thing that you clarified things though because when I bought more, I purchased the regular kind. I didn't know there was a "super" version. I will go out and purchase that instead.

Thanks.

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