I'm currently hunting down plastic nid infantry. I've got hold of some in a cheap job lot (With a few stands of Eldar, early IG, a load of SM and a load of early chaos). I've got a fair few nids bent and some snapped. So does anyone have any tips and tricks for repairing bent or snapped gargoyles and hormagaunts. All of them are bent or snapped at the claw/tail interface with the base.

I'd also be interested in how to get individual models off a stand without breaking the model or the stand.

Thanks

I find that a thin coating of superglue does wonders to fix bent and snapped infantry.

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-Vaaish

Since they're polystyrene plastic, depending on the breaks, some plastic cement applied to both sides of the break may work as well.

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"EPIC: Total War" Lead Developer

Now living in Boston... any EPIC players want to meet up?

For plastics broken off at the base I squeeze out a drop of modeling glue on a palate, dip the legs into it just enough to get tiny drops, then put them back on the base.  A plastic-to-plastic bond is almost as strong as the original.  If you end up with a bit of excess glue squeezing out, it will dry down and won't obscure much detail (and let's face it, how often do you see the minis' feet?).  Worst case it takes some touchup to remove the shininess of the dried glue.

Bent... I don't know of anything that works consistently.

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Neal

For broken minis, what Neal suggested works well, especially if you are using the goopy polystyrene cement.  The best thing about the goopy stuff, like Testors, is it effectively melts the parts together like a weld and forms a bond stronger than the original plastic.  You can also sculpt thick polystyrene glue to some degree.

For some models, you'll want Blu-Tack or equivalent to hold the mini in position while it dries.

For moderatley bent minis, what Vaaish suggested works great.  For severely bent minis, I just cut or snap the bent part off and then glue it back on.  It's just less of a headache than dealing with a bent part that is barely hanging on.  On the upside, this gives you a shining opportunity to change the pose of the mini and add some variety to the stand.

I have not yet found an elegant way to get minis out of an Epic base.  Honestly, I just grab sprue cutters and scissor around the well that the minis sit in.  After that it is usually and easy affair to get the remainder of the base cut from the mini.  It's far easier to find a new base vs finding new minis to replace ones destroyed while trying to save both base & mini.

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WAAARGH!!
The Lost & the Dipped

Thanks for the ideas. I've only got plastic welder around at the moment, it's completely liquid and evaporates in seconds. I'll probably try it first and hope it doesn't eat too much plastic but I might need to go and get some gooey stuff. I've got a few that will benefit from superglue for strengthening.

I've found cutting models off the bases easiest but I was hoping to get some of the really big ork infantry guns off kommando stands without needing to rebase the whole stand.

Thanks