Assembling a Figure
by John Alberts
First off, I do not like figure kits to have many parts. My preference is to have a single casting with maybe just the arms to attach. Assorted bits and pieces turn me off. If having plenty of parts to a kit is what interested me, I would build a plane or tank model before a figure kit.
Upon opening a kit and removing the parts I check the instructions to make sure everything is there. Then I dry-fit the parts to make sure the joints are good. If everything is there and the kit fits well, I will drill holes in all of the parts and insert pins with a touch of glue for strength. Pinning the figures like this will increase the strength of the joint and the parts are more likely to survive accidental “bumps.” Weapons are drilled out and assembled.
I then join everything to the torso using super-glue AND five-minute epoxy. Yes, I did say both types of glue. Let’s take attaching an arm to a torso as an example. I will coat the bottom half of the arm in epoxy while the top fifth would receive some super glue. The arm is then attached. The super glue acts as a tack while the epoxy sets. Make sure the super glue and epoxy do not touch – the epoxy would crystallize.
I join the parts together in the following order:
–legs to torso
–boots, shoes, or feet to leg
–head to torso
–equipment to torso
–arms to torso
–hands to arms
–headgear to head
–weapons to arms
Now you’re ready to paint!