Teachmarine Servo Harness - Assembly question

[Culial]

How the feth do you stick the arms on?!?

I've spent my free time today building the Thunderfire cannon I need for my list, and like that wasn't bad enough :mad: I cannot for the life of me get the Emperor damned, Grox fething, [CENSORED] things to stay on!!!

It doesn't look like it's worth the effort trying to pin them, as there's only about 1mm of pewter on the flat of the connection point, super glue isn't worth a gak because of the weight of them, and Araldite Rapid isn't 'Rapid' enough - the join flexes and breaks before it's properly set (hey my hands are on so steady...)

Please can someone offer some advice on this?
Any tips or tricks to share?

[Brass Scorpion]

This is a complex and annoying model to assemble, no doubt about it. I built mine last year and it took quite a bit of time in spite of my many years of experience with these things. Here's how I got my servo harness arms to stay put:
1) Where there was enough "meat" to drill into I pinned them. That was on the lower arms.
2) Where there was no room for a pin on the upper arms, I used a little putty, such as "green stuff", to assist the super glue with holding them in place.
Good luck.

[Just_Me]

I used a technique I came up with a while ago for this; take a lump of wax and shape it so that you can rest the protruding parts of the model against it while it dries. After it dries there shouldn't be any more problems. Normally bracing is a pain because you can never find something that is quite the right height or width or whatever, with wax you can just make it whatever size or shape you need, and if you push the piece just slightly into the wax it stays firmly in place.

[Mike X]

If it's a metal model, my friend has found a great way to construct them...

He welds them together.

Seriously.

[wittdooley]

I ended up doing what Brass Scorpion did and used a bit of greenstuff as a fixative. Then a I braced the hell out of it with all sorts of stacked crap.

And BTW...the Thunderfire cannon is a piss poor model in terms of fitting together. It's nearly as bad as some of the first run Warmachine jacks that had half-centemetre gaps.

[Culial]

Hmmm, Just_Me you wax idea inspired me, so along with Brass Scorpion's advice I've improvised my solution:

Thick pin wire, like as thick as the sculpted joints pivot point on the Servo Arms, and a big ol' ball of Blu-Tack!
Drilled the pivot points out, entirely, and drilled a deep hole into the pack.
Then used the think wire to replace the sculpted detail, cut it to length, and filed it down to a flat edge...theoretically, you'll never know the difference! Then use the Blu-Tack (instead of wax, as I don't have any) to brace it all while the Araldite Rapid does its thing (fixing like super-glue and gap-filling like Green Stuff).
Presto! It's not perfect, but at least it looks like they'll stick this way!

I got the largest arm stuck this morning, and all the pin holes drilled ready, but then the snow failed me and I had to come to work :(
I'll try to get it finished off tonight.

For the record I think it's absolutely shocking that GW put this kit on sale as-is!
The Cannon took a fair amount of dremell work and gap filling out of the box, and the Techmarine is neigh on impossible.

Thanks for the help guys, wish me luck for later!

[therealjohnny5]

Hmmm, Just_Me you wax idea inspired me, so along with Brass Scorpion's advice I've improvised my solution:

Thick pin wire, like as thick as the sculpted joints pivot point on the Servo Arms, and a big ol' ball of Blu-Tack!
Drilled the pivot points out, entirely, and drilled a deep hole into the pack.
Then used the think wire to replace the sculpted detail, cut it to length, and filed it down to a flat edge...theoretically, you'll never know the difference! Then use the Blu-Tack (instead of wax, as I don't have any) to brace it all while the Araldite Rapid does its thing (fixing like super-glue and gap-filling like Green Stuff).
Presto! It's not perfect, but at least it looks like they'll stick this way!

I got the largest arm stuck this morning, and all the pin holes drilled ready, but then the snow failed me and I had to come to work :(
I'll try to get it finished off tonight.

For the record I think it's absolutely shocking that GW put this kit on sale as-is!
The Cannon took a fair amount of dremell work and gap filling out of the box, and the Techmarine is neigh on impossible.

Thanks for the help guys, wish me luck for later!

yeah..hands down worst model in SM history...lmk how the arms hold. in my experience any setters make the joint brittle. but with the pinning you should be good. i just glued it and braced it till it held..if they break off ever i'll pin them then.

[lobster-overlord]

How similar is the Harness to that which was available with the regular and LE models of the figure? I had no problem just attaching them with Superglue on that version.

John M>

[agproductions]

For the one I painted up for a client, I glued them on one piece at a time. After it was dry, I flowed a bit of CA Glue around the joint to make it a bit stronger, then let the whole thing dry for a day to make sure it was stable. That meant taking a full 4 days to assemble the blasted thing, but, hey, it worked for the whole process while I was painting as well as packing it up for shipping, so I can't complain.

[Culial]

OK, so my idea ended in fail :(
Ends up being far too wobbly, I suspect because of the flexibility of the Araldite that is usually a positive thing on normal minis.

So, new plan:
Follow Brass Scorpions advice further and use Green Stuff as an extra fixative.
My only worry over this is that Green Stuff tends to be flexible after it's cured, and after the Araldite incident and a wasted day, I'm a little wary of that...
I do however have a box of green Milliput on my shelf, bought for some forgotten project and never opened.
Supposedly it "dries to a rock hard finish".
Does anyone have experience with this product?
Do you think it would be more suitable than Green Stuff, when used with CA glue?

If that doesn't work, I may have to go to Mike X's suggesting of welding it!
I've got a soldering iron around here somewhere...
This damned model is not going to beat me! :mad:

[Culial]

How similar is the Harness to that which was available with the regular and LE models of the figure? I had no problem just attaching them with Superglue on that version.

John M>I also have the Direct Only Techmarine, and the Gunners 'harness has much smaller contact points that are all based along the same plane, parralell to the facing of the head. No big, fat discs to fit onto big flat connecting points on the back of the 'pack I'm afraid :rolleyes:


For the one I painted up for a client, I glued them on one piece at a time. After it was dry, I flowed a bit of CA Glue around the joint to make it a bit stronger, then let the whole thing dry for a day to make sure it was stable. That meant taking a full 4 days to assemble the blasted thing, but, hey, it worked for the whole process while I was painting as well as packing it up for shipping, so I can't complain.Wow, it held through shipping too? Maybe I underestimated the power of Teh Super Glue! :p
Oh well, no turning back now, I've already filled mine with holes! :(