Introduction
I will be honest. I wasn’t expecting to be posting about my ZAKU II any time soon. I have been doing some work to finish it off. Again, in my hamfisted manner I managed to break a part. I have no idea what was going through my head. However, I did thankfully have the presence of mind to not panic. The part pictured below should not come away from the model. Note this was by no means a fault with the model, and totally a user headspace error.
What to do?
I decided that probably the best way to try and repair this would be to pin the piece. For anyone who does not know here is my understanding of pinning. Other people may have different definitions but this is what I am going for. In essence you drill a small hole in your piece that has come off, and into where you want to mount it. You then trim a pin to size and glue it all back together. The pin helps to take the load and strengthen the join.
Equipment
Thankfully I have the four things I needed to hand. A small drill, a pin, some nippers and some glue.
As you can see I used a good old pair of nippers so as to not ruin the good pair I have. I find it is always handy to have a slightly older pair around for just these occasions. I don’t have a photo of the glue but for reference I was using Gorilla clear glue.
Method
- Drill a hole through the broken off piece.
- Align the broken piece with the model with the drill bit still in. Then continue to drill so the lines are aligned. (Be careful not to drill too far and go all the way through!
- Using the nippers trim the pin to size.
- Glue the pin into the model.
- Once dry, add more glue to the pin and push the broken piece into place.
The last pieces (gluing the pin in and into place) can be done all the same time if you prefer.
Then leave your glue to cure and away you go.
Conclusion
Every time I do something like this I promise myself to be more careful next time. However, it was a useful opportunity to remind myself that pinning can be an invaluable technique in repairing a model, or in helping joints or pieces that join together with quite a small surface/join area.
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