Repairing broken archers
I have repaired some broken archers. They are men of Minis Tirith Archers.
Not wanting to just throw these away because they are missing half a bow I decided to make them go another volley.
I have received many 2nd hand figs and there are always plenty of broken bows.
Here is how to fix them properly.
You can, solvent cement the plastic part back on, if you have it.. but it is hard if you don’t.
I’ll run you through, it.
Here are the three archers I have… they suffer from the problem of the thin weak bow being vulnerable to being broken and worse the broken piece has been lost.
This one looks as if it was broken prior to a previous paint job. The primer hasn’t helped any glue repair. So I clean this surface off.
As part of the clean I make a central starter hole for later pin vice drilling into the hand. This is very important to do.
Drilling.. with my smallest drill..1.0 or 1.5mm drill.
This the wire I am going to use. It is florist iron wire. It is soft and takes a bend easily. This helps when getting the right curve on the bow.
Also the green paper twist absorbs cyrilinte (super glue) very well which becomes a brittle sheath on the wire that is roughly surfaced. This later takes putty very well.
Apply glue. And fit to pin hole. allow to dry/set.
The wire is set and is longer than needed.
Use set of draughtsmans dividers to measure the remaining bow length. Mark this on the long wire and cut with wire cutters so cut faces are forward and back facing this helps achieve a thin end later. Reduces need to file tip too much thus bending bow.
Here are three archers with new bow half wire.
Time to use Milliput putty. Reasons:
Water soluble so you can smooth it without having to apply too much pressure to bow wire.
Easily pressed between finger and thumb.
Sets hard but can most importantly be filed and sanded.. GS can’t.
Applied in a fairly rough shape and pressed.
Here are the archers with putty applied bows. later step is to file the bows to a thin uniform shape to match the lower section.
At this stage I have used excess putty to apply some pavers to the base and my signature .. which is my name in LOTR runes.
I have added a bush knife pouch and a food bag for when this guy is on the march and have to scavenge food etc… this gives him some individual character to what are all uniform models.
I will post pictures later of the finished bow close up.. it does look good.
