Thunderhawk Repair Resin?

[The Slayer]

Looking for opinions on reparing a broken piece of resin underneath my Thunderhawk gunship. I was drilling a hole underneath the T-Hawk to place it on a stand and about 25% of the circle I drilled broke. I was thinking of using green stuff and maybe sanding it down. Just wonder on how well that will support the bird once its on a stand airborne? Any thoughts or help would be appreciated.

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Greenstuff isn't good for that kind of thing. Can you take a picture of the damaged area?

[Vykes]

I'd definitely like to see the damaged area too.  Greenstuff is a lot more flexible and I've never had that great a time in sanding it or having it even properly stick under stress (have to put down some superglue before for it to do much structurally).  I'd suggest milliput is a more likely repair aid. 

[lionofjudah]

That’s a lotta weight to trust to GS- I recently came into a marauder destroyer with a broken area where flight stand inserts and I’m trying to decide a similar issue.

I’ve glued one of dragonforge designs flight stands to the area and thus far it’s held ok.

[tresillian]

I'd suggest perhaps making a mould of it with a piece of Oyumaru and making a resin copy, if it's small enough you could even use two part putty

[BrotherEndcat]

Green stuff is a no go for weight bearing, chuck a picture up in the thread of the damage. Maybe a simple resin / plastic plate could work?

[DistroyA]

If you're to use epoxy putty, I recommend mixing both green stuff and standard milliput. You get the best of both worlds. I recommend more research first though.

[Imren]

If a piece/chunk of material broke off with a still nice alignable interface surface, then do not sand or file anything yet! Do instead the following:

 

 

Kit list:

• 1 mm brass rod.
• 1 mm drill bit.
• Pin vice drill.
• Cutting pliers.
• Small hobby holding/grabbing pliers.
• An acrylic paint in contrasting colour to resin (red, blue whatever).
• Cyanoacrylate glue (super glue).
• 2-component epoxy glue.
• Toothpicks or cotton buds with the cotton head cut off.
• Large rubber bands and/or compression clamps.
• Toothbrush.
• Bowl of warm water with dissolved dishwashing detergent (wash up liquid).
• Hair dryer.

 

Procedure:

1. Test fit the broken off chunk and inspect the interface surface seam for alignment.
2. Plan for how to apply rubber band and/or compression clamps without damaging the paintjob of the model but at the same time have some compressive force applied onto the broken off chunk.
3. Remove the piece and inspect the break off interface areas, figure out if the material depth and thickness is at least 2-3 mm behind the break surface.
4. With some acrylic paint put small dots onto the positions were the break surface in the inspection in step 2 showed that the break surface area have enough resin behind it to support pinning. Make sure you put the dots on one of the break surface areas. and paint the dots on 2-4 positions depending on how large the break surface is.
5. Put back the broken off chunk onto the break-off surface so that it is neatly aligned.
6. Remove the broken off chunk and inspect that the paint dots transferred paint dots onto the broken off chunk, Those dots are your guide points for drilling holes for pinning.
7. Plan your drill holes so that the hole directions for all dots on one side are in the same direction, otherwise you will not be able to join the broken off chunk when pinned.
8. Drill the pinning holes where the paint dots are. Keep in mind the hole inclination for each hole relative to the other holes, the inclination difference should me minimal for each hole in relation to other holes, otherwise you will not be able to join and align the chunk back in to position when pinned.
9. Cut your brass rod to pieces so that the lengths of the pieces are not longer than the corresponding drilled holes.
10. Dry fit the brass rod pieces by inserting them in the holes on one side (the model or the broken off chunk). Remember this is a dry fit. Do not use glue yet! If you struggle inserting the rod pieces, then work the holes a wee bit more with the drill, there should not be too much of play between the rods and the holes, but you should not have to use lot of force with the grabbing pliers to insert the rods in the holes.
11. Bring the broken off chunk on to the position and slowly neatly dry fit the piece onto the break surface, check that the brass rods neatly are sliding in in in their corresponding holes.
12. Check for alignment of the pieces, check especially the break seam and the angle of the broken off piece in relation to the model.
    • If misaligned, you will find out when dryfitting at this stage, figure out what rod/drill hole is causing the misalignment and remove and either slightly bend the rod into position or rework the drill hole. I recommend to slightly bend the rod into alignment before messing with the holes. If you did your inclination checks thoughly at stage 7 you will either have no alignment issues here or small ones that can be sorted with slight rod bends.
13. When dry fit completed and you're happy with alignment, then remove the piece and the rods but keep track of the rods positioning and orientation of the rod you had to bend.
14. Apply super glue on the rod ends and insert them in the drill holes on either in the model or the broken off chunk.
15. Test fit the chunk again but don't push it all the way or you might struggle to get it off.
16. Remove chunk from model and clean break interface surfaces with tooth brush soaked in warm dishwashing liquid solution and rinse off.
17. Dry the break surfaces with a hair dryer. Now the surfaces are clean from skin greases and other contaminants.
18. Mix up your epoxy glue.
19. Apply the epoxy glue on one side of the break surfaces and on the protruding rods with a toothpick or cotton bud (with the cotton head cut off).
20. Join the broken off piece to the model and take care that the protruding rods slide in neatly in the corresponding drill holes.
21. Apply your rubberbands and/or compression clamps as per your plan in step 2.
22. Neatly clean off any epoxy glue that gets pushed out from the break interface seam. Take care not to damage the any paintjob around the seam.
23. Allow the epoxy glue to harden and cure for 24 hrs.

 

Good luck! :)

[Jerethdatiger]

An option I've found that is better then just using two part epoxy resin is to makepolystone resin instead. Grind up a bit of plum slate (yes it's laborious)

And mix that into your more moderate setting time resin gives a nicer stronger resin that also doesn't have that horrid sticky feel.

 

As for the task of fixing a broken peice. Depending on size recasting it may work or if it's meant to be weight bearing re-enforce it on the inside and set up weight distribution so all the weight isn't on the repair