Ye Olde Inn

I just finished my 9th goblin miniature, and have the final 3 finished except for their scimitars. I am currently at work and received a call that my five year old son sat on them (on a coffee table) and broke one of the swords. I assume it was broken at the hilt, but not sure, just trying not to flip out (not about the figure, but the time spent painting the rest of it.)

Has anyone successfully repaired heroquest minis in the past? Will regular styrene glue/plastic cement work? Should I be pinning it if possible? Is is a lost cause?

First thing to do is calm down! Stuff happens, thats life, but 9 times out of 10 they can all be repaired.
Second thing to do is assess the damage, the usual places for breaks are at the sword hilt or ankles. Find the pieces and see if they still fit together.
styrene glue and or plain super glue will do the trick. As for pinning it depend on where the break is and how bad it is, usually it wont need it, but if you want to make sure it never happens again then maybe think about pinning.

If it doesn't bend before breaking, the breaking point should be clean and smooth. Plastic cement will do the trick, as BOB says, because it melts the parts together. If after that there's something unsmooth, file and green stuff (or any kind of putty, even plumber's putty) will take care of that.
I've never seen a breaking point on an HQ or similar hard plastic figure where I felt the need for pinning. As I said, you can't connect tighter than actually melting two parts into one...
If the breaking point should indeed be very unsmooth, file both ends down and then glue if necessary and if it doesn't shorten the parts down too much. That happens, but pinning an HQ figure... never done it, never heard of it. The material of these figures is very easy to work with and takes plastic cement like a charm.

Only breakage I've had was a goblin's sword, at the hilt. Regular superglue worked fine and was very easy. No pin or anything else needed.
Hope yours is a similar situation.

I've fixed plenty of miniatures. My kids are heavy handed and have broken a weapon or two of player pieces, or monsters when they are EWP.

Super glue does the trick. Mine arent painted (other than to make them either player or monster types) and gluing works fine.

I sometimes add a little extra around the outside once the glue has dried, to add a little extra strength to it.

I've pinned a few mostly during conversions so i could move the arms around before glue set plus i use superglue for everything so they stay put better that way but i dont think its necessary i mostly do it out of habit from putting together metal minis.

Plastic cement is made for the particular job as it melts together the parts, superglue will break if pressure is put to the same spot again. It has the advantage that IF that happens you have another clean breaking point and you can glue it back together with the same superglue.

But I work with the rule of thumb that there's different glues for different jobs and plastic cement cements plastic.

knightkrawler wrote:plastic cement cements plastic.

You have reached sage-hood

Goblin-King wrote:

knightkrawler wrote:plastic cement cements plastic.

You have reached sage-hood

lol. i would actually advise against using plastic cement.
super glue works on everything and will not cause damage, where as plastic cement has all sorts of untold nuances with it.

if it needs pinning. that and super glue will make it stronger than the original.

ampersand wrote:

Goblin-King wrote:

knightkrawler wrote:plastic cement cements plastic.

You have reached sage-hood

lol. i would actually advise against using plastic cement.
super glue works on everything and will not cause damage, where as plastic cement has all sorts of untold nuances with it.

if it needs pinning. that and super glue will make it stronger than the original.

depend if it needs pinning though! probably wont being a plastic goblin.
super glue is hit an miss, depends on the brand, cheaper you go the more rubbish it is. And super glue doesn't stick to super glue! if it does then it we will be a weaker bond, due to the magic crystals or something.

I would use poly cement like kk, wise words.