Ye Olde Inn

Hey all, I've got a weapons rack with one of its legs snapped right off. I've seen racks missing weapon bits, and I have some idea how you'd repair that (with a sharp knife, a bits kit, and some super glue!) But the leg is something else.

I'm looking for suggestions on how best to do this within my skill set. I have a perfectly intact weapons rack to work from … maybe the solution is some kind of impression of that?

I imagine some of you might use green stuff. In fact, I have an idea that what some of you might do is use a pin vise and a tiny bit to put the end of a paperclip in the bottom of the weapons rack with a bit of superglue, then cut the pin to length so the rack would stand up, then carve essentially a playdoh snake of the stuff to shape around it.

I haven't used green stuff before, but I've used a gray/dark gray epoxy putty I'm not 100% sure I should've been mixing with my bare hands, but I did. I found the result tacky, much more like putty than clay, and difficult to wash the residue off my hands afterward. That stuff was too gummy for me to be confident I could convincingly shape it to look like anything but a lump. Is green stuff much different to work with? At least that I know people do work with their fingers and presumably is not made of monopoisonate carcinogen resin or something. …probably.

Anyhow, unless it's a lot easier to work with, I think probably the only way I could do anything believable with it would be if I could somehow pin the rack upright to some flat … foot about the size and shape of what has been snapped off. If I could do that and maybe secure it to something like the aforementioned pin, I could probably even use the gooey epoxy putty to fill in the gaps. To my eye, it doesn't look like there's a whole lot of wood grain detail to try and preserve or recreate.

Anybody fix one of these? How'd you do it?

I would approach it similar to repairing a broken off sword from a HeroQuest hero mini...

Using an (unpowered) mini hand drill, slowly drill a hole into the plastic of both sides of the break. This part takes awhile. I drilled for a few minutes throughout the day, and when you're finally ready and have blown out all the "plastic dust" from the holes...

Then take a bit of wire (I strip the plastic off of those twisty ties that wrap electronic gadget cables with a knife and then cut to size with wire cutters... don't blunt your good scissors like I did!) and use the wire to brace it. Fill in the gaps with (I used vallejo) plastic acrylic putty (or if you don't have that, some kind of plastic glue, not that will melt it). Let it dry for 24 hours. Touch up with paint to the affected area as needed.

Unfortunately I don't have both pieces. I've used a pin vise a couple of times. Takes a little patience mostly, but I've gotta make the foot half of the part, because it's just gone and has been since probably a long time before 2011 or 2012 when I bought it the lot which included it.

I'll probably want to pin the thing just because it won't stand up without SOMETHING sticking out of the bottom on that side, but I've got to make the T-shaped bit that broke off somehow.

Using Greenstuff the first time is typically an awful experience just like your description of epoxy putty... it sticks to the tools and will not stay where you want it. You need to use water on your tools and if you use to much, the green stuff does not stick to your part either.

I just pulled out the weapon rack and had a look. If by "leg" you mean the "foot" then it's just a basic triangle shape... I would just carve one out of wood maybe two craft sticks wide. Sand it smooth, cut the mating surface flush / square, and pin and glue it. If you need filler, then go ahead and apply green stuff in the gap, wait for it to harden then cut it flush with a hobby knife and ideally no sanding required.

whitebeard wrote:Using Greenstuff the first time is typically an awful experience just like your description of epoxy putty... it sticks to the tools and will not stay where you want it. You need to use water on your tools and if you use to much, the green stuff does not stick to your part either.

Functionally the same stuff then. Okay. Water? Good to know.

whitebeard wrote:I just pulled out the weapon rack and had a look. If by "leg" you mean the "foot" then it's just a basic triangle shape... I would just carve one out of wood maybe two craft sticks wide. Sand it smooth, cut the mating surface flush / square, and pin and glue it. If you need filler, then go ahead and apply green stuff in the gap, wait for it to harden then cut it flush with a hobby knife and ideally no sanding required.

That's the part that's missing, and a little bite out of the vertical pole above it where it was snapped off. Carving it out of wood … that might work, actually! My caliper measures it at 11/64 inches (about 4.2mm) wide and just as tall at the tallest part. A 3/16" square dowel could probably be shaved down to close to the right shape and then sanded the rest of the way. Or a square chopstick. Combined with a pin to hold the two together I really could just pack a little ball of green stuff into the gap, dip the small back-scratcher-looking tool in some water and then cut it flush. That should have it stick to both the wood and the plastic before water gets anywhere near it and keep it from getting waterlogged. If the pin I use is thick enough, it'll provide all of the structural support needed. I might want to trim more of the snapped end of the plastic to give me something a little more flat to start the micro bit into.

Or maybe I shouldn't if I can avoid it? The snapped end will probably have more for the green stuff to stick to and maybe the material is thicker than I should be trying to nip with these little Hakko cutters? They're aimed at PCB component leads, after all.

Thanks for the suggestions, I think I'm beginning to picture this repair in my head. I think I can actually accomplish it.

if you can't shape the leg properly you can then add some more green stuff to cover the new sculpt as they were old rags around the leg.
Then paint it