"How to strengthen fragile weapons on metal figures?" Topic

Hi folks,

This past week, I bought a handful of 20mm ACW CinC figures which were produced back in the 1970s (I think.) The figures are very nice in many ways. Unfortunately, the figures have one defect, which I already knew about before buying the figures.

The soldiers' rifled muskets are sculpted in scale, which means they're really slender and fragile. Furthermore, the figures' metal alloy is fairly soft. Obviously, these guys' weapons can't take any punishment on the gaming table.

How would you go about strengthening these miniature firearms? I'd prefer not to do any carving or replacement if possible. I've heard about people adding coats of glue to plastic figures' weapons, but I don't know if that would work with metal ones. So if you have ideas, I'd like to hear them.

Thanks in advance for your help! Jeff

I always run a thin line of superglue on fragile rifle barrels etc, seems to work.

Give them a coat of brush-on superglue then wait at least a day before painting.

The glue coating tip is good.

An additional trick is to glue a length of .020 brass rod along the underside of the weapon.

Thanks guys!

Jeff

I had those too. The muskets really were too too thin. I would suggest replacing completely or drilling thin brass wire that runs beneath the musket and is painted as a musket sling. Did that range expand? I gave up after the delicacy issue.

Try some gloss polyurethane varnish brushed on, then paint.
Works for plastic figures, may work for thin metal.