"How long does it take you to assemble plastic figures?" Topic

I've been wondering how long it takes people to assemble the plethora of plastic figures that are out there. A few days ago I stumbled across a Facebook post in which the author said it took him 4.5 hrs to assemble 30 28mm Dark Age warriors. How does that compare to your assembly time?

One element depends on how much cleaning time you need. Older Victrix (and others) seem to have many seam lines that need to be removed. Even just clipping parts requires some cleaning at the former join.

I state the obvious when I say that, for example, a Napoleonic marching with a backpack (Perry) is going to be faster than medieval /fantasy with pouch, weapons, and gear options. A guy firing where the arms and hands need to be aligned may require allowing one arm to dry before putting the other on.

There's a skeleton set out there where the feet are separate from the legs! Maybe the hands are too? I never bought it.

I personally love assembling modern plastics. Sometimes more than painting!

I got some 5th (🤷) edition WFB Empire "Landsknecht" types. Bare torso. Legs. Separate arms. Arquebus or pike.
I hated the experience. It was like I needed 3 arms, and the cement took forever to set.
Nope. I never went back to plastic.

I would take at least 4.5 hours or more for 30 figures. But that time is spread out over a month or so. Nothing pisses me off more than half set plastic glue. Anything that I glue gets 24+ hours to set before I touch it again. This leads to attaching a few right arms, then cleaning up the next few figures, then attaching a few left arms, and so on. The whole assembly is on a cutting board that comes on and off my painting table as needed.

It largely depends on the figures. I could assemble a boatload of Warlord Marlburian in that time, they are quite simple. For the most part though, I think the 4.5 hours for 30 would be typical.

Depends on the plethora. Normally, I work by stages with drying time, so the minimum is probably only an hour and a half or two hours a box, but spread out over three days 1)legs and torso to base, 2) arms and weapon to torso, then 3) head. The more parts per figure--and the more arms which only work with certain torsos--the worse it gets, and I'd hate to speculate on the upper limit.

Do we count me disassembling and reassembling a figure months or years later because I was never really happy with it?

Gads. I avoid plastic figures that require any but very minor assembly (like one or two bits, max). I'm terrible at it and I detest it. And trying to figure out what glue to use, and how long it takes to set, and having to keep all those bits where they belong, and having glue get all over your fingers more than the minis. No, thanks. I'll pay for metal.

Too long.

It depends on how many parts there per figure. The Perry ACW I am working on now take me about an hour for 20 figures.

However once assembled they will sit for years before getting painted.

I guess all those model kits I slapped together growing up have some benefit.

4.5 hours seems to me on the low side unless you have a bunch of one armed combatants. Two handed weapons are a pain to line up and take much longer to get correct.

As others have posted not a fan of assembling plastics.

I agree with Flashman14, putting the figures together is just value added as far as personal enjoyment is concerned. I've built plastic models all my life, and still have a hoard of them that I bought in Japan when I was in the Navy.

Other than an odd figure here or there, I am not abig plastics guy (in this context) either. There are times that I don't get 4.5 per month for this hobby.

The clock, nay, the calendar, is still running…

Doug

I wonder how many people use something (Green Stuff, Milliput, ect) to fill gaps where the parts join?

I've never built a hard plastic figure and don't really want to. However, with data centers sucking up the tin market, plastics and 3D printing resins may be the only viable materials for the future. (Tin has risen 66% in one year alone, doubled in 3 years.)

Flashy +1. It varies with the number of parts, a typical Perry Mediaeval only needs the head and arms attached to be useable. It's the small detail items, such as swords or pouches, that take longest because I'll drill and pin them to strengthen the glue joint.

I hate assembling plastics too. Like Huron says, figures with two hands on the weapon are the worst. Half of my WWII figures look like they're holding their rifles with extreme arthritis. I've gone back to metal.

Too long :-( I've ended up using contact cement a little dab on the each piece and put them together, but I hate doing these. Ditto to Shardik..

It really depends on the figures, to be honest. I have had figures that go together like a dream and require little work at all and some that required considerable effort and clean up. I try to avoid super complex miniatures since the hellish experience I had with Palladium's Robotech series. Those were 1/285 Battletech scale minis that were each 32 or more parts.

I will not do plastics because I have no interest in building/assembling them. Heck, I even hate adding heads to metal figures (I pay others to do that). In the end, I do not mind painting miniatures when I have the time to devote to that aspect of the hobby. I would much rather create terrain than build a model of any sorts. I choose to trade my time making terrain for others to deal with a lot of my miniatures (I only own a handful of plastics at this point – just not a fan).

None. I don't.

Depending on the figure, about 3-5 minutes ? I enjoy building. Use Plastic Weld and it gives me time to align firing poses. Haven't been able to find it lately :/

Plastic weld

Not very long. Maybe a minute per figure? Liquid polystyrene cement is your friend. Welds the parts together and sets hard in a couple of minutes.
It usually takes less time to assemble a plastic figure than to clean up a metal one (and drill out hands to take spears and the like) and glue on shields. It's a lot easier to glue plastic together than metal.

Wolfshanza, Plastruct changed hands and location but are open for business again. You can get Plastic Weld direct from them for $6.25 USD for 2oz.

link

I had been using it since the 70s for all my plastic modeling, but the wife cannot handle the MEK vapors. (Me, I lost all my brain cells decades ago from all the model building and painting I've done. lol)

Generally takes me 3-4 days to prepare, do small postural changes, and glue up a 54mm Historex foot figure which I can then defile with a bad paint job. Add two more days for a mounted figure. Never built a 28mm plastic figure.

I do about 16 figures in 1 1/2 hours. Which includes eating a sandwich and chips for lunch.

Thank you very much, Mr T ! :)

I use both tube and liquid cement. Tube cement is becoming hard to find and is pricey now. I find that it gives a stronger bond and is great for sealing the gaps between parts.
Excess can be smoothed over with liquid cement.

Test fitting can help eliminate a lot of frustration. Find your problems before it's too late. Don't think the figure should be completed in one sitting. A two-handed figure firing a musket may have just one 'solid' arm glued into place and during the next session the other arm and musket can be added.

As far as time goes, yep, it's very dependent on parts, fit quality-etc.

I'm with Capt. Beefheart; tube cement is the best way to go. It has enough "grab" to hold small plastic parts in place after a second or two but dries slowly enough to allow minor adjustments to the pose. It also will fill minor gaps. My biggest problem building plastics is that I can't let well-enough alone. I try to make each figure into a distinct personalities with different poses and weapons. But. if I'm mass-producing units (for example shoulder-arms Napoleonic infantry) 4.5hrs seems more than adequate.

What is "tube cement"? Not a term with which I'm familiar. Is it super glue?

I have found that ordinary brush on model kit glue works fine on hard plastic figures, such as Plastic Soldier Company, presumably because the plastic is the same as that used in model kits. On softer plastics, such as Zevezda, I've used super glue, but it has driven me nuts. You certainly have to do one thing at a time and then leave it overnight.