*Miniatures by CMoN

www.TheArmyPainter.com
 How to assemble miniatures
without the loss of limb!
MINIATURE ASSEMBLY, TOOL AND SAFETY GUIDE
A huge part of painting miniatures is – but more important is knowing how to
assembling them, and for that you need use those tools safely. Everything from
the tools of the trade. This guide will show knives to glue have the potential to do you
you all the tips and tricks of the trade. bodily harm if used incorrectly. This guide
Knowing which tool to use is important will teach how to keep that from happening.

When assembling plastic miniatures, you When assembling metal and resin
will need: miniatures, you will need:
• lastic Frame Cutter
P • recision Side Cutter
P
• Hobby Knife • Miniature & Model Files
• Plastic Glue • Super Glue
• Green Stuff
• Tweezers
• Sculpting Tools
• Cutting Mat • Cutting Mat

First things first, get hold of some cool tools you need and a nice stable surface to
miniatures that need assembling. Before work at. Have all you need? Let’s dive in!
you start, make sure that you have all the

Have all you need?

Let’s dive in!

2
BEFORE YOU BEGIN, READ THIS!
In this guide, tools that may be unsafe if
handled incorrectly will be marked with a
warning sign. Read this page to learn how to
react should an accident occur.

Safety goggles
Cutting and clipping brittle plastic, eyes, always wear safety glasses
metal and especially resin can cause when preparing your miniatures.
chipping. To avoid damaging your

Glue - handle with care!

Plastic Glue - Repeated exposure may
cause skin dryness and irritation.
Flammable liquid and vapour. May
cause drowsiness or dizziness. Use only
outdoors or in a well-ventilated area.
Call a Poison Centre or contact your
doctor in case of accident.
Risk of cutting or piercing
The Army Painter Hobby Knife, is an
extremely sharp scalpel. The blade is
made of steel and will take off a finger
if you are not careful. Therefore, it is
always advisable to cut away from
yourself, be aware of your fingers
Super Glue - Ethyl 2-Cyanoacrylate bonds
skin and eyes in seconds. Keep out
of reach of children. Causes skin and
eye irritation. Call a Poison Centre or
contact your doctor in case of accident.
and hands, and preferably try to cut
towards a table or hard surface. To
keep your table intact, we suggest
always using a Self-healing Cutting Mat.

Keep away from children

This icon will tell you the suggested to be swallowed pose a choking
age of users. Products small enough hazard - keep away from children.

Wash your hands

Make sure to wash your hands. skin irritation after extended use.
Keeping paints, glue and Green Stuff
on your hands or skin, may cause

Learn assembly online!

All the information from this guide
to assembling miniatures are also
available in video at:
www.youtube.com/thearmypainter

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How to assemble plastic miniatures

1 Cut parts off sprue

Get hold of a pair of Plastic Frame Cutters
or Precision Side Cutters; the angled design

*Miniatures by CMoN
makes short and clean work of the process.

Tidy up the miniature

Once cut from the sprue, models
2
invariably have both mould lines and
excess bits of moulding material. Use a
Hobby Knife to scrape and cut away this
excess material.

EXTREMELY ded!
Sharp! x5 blades inclu
*Miniatures by CMoN

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 3 Assembling
Add a drop of Plastic Glue to the parts you want
to assemble. Wait for 10 seconds, then press
the parts together - use Tweezers Set to give you
maximum control and avoid sticking your fingers.
With Plastic Glue, your parts will be
strongly fused together.
Precision
tip!

Miniature bases
For most of us, having the miniature on
4
a base from the get-go makes a lot of
sense. Use Super Glue or Plastic Glue
to attach your minis to any kind

*Miniatures by CMoN
of base.

And you are done!

What to do with you bases?
While you move towards painting your miniatures. Now
is a good time to start thinking about what to do with
your bases. Basing is a great way to get your miniature
even more natural looking with Tufts and Battleground
Materials. Have a look at www.TheArmyPainter.com to see
all the different possibilities with The Army Painter
range of basing materials and the popular Battlefields
Basing Set (BF4301)

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When a warrior
Becomes a unit

*Miniatures by CMoN
Once you have completed your
first miniature, the rest of your
unit comes easy. Simple copy the
previous steps and you will a have
a cohesive force soon enough. If all
of your units come from the same
parts, then this is a great time to do
a few conversions to make separate
units such as leaders or heroes
stand out - but that is a whole other
story - follow us on social media for
special technique guides.

How to assemble metal miniatures

1 Assembling
Get hold of a pair of Precision Side Cutters; the
angled design makes short and clean work of the
process.

Clean excess metal

Once cut from the sprue, models invariably
2
have both mould lines and excess bits of
moulding material. Use any type of The
Army Painter Miniature & Model Files to clean
it up!

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 3 Super Glue parts
Add a drop of Super Glue to the parts you
Precision
tip!
want to assemble. Wait for 10 seconds,
then press the parts together - use the
tweezers to give you maximum control
and avoid sticking your fingers.
With Plastic Glue, your parts will
be strongly fused together.

*Miniatures by CMoN
Combining mixed materials

1 Plastic - or super glue?

Plastic Glue is a great tool for fusing plastic
together! But for fusing different materials
Super Glue is the one to go for. Pour a tiny drop on
both sides...

Use a tool to save your fingers

... and use your The Army Painter Tweezers to set
them against each other without getting
2
glue on you fingers - and it gives you
extra precision!

For smaller more precise

parts - use pointy tweezers! 7
3 Combining glue
Combining materials, can be a daunting
task, but if you take you’re time and use

*Miniatures by CMoN
the techniques as the two previous pages
show you. Then using The Army Painter
techniques should make it as easy as any
other miniature type.

Combining several techniques for

large miniatures

1 Cutting out resin parts

Metal miniatures often have tabs and flash stemming
Very precise!

from the casting process. Cast in much the same

way, resin miniatures often have surplus
sprue material. To remove surplus
material, we recommend you use
the Precision Side Cutter for clean and
controlled cuts.

Clean the miniature

Most metal/resin miniatures will also have
visible mould lines from the casting
2
process. To remove these, use a Hobby
Knife and a set of Miniature & Model Files
to remove all excess mould material.

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 3 Assembling
Use a drop of Super Glue
to assemble metal and resin
miniatures. Hold the parts
firmly together for 5-10
seconds - the process
could be faster by using
a burst of Magic Super Glue
Activator.

3mm
Drill bit
Magnetising miniatures
Sometimes, it’s nice to be able to swap out weapons or
3a
completely disassemble big centrepiece models. Drill
out holes in the parts you want magnetised, make sure
the Miniature and Model Magnets are facing the right
way, super
glue them and
presto - you’re
done!
*Miniatures by CMoN

Pinning 3b

Clean up the parts
with a file for a
seamless assembly.
Using the right sized Use Super Glue to fill Your model is
drill, for the metal the hole on each part ready for the
rod, drill holes. and put the metal next step!
rod in between.
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 Assembly using Green Stuff
If you are working on an especially tricky model,
3c
try kneading up a ball of Green Stuff. Put it between
the parts being glued either with a drop of Super
Glue or on its own. The Green Stuff will act
as a glue, simultaneously filling out
any gaps in the seam.

Finally, if your model just

won’t stay together, use both
Super Glue, pinning and the
Green Stuff method.
Use the sculpting tool to even-out the
surface afterwards.

Finished large mini

For this miniature we have used a lot of different
techniques from pinning to assembling with
magnets. This give us a lot of mobility in the
miniature and the chance to change weaponry

These techniques give you a lot of new

opportunities to specialize you miniatures in

*Miniatures by CMoN
new ways where only you imagination stops
you. Have fun!

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 Your miniatures are ready for paint!

What to do now...
Here at The Army Painter, we are all about
getting our miniatures painted fast and to
a nice table-top standard.

We use The Army Painter Technique

Spray – Paint – Dip – Done! to get
models from grey plastics to fully
painted army faster than ever giving
you more time for gaming.

Learn this technique by reading

“Wargamers Army Painting Guide“
coming with this guide - are you
reading online? The find it online at
www.TheArmyPainter.com

Don’t be a tin-man
Live and play in colours!
*Miniatures by CMoN

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 “Our range of tools and accessories makes the life of a hobbyist an easy one, giving you
the means to assemble miniatures faster and easier! ”
- The Army Painter

+
Project Paint Station & Cutting Mat -
the perfect start up combo!

Don’t be a tin-man
Live and play in colours!
Facebook.com/TheArmyPainter Youtube.com/TheArmyPainter @thearmypainter
The Army Painter ApS | Nydamsvej 1 | 8362 Hoerning | Denmark | contact@thearmypainter.com | +45 28 91 15 56