To pin or not to Pin?

[Caliginosity]

Hi All,

Not sure what area to put this into, as it isn't directly gaming related and I couldn't decide on which forum, so i chose General.

I have the Devanu Starter Set, and am very impressed.  I have the question do you pin the miniatures, or is there no need to?

Unfortunately, I have to wait until my birthday to actually do anything with them, but I thought I would ask now to ensure that should I need to get anything then I have sufficient time to get it all.

[Carcharoth]

I'm intrigued to hear what people think!
I tend to try to avoid pinning where I can. Some joints (like the sempa's arm) are a bit exposed, so may need pinning. The larger joints at the hips should be completely fine without pins.
I sometimes cheat completely and use superglue with a tiny blob of green stuff. That helps to give a stronger, faster setting joint. It's not as strong as a well-pinned joint, but is a lot quicker...

[Letchaï]

Not pinned mines. But larger joints have to be filled, indeed.

I sometimes cheat completely and use superglue with a tiny blob of green stuff. That helps to give a stronger, faster setting joint. It's not as strong as a well-pinned joint, but is a lot quicker...

I do the same thing !

[GrimSnik]

I haven't needed to pin the ones I have. I use a small dab of superglue and a small dab of white glue and they hold together fine for me.

[Halcyon]

I prefer to pin everything nowadays.

[Kryptovidicus]

I pin a lot, the durability is so much better. Superglue is fine for display pieces, but I would to see a piece break of when a miniatures drops over or falls down during a battle.

[TuffSkull]

I pin a lot, the durability is so much better. Superglue is fine for display pieces, but I would to see a piece break of when a miniatures drops over or falls down during a battle.

It's an interesting point this.
I tend not to pin.
My thinking is that I'm normally more concerned that the paint job will be ruined rather than that the model will break. To that end, I find a model dropped which is not pinned, will more often take a clean break at a joint which is easily. Fixed. A model which is pinned will hold at the joint, and instead bend or twist, or even break at an unexpected junction, thus actually doing more damage.

That said, Bear in mind that I am generally lazy when it comes to model prep at the best of times.   

Obviously, particularly large models with heavy limbs get pinned just so they stay together!

[Carcharoth]

Another issue is getting the posing right - in the past I've had problems where I've not lined the pin holes up perfectly, so I couldn't get the pose quite right. For the dhogu I decided to pin, but assembled them first then drilled the whole right through the joint.

[Lost Egg]

To make a superglue bond stronger you can always score cross hatching onto the two areas two areas to be glued, this increases surface area and makes a stronger bond.

[TuffSkull]

To make a superglue bond stronger you can always score cross hatching onto the two areas two areas to be glued, this increases surface area and makes a stronger bond.

*looks for like button*
27 years in this miniatures / modelling game. 12 years full or part time professionally. Still learning!
That's so obvious too..... Nice tip!

[Lost Egg]

To give a bit of wiggle room for the pin you can always drill slighter larger holes then use super glue gel. The bigger holes allow for some wiggle room in alignment while the gel set hard and acts like a filler at the same time.

[Halcyon]

To give a bit of wiggle room for the pin you can always drill slighter larger holes then use super glue gel. The bigger holes allow for some wiggle room in alignment while the gel set hard and acts like a filler at the same time.

In a similar vein, I use 0.5mm wire to pin, but always start the hole with a 1mm drill bit before finishing it with a 0.6mm drill bit, as it also allows some "wiggle room" at the joint. i.e. I can put a kink in the wire with some pliers to get a better alignment. 

[Kryptovidicus]

I'm learning too .

Concerning the damage to a miniature when you drop it.
It might be worse with a pin if it is a serieus drop. But for the simple fall over or drop half a inch down on the battlefield, I never had any damage with a pin.
It is not just the fact you need to reglue a joint, but also the repair to the paintjob, realigning, ...