Saving my Chaos Knight

Packing for my recent house move was a stressful process. Not only was it time-consuming, but some models required extra attention. I've always been worried about the structural integrity of the lances on the Chaos Knights (slightly different set to mine, but you'll hopefully get my points). This concern was justified.

My friend recently asked if I was still playing Age of Sigmar, which led me to pull my Slaves to Darkness collection back out. I then discovered that one of the lances on a knight had broken off.

I initially considered trying to glue the lance back on, but the contact point was, at best, 2mm in diameter. If it did stick, it'd just snap again immediately. So I did the only logical thing and reached for my pin vice.

I planned to use a brass rod to pin the parts in place. Having only ever used this technique to pin models to bases/cork before, this was a scary prospect. Especially considering the margin for error of misaligning the drill bit and coming out the side of the model was high.

I tackled the scary part first and drilled directly into the hand and handle assembly. For reference, the drill bit I used was 0.7mm in diameter.

This went better than I expected, I half expected to destroy the whole hand and handle, but it survived. Unfortunately, it did make a bit of a mess of the hand, and when half a finger gave way, it made the entrance to the hole much larger than expected.

Drilling the lance went much more smoothly.

Next came the pinning. I use 0.7mm outer diameter brass tubing. It might not be the best, but it's what I had. I initially forgot how soft the rod was and immediately bent it while pushing it into the hole. This took several attempts to get right with many bent and snapped pieces of brass.

Once I got a rod in safely, I noticed that it wobbled significantly due to the issue noted earlier, where the entrance to the hole had given way. This was problematic and could not be saved with glue. In a moment of inspired brilliance, I decided to try pushing an offcut of a rod into the hole. This resolved this issue, though there were a few tense moments where the plastic felt like it would give way completely. Sorry about the quality. It looked fine when I took it. I missed the focus, but you can see the smaller bit at sicking out.

Once I'd got that in place and got it settled, applying some glue on the hand and pushing the lance down onto the rod was simple. It did require holding in place a bit while it dried, as the rod wasn't perfectly aligned for both halves.

All things considered, I'm pleased with how this turned out. It's a little wonky, but you'd have to be looking for it. And when surrounded by other Knights, it fits in well. It does make me worry about the safety of this and the other models. Though I will be getting more regardless because this is a fantastic model.