Prep before Painting III: Pinning a Thunderhead Character Heavy Warjack

Hey guys,

today I want to walk you through how to pin a Thunderhead Character Heavy Warjack. I would highly recommend this method, if you're planning to play this piece. Every sort of heavy use will take its toll on the model if you're not careful during assembly - the model itself clocks in at about 185 grams of weight - don't underestimate it, it's a real beast. On the upside, I think this is one of the, if not the, most awesome figure I ever put together. The detail is stunning and the pose is really dynamic and looks great.



The Materials

Things I used for this project:

Filla-Glu Clear

Pinning materials - I used the larger rods of the Galeforce 9 pinning set and the corresponding drill-bit

Red Paint

Electric drill - much easier to drill the metal than with a pin-vice

Pliers to cut the pinning rods to size - a normal cutter wont do, because the rode are brass and over 1mm thick


The Assembly

I started out cleaning all mold lines off of the parts and washed them with warm and soapy water to remove all mold release agent. Then I dry-fitted all the parts and filed and corrected where it was necessary.

I first wanted to assemble the torso of the figure, because then I would have an idea of the heft of the model. Also, I wanted to work on the bigger parts first to gain confidence in working with the drill, which I hadn't done in a while. When using the electric drill always drill pilot holes with your pin-vice. This gives the electric drill some guidance and makes this task much easier.

I decided to use 1 pin to connect the middle of the torso to each shoulder-part. With the Filla-Glue, which has an unbelievable tough bond, this one pin would be enough to support the parts. I first drilled in one holes in one of the shoulder parts and fitted the pin. I secured the pin with superglue when I was satisfied with its position. I then added a dab of red paint to the end of the pin and dry-fitted the parts again, taking care to press the red pin onto the other part to get an idea where to drill the second hole.

The marked and drilled middle part of the torso

The two parts pinned and fitted

When this was dry (I waited for a few hours so the glue had time to set - taking your time with such a model is highly recommended) I added a pin on the other side of the middle part and did the same as before: marking the spot, drilling the hole (wiggling the drill around when it was deep enough so the sides would be bit wider), fitting the parts and then gluing them in place.

The main body assembled

I then started working of the legs. I didn't pin the legs to the thigh parts because of two reasons: First, there is an indentation where the upper parts of the leg fit in very snugly and have no wiggle room whatsoever. Second, I planned on pinning the feet to the base, adding another layer of stability to the model, which made the pinning of the thigh unnecessary.

I started on pinning the leg and body sections together as soon as the parts had had time to cure. I drilled a few holes now, one in thigh, one in the bottom of the torso part, and two in the feet. I decided to attach the feet to the base first so I just could set the torso part down on it later.

Holes drilled

Pins added

The pilot hole in the bottom of the torso part

The hole in the bottom of the torso completed

The pin is glued into the thigh

The two main parts connected

After all the pins where in place I first glued the legs down onto the base, waited for them to dry and then added a generous amount of glue to the bottom of the torso and fitted the two major pieces together.

The last pieces to pin where the arms. Here I had to be careful the pins wouldn't mess up the pose of the arms. I repeated the same process as before. Marking my spot, drilling a pilot hole, drilling the actual hole, gluing the pin, and dry-fitting the pieces.

Arms pinned

All pinning done!

All in all, this was a very fun model to build, although quite challenging at times. But if you take your time a heed basic safety precautions you should be fine.


I hope this might convince some of you to tackle the challenge of building this awesome model. Personally, I can't wait to get started with the painting :-).

As always, enjoy and have fun,


IK-Painter