Follow along as Rob rescues a Horus Ascendant Forge World model and gives great tips on how to save your beat-up models!
Rob had a beautifully painted model sent to him by Liber Daemonica, but unfortunately, the post wasn’t very kind to the model. There were broken pieces and a few paint scratches, and the base also took a bit of a beating. So, if you’ve ever wondered how to fix your broken models or how to pin or touch up paint, this should be super helpful.
Rescuing A Smashed Horus Ascendant Forge World Model
As you can see, this model has seen better days, with plenty of broken pieces. This sucks even more, as Liber Daemonica did such an amazing job of painting it.
Liber Daemonica Site
Whether you want amazingly painted minis or awesome bits, Liber Daemonica has it all! This is the first thing we’ve ever received from them that was damaged, so we’re pretty sure someone dropped this quite hard in the mail, but… that lets Rob show off how to fix it.
Reference & The Issues
Luckily, Liber posted this on their Instagram, which gave Rob a great reference to look at for fixing this!
Looking at the model, there is some damage on the base, the mace is broken, the ammo feed is broken, and some little pieces are off as well.
Fixing Base
To start on the base, there are a bunch of little bits that fell off, as well as the icon. To start, he glues the little bits back on where they fit and references the picture for the icon. A tip for the super tiny pieces: put a little bit of glue on a bottle cap and apply it with a needle; that way, you aren’t smudging huge amounts of glue on the already-painted stuff. Nothing too hard yet.
He was able to get most everything back in place but will still need a tiny bit of touch-up paint for the tiny damaged areas.
Pinning the Mace
Since the mace fell off, and it will have a tiny connection, he’s going to pin it. He’s doing this first as you have to put pressure on the model, so you generally want to pin it before you do something else so you don’t break the model further. Luckily for Rob, the good old paper clip is about the perfect size for this.
Whenever you go to pin something, you want to have a thumbtack handy. This is the easiest way (for us, at least) to start your pilot hole. Simply find the middle of both areas you want to pin and poke in a small pilot hole. This makes drilling out way easier. N
ext up, he gets his Wowstick Drill set up with the right bit. You want to go a hair bigger than your pinning piece, so there is some room for glue in there.
Once you have it drilled out, put some glue in and line up the weapon, and you’re good to go!
Fixing the Cape & Ammo Feed
The cape seems to pop in pretty easily, but the ammo feed is going to be the hard part. It only works at a particular angle, and there is actually a small bit that goes onto both the hand and the cape. If you find yourself in a spot like this, don’t rush. Find the exact angle you need for it to work.
Rob glued it to the arm bit first and then dry-fit it so it would line up with the cape. The cape is easier to move a little, so go with wherever it’s hard to attach to first, then the other end. Again, use the glue on a bottle cap here to avoid getting glue all over your painted mini.
Touch Up Paint
For the touch-up paint, he’s starting with Coal Black, Brown Grey, and Neutral Grey from Monument. They will work great for the base but will take some mixing. If you’re working on a model you painted, this should be a little bit easier as you don’t need to do as much guesswork.
Just don’t go wild here and try to match as best you can; overdoing it will make it stand out more, so a more muted approach is often good.
Rescued Horus Ascendant Forge World Model
Overall, Liber did an amazing paint job on this, and while the fixes took some time, he looks great. The only place you could possibly tell is under the cape on the right side, but if someone is picking your model up and turning it upside down, it’s probably time for them to put the mini down!
Be sure to watch the video below for all the tips on how to fix your broken minatures.
Sometimes minis don’t cooperate with shipping, and you have to take it into your own hands to make them whole again!
Click Here To Check Out Liber Daemonica!
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About the Author: Travis Pasch
Travis Pasch
Job Title: Head Writer & Editor
Joined: 2019
Socials: @paschbass
Bio: Dark Eldar Dracon and Warhammer 40k hobbyist since the third edition in 1998. He also loves camping because you can only paint so much! He joined the Spikey Bits team in 2019 and has been the main daily writer since 2020.
Maybe one day, he’ll finish converting all his Ad Mech models and turn into a true tech enjoyer, complete with sad and happy robot noises!
