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Putting the FGA kit together

  • General Advice

  • Order of gluing

  • Wooden base

  • Glue Selection

General Advice:

Putting the FGA kit together involves gluing several joints that have a little square peg and square hole. This way everything is oriented correctly and you will be able to glue it and it will sit in place without any sort of clamping.

Please check the orientation, add generous glue to the peg-hole and push firmly into place, wipe off any excess.

CAUTION: If you insert the pegs without glue, the model is more vulnerable to damage if it falls over, so avoid the temptation of putting the kit together without glue and sitting it on your desk. Once glued and fully set (using the gel type glues below) the joints are very robust.

Per the images at right/below, there is a 6 part model available here.

 

Order of Gluing

I like to start by gluing the legs to the stand, and let this dry before following up with the torso, head and arms.

Note that when you insert the right arm, you need to tuck the end of the clavical into the top of the ricage before swivelling it into position - you don’t need to force it though.

 

I like to screw the skeleton armature to a piece of wood approximately 90x90x20mm

Wooden base

You might like to add a wooden base to your model.

I use some pine approximately 90 x 90 x 19mm.

You can use some 20mm button head wood wood screws to fix though the holes in the plastic base regions, as shown in the image.

 

My preference is for a gel type glue, either a gel superglue, or a my preference, “Go2 Gel” or “Extreme Glue” from Loctite

Glue selection

Per the images below I have found that a gel type superglue or “Go2 Glue” or “Extreme Glue” (made by Loctite) seem to make the most reliable joins for this purpose. (regular superglue or two part epoxy are a bit more brittle but will still work fine).

Please note that super glue requires moisture to cure - so if you are in a very low humidity environment (eg air conditioning or a region that is very dry) you might need to apply glue and then breathe on the peg before inserting, or use a cotton bud and apply the minimal amount of water to one side of the join.

Allow 24 hours to cure before using the model for the course. In the mean time you can get started with Activity 1 of Lesson 1, which does not require the skeleton armature.