Sword Swap

So I bought a Visarch on Ebay and have started converting him and one of the things I want to do is swap out the Visarch's Sword for this one

(Sorry for the poor image quality)

Now I have never done a weapon swap/replacement before and since I REALLY don't wanna mess this up anyone have any tips on what I should do/what I need? (I've looked at some general stuff but I haven't seen any examples using our tiny elven models)

Why dont you swap the whole arm?

I think they're opposing arms, with one being a lefty and the other a right.

Honestly I'd suggest carefully snipping it away from where you want to cut, then gradually trim closer to the join. Plastic glue is a personal favorite of mine, as it seems to be more durable, but it can get messy if you're not careful. But if you find even that doesn't hold.. you could always glue it, and then throw a little green stuff around the join which you could mould and shape to look like some kind of ornament for the hilt.

Two options:

You COULD retain the hilt of the Visarch sword, and just swap the actual blade. That would be quite easy.

The sceond option is to slice the hilt away from both swords. What you'd have to be careful of though is the elven sword. There I suggest using a knife instead of clippers. SLice through the hand first, and slowly cut away the hand piece by piece, so you can slowly control how much of the hilt remains.

Either way I strongly suggest a very thing drill and some wire to pin the blade into place.

Sorry. It wasn't clear for me from the picture. Pinning is recommended although extremely tricky

Definitly keep the hilt & hand, then drill and pin.
With the hand of the visarch and the gem on the balde, it shoud be thick enough & you should be fine.

If it still seems to fragile after the operation, add a thin layer of glue on the back of the sword (less visible part).


Note that if you never pdrill& pin before, have some practice before going on such a beautiful miniature
Take a kabalite warrior or a wyche, cut (knife ! No clippers) an arm or a leg in the middle, drill both and proceed to fix.

If you need some i got some home made old tutorial pictures. Just ask me

Personally I've had a fair amount of success with just straight plastic glue without pinning. Dark Eldar seem to be pretty fragile anyway, so you're not going to be throwing them around the table like so many Marines.

The trick I've found is to make sure the two sides fit together completely flush. As masamune says, a knife rather than clippers is key here, and definitely get some practice before cutting up some bits that you've only got one of!

It's also a good idea to cut at a point that's going to be as thick as possible anyway. Also, while the glue is drying you have to make sure it doesn't droop at all. I find that taking some time to prop it up nicely against something works much better than holding it straight as it'll take a good few hours before the glue's completely dried. You've got quite a bit of time while you're trying to find a suitable prop, so don't worry about having to do it fast. Take your time and do it right

Yeah as Ynneadwraith, the key here is to be sure the glue dries well.

Usually i paint with some youtube playlist open on my laptop, when I stick 2 pieces together, I watch where the video is at (let's say 1:32) and try not to move for 30 seconds. Counting in your heads usually tends to go faster after ~10 seconds.

Go for a minute if the part to glue is pretty thin. And let it cool for 5-10min minimum afterward.