Assembly Instruction

1. Plan ahead:

Think of the pose you want the model to be in, especially the arms, with 4 pieces each you can put them in almost any pose you want. Do a dry fit using either poster putty or better yet a small glob of super-glue, get the right pose you want, remember it or take a picture for future reference. The pewter model SHOULD be strong enough so you can just snap the super-glue joints, just make sure you don't use too much glue.

2. Properly clean the pieces:

Wash the pieces in warm soapy water, use an old tooth brush and give it a good scrub down. If you used super-glue during dry fitting, be sure to remove it all, a sharp model knife should do the trick.

3. Pin every joints:

You don't have to pin your model if you don't care if it would fall apart when handled. Better safe than sorry my mom always says.

Valkyrie specific tips:

Good foundation/ Legs and lower torso:

The hip joints are conveniently sculpted in on the legs, all you need to do is to use a pin vice to make it a little deeper. As for the hole on the lower torso it should be 1.5mm from the bottom and back. It is better to have it a bit too low than too high as the waist would interfere with the legs if the legs are mounted too high. Line the legs up next to it an eyeball it. Drill it from one side straight through, keep the drill bit perpendicular to the surface. The pin should be at least 0.5 mm thick, I used 0.75mm. Thread the pin through the lower torso, cut to length leaving enough to fit into the legs. You probably would want to bend the pin slightly up and backwards so that the model would stand with legs open, a more stable stance. For added security, put a pin on the bottom of a foot to secure the leg to the base.

Head and Upper torso:

The Head is relatively easy; just make sure you clean up under the jaw so that you get a neck. Here to save a step you could first tack the upper torso to the lower torso with small amount of super glue, then drill all the way through from the top where the neck would be into the lower torso. This way it would allow you to use one long pin for both the neck and the intra-torso joint.

Arms:

If you have done what I recommended: dry fitted and know your pose, it's really just the matter of putting the pins in the right place. The spear would probably be the most difficult part, namely you need to cut it into 2 pieces then pin them to the right hand. I recommend either cutting above or below the bulb in the shaft, depends on the pose you want. You could do however you want of course. Centering the shafts on the right hand so it looks like one single piece is going to be difficult, there is really no way other than good eyeballing. You could try to measure all the centers out; however, unless you have some serious micro fixtures the likelihood of your pin-vise hitting the exact points you measure is low.

The shield mounting location should be pretty clear, glue the left forearm onto the shield, once the glue cured, drill a pin hole though the elbow into the shield. This would allow one solid pin through the upper, lower arm as well as the shield. Since the Left hand is not carrying any load and has 2 glue surfaces, you can skip the pin for it.

Of course don't forget to pin the shoulders to the torso.

The shoulder armor goes on last, just cap them on, you may need some modeling putty here to make the joint stronger.

Painting tips:

Keeping the model only partially assembled would make painting a whole lot easier. Really only the 2 arms need to be separate from the main body to allow easy access to all the surfaces.