RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

If you have ever broken the ankle joint on a DML figure trying to put on boots, here is my solution to repairing the ankle joint.
1 carefully split the calf and remove it from the knee joint
2 hold the 2 halves together and take a 5/32" drill bit and dill out the hole as shown in the 1st pic
3 carefully drill out the end of the ankle with the 5/32 bit and insert a 1" section of plastic sprue or styrene rod into the ankle joint with proweld or other styrene glue, or if you are very carefull cyano.
4 make a disc of styrene and drill a 5/32" hole in the center and slide it over the 1" peg you made for the ankle.
5 lay the new ankle pin as we will now call it onto one half of the calf and slide the collar down as shown in pic 1.
6 carefully lift the ankle from the calf and glue the collar to the peg being carefull not to move the collar.
7 let the glue set completely
Pic1

Assembly
Now the new ankle peg is fully set(cured) lay it back into the calf half as shown in pic2.
Pic2

Then re-assemble the calf with the foot attached and caefully re-glue the calf seam clamp and alow the glue to set. Here is the leg re-assembled and clamped
Pic3

When the glue is set remove the clamp and now you have a figure with a fully function ankle joint again.Hope this is helpfull

Well Harold I must admit this is not a tutorial I saw coming,motorcycle,half-track,tanks,maybe but figure repair once again something unique.Sax

I have nearly broken a few trying to get corcoran jump boots onto my paratroopers feet. It is a major pain in the rear. I find the DiD feet a little easier to get the boots on.
The motorbike is excellent by the way. If your after some quality, but slightly expensive German gear, check out Newline Miniatures. I get my jump boots and M42's from them.

Cheers,
Rik

Hey Harold, thats real innovative splinting on the broken tib and fib.

Have you ever thought of joining the EMS.

Good job.

STEINER

No I haven't thought about that. This was the first ankle joint I have broken, being on a fixed income I just can't afford to toss an otherwise good figure in the trash. So I figured I had nothing to loose and everything to gain, sat down and thought out how to fix it. One option was to glue the ankle joint permanently or come up with a better idea. As I have said many times necessity is the mother of invention