Fixing nendoroid joints preserving movementTutorialPrevNextPrevNext

Warning!: Long post.

Español aquí:x-anabi-x.livej...

Hello, I’m trying to add a helpful article here; it is mostly an experiment I made with the common problem of a broken nendoroid neck joint. I should’ve written this months ago, but I got busy with other stuff, sorry '''OTL.

I hope this is helpful for whoever comes across with this, as it was for me reading other experiences. There are a lot of good advices out there (which I sort of gathered all here), including Mikatan’s blog: gscmikatan.word...

This started when I thought of making an official Ad for my L nendo, as I already had him on my trade/sale list for a while… so I thought taking him some nice ‘good-bye’ pictures first. So, when exchanging faceplates, it happened x_x … I was left with a peg stuck in the body and the ball joint stuck in the head.This is a pic after I loosened the ball joint part from the head, as I didn't took a picture instantly when this happened.

It was the 1st time this happened to me '''OTL. I immediately looked for recommendations, and found various: Mikatan’s blog, using a screw, using a push pin, and the hot needle (worked best for me). In my case, I wanted the neatest option as I wanted to give a try to fix the joint and keep the movement in it. So this is if you really can’t replace the joint you want to fix as I’ve read on most advices that the best is to use another spare joint. I also recommend Mikatan’s, I tried this other things because I couldn’t find all the tools recommended there, so I only used stuff I found home, also it requires time and patience, it took me a while as I only tried fixing it on little lapses of free time trough several days. So let's start:

Tools found at home: A needle, a lighter, small screwdriver, pliers, and maybe even tweezers (but they have to be thin ones).


1st – Get the peg out of the body: Loosening it first can help; you can try with the screwdriver or the tweezers as shown with the head pictures. If it is stuck really hard, you can try heating a needle with the lighter until it is hot red; I recommend holding the pin with pliers and insert it on the peg. It is important you don’t insert the needle in the middle of the peg, but on the broken side of it, this is to fix the joint with movement. Then leave the needle cool off in the peg, and just pull back the needle on it with the pliers, depending on how deep you inserted it, it would come out easier, I had to do this a couple times as I wasn’t quick and strong enough to insert the pin and pull it off the 1st time, but it actually came out from the body.You can see here that the figure's body had no damage from this.

Fixing it is mostly like the advice in Mikatan’s blog, just instead of placing a wire in the middle; it would be only on the broken side.


2nd – Get the peg out of the head: Now try loosening the joint in the head, until the ball comes out completely from it and you can see the peg. Then, you can try to loosen the peg part that is deeper in the head in the same way, at trying this, it may separate the ball joint in the 2 parts it is composed. This is ok.
In my case I also tried loosening this with an slim exacto knife, I don’t recommend it because it didn’t loosen it and just scratched the peg.

Now you’re left with half the ball joint in the head, you can look for any metal piece that has the ball joint’s ring diameter (or I don’t know if a wooden or plastic thing could work). In my case I found this hanger-thing in the laundry, at first sight I knew it had the ring’s diameter. Try your best to not use sharp things as you can hurt yourself or damage the figure if it is stuck really hard. You insert it in the joint, and then hold it to pull it out from the head. Use a cloth to hold both parts without any of them slipping from your hands, and do it really closely so it would come off without breaking, you have to pull very precise and straight so this doesn’t happens.

So now we have the figure without any damage, and the joint parts.

Now to fixing the joint (somehow this part was easier, maybe I’m just a very weak girl -_-‘)

1st. You have a peg with a needle, cut the needle with the pliers and mark it on the other broken part of the joint with it so it has the same trajectory (cutting the needles gives it a sharper end that makes this easier).

2nd. Heath a new needle and insert it in the joint part to make a hole. Then try to pull it out with the pliers, if it doesn’t comes out, try pulling out the needle on the peg part. It is important that you leave the needle that has a stronger hold.

You can see here why I don't recommend the exacto knife. The good part is that the peg kept strong, and it isn't visible when reinserted to the nendo.
3rd. Now you have a piece of the joint with a needle and the other with a hole, and the other complete piece of the joint. Check if the needle's length exceeds the hole, and if it does, you can reduce it cutting with the pliers, but don’t cut too much, also you can try to make deeper the hole on the other part.

4th. Dip the pin part in glue and insert on the other piece, hold them together firmly for a while depending on the glue you're using. Now you have the broken part of the joint hold together strongly by a pin and you can just put together both joint parts again while it still has movement.

Sanded the pegs with very fine sandpaper to avoid them to stuck more than needed.

The other broken joint
My Pastel Ink arrived like this from Mandarake (and it was supposed to be sealed... I've doubt it since the box has some small slight stains inside -_-)
I thought I could give it a try doing the same, just instead of using one needle, I'll need 2 for each of the ring broken sides.
First I removed the joint parts from the body and head. These came out really smoothly only using the tweezers.

But this joint was quite fragile (or defective) and it just crumbled after that. Leaving what it seemed an irrepairable mess (and it is).

Still I tried to put it all together, and as it seem that it was enough with the glue I tried leaving it like that.

But when trying to reinsert in the nendo, the joint crumbled again in a lot more pieces. So maybe when joints break like this, it means that they could be more fragile and irrepairable.

Well, so finally, this is the end of the post, sorry it ended too long, but I tried to make it the most detailed possible. I hope it can really help those who have broken joints like the 1st case. Thanks for reading!