yet another thread, another problem!.. G1 Starscream this time, almost complete (apart from cluster bombs which i can purchase seperately). Only issue is a major one - his nose section appears to be suffering from brewer's droop!! Any good methods (tried an tested) to repair this? thought about maybe a couple of metal or plastic shims between the body section and the nose..
I have fixed a dozen of these, even my most rare mint and prized ones. Look at the pin inside the metal shoulders. You need a blunt small nail that you can put against the small end and pound/back it out. I bunch up a micro fiber cloth and just lay the side that should pop out down on the cloth for cushion. Once you have that pin out and take the nose out from the die cast here is the fix. The metal of the shoulders is very soft and the more I studied these nose sections I believe by design the friction of the joint is not around the pin like in a lot of pin joints, but the outer sides of the nose friction against the metal. This is why they all loosen so much with age, again, that metal is soft and bows out. So I just squeeze the metal shoulders together so they are noticeably angled in ward, but no where near touching, just bowed inward bit. Then gently wedge the neck back into position, places the opposite side down on the bunched cloth so you can put the pin back and in and using the nail pound the head side of that pin back in. The only thing to do here is to hold the metal shoulders together as you pound the pin back in, otherwise the force of the pin will just push the shoulders apart again, again really soft metal. The only sign of anything is if you take a light and in some a magnifier inside the shoulder holes you would see signs on the pin or around it. But no one with a naked eye will ever know anything was done, and the neck is like new.
I just loosen the screw in the side of the nosecone slightly - the one on the side of the cockpit. That'll open the nose slightly, making it more snug in both modes. Don't loosen it too much though or you might lose your canopy
Here you go! In my attempts to figure out how to fix a loose seeker neck I took apart a junker. I realized that how the joint was designed was to have friction against the sides of the neck where it rubs against the inner sides of the diecast shoulder area. Realizing that and seeing how soft the diecast is I decided to squeeze the diecast together and see what happened. I've done over a dozen of these and have yet to see any sideaffects. No cracked plastic, stress marks, or anything. If you look very closely inside the pin recess on the diecast you could see stuff but it's completely hidden. Tools: 1/16" pin punch (I've used blunted nails and mini screwdrivers and have bent a lot of them. I can't recommend more getting a punch. light hammer micro fiber cloth Step 1. Bunch up the microfiber cloth so it's thick enough to act both as a cusion and surface that won't scratch. I believe the small end of the pin is always in the right shoulder (never seen one different) so lay the seeker body in full jet mode (nose out) on it's left shoulder. Line the punch up and pound out the pin. I have really pounded some very hard and have yet to see any problems. The evenness of the seeker and the cloth protection allow you to hit that SOB really good if needed. Lining up the punch is the real trick. Just keep trying to center it and hit a couple good times and try to re-align until you get it right. I wiggle the nose out gently once the pin is out so as not to add to the usual scuffing on the sides that time just does due to the side friction of the joint. step 2. With the nose out gently sqeeze the shoulders together until when you remove your hand it is bowed in some. I go slow but you do have to over bend to get it to stay bowed in where the bowed pic shows. Now you should have a pair of bowed shoulders Step 3. Put the nose back in buy seperating the shoulders just enough to slide the neck back in place but not enough to bend it again. Once the neck is more or less in place drop the pin back in (insert on left shoulder). I usually just push the pin in as much as I can with the punch or something else blunt. Then usually give it a couple moderate taps with the hammer. Note: make sure as you are pushing or hammering the ping back in you keep pressure on the shoulders as I have seen the pin replacement push the shoulders back apart. Top side to show no plastic stress or evidence at all. After one or two of these they take all of 5 mins beginning to end (with punch). As testiment to how easy and effective I think this is. The thundercracker in the pic is a boxed mint pre-rub with no grey boarder(box), cut wing tips, and no copyright. I just got it a week ago and it's now in my collection. Let me know if there are questions and where I could put this forum wise (I thought maybe radicons light mod, but not sure if there is a fix tutorial area). once I add any details that questions might bring up. Thanks
Well, lookie here what magically made it to Tutorials http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/tutor...ixing-loose-swinging-cockpit.html#post8780793
Beautiful, congratulations! I bought mine years ago and even have a spare set of the hand-sanded cut wings. It is one of the marvels of the early G1 line in my opinion, much moreso than things like bloated metal-plates grey roller Prime. That no-grey-border era is just brilliant. Interestingly the Skywarp and Starscream that come in the no-grey-border boxes which totally lack a copyright do not have hand-sanded wings, they are moulded. Another related point, the Japanese Diaclone Thundercracker and Starscream had the nose droop problem even from the get-go, heavy plastic nosecone was a real design flaw and was nicely strengthened for Transformers release. All the best Maz
