Hey All!
As the title says, I have a question about adding a 5mm peg onto a G1 gun. I got a spare G1 Jazz gun from TFSource a while ago (Christmas) to give my TRU reissue G1 Jazz a chrome gun (he just comes with plain black plastic accessories) if the chrome wasn't too chipped up. I was happy to find that when I got it the chrome was in really great shape, mostly just wearing a little thin in places with a few small chips, but the peg was way too small for my Jazz's hands for some reason- even after the several coats of future I painted on to thicken it with. Since it wouldn't fit my G1 Jazz I decided I'd mod it and give it to my RTS Jazz. So anyway, time pasted and I'm just now getting around to trying to mod it and I realized I needed some advise on the best way to go about doing this mod so here is my question:

Would it be best to install a metal pin through the new peg and into the gun to help prevent it from breaking off after gluing it on and to add extra stability?

To let you have a better idea of where I'm coming from and to double check if I'm doing this right here's my plan:

1. Sand chrome off handle and rough up surface for better adhesion to putty [DONE]
2. Get 5mm styrene tube (really 4.8mm, but it was the closest I could find and it fits perfectly) and cut to length using the gun RTS Jazz comes with as a guide, and smooth out cut edge [DONE]
3. Bevel one edge to accommodate for circle shape on the bottom of the gun and test fit to make sure it is beveled just enough [DONE and DONE]
4. Slim down peg slightly to allow for thickness of paint (it fit Jazz's hand super snugly straight out of the package) [DONE]
5. Super glue (with loc-tite control gel) tube in place over the existing peg and (once dry) fill in tube around peg with green stuff epoxy
6. Mask off the rest of the gun and prime handle with black fusion then brush silver and then brush on a few clear coats of future

Step 5 would be the part that would change cause I'm thinking it might be better to remove the existing peg and drill a small hole into the gun in its place for a short piece of stiff metal wire (part of a clothes hanger) to be glued into and then glue the tube over that and fill cavity with green stuff as planned. Is that really necessarily or will the peg be fine just being glued in? Also, is there a way to mask off the chrome or whatever so it doesn't get messed up by the superglue or do I just need to be careful and wipe up any excess glue immediately? Or should I even try to keep the gun chromed at all? Should I just stripe it and paint it silver like the handle since Jazz doesn't have any other chrome on him?

Thank in advance for the help!

 

I used my Takara reissue G1 Jazz gun on my old custom Jazz WIP from '08 (I've scrapped it since we got RTS Jazz, but it will become Stepper at some point). I took a small 5mm peg from an existing TF toy, carefully cut it off, then drilled a small hole into one end. It just pegs over the chrome gun peg on the G1 gun and then pegs into the hand like normal. It is completely removable and doesn't require any glue or anything. I can just pop it off and it's as good as new.

Hopefully this reads well enough, I have no clue where I boxed it up after our move last year. It's around here somewhere though and if I can place it, I'll show you what I'm talking about.

 

Well that sounds pretty quick and painless Brian. I sure wish I had thought of that before I sanded down the DAMN chrome handle on the vintage gun last night.   Oh well. Like I said, it didn't fit my TRU reissue Jazz at all anyway and I kinda wanted this to be a more permanent mod too, but I still might try that cause then I wouldn't have to about filling the styrene tube anymore. I'd just need to get a cheap, stupid bot with a 5mm weapon I can junk. I could get a DOTM mechtech twin since they're shelfwarming again!  

 

You have the right idea. The handle on any TF gun is, much like the fist itself (especially if it's an open hand as we've seen with more recent figures), is a high stress area. Anytime you're grafting something onto a high stress area, you need to reinforce it as much as possible. Using a pin, nail, screw, straightened paper clip, etc. and threading it into the gun in question will help counter some of that stress.