It's harder than it sounds. I'm working on a mon calamari warrior to give it knee articulation. basically this is what I do:
parts and tools needed:
dremel with cutting wheel, exacto knife with fresh blade, tiny drill bit with power drill/dremel, old figure that doesn't need the joints anymore, new figure to fix joints, plastic pins the right size to fit the joint
this is what you do
take the figure that is a fodder figure, pull out the bottom legs where the peg/swivel joint is conected to the thigh. Cut down directly beside the round part of the knee joint in the bottom leg and pull out the working part of the joint. If this is a star wars fig it will look like a peg connected to a circle. You need both of the knee joints from both legs on the old figure.
ok set those aside and grab the figure you need to fix. This is where it gets dificult. Take your exacto knife and cut the legs of the figure in the approximate place to where the new knee joint goes. Once you cut the lower legs off take them and use the dremel cutting wheel to put a small cut into the middle of the top. The cut should run parralell to the feet, or front to back, so that when the new joint goes in it bends correctly... This should be common sense. Once both lower legs are cut and the circular part of the joint fits in take your drill bit and drill a hole through the leg and through the hole in the circular part of the joint approximately centered between the front and back of the leg. This will be the new peg hole. Take a section of plastic pegging (I've been using the plastic framing to a model kit, the plastic is just the right diameter) and cut it to the width of the leg. Slide it into the hole (which should have been cut slightly smaller than the peg's diameter so that it fits snuggly), once through both sides of the leg take a pair of needlenose pliers and crimp the plastic rod, this will flatten out the outer sides of it and prevent it from sliding back out.
The lower legs should be finished. Check to make shure the bend works correctly and the joint can fully rotate from front to back. use a stock figure's legs for comparison of how it should look.
Take a drillbit which is slightly smaller than the joint's pegs and drill a hole in the center of the thigh where you cut off the lower legs. Be quick about this as you need the plastic to remain hot from the drilling when you push in the new pegged joint. As you push it in and get it situated squeeze the thigh tightly around the peg and let the cooling plastic conform to the peg's shape. If done correctly this should form a good socket for the peg not letting it pull back out but still being able to rotate.
the joint may need some work to fill in crack and make the joint bend a little better. THis is where practice makes perfect. I know on a few of mine that I have done the figures legs want to bend forward too far and it looks like they've taken a fall off a 30 story building and broke their legs....
anyways.. This works the exact same way for feet. Exact same process. The mcquarrie fett has this issue with his feet.
hope that helps.
if someone wants me to do a photo set to go along with this tell me and I'll make sure to do it next time I try this.
