Fixing AFV turrets with snap-clips

NOTE: This wasn't originally my idea. It came from somebody in one of the threads on Battlefront's online forums.

The most vulnerable part of an AFV model for wargaming is the turret. If it's left loose, it risks being damaged rattling around in the carry-case or being knocked off the table. If it's glued in place, the turret won't rotate, and a chance knock is a lot more likely to bend a metal barrel (or break a plastic or resin one). This method of fixing the turret in place lessens those risks, and still allows the turret to be removed to represent a knocked-out tank, or in the case of some vehicles, to mix and match specialist turrets with the basic hull (the PzKfw IV F1, F2, Ostwind and Wirbelwind for example).

The vehicles from Battlefront are moulded with a large depression in the hull and a corresponding disk on the bottom of the turret. The fit is normally pretty loose.

Snap-clips like those used for trousers are available cheaply from any haberdasher. Use the ones designed for jeans, not the ones for purses and the like.

Procedure:

1. Carve the disk from the bottom of the turret, leaving the surface flush. A firmly-mounted belt sander or linisher makes this a lot quicker and easier, but be careful in that case that you don't go too far in a fit of enthusiasm and grind away half your turret.
   NOTE: I found out to my cost that it's best to do this before gluing the gun barrel in place, as it makes it less likely that the barrel will end up bent like spaghetti. Besides, it makes it easier to hold on to the turret.
2. I carved out a depression to fit the base of one half of the clip in the bottom of the turret, to accommodate the height of the combined snap-clip halves and coincidentally to maximize the area of both clip and turret exposed to the glue for maximum strength.
3. Glue one half of the snap-clip into this depression with a good strong epoxy — the snaps have holes in them for rivets, and this needs to be sealed so that the epoxy doesn't fill the interior of the clip. A little piece of masking tape inside the snap works fine, but don't put it outside as you want to keep as much clip exposed to the glue as possible.
4. Once that's set, seal the hole in the other half of the clip and snap the two halves together. At this point is smeared vaseline on the inside and outside of the first half (the half already glued in place) so that any accidental epoxy contamination wouldn't glue everything solid.
5. Put a generous dollop of epoxy on the bottom of the second half of the clip and position the turret over the hole in the hull — having the two clip halves joined like this during final gluing ensures that they are positioned perfectly when the glue sets.
6. Leave the epoxy to cure thoroughly before separating the turret from the hull again. Once it's all set, you can procede with gluing the gun barrel and what-not in place, and painting as normal.

This procedure is quite time-consuming, but it produces a strong yet flexible catch. I've heard of rare-earth magnets being used to the same effect, but this method has the virtue of being really, really cheap.