OK so don't cut it completely away. Leave a small section so it remains 1 piece/continuous (and apply a few tiny drops of super glue? ) I'd have to see the entire assembly and make a judgement call on adhesive, how much and where.
If you decide to repaint all the needles, correct paint is most important. Tiny lil bottle of acrylic latex is about 7 bucks at ebay. 1 bottle covers a bunch of needles. Chemical stripping the needles reveals/removes 1 thin layer orange, 1 thin layer white primer. One good layer orange can get like new look and that weight close enough too.
I wont go into my repaint technique here and now. Too much typing of info you may not require.
