un-flexing plastic limbs, need help w/info on putting figures in oven&any custom tips

[TurtleManiac]

first off im giving general traag a height boost, well actually just straightening out his legs so he stands taller, like the same thing i did for shredder, since in the cartoon general traag is not so short like the toy depicts him. there's a lot customs that im in the process of straightening their legs. what i do is use an x-acto knife to cut into the back of the knee to stretch it out, (preferably leaving it in one piece and not actually cut off from eachother, but there are some cases such as with foot soldier that the leg has to be cut in half) then put a cut-out triangular piece of plastic into the empty space with crazy glue to keep it straight, then sculpt over it and paint it. but it's a lot of work and can be challenging sometimes, so im wondering if any other customizers out there have any experience with "melting" plastic toys in the oven? someone suggested i try putting a tmnt figure in the oven to get the plastic all hot and soft, and then un-flexing all the joints into a straight position and hope it dries solid that way. anyone know if this would work? or if there is a better way to straighten their legs? if not i'll just continue doing it manually. heres some wip (i'm re-doing his face too so for now dont mind the sloppy look of the figure)

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3473/3208696163_ff8eafc3c8.jpg?v=0
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3112/3208696181_18628d8782.jpg?v=0
also might re-position his head to be on top of his body instead of all hunched down
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3364/3208696193_bf57bec25c.jpg?v=0
another sample, a rat king leg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3530/3209543690_b775e438df.jpg?v=0
maybe a pants-less shredder standing straight at some point?
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3357/3208696227_5d33c76b44.jpg?v=0

[Chrissie Terrapin]

wacky action pantless shredder. Move: hump-jutsu haha

[TurtleManiac]

lol now your giving me ideas to make a pants-less wacky action shredder lol
pants-less Shredder w/humpjitsu action would be a cool joke custom, but it sounds like it would be hard to give him that kind of wackyaction lol

[tmntman]

but it's a lot of work and can be challenging sometimes, so im wondering if any other customizers out there have any experience with "melting" plastic toys in the oven? someone suggested i try putting a tmnt figure in the oven to get the plastic all hot and soft, and then un-flexing all the joints into a straight position and hope it dries solid that way. anyone know if this would work?

I have heated figures in the oven before years ago while playing around with customizing. From what little experience I did have, I would skip the oven for two reasons.

First, you are going to have to heat the entire figure. This leaves you open to damaging parts of the figure which you did not want to change, a fact I learned the hard way on my Ninjara custom. You may be able to get around this for your leg straightening on many of the vintage figures since the legs could be popped on and off. But even then, you risk warping the shape of the hip socket which may keep the leg from fitting properly later.

Secondly, heating plastic in the oven may raise health issues. Some of the chemicals in the plastic can be released. At best, you oven may just stink for a while. At worse, you could end up contaminating food which is cooked in the oven later.

If you want to heat a specific part of a figure, I suggest you look into a heat gun. If you have never seen one, it is essentially a blow dryer with a much stronger heating element and a smaller fan. They are usually sold in hardware stores in the paint section. One of these mounted in a stationary position would give you a source of heat that is more than strong enough to melt plastic (as several over defrosted refrigerators can attest) but can be directed at a relatively small area.

[Wes]

I'm not sure how well it would work for something of this magnitude, but for repositioning warped limbs and the like I heat a tupperware container of water in the microwave for 2-4 minutes, let the limb/figure sit in the water for a minute or two, and then reposition it as necessary.

Then, holding the limb as I want it to set, I run it under cold water for 30 seconds or so. Usually that does the trick, but for some things I'll have a separate container of ice water and dip them right in that. Granted, if it needs the ice water, it doesn't tend to stay -- it'll look fine for the moment, but will gradually assume its original shape over time.

The good thing about this method is that it won't damage the limb in the event that it doesn't work properly, so it's worth a try!

(By the way, what material do you use for sculpting? I've got some DAS air-drying clay on hand but haven't tried it yet... yeah, I'm always trying to find cheap options. ;) )

[Blade Raider]

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3364/3208696193_bf57bec25c.jpg?v=0
Is his head on a ball/socket joint (like the legs) or am I looking at it wrong?

[Archon_Turtle]

If a heat gun is out of your price range, use a blow dryer. It works really well for super heating specific parts of figures. Another way to do it is to use boiling water. However, using this method you need some way of keeping the leg straight as it cools. I'd recommend the blow dryer. Every customizer should have a good hot blow dryer anyway for hardening sculpting material.

[TurtleManiac]

thanx for the suggestions everyone, i realize the high risks of putting figures in the oven. i kno i hav had one bad experience with it before. since i dont have a heat gun, i tried the hot water trick. so i dunked the figures into it for a few minutes then straightened them as much as i could. hold it in that position for about a minute while it has cold tap water running over it. and it really stays rock hard in that position. i think each piece may need multiple straightenings tho to get it perfectly straight. and yea traag's head assembly is pretty much the ball'nsocket type as with slash.

[Daniel Orduna]

first off im giving general traag a height boost, well actually just straightening out his legs so he stands taller, like the same thing i did for shredder, since in the cartoon general traag is not so short like the toy depicts him. there's a lot customs that im in the process of straightening their legs. what i do is use an x-acto knife to cut into the back of the knee to stretch it out, (preferably leaving it in one piece and not actually cut off from eachother, but there are some cases such as with foot soldier that the leg has to be cut in half) then put a cut-out triangular piece of plastic into the empty space with crazy glue to keep it straight, then sculpt over it and paint it. but it's a lot of work and can be challenging sometimes, so im wondering if any other customizers out there have any experience with "melting" plastic toys in the oven? someone suggested i try putting a tmnt figure in the oven to get the plastic all hot and soft, and then un-flexing all the joints into a straight position and hope it dries solid that way. anyone know if this would work? or if there is a better way to straighten their legs? if not i'll just continue doing it manually. heres some wip (i'm re-doing his face too so for now dont mind the sloppy look of the figure)

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3473/3208696163_ff8eafc3c8.jpg?v=0
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3112/3208696181_18628d8782.jpg?v=0
also might re-position his head to be on top of his body instead of all hunched down
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3364/3208696193_bf57bec25c.jpg?v=0
another sample, a rat king leg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3530/3209543690_b775e438df.jpg?v=0
maybe a pants-less shredder standing straight at some point?
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3357/3208696227_5d33c76b44.jpg?v=0


that mike...cool¡¡¡ u painted....wich paint should I use my friend???

[TurtleManiac]

here is a regular foot soldier compared to a foot soldier that has had his legs straightened lemme know wut u think

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3459/3211611525_175cd60f5c.jpg?v=0

i wish i would have used this hot water method on previous customs like shredder. if by tomorrow the legs have not shifted back to their original position, i will be convinced that this is the way to go on straightening their legs.

Daniel Orduna for the paint, well there is several different kinds you can use i normally use acrylic or in some cases enamel. and Wes for sculpting ive been using milliput apoxie sculpt, as it air-dries on its own with a good for hours or so. i usually leave it overnight tho. so would a blowdryer speed up the process of waiting for apoxie to dry?

[Archon_Turtle]

lemme know wut u think

I think you also need to straighten out his head. Otherwise it looks like he is like...fondly remembering times gone by...or something.

[Wes]

I think you also need to straighten out his head. Otherwise it looks like he is like...fondly remembering times gone by...or something.
Didn't you know? Foot Soldiers are nothing if not nostalgic. ;)

I agree that the angle of the head would look better changed, but I think fixing that will require more than just straightening... right, tmntfan?

Anyway, I'm glad to hear that the hot water trick worked well for you! I've admittedly never tried it to reposition a limb that was molded a different way, so it's good to know that it works -- I'm planning a custom that will probably benefit from that. And apoxie sculpt is what you use? I see! I've heard rather good things about it, but that stuff is too expensive for my blood. ;)

And regarding paints, DO, acrylic is the way to go. Most customizers will tell you to only use Testors or Tamiya or some other high quality paints, but I say piffle -- you can get away with using craft paints just fine as long as you seal your work. That said, there are differences between even the cheap brands -- I've mainly used Michael's brand, but I recently got some Delta Ceramcoat and FolkArt paints and I like them much better.

[Archon_Turtle]

Didn't you know? Foot Soldiers are nothing if not nostalgic. ;)

I agree that the angle of the head would look better changed, but I think fixing that will require more than just straightening... right, tmntfan?

Anyway, I'm glad to hear that the hot water trick worked well for you! I've admittedly never tried it to reposition a limb that was molded a different way, so it's good to know that it works -- I'm planning a custom that will probably benefit from that. And apoxie sculpt is what you use? I see! I've heard rather good things about it, but that stuff is too expensive for my blood. ;)

And regarding paints, DO, acrylic is the way to go. Most customizers will tell you to only use Testors or Tamiya or some other high quality paints, but I say piffle -- you can get away with using craft paints just fine as long as you seal your work. That said, there are differences between even the cheap brands -- I've mainly used Michael's brand, but I recently got some Delta Ceramcoat and FolkArt paints and I like them much better.

I'm a huge fan of the games workshop citadel paints...But they are a little pricey.

[TurtleManiac]

well the hot water trick doesnt seem to be too permanent. each daay the shredder and foot soldier and traag that i tried it on have been crouching back to their original form. (shredder had actually fallen down overnight due to this) though this seems to be a more natural way of doing it, i might have to just go back to doing it manually due to reliability of the posture. what about a HeAt GuN? do you think it would really make it so you can stretch out the mold and leave it permanent?

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3386/3216709885_fcba9668b3.jpg?v=0
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3413/3217563956_ce3f831d87.jpg?v=0
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3383/3217563908_672015075c.jpg?v=0
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3435/3216709919_80438c47c8.jpg?v=0

[Wes]

well the hot water trick doesnt seem to be too permanent. each daay the shredder and foot soldier and traag that i tried it on have been crouching back to their original form.
D'oh! I was afraid that would happen. The only thing I can think of -- besides trying a heat gun or some other method -- would be to try coating the limbs with superglue after you've set them and dried them off. I've never tried it, but the hardened glue might prevent them from retaking their original shape. Or it might do nothing at all.

It's worth a shot if you've got some fodder limbs lying around!

[Chrissie Terrapin]

too bad it didn't work out:(

[DMC362]

a little off topic but i enjoy seeing your customs do you have a website or topic post of your past customs