madmikeHello everyone!
These days I'm getting really into figure photographing with dioramas, and I think it looks best if the figures are not on their bases for this, right?
Then I got this beautiful Samurai girl Hatsuaki ITEM #1055844 which comes fully assembled, glued to her well-made base.
Hm. Ok, first time I've had to do this, go gently, so I put her feet into hot water (around 70°C) and tried pulling the base off - no dice, not even a slight movement.
Now I could have accepted my fate and leave her be, but I'm stubborn and have a lot of tools to hurt plastic with, dentist grade stuff.
There are pockets on the underside of the base where her feet are glued in, so I decided to just cut those off with a diamond cutting disc, figuring that with 80% of her pegs gone she'd jump right off her base. Yeah well, she was still holding on, even after a repeated hot water treatment. I didn't expect her to be so steadfast!
So I cut slits around the pegs where the glue probably held everything together, and that's when I was sure that they used superglue on her - that stuff stings like hell in your eyes when it gets hot, and it has that nice fruity smell. Sorry for not taking photos of this, I was totally on a roll ^_^
That did the trick though, what was left of the pegs came off easily, so after some clean up and sanding Hatsuaki was able to stand on her own. It's great when the sculptors do a job like that and make a well balanced figure.
Of course I wanted her to be stable on the base again after taking photos, so I drilled two 3mm holes in her shoes to put steel pins in.
On the base I pressed two blobs of Milliput against the holes on the underside and placed her firmly back on, pressing the pins into the putty (I brushed some masking fluid on her soles before). After hardening I was able to pull her off the base without problems, the putty held the pins and base together.
As finishing touch I painted her "footsteps" in dark grey, matching the base, and now she doesn't look different than before when she's on the base. I decided to leave the transparent pegs fixed to her soles since I didn't want to cause visible damage (I'm sure those stilettos would break in the process).
I'm glad this went well and I'm able to take nice pics of her now.
Thanks for reading!
These days I'm getting really into figure photographing with dioramas, and I think it looks best if the figures are not on their bases for this, right?
Then I got this beautiful Samurai girl Hatsuaki ITEM #1055844 which comes fully assembled, glued to her well-made base.
Hm. Ok, first time I've had to do this, go gently, so I put her feet into hot water (around 70°C) and tried pulling the base off - no dice, not even a slight movement.
Now I could have accepted my fate and leave her be, but I'm stubborn and have a lot of tools to hurt plastic with, dentist grade stuff.
There are pockets on the underside of the base where her feet are glued in, so I decided to just cut those off with a diamond cutting disc, figuring that with 80% of her pegs gone she'd jump right off her base. Yeah well, she was still holding on, even after a repeated hot water treatment. I didn't expect her to be so steadfast!
So I cut slits around the pegs where the glue probably held everything together, and that's when I was sure that they used superglue on her - that stuff stings like hell in your eyes when it gets hot, and it has that nice fruity smell. Sorry for not taking photos of this, I was totally on a roll ^_^
That did the trick though, what was left of the pegs came off easily, so after some clean up and sanding Hatsuaki was able to stand on her own. It's great when the sculptors do a job like that and make a well balanced figure.
Of course I wanted her to be stable on the base again after taking photos, so I drilled two 3mm holes in her shoes to put steel pins in.
On the base I pressed two blobs of Milliput against the holes on the underside and placed her firmly back on, pressing the pins into the putty (I brushed some masking fluid on her soles before). After hardening I was able to pull her off the base without problems, the putty held the pins and base together.
As finishing touch I painted her "footsteps" in dark grey, matching the base, and now she doesn't look different than before when she's on the base. I decided to leave the transparent pegs fixed to her soles since I didn't want to cause visible damage (I'm sure those stilettos would break in the process).
I'm glad this went well and I'm able to take nice pics of her now.
Thanks for reading!
Kommentare17
I wouldn’t turn a scaled figure upside down like he does, but I’m confident it’d would hold in an earthquake. On Amazon it’s called ‘ Ready America 33111 Museum Gel, Clear’ That YT guy is something else, his "blow test" made my day XD
Thanks for the info! It will be a pain in the ass to get that stuff in the EU, but I'll definitely try!
It’s good stuff, this YouTuber shows how it works around the 3:30 mark. youtu.be/cT6Brh...
I wouldn’t turn a scaled figure upside down like he does, but I’m confident it’d would hold in an earthquake. On Amazon it’s called ‘ Ready America 33111 Museum Gel, Clear’
I’m planning on doing something similar with milliput for this figure ITEM #327698 because I think the base is hideous.
Also, if the figure is well balanced enough to stand on its own, you can use “Museum Gel” to keep the figure affixed. It’s a non-permanent gel-like adhesive I use to keep my action figures standing. I’ve never seen it remove paint from the feet, and some Hot Toys collectors use them to to display their figures. Ugh yeah, that base is something else. Interesting, never heard of that stuff, got to get me some! For temporary fixing I like to use Blue Tac, that's a nice allround tool too.
I’m planning on doing something similar with milliput for this figure ITEM #327698 because I think the base is hideous.
Also, if the figure is well balanced enough to stand on its own, you can use “Museum Gel” to keep the figure affixed. It’s a non-permanent gel-like adhesive I use to keep my action figures standing. I’ve never seen it remove paint from the feet, and some Hot Toys collectors use them to to display their figures.
If you have a figure where you get that uneasy feeling before taking her off the base, try warming her up a little with warm water. When plastic is warm it's harder to break it.
Thanks for the solution! I’ll use it if anything else happens to my other figures!
Linked your blog to the DIY club.Thanks! It's just that I've got already another diorama planned for her where I couldn't hide her base (concrete pavement), so I decided to cut her off.