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Assembling Vinyl Kits

Show off your in-progress builds! This is the place to post questions about building and painting your model kits and to share your latest techniques.

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Pun13
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Assembling Vinyl Kits

#1 Post by Pun13 »

This tip comes from Pete (tellmyre) Big thanks goes out to Pete
for writing this great tip on how to work with Vinyl kits.

Tom


1) Trim kit of excess flash with a sharp hobby knife; make sure to heat area to be trimmed with a hair dryer just prior to trimming. This makes it much easier for the knife to cut. Don’t rush; do small sections at a time. Rush it and you may cut through the kit itself or worse you.

2) Wash kit to remove all contaminates such as mold release and human body oils

3) Fit check the kit, you may need to heat up portions with a hair dryer to get a better fit.

4) Assemble lower portion of the kit. I like to use JB Weld Epoxy. It is super strong and is a little more flexible than super glue. It is also less susceptible to break from heat unlike Superglue. I do use Superglue to tack the parts in a few small places to give the epoxy a chance to cure.

5) I like to fill my kits. First I fill the base up to just past the knees with plaster of paris to give it weight. If the legs do not exit into the feet then I fill the feet prior to assembly. Do not use Durham’s Wood Putty for this technique as it will not cure in a closed space. I then fill the remaining part of the torso with expanding foam. I like to use Smooth On‘s FOAM-iT!® 3 (18X expansion) expanding foam. Fill the voids in small portions to insure proper filling and avoid expansion of the kit or overflow. The stuff expands at a large rate. Do not use the stuff out of the cans; it is just too hard to control.

6) Perform a similar technique for the remaining portion of the kit, minus the Plaster of Paris of course.

7) A few tricks here will also help. Example: attaching an arm to the torso – carve back the foam from the arm and torso just a little bit. The coat it with a layer of epoxy putty such as Aves or Magicsculp where you carved back the foam. This provides you a better surface to mount your arm to the torso. For extra strength you can pin the arm as well, Just drill through the cured putty on the arm and torso and pin. For the two halves of the torso I have used popsicle sticks driven into the cured foam to add strength at this big joint.

8) Now that you have assembled your kit, putty all the joints and flaws. Re-sculpt and sand as necessary.

9) This step is crucial. Prime your kit with a primer – I use Krylon primer. Do not use any enamels as it will react with your vinyl and never cure. The primer will give a good surface for your paint the adhere to and it also shows any flaws you missed that you need to correct before your begin to paint your kit.

10) Paint your kit and once again do not use enamels. Personally, I prefer water based acrylics. I do seal my work as I progress with Testors Dullcoat to seal it from other painting I will do later such as washes. This will help prevent ruining the previous work

Hope this was helpful and not redundant

Pete
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sippog
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Re: Assembling Vinyl Kits

#2 Post by sippog »

Some useful tips. I used to use a 2 part foam but don't know how to get it any more.
I might try a spray can type - cautiously. Has anyone tried rolled up paper?

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Joseph Osborn
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Re: Assembling Vinyl Kits

#3 Post by Joseph Osborn »

I've used newspaper and if you pack it in really tight, it seems to work just fine. The insulation foam spray works, too, but you have to take steps to ensure you don't get any foam on the outside part of the kit. If you do, you can usually remove it with some denatured alcohol or acetone before it sets. I think it's better to just use paper, myself.

Gazozou
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Re: Assembling Vinyl Kits

#4 Post by Gazozou »

Thanx a lot, this is very useful and I think I should try to make a sculpture as a kit, as so far I've been making one-piece sculptures. Being here made me realize that it is challenging to put together a kit, let alone make one...
Gazozou

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