Customising Hints, Tips and FAQs

[The Atroxious]

Could you guys recommend some brands of these craft acrylics I see mentioned around these forums? I have no idea how to differentiate between them and artist's acrylics. Up until now I've been using a mix of Blick and Golden brand artist's acrylics for everything including toy customization, but I sometimes worry about the lightfastness compared to craft acrylics, since the workroom where I keep my toys gets a lot of sunlight during the day. Moreover, I've found that while touchups are fine with artist's acrylics, painting over large areas makes the surface look rather unpleasantly shiny for a figure that's supposed to depict a wild animal. I'd like to get a bit more serious about repainting figures, but model painting is very new to me, and I have no idea what supplies I should be looking for.

[Lanthanotus]

Personally I use Gamesworkshop colors, they come in a great variety of hues, though I found 10 to 12 different are sufficient for almost every need. I deem them very durable on almost any plastic surface, but after all, they are made for play figures that are often handled, though rough play may still hurt them. The colors are usually mat, but if the color is used as full base color with too much water (not as layer or wash) or not mixed well enough, then you still may get an unwanted gloss. Did you try a mattening finisher/varnish to get rid of the gloss?

[Derek.McManus]

Vallejo are a very high quality acrylic paint and we'll worth a try!

[tyrantqueen]

Could you guys recommend some brands of these craft acrylics I see mentioned around these forums? I have no idea how to differentiate between them and artist's acrylics. Up until now I've been using a mix of Blick and Golden brand artist's acrylics for everything including toy customization, but I sometimes worry about the lightfastness compared to craft acrylics, since the workroom where I keep my toys gets a lot of sunlight during the day. Moreover, I've found that while touchups are fine with artist's acrylics, painting over large areas makes the surface look rather unpleasantly shiny for a figure that's supposed to depict a wild animal. I'd like to get a bit more serious about repainting figures, but model painting is very new to me, and I have no idea what supplies I should be looking for.

Craft and hobby acrylics have little to no light fastness. Artist's acrylics do, but they tend to be very expensive (especially the lightfast ones) and not all of them are suited for painting on the 3D surfaces. If you want to try artist acrylics, I'd recommend a brand that is soft bodied (a good brand would be Golden). This is much better suited for painting 3D figures. An artist's acrylic will tell you the light fast rating on the bottle. Make sure you're using an artist's acrylic, not a student acrylic, which use cheaper pigments and fillers, and don't tend to be as lightfast.

If you don't want to go with artist's acrylics, I'd recommend a hobby acrylic over a craft acrylic. Craft acrylics are stuff like Decoart. Hobby acrylics are brands like Vallejo, Games Workshop, Testors etc. They're aimed at miniature painters and modellers, and tend to be better quality and formulated to stick to 3D surfaces. The paint will eventually fade if left in the sun, there's no away around that.

My favourite brand of hobby paint is Vallejo Model Color. Very high quality paint that is great for a beginner or a professional. Also, if you want to get rid of gloss, you can use a matte varnish. Artists acrylics are usually glossy because of the pigment in the paint. I do believe in using high quality materials, because it makes it so much easier for a beginner if the medium they're using is not fighting against them.

[The Atroxious]

Thanks for the responses! I normally use Golden fluid acrylics, but yes, they are rather glossy. Another problem with lightfast artists' acrylics is that many of the ones I've encountered are quite toxic, and I try to limit my exposure to those. I am not keen on the idea that an object I'm going to be handling on a semi-frequent basis will be coated with paints that contain all sorts of heavy metals. I've never even tried using student acrylics on my figures since their lightfastness tends to be next to nothing, which makes for low cost to value ratio in the long run. Hobby acrylics look like the way to go, then.

I'll definitely check out the matte varnish. That sounds like it would help a lot. Out of curiosity, since I also collect action figures, and have plans to paint some in entirety in the near future *cough cough David Silva's Build-A-Raptor kits cough* would the matte varnish harm the joints, or clog them up in some way? I don't want to risk damaging a limited edition sculpt with the materials I'm using.

[stargatedalek]

You just need to be careful with the application. In order to get a matte finish you need to be using a very thin coat of varnish anyway so ti should be easy to keep it out of the joints. Paint if anything is more likely to clog up joints than varnish, and both would probably flake off after a bit of movement.

[tyrantqueen]

I'll definitely check out the matte varnish. That sounds like it would help a lot. Out of curiosity, since I also collect action figures, and have plans to paint some in entirety in the near future *cough cough David Silva's Build-A-Raptor kits cough* would the matte varnish harm the joints, or clog them up in some way? I don't want to risk damaging a limited edition sculpt with the materials I'm using.

No. Varnish can be useful for tightening joints. If you don't want the joints to be super tight, that might be annoying, but they wouldn't damage them in any way.

[Nanuqsaurus]

I was thinking about customizing my old Schleich Allosaurus, and I was wondering if there's a way to un-pronate the hands? Could I just cut them off and glue them back on in the right position? If so, what tools should I use?

[Killekor]

It's possibile to do metallized Paint mixing normal colors?

Thanks

Killekor

[PumperKrickel]

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[Killekor]

It's possibile to do metallized Paint mixing normal colors?

Thanks

Killekor

Not that I´m aware of. The easiest way to get metallic paint in custom colours is to paint the figure with a silver-metallic undercoat and then use translucent colours on top of it.

Thanks anyway.

Killekor

[Pachyrhinosaurus]

I was thinking about customizing my old Schleich Allosaurus, and I was wondering if there's a way to un-pronate the hands? Could I just cut them off and glue them back on in the right position? If so, what tools should I use?

I would start by cutting the hands off with an xacto knife or a dremel depending on how hard the material is. For extra stability you could drill the ends and insert a wire into each end. Apoxie sculpt works well to fill the gap, but it is easier to hide the seams if you round off the cut ends.

[Nanuqsaurus]

I was thinking about customizing my old Schleich Allosaurus, and I was wondering if there's a way to un-pronate the hands? Could I just cut them off and glue them back on in the right position? If so, what tools should I use?

I would start by cutting the hands off with an xacto knife or a dremel depending on how hard the material is. For extra stability you could drill the ends and insert a wire into each end. Apoxie sculpt works well to fill the gap, but it is easier to hide the seams if you round off the cut ends.

Thanks! I've some experience with glueing and filling seams from building model aircraft, so I'm positive it'll turn out right. I think a new layer of paint will also help with hiding the seams.

[Lanthanotus]

Did you try hot water already? Which old Schleich Allo do you mean, the replica one? It has comparably long and thin arms/hands that could respond quite well to hot water bending. This one however resists on complete 90° bending, but at least allows for like 45° which gives a quite natural, grasping look.

[Nanuqsaurus]

Did you try hot water already? Which old Schleich Allo do you mean, the replica one? It has comparably long and thin arms/hands that could respond quite well to hot water bending. This one however resists on complete 90° bending, but at least allows for like 45° which gives a quite natural, grasping look.

It's not the replica one, but the 2006 version (the one you posted a link of). I've never tried the hot water method before, how does this work?

[Lanthanotus]

Schleich figures respond very good to hot water bending..... just boil some water and pour it into some kind of container, a cup, bowl, whatever fits in size so you can submerge the figure as whole (not recommended for figures made of multiple parts) or the body part that requires some adjustment. Let the figure/body part sit for several seconds, depending on the thickness of the part. Once the part is easy to bend or even moves when shaking the figure, get the figure out of the water, hold the body part into the position you want or - in case of a position that will results in some strain in the material - bend it even further than intended, and cool it in cold water. Depending on the extent of the bending, the body part may move towards its former position - that's why you may bend it even further than intended - but the method can be repeated until the final result is achieved.

I can't post pictures at the moment, but some pics of my Allo mod can be seen here, I used the method several times and now the hands are - unlike in the pics posted there - in a way more natural and grapsing position. Good luck

[Nanuqsaurus]

Schleich figures respond very good to hot water bending..... just boil some water and pour it into some kind of container, a cup, bowl, whatever fits in size so you can submerge the figure as whole (not recommended for figures made of multiple parts) or the body part that requires some adjustment. Let the figure/body part sit for several seconds, depending on the thickness of the part. Once the part is easy to bend or even moves when shaking the figure, get the figure out of the water, hold the body part into the position you want or - in case of a position that will results in some strain in the material - bend it even further than intended, and cool it in cold water. Depending on the extent of the bending, the body part may move towards its former position - that's why you may bend it even further than intended - but the method can be repeated until the final result is achieved.

I can't post pictures at the moment, but some pics of my Allo mod can be seen here, I used the method several times and now the hands are - unlike in the pics posted there - in a way more natural and grapsing position. Good luck

Thank you! This really helps, I'm sure going to try it when I have time. Nice customised Allo by the way!

[jooooo]

My first new dinosaur toys in over a year just arrived and among them is the Carnegie Tyrannosaurus, whom I plan on modifying. One of the things I plan on doing is reposing it. Get rid of that tripod stance and make the legs a little less columnar. Although I'm still a bit iffy. I've never done it before and I'm afraid the reposing will go horribly wrong.

Does anyone have some things to keep in mind when reposing? Going to practise on a cheaper figure first.

[PumperKrickel]

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[stargatedalek]

I also have a question about repaints. I´m currently planning to repaint a few figures and I´m having a hard time on deciding what skin patterns to use. I obviously looked at a lot of birds, frogs, lizards and mammals and tropical fish for inspiration, but I feel like I don´t understand the purpose of skin markings well enough. I guess most of it helps blending in with the environment, but how exactly? I vaguely remember that stripes make it harder for predators to focus on one specific animal in a group. I think a dark patch around the eyes absorbs sunlight and makes the animal less subsceptible to being dazzled, but I´m not sure. Is there a website or a book where stuff like this is explained? How do you decide what pattern you use exactly?

Perhaps the most crucial thing to note is that anything (on land) larger than a minivan isn't going to benefit from camouflage unless it has some extremely specialized behavior to accompany that. IE, unless it has some decorator crab -esq attributes a Tyrannosaurus isn't going to manage to hide from its prey, so it would probably benefit more from something to frighten or disorient prey and rivals than it would from attempting to blend in.

As for spots vs stripes, it's a lot less complicated than you make it out to be. Stripes break up an animals outline and make it harder to see while moving among other striped patterned things (IE others of its species or more typically among tall grasses), while still serving as a display up close. Whereas spots draw the eyes towards them. A lot of fish in particular use both of these in conjunction to make themselves difficult to track.

Think of a male peafowl vs ring neck pheasant. The peafowl wants to be seen from a distance, he has no natural predators to hide from, so his spots are best to draw attention from a distance. Whereas the pheasant wants to remain hidden from a distance, and so uses stripes on his tail as a display instead.

As for eyes, I don't remember which is which but either dark or light bands draw light away from the eyes which helps them see in bright areas, and vice versa.