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THE Idiot's Guide to Kitbashing


WraithVerge

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Well i was planning on doing a repaint off a 20th Prime into

Grapple and everybody told me that it was impossible

But with me thinking of what to use and what to get i am able to use a

Crane car that i have seen at a hobby shop here in the village

And because the transformation is almost the same as Prime(not very but it's close)

And with some modification he will turn out to be a sweet Grapple

 

 

Parts that i will use are:

20th Prime off course

Orange Metallic Spraypaint(real car paint cause of no chipping and really strong)

a model of a Crane truck

styrene and epoxy to sculpt the head and all other materials that will be needed

 

 

So you guys let me know what you all think of this idea

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Well, thank you kindly!

 

As my first act as a contributing editor, I'll just offer up my latest two innovations:

 

As you all (probably) know, Battle-in-a-Box Ultra Magnus has issues with his "sleeves". (the parts that cover his fists)

 

Specifically, the fact that his sleeves are on the wrong arms, thus stopping him from using his elbows.

 

Now, the fix for this is to remove the elbow hinge-pins. This can be a b**tch, 'cause those pins are designed to stay right where they are (wouldn't be good if the elbows went falling apart when you tried to transform--or even pose--the figure, eh?).

 

Traditionally(?), the way to get those pins out is by bracing the piece well, and taking a tiny screw-driver or other "pin-punch" tool and a hammer and tapping the pin through. This, as you may know, is difficult, especially if you can't find a way to brace the part properly.

 

Tonight, I removed said pins in record time, without any tapping at all!

 

For my particular case, I used my spiffy new soldering iron (straight, pen-type). Touch the heated iron to the end of the pin (CAREFULLY! Unless you -want- to melt the plastic, that is.), and press down gently, until the pin starts to slip through.

 

Then, replace the iron with your pin-pushing tool and press down on the pin while touching the iron to the other end of the pin.

 

After a few seconds, the pin will slide out perfectly, and the plastic won't be damaged enough to make any difference (good as it was before, basically, 'cause the hot pin only softens up enough to release the pin, and immediately cools again when the pin is free)!

 

All you have to do now is switch the sleeves, put the hinge back together--quick squeeze with pliers should do it, if you can't push the pin back in with your fingers--and voila! Teh poseable arms!

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Oops? Didn't I say something about two innovations? Guess I did. ;)

 

This is really just an extension of the hinge-pin removal trick. But, it solves (for me, at least) a problem that plagues kitbashers across the board: those damned WHEEL-PINS!

 

Using the same basic concept of heating the pin to release it from the plastic, I've successfully removed all four wheels from Energon Deluxe Prime's skirt/butt-plate:

 

dscf0286.jpg

 

Now, I -did- nick the inner part of a couple of the wheels with the hot iron's tip, but they're very minor, and this is scrap parts anyway, so I'm not real concerned. The experiment was the important bit. :thumb

 

The main problem for me was getting a decent grip on the part so I could hold the screwdriver in place and still manage to apply force on it to push the pin while holding the iron to it.

 

How you can best use this technique depends on how much access you have to the wheel's pin, and how well you can utilize that access. For this, the ends of the pins are exposed on the inside of the trailer piece, so the driver was placed into their holes and the pins pushed outward.

 

It may be possible to pull the wheel out as you heat the pin, but I'll be looking into that later, for other projects.

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Well i was planning on doing a repaint off a 20th Prime into

Grapple and everybody told me that it was impossible

But with me thinking of what to use and what to get i am able to use a

Crane car that i have seen at a hobby shop here in the village

And because the transformation is almost the same as Prime(not very but it's close)

And with some modification he will turn out to be a sweet Grapple

 

 

Parts that i will use are:

20th Prime off course

Orange Metallic Spraypaint(real car paint cause of no chipping and really strong)

a model of a Crane truck

styrene and epoxy to sculpt the head and all other materials that will be needed

 

 

So you guys let me know what you all think of this idea

Dude, that would -so- rock. Good luck!

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I like the idea, speedbullit. Go for it!!

 

And as a point of fact, there's ONE person who never said that it was impossible: me. Nothing is impossible if you want it badly enough. So good luck with the grapple conversion speedbullit, and remember to post pics when you're done!

 

BTW, DLP and speedbullit: these are the articles I'm looking for! Keep up the good work!

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Question about the ABS plastic:

 

I found a local suppier who sells the ABS plastic in sheets - four foot by eight foot sheets.

 

As a price guide, a 1.8 " sheet is $32 USD.

 

What thickness(es?) of ABS plastic would be needed for a typical kitbash / scratchbuild ?

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Well, Valandar, that depends upon the kitbash itself, and what it requires. !.8 inches is almost 2 inches thickness.(!) That would be way too thick for the exterior of most kitbashes, but excellent if you plan on custom-fabricating a basic skeleton or structural piece for your work.

 

Generally, about .020 or .030 is the reccommended thicknesses I will work with in plastics, but that's for polystyrene. I would say you hit a gold mine when it comes to ABS. A sheet that big can give you a LOT of basic parts to work from, and you can glue them together in laminated sections for larger and thicker parts. But I would definitely see if they have thinner sheets available as well.

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