CUSTOM ACTION FIGURES: 101 – Prepping Your Figures Step 1 with Rob Panick!

In this edition of Custom Action Figures: 101, we’re going to be discussing how to begin prepping your figure after you’ve disassembled them. For those of you who may have missed it, here is my previous video on disassembling modern figures:

To begin with, you want to wear a pair of vinyl or latex gloves. We’ll be working with alcohol and once our figure parts are cleaned, we don’t want any dirt or oil from our fingers on the parts. Take your figure parts and place them in a plastic container with enough alcohol to cover them.

Be sure you’re very careful when using denatured alcohol. It is extremely flammable and must be used in a ventilated area. Also, denatured alcohol is very strong alcohol and can have a negative reaction with many types of plastic. Always do a controlled test and have a bowl of water nearby so you can wash off the alcohol if it starts having an adverse reaction to the plastic you’re working with. Most all action figure plastics and vinyl can be safely soaked for a few minutes to remove anything soap and water left behind and remove oils from your fingers, but DO NOT soak cast resin parts. At the most, use a bit of alcohol to wipe your cast parts clean.

For this tutorial I’m using some “holders” I made to make it easier to prime and paint my fodder. These are made by cutting a bamboo skewer off to the desired length and clamping a test lead style alligator clip to the end of it. For parts that have “peg holes”, such as leg pieces on modern Star Wars figures and arm pieces on most 1:18 modern figures, you can simply snip off a little bit of the pointed end of the skewer so that it fits snug into the peg hole of the part.

To hold and organize my “skewered” parts, I made a base out of a piece of ½” thick shelving board about 6” wide and 8” long. I laid out a 1 ½” grid pattern and used a drill bit the same size as my skewer diameter to drill about ¾ of the way into the board. This gives ample spacing between the parts so that they can dry and cure without the risk of bumping into the other parts. You can also use a piece of foam board and just press the skewers in, but eventually the foam board will wear out and have to be replaced, whereas the wood board will last for years.

To begin with, clean any cast parts you’re using. As I said earlier, don’t soak them in your alcohol. Just give them a quick dunk and then wipe them clean. Since the hole in the head is much larger than the peg holes in the arms and legs, I use a Q-tip that I dipped in Mod Podge and allowed to dry completely. This allows the tip of the Q-tip to conform to the neck hole and hold tight. Then simply clip the other end of your Q-tip onto one of your alligator clips on the skewer and put it on your peg board.

Depending on the figure parts you are using, the upper body or torso section may have a large peg hole too. Use the same “Q-tip” method to hold these parts too. Just remember to cover the entire cotton end of your swab with Mod Podge, school glue, paste, or even paint and allow it to fully dry. This keeps any strands of cotton fiber from getting in your paint and ruining the paint job.

One by one, remove your fodder pieces from the alcohol bath and clip or “peg” them onto your skewers. Wipe off any excess alcohol. Be sure to clip the parts in an area that will not affect the exposed painted area of the part, such as inside of the upper legs or on the tip of a joint peg.

Now you have all of your parts clean and ready for the next step in making your figure. By using the skewers, you can hold and manipulate the parts while you prime and paint them without having to worry about messing up the paint. In our next video tutorial, we’ll discuss priming your figure to lay down a base coat for an awesome paint job and prepping those pesky joints so that you don’t get the ever so dreaded “paint rub” on your finished figure. Thanks for joining us, and may the Force be with you!

CHECK OUT THE VIDEO TUTORIAL!

**ATTENTION ALL CUSTOMIZERS! : If you’re reading this on our Front Page and aren’t a member of our forum at http://www.SerpentorsLair.info, we would LOVE to have you come join us! We have an awesome community, no matter what figures you’re in to customizing! Along with Custom Action Figures: 101, we have some great forums on a range of action figure and Pop Culture topics, as well as a monthly Serpentorslair Hall of Fame Custom’s Contest!
I am also looking for some customizers to share some of their insight for this column. If you have some cool tricks you want to share with us you can either contact me through the forum, on Facebook @ http://www.facebook.com/rpanick or email me at galacticplastics@gmail.com. Also, if you own a figure from another customizer and would like to do a review of it, please drop me a line!

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Rob Panick is a 40 year old Georgia native and a lover of action figure customizing and all things Star Wars. He is the father of two toddler boys and he and his fianceé Rebecca own and operate http://www.GalacticPlastics.net. She’s a Star Wars geek too and they’re getting married on Star Wars Day!

To learn more about customizing, or ask Rob Question directly make the JUMP to the Forums!