I got three extra Venkmans at 8 bucks a piece thinking that’s about as close to an accessory pack as we may ever get. So, I got the streams, but I want to swap the gloveless hands of Ray, Egon, and Winston with gloved ones from the extra Peters.
I did a search for removing gloved hands and found a thread that described splitting the chests and one that said you could pop off the forearms. However, I could not find anything with pictures or if there was a really great way to do this. I have never done any figure mods and am kind of nervous to go through this process and figured some of you may be able to give me some guidance or point me to some threads.
Warm up the plastic with a hair dryer for 30 seconds to a minute, then pop out the forearms at the elbow just below the pad. Don’t be afraid of hurting them, I’ve never had any break.
To reattach them, heat up JUST the upper arm piece. This will allow the lower arm to push into the softened plastic.
The way I’ve done it is to dip the elbow joint and lower arms in boiling water for just a few seconds; they should pop right off. To reattach, you can dip both halves of the joint or just the upper arm portion (if you can, dry them before reattaching).
I’m gonna do few custom figures myself while plaster dries on my 1/12 Ecto, and I’ve searched for the topics on custom figures. The boiling water and hairdryer is all I can find, but I remember someone going further and pulling torsoes apart and such. I cannot locate that topic, can someone help?
Im going to do this myself, so its nice to have a little tutorial. I really dont want to start taking apart the torso etc, I think I’ll try the boiling water for one figure and the hair-dryer for another.
I’ve always used the boil&pop method for my customs. Works like a charm. Here’s a tip I learned the first time I tried it though. Don’t put the figures into a pot of boiling water. Put them into a mug of boiling water (like you’re making tea). Drop them into a pot and you’ll melt your toy. Learn from my mistake.
My first attempt involved carefully pouring boiling water over the joint; after coming a bit too close to burning the hell out of my hand I went with the dip method. Much safer
The one time I did it, boiling water (I used running water) and a very careful hand with the back of an Exacto knife or flathead jewelers screwdriver to pry it up. There’s a tiny ‘peg’ behind the the walkie talkie where the belt attaches to itself; the belt itself really wasn’t attached to the body so I didn’t even need the knife.
For the leg hose, again a very steady hand with the exacto tip and hot water (I used running water because it was just easier).
I mangled one myself before learning about the peg (that figure is now going in the custom-fodder pile). There are also a few rectangular protrusions on the back of the belt that attach it to the torso (don’t accidentally cut these off like I did the first time!). Really hot water (I just held the figure under the tap using a skewer to lift the belt away) and very gently pulling it should be fine.
I used E6000 craft epoxy to reattach (you might also be able to use Bondene, but I haven’t tested it so that’s just a theory).
