114. Custom resin copies of Bandai Blast Effects Bandai makes some great effects sets. While some sets only require minor modding to work on TF figures, some require a lot. Color choice of effects is also limited. The Robot Spirits A.N.I.M.E. Set 2 has some really nice effects. None have 5mm ports, let alone 3mm ports to allow for easy adapters. Many of the effects have pegs with 1.5mm, 2mm, and 2.5mm widths instead. Came up with custom 5mm pegs to add to the stock pegs, made silicone molds, and then resin casts. For the 1st batch, decided to choose green to go along with some of the Shattered Glass figures. The original set had pink and yellow versions of the long blast effect. The 3rd green one is the custom made effect. Pew pew pew pew.
115. Custom Origin Bumblebee Blaster for Shattered Glass Goldbug Decided to make a resin copy of the Origin BB blaster and do a SG Goldbug themed redeco. 1st mold attempt failed. 2nd mold attempt was better but had issues with some resins I was using. My go-to Smooth Cast 326 resin is out of stock, and I tried others with varying degrees of failure. I had a small amount left, but it was going bad: everything transparent was coming out semi-opaque. Decided to roll with it.... Used transparent blue dye for the resin cast. Spray painted the base black (Tamiya MATT black). Handpainted the fin gold (Mr. Hobby). Finished with clear semi-gloss spray paint (Tamiya).
Vinyl Tape Fix for Jurassic Park Tyrannocon Rex Rolling Eyes For a set that is egregiously overpriced, the QC should've been a lot better than what we got. On Tyrannocon, the worst part is the paint job on the eyes. There's a fairly widespread problem with the painting template resulting in rolling eyes. Yeah, it's really that bad... Using a similar idea to my T-Wrecks cellophane eye color tint, used vinyl tape to "fix" the eyes. Cellophane will not be able to cover up the pupils. I had a test version using red vinyl tape, but ultimately went with black pupil on yellow to match the stock deco. Black pupil on red made the eyes hard to see. The hardest part was removing the adhesive from the yellow vinyl tape. Different companies use different adhesives. Some will come off (more like scrape off) when exposed to isopropyl alcohol. The yellow one we had didn't. Even with acetone, not all of it came off either, but managed to get about 90% of it off. If the adhesive is not removed, the tape will catch and not be able to clear the eyes. The black pupils need the adhesive to stay in place. The toughest part is peeling the head cover back far enough: [Megatron used as example] When the head is peeled back far enough, it is possible to slide a layer of vinyl tape over the eyes. I used needle nose pliers to hold the tape while trying to pass the tape over the eye. This is a lot easier if someone else peels the head back. If the adhesive is not removed, the tape is not gonna slide over, obviously. This is a test run. One layer is able to mostly hide the old pupil. It's ok if it's not 100% since it won't be noticeable once a new pupil is placed over. Went with yellow as the final since the black on red made the eye too hard to see. Used a crafts cutting machine (such as Cricut) to cut out pupils from black vinyl tape. The adhesive is needed to stick to the yellow vinyl tape. I tried some different sizes. Ultimately went with 1.3mm (0.13cm) circles. The circles don't have a lot of tack, so it's easy to reposition with needle nose pliers. No more eye roll.
Vinyl Tape Fix for JP93 Loose Elbows The Jurassic Park set is a QC mess. JP93's engineering seemingly went backwards in time, which is inexcusable for the price, including the use of ball joints for elbows. On top of that, the ball joints are loose. I even had the joint come apart without even trying to take it apart. Some copies of JP93 are able to hold up his own blaster but not with anything else attached (i.e. blast effect). Some can't even do that. One quick, reversible fix is to use vinyl tape. I know some will resort to using floor polish, but that's not a good idea: 1) doesn't help as well for very loose joints and 2) the crusting will be an eyesore against black plastic in a semi-open ball joint. After taking apart the ball joint, the 1st step is to cut out a thin strip of black vinyl / electrical tape. The length will be the width of the roll of tape. The width should be a little shorter than the width of a regular TF peg (so maybe around 4mm-ish). This easy mod works on this particular joint due to rectangular opening on the inside of the joint. This will help keep the tape in place. Position the middle of the tape over the rectangular opening. Then use a thin blunt tool to push the middle of the tape into the rectangular groove. Don't push this in all the way to the other side. Only about 3mm or so is needed. Then apply some pressure to get the rest of the tape to stay in place. Doesn't have to be perfect as putting together the joint again will push the tape firmly into place. The front end should not go past the front of the ball joint. The other end will stick out. Carefully trim that end off with a razor or side cutters (safer). Put the joint back together again. Twist around to make sure everything works and stays in place. This should NOT be super tight, otherwise, the tape won't stay in place. However, it should now give enough resistance to hold its own weight up, even with blast effects attached. For more difficult joints, one could use tape with a stronger adhesive (like packing tape), but then reversing it would require a heat gun and needle nose pliers to remove. I would avoid using friction tapes, since some of them are basically sandpaper or some of them are rubber infused, which will leave black rubbery residues everywhere. Edit: The same process can be used for the hip joints.
Yeah, one would think that...at least the box is nice. Thanks. Making some more as soon as I decide to stop being lazy and make more molds. I've done that before, but just for a titan master and battle masters. Even then, it's annoying enough getting all the tolerances right.
@ziltama My Ghostbusters X Transformers Collaborative Ectotron has somewhat loose robot knee joints. Are you able to help me with this?
The knee joints have flathead pins. As such, the only solution is to use a joint thickener like floor polish. There's various threads about that. I'm not a big fan of using the stuff since it oftens leaves a crusty mess, but it's the only thing that works on certain joint types. Try to wipe off any excess with a paper towel (with isopropyl alcohol if no paint is nearby).
116. Custom resin copies of Bandai blast effects Modded a different set of effects from the Robot Spirits A.N.I.M.E. Set 2 and then made resin copies of them to work on 3mm connectors. New resin version on left, modded original on right: Decided to try a different color variation than before. This is mainly red with some purple added. Siege Skywarp with the "wine" red effects: 114c. "Wine" red version of the other blast effects Netflix Megatron with the new blast effect:
116b and 114d. Ice / Energy blue versions of above. I've done this style color before but with fluorescent dyes instead. This time, just used blue and green transparent dyes with a bit more green than I've done before. Makes for a nice contrast against regular blue too.
117. Blast effects adapter for DNA Design DK-18 Studio Series Shockwave upgrade kit There's some minor issues with the DK-18 set, but overall, it's a pretty nice set. The replacement cannon is not blast effects compatible, so I made an adapter. Made a mold of the back end of a 10mm drill bit, made a resin cast, cut out a disc, and then drilled a 5mm hole in the middle. The adapter is made of clear plastic with transparent dye, so I did some post-processing work to make it properly see through. I did something similar earlier for the Dr. Wu Braun cannons. Due to the inner molding work of the cannon, I couldn't push the disc in any further. Works pretty well. Used a modified Bandai blast effects set here (made a 5mm peg adapter). 116c and 114e. Yet another set of modified Bandai effects in a different color. When making resin batches, I learned that some resins work best with a minimum volume. Instead of letting the rest go to waste, used the leftover resin from above to make even more blast effects. Used transparent black (smoke) with a bit of transparent purple. AU Optimus Prime here is using a modified set of ZX G2 OP blasters (dyed handle, fixed the loose handles issue, repainted, and ever so carefully modified the barrels for blast effects compatibility). Nemesis Primal holding SS86 Grimlock's blaster.
Miscellaneous: Making custom rods I've had extreme difficulty finding proper 5mm rods that actually work. Most are not 5mm and do not fit: both over- and undersized. I've found 3mm rods and tubing that work, though, by Tamiya in clear and white (their 5mm offerings are sadly way undersized). I've made rods before by copying handles off existing accessories or using the back end of a drill bit. Of course, some accessories may not be a proper 5mm fit either. I use black oxide coated drill bits, which I find grip plastic better when drilling. However, they create a bit of a matte like finish, which is problematic when making transparent rods (granted, even a simple clear coat spray will fix that up if one doesn't want to polish). I was gonna look into bare metal drill bit sets and decided to get blanks instead. Blanks are used to make the drill bits in the first place. Bought a set of those and now I can make rods in various lengths. Same rinse and repeat process as before: make bubble free silicone mold and then make bubble free resin cast. Rods are useful as replacement handles, couplers, handles when painting, etc... They're good for practice when trying new silicone or resin materials. They also make for easy blast effects in a pinch. I usually cut out small wells in the mold, so that the mold cavity can still be filled with fresh resin inside the pressure pot as air bubbles escape. In this case, the well made for an easy spark effect.
Definitely wish the base figure for SS dotm Shockwave had a hole in the cannon designed for blast effects
