I remember when I was a boy into scale models I always wanted the kit with spare figures in it so that I could display them diorama style in my cabinet. Ok, I admit, when I was young I usually didn’t display my models but rather played with them. And the figures accentuated the game play and gave me the opportunity to monologue… hehehe. Of course I took extra steps to ensure that I didn’t break them.

So when I suddenly took up my passion for collecting kits all over again I was looking for figures to complement the package. I’m lousy at figure sculpting but I found out however that you can actually make figures with a mold made out of polymer clay if you have an already pre-existing figure. This can be done with the use of some Mold Maker from Sculpey. Its basically a form of clay that needs to be baked in order to harden. Its difference from regular clay is that its sort of rubbery after baking making it easy for you to pull out your casted item. The drawback is that usually only one side of the figure can be casted in the mold, leaving the other side bare. You’d have to make another mold of the other side then use your fingers and a little bit of creativity to combine them together.

Quite recently my son had his birthday and his mother wanted to mark the occasion by making a personalized cake topper for his birthday cake. The figures she made were the cast of the Backyardigans. The reason for this is because our son loves this show so much.

My wife started sculpting clay last year and from that time has really gained a lot of skill and experience, well in my eyes anyway and you could say I am biased because I’m her husband *snicker*

I was having a sip of coffee in my regular mug when I realized that I could make my own personalized mug showcasing my love for all things mecha. Well maybe Macross Frontier for starters *snicker*

We had some leftover decal sheet in the house after we had the idea to adorn our mugs with pictures of our son, so definitely this project was a Go!. We had bought the decal sheet and the decal sheet spray from our local bookstore. If you can’t find it in your office supply shop, you can try also your local hobby shop, since model kit builders have long made their own decals to detail their models.

I’ve had this block of plaster of paris sitting on my work bench for a few weeks already. Haven’t gotten around to working with it yet. In one of my previous posts I wrote that I accidentally broke the main fuselage of the Macross Lancer II SF-3A project that I was working on.

While studying resin casting I was told that no release agent will be needed when making Silicone Rubber molds. Release agents are used to create a thin layer between mold and master(usually fluid) so that it will make it easier to remove the master from the mold once it has hardened.

Most of the time however I’ve noticed that with tight or small spaces of the master, the Silicone Rubber has a tendency to stick to it. It could be a case of just incorrect mixing with the hardener and Silicone Rubber, but the best way to ensure this from not happening is to use a release agent.

One of the problems I faced when making the top wing of the 1/60 Lancer II SF-3A scratch build project was the lack of scratch building materials in my region. I had wanted to use styrene sheets but because the local hardware stores didn’t carry it (there is no hobby shop in my place) I ended up using Polymer Clay.

Haven’t posted in a while with regards to the 1/60 Lancer II SF-3A scratchbuild that I’m working on. Anywhoo, I’ve decided to outsource some of the parts, specifically the main cannon to a machine shop. This is because I didn’t have the equipment to make a tapered pole and the ridges of the Main Cannon.

It was initially hard, looking for a machine shop that could make the part, given the small dimensions. I realized that being in an agricultural region means that there are only few shops that have the equipment to make that kind of detail in a piece of steel.

Update: A more detailed post with pictures on how to fix broken rubber bands in GI Joe figures can be found here.

In the coming weeks I’ll start posting my G.I. Joe - Real American Hero figure Collection. Have to take some time to do some repair of the figures first.

Due to the age of the figures the rubber band that is used to hold the legs, hips and torso together had deteriorated. My figures are usually stored in a box away from sunlight, why they deteriorated I don’t know, could be because of some built up moisture.