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Post by ikkiphoenix on Aug 30, 2017 12:05:58 GMT -6
So, I did it. Mission success. I did run into some bumps along the road, but overall it turned out OK. 1. The back/heel of one of the boots did melt a little and the paint came off the rear heel (but no biggie, nothing a little paint cant fix) 2. The legs ended up snapping off at the ankles when i tried to remove the boots. (But still much better than cutting/sawing at the leg like I was going ot do) 3. And I punctured one of the boots, (right front) while I took the polishing head of the Dremel inside to make a bigger cavity. (but it doesn't look bad, then I added a bit of toe rub on the boot and it just looks like a bit of battle damage after she finished kicking vegeta's ass, literally) And she looks like she's just finished checking out the damage on her boot But all in all I'm happy. The figure looks much, much better. i don't think you can appreciate it unless you actually have one on hand and see just how long the legs are. And this is a problem with both the bootleg and the authentic as many people gripe about it. Another huge plus is thta I fixed the stance and she can stand without a base now, which is another huge plus in my book. There was no way in chance she could stand before, not even a little, and again, this is true to the authentic as well. Which BTW, this bootleg is the best DB knock off I have ever seen. I hioghly recommend it, it is literally 99% true to the OG. And they're going for around $25 right now versus 100+ for the authentic. But anyway, please excuse the crappy cell phone pics. Also I havent glued the stubs/legs into the boots yet, but she stands perfectly, and proportionate from the waste down Also, the stance has the same exact angle from the booty up.
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Post by ikkiphoenix on Aug 30, 2017 9:17:52 GMT -6
Yeah, did you watch the video in that post I linked to? I didn't watch it with the sound on, but that's pretty much the same process. Oh shoot. No, but I just watched it. That link has a lot of great tips. Thanks again. OK, it seems easy enough. Ill take the boots off later, and report back Also. is that your video? Do you think that Gogeta got soft enough to be cut straight with an Xacto knife?
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Post by ikkiphoenix on Aug 30, 2017 8:19:06 GMT -6
Ok, so, just to review, I should dip it in the boiling water for about 45 seconds, only? And dip the whole boot portion, right? Let the water come inside the cavity?
Thank you
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Post by ikkiphoenix on Aug 29, 2017 15:52:18 GMT -6
Well, I put a lot of figures into freshly boiled water and have almost never had an issue. I haven't done this particular figure, but it's unlikely to be unique. I've been customizing DBZ figures since 2001, though Irwin DBZ and Jakks DBZ ones mostly. You shouldn't be dipping the figure deep enough to deform the entire leg(s), as you only need to submerge the area just above the boots. If things deform, the plastic will be soft enough to re-situate the figure into the position you want the legs. You can then put it under cold running water in the sink or freeze it. See this video here dragonballfigures.com/post/161/threadGenerally, if doing this, I would boil, yank the boots off, trim the legs after making them have replacement extended pegs to go in the boots (or slice the peg off and plan to glue), and then put the legs back in the water so they'd be pliable enough for me to reposition them to go in the boots. Don't overlook the fact that when you take off 1/4 to 1/2 an inch of material, the figure is no longer going to (likely) stand properly anymore, and so you'll either have to (1) cut a little, put the boots on, cut a little more, put the boots on, and then cut at angles to get the boots to stand properly or (2) cut and then try to deform the legs to account for the change in angles and all that. That figure is in a very unusual pose, and it's not going to be a simple straight cut that solves this. It's never a simple straight cut honestly. It takes trial and error as well as pre-planning the angles to cut. Thanks for the great tips. Yeah, I think I'll do that... to try to pull the boots off using boiling water. And yes, I did think about the fact that the balance will shift, and it will be a bit of a challenge to keep the same stance with the same exact angle, but I'm up for the challenge. That stand is pretty sturdy though. It has two small pegs on the left foot, whereas the right foot has no pegs at all (and the boot can be moved anywhere) so I'm confident that I can make it work, But if the boots have upward pointing pegs, then I might be able to drill new female peg-holes into the leg again. Becasue frankly I don't see the point of gluing pegs, I would just glue the stub into the boot int hat case, i don't really plan on removing it later anyhow.
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Post by ikkiphoenix on Aug 29, 2017 14:00:18 GMT -6
That came out rly great.
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Post by ikkiphoenix on Aug 29, 2017 11:06:01 GMT -6
To me the legs are the best part, the chest is the part I couldn't live with, but that's off-topic I guess. It's very likely that the boots are a separate piece from the legs. If so, you just need to put the legs in freshly boiled water (2 minutes in the microwave for 1 cup of water, 4.5 to 5 minutes for 2 cups of water in a glass measuring cup) for about 45 seconds, dry them off and shake the hot water out, then pull the boots off while holding a towel to protect yourself from a boiling hot drip of water on your skin. Then you can simply use an x-acto knife and slice through the hot plastic of the legs like slicing through a hotdog. Don't microwave the figure, just the water. And there's likely pegs on the bottom of the legs, and you could either quickly half-ass the job by slicing the bottom of the legs off and super glue the boots on or trim the pegs and then be all fancy and extend the length of the leg by slicing the leg like a longer peg. Then you could just snap the figure back together if you did a very neat, precise job. You could use a hair dryer instead of boiled water, but it takes longer and I only use a hair dryer when the figure is too large to fit in a glass measuring cup. I find using a hair dryer extremely inconvenient and a big waste of my time and effort generally. Great, thanks. I have never boiled plastic to the point that it could be cut straight without a saw, but I would think that boiling the plastic to that point, that it could potentially present a whole new set of problems as well. For instance, it could elongate/stretch the legs at the knee & thigh, and disfigure it. It could also melt the paint application or "boil" the plastic/paint around the knee area which is the area that will be exposed. Then again, I have next to zero experience working with PVC and customizing figures & statues. My exp. lies in smithing & machining, and it mostly entails cutting & polishing. Having said that, I am very crafty with a Dremel and a drill. I have fixed many a figure with the smallest of drill bits and done magic/miracles. I definitely feel more confident using those tools. And in this case, since the sawed off part would be out of sight, I think it would work just fine. Also, for some reason the legs don't look that long in the pictures, but trust me, in person, they look really, really long. The arm length's are exactly the same length as the SH Figuarts No. 18, yet the legs are over an inch longer.
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Post by ikkiphoenix on Aug 29, 2017 9:05:43 GMT -6
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Post by ikkiphoenix on Aug 29, 2017 8:58:15 GMT -6
Hey, I recently got a KO Megahouse No. 18 statue, that I am very happy with, except for one thing —the legs. They're way too long. About 3/8 of an inch.They are disproportionate to the rest of the body. So I want to mod it and shorten the legs a bit. I was wondering if you guys had any tips. I'm thinking that the best way to go about it is to Dremel the legs off at the boot-length. And then drill into the boots, make a bigger (but equal) cavity in each boot, about 1/2 to 3/8 of an inch, and thus fix the legs and make her more accurate to the character/likeness... and I know this statue is not exactly accurate in all the "proportions" . But the other disproportions I don't mind too much. The legs, on the other hand, are an eye sore. I measured the arms's lengths, and they are the same length as the No. 18 SFH, yet her legs are way long in comparison. The proportions are off, plain and simple. It should be easy enough.
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Post by ikkiphoenix on Aug 28, 2017 15:49:49 GMT -6
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Post by ikkiphoenix on Aug 27, 2017 12:50:35 GMT -6
Yes, they changed their terms of service and added a ridiculous amount of ads, making the website a pile of hot garbage: 1. You can't do 3rd party hosting unless you upgrade your account and pay them hundreds of dollars a year. (So no picture posting on forums unless you upgrade) 2. Older accounts that may have gone over the bandwidth limit are locked unless you upgrade. You cannot even access it to retrieve your pictures.(So basically users are locked out and their accounts are being held ransom.) 3. And the ads. The website has become a slow pile of hot garbage with all of the ads that they added. So yeah, basically they just drove most of their users/traffic elsewhere. I highly recommend using Imgur. It's free. You can host third party pics to post in forums, same as the old PB. Also, no ads. All the best I'm confused, though... why use a website to hold your photos when you can just have them saved to your computer and hit the "Add Attachment" button? Most forums don't have that option. DBF is definitely the exception to the rule. And also, some might prefer to post the whole pic instead of a thumbnail.
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Post by ikkiphoenix on Aug 27, 2017 10:15:28 GMT -6
Yes, they changed their terms of service and added a ridiculous amount of ads, making the website a pile of hot garbage:
1. You can't do 3rd party hosting unless you upgrade your account and pay them hundreds of dollars a year. (So no picture posting on forums unless you upgrade) 2. Older accounts that may have gone over the bandwidth limit are locked unless you upgrade. You cannot even access it to retrieve your pictures.(So basically users are locked out and their accounts are being held ransom.) 3. And the ads. The website has become a slow pile of hot garbage with all of the ads that they added.
So yeah, basically they just drove most of their users/traffic elsewhere. I highly recommend using Imgur. It's free. You can host third party pics to post in forums, same as the old PB. Also, no ads.
All the best
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Post by ikkiphoenix on Aug 26, 2017 15:52:46 GMT -6
BTW, they are in scale and look great side by side.
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Post by ikkiphoenix on Aug 26, 2017 14:48:02 GMT -6
Crappy cell pic, it doesn't do it much justice.
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Post by ikkiphoenix on Aug 26, 2017 10:48:11 GMT -6
Maybe, I'd need to get him in hand to be sure, but he does look really good. The anatomy/likeness on the SHF is a bit off around the deltoid/trapezius. I'm thinking that they wanted to keep his shoulder/deltoid size as big as they are in the character design, but due to the nature of figures and their respective joint systems/articulation ranges, they had to divide the shoulder/neck without obstructing movement/articulation, and thus, they created this eye sore of a gap that makes the shoulders look even more exaggerated, (as if it had two inflatable Tempur-pedic pillows on the side of his shoulders.) But the FigureRise looks better in that regard, more accurate to the character's likeness, it looks as seamless as it could look considering the size of the shoulders/deltoids. Having said that, the gap in the SFH is only pronounced when its arms are down. If you raise the arm laterally, the gap closes. But like you said, we'd have to wait and see. I'd also like to see how it compares in size to the SHF. Edit: BTW this is the gap I was referring to. They didn't give the Broly any traps and thus you see this weird gap and the shoulders look way too pronounced. 1) It's not anatomically correct. And 2) it's not accurate to the likeness/design of the character. And if you notice, the fixed that design flaw in the Figure Rise Broly, it has bigger traps.
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Post by ikkiphoenix on Aug 26, 2017 10:16:23 GMT -6
No hard feelings here.
All the best
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