How to Get Started Customizing, Figure Repairs, Other Advice

It's not very necessary or useful. It's difficult to use sand paper on small figures. A sanding block for fingernails is more useful. As for whether you need it for painting, no, you shouldn't need it for painting anything unless you want to make that part thinner.

purple dusk

Not for figures, that is for metal repair.

My last batch I got for around $10 at Hobby Lobby and they are two large squeeze bottles of part A and part B. It looks like this and for the price it is fantastic.


I don't think it is as strong as the Loctite kind for general repairs around the house, but for everything else it's fantastic. Plus, it's less messy than the tubes.

Apparently it can be bought online, but you can buy it in the store with their every-single-day 40% online coupon on their website. Seems like you might be able to use the coupon online as well.
www.hobbylobby.com/Crafts-Hobbies/Model-Kits/Paint-Brushes/5-Minute-Quick-Cure-Epoxy/p/146626

The current one is this one:



They refresh them every week or so.

I wrote this as a reply to someone on Facebook, and since I went through so much effort, I figured I should copy and paste it here (in case I never mentioned similar information here).

How to remove acrylic paint mistakes from a custom figure and clean up the edges

Acrylic paint is water-based, not oil-based, so using thinner, mineral spirits, turpentine, or nail polish remover is not necessary. Plastic is oil-based, and therefore, those solvents will all harm plastic. Since acrylic paint is water-based, it can be thinned with water when painting with it. You can't use water to thin enamel or oil paint. To quote Wikikipedia: "When dry, acrylic paint is generally non-removable from a solid surface if it adheres to the surface. Water or mild solvents do not re-solubilize it, although isopropyl alcohol can lift some fresh paint films off. Toluene and acetone can remove paint films, but they do not lift paint stains very well and are not selective. The use of a solvent to remove paint may result in removal of all of the paint layers (acrylic gesso, et cetera). Oils and warm, soapy water can remove acrylic paint from skin."

With that said, scratching with a toothpick has been my preferred method over the years. A safety pin or bent paperclip can be used in smaller areas, but will leave scratch marks that are difficult to repair. Soap and hot water will remove maybe 60% of the acrylic paint on a figure, but you won't want to use that to clean up paint mistakes like those on the Gohan figure or you'll remove paint you don't want to. (You'd only want to do that if you received a figure, it was painted terribly by a 12 year old, and you want to repaint it. And even then, it is generally better to just sand the previous customizer's terrible paint job smooth and paint over it.) Generally a toothpick will do the job if the sloppy paint is on top of a factory painted surface (in other words... the acrylic paint is NOT on top of other acrylic paint) . If the paint stained the plastic (like that dark blue will), I generally use my manicure tool (an electric, low-powered dremel--a regular dremel can be used but will be harder to control and more abrasive) to sand off the stain and then I'll polish it out by hand with a nail buffing block (if there is room to fit it in) and then I'll paint a layer of Testors Model Masters Flat Clear Acryl on top to make the smooth texture come back.

If you are trying to match a specific skin color, I recommend taking your figure with you when you visit a hobby store that sells paint. That way you can match it as best as you can.