15 replies to this topic

[Draznar]

My wife offered to paint some of my battle beasts for me, as a test, I gave her one of the roughed up Carps I had. She did a pretty good job if you ask me, especially since it was her first time ever painting a figure. The only problem is, where the arm moves is white from the undercoat of white she did.

So my question is, how do you take off the arms without breaking them? I remember reading it somewhere, but now I can't find it for the life of me. Any help would be appreciated!

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[Beastformers]

Its a good start for sure and its always good to have your own private custom painter

To pop out the arms the trick is as follows;
Take a good grip on the arm and keep turning the arm around while slowly trying to pull it out, its best to do this when the figure is held in your hand for a while so the rubber becomes a little more soft. Make sure you keep your grip as close to the body as possible and don't bend the arm outside its normal movement behaviour. Keep adding the force to pull little by little while turning the arm around and than at some point it'll suddenly pop out. Do the same trick when you push the arm back in because if you try to put it in without turning the joint connection of the arm might break as its so small.

BUT any custom artist here will admit and agree that the movement of the arms is always and issue in the paint process because one way or another it doesn't really work out. When you take the arms out and paint the figure's body and arms the paint applied might be just to thick to make it impossible to pull the arm back in and even if it works you will get paint damage again if you keep turning the arm instead of just displaying the figure as such. And in the case you paint around it, which is the best solution IMHO, you still have the issue that if you turn the arm paint loss might occur so my advice for a custom figure is to finish it and to just display it.

[Draznar]

the arm might break as its so small.

Just tried it and broke an arm. The first one came out beautifully, the other not so much. Thankfully, it broke in a place that gluing it back in won't look awkward. I'll just paint over the arm rotation and use it strictly as a display piece. You can definitely say that I've learned my lesson.

Now let's hope my wife doesn't kill me after all the hard work she put into it.

Edited by Draznar, 04 December 2012 - 12:26 PM.

[Beastformers]

As with more things in life you'll get more feeling with it the more you practise LOL
Sorry you broke an arm.....

[Draznar]

Sorry you broke an arm.....

No problem. With the exception of the fact that my wife painted it, it was a no-good figure. I picked it up for a buck for the express purpose for my wife to practise on. So we technically got what we needed out of it. Thankfully, it's salvageable and no one will be any the wiser.

Thanks for the tips!

[b00sted]

May want to poke eric on some pointers also he is always up to give a hand or two on helping people learn.

[OmegaTraf]

I have had success with shaving the rest of the tab off of the arm. Then piloting and inserting a small wood screw that will mimic and serve as the peg. Don't screw it in all the way. If its loose usually some clockwise rotations of the arm will tighten it up. Perfectly fine treatment for a custom.

Edited by OmegaTraf, 04 December 2012 - 03:15 PM.

[ScreaminDemon]

If the figure doesn't have a rub then you might want to try running some warm water on the body and then cold water on just the arm. I feel this is the best method along with turning the arm as GJ said unless they have a rub which hot water could potentially damage.
Good luck man, it's sad when they don't come out whole.

[cowbattlebeast]

Out of curiosity, what are people using to paint customs? Paint? Paint-pens? If paint, what kind and what size of brush? If markers, what kind and size? Any help would be greatly appreciated and awarded with pics, thanks.

[koppenschevelle]

I use a mixture of different brands of Acrylic paints. Primaily I use Folk Art, Apple Barrel, Delta Ceramcoat, and Games Workshop acrylics. Except for the GW paints, all those can be found easily and cheaply at a craft store such as Michaels or Hobby Lobby. From time to time, depending on the figure, I will use Testor's enamels as primers, specifcally grey primer or flat black. It gives a really nice surface for the acrylic paints to adhere to.

As for the paint wear at the joints, like someone said, that's a difficulty that all customizers deal with. usually I will just to just clean up that joint from any flash or excess plastic, and perhaps just cut away a small amount of plastic with an exacto blade.

As for taking the arms on and off, turn them while you pull them out really helps. and try to keep it as straight as possible while turning them into the joint. A lot of times, you will see the peg going in at an angle, which puts a lot of stress on the base of the peg, causing it to weaken and eventually break.

[bachamn]

Appreciate the tips on pulling the arms out; I've always found that to be a terrifying moment of truth...

Since we're talking paint here, and because I wasn't sure if it would be appropriate to post this in 'Need Toys', I've had an idea for a custom paint job for a while that unfortunately my skills of an artist are not up to.

As a kid I thought Cutthroat Cuttlefish was a squid, primarily due to the all-white body. After I learned that he was in fact not a squid, and knowing what a real cuttlefish looked like I thought it would be pretty sweet to paint him up to resemble something like the attached photo. Getting the eyes right would make a huge difference alone.

Does anyone here contract high quality paint jobs or know someone who does and might be interested in taking on this project? If I can't find any pros I might try it on my own, but the depth of detail and color involved in pulling this off combined with my lack of painting skills don't forecast a promising result for me.

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Edited by bachamn, 10 December 2012 - 09:21 PM.

[imperfecz]

I do commissions all the time... this would be a pretty in depth paint job... but I love a good challenge! Hit me up in a PM if you're interested & we'll talk!




Oh yeah click the green text link in my signature to see some earlier painted customs.

Edited by l.designs, 10 December 2012 - 09:43 PM.

[Donkeykid77]

I'm surprised so few of you know how to remove battlebeast-arms properly...
Just heat up the entire figure with a hairdryer or something until the figure becomes slightly warm to the touch and a whole lot more flexible...
Arms pop out super-easy that way and to pop them back in, just warm the body only (not the arms).
Same deal like with repro TGB-stuff...



2cents, DK77.

[Draznar]

As a kid I thought Cutthroat Cuttlefish was a squid

That's because Cuttlefish and Squids are in the same family tree. They're almost essentially the same animal, with a few different characteristics! See this if you're interested in more info: http://en.wikipedia....wiki/Cephalopod

Back on topic, that would be sweet if you could pull that off.

[Coelocanth]

I'd love to see a custom mold in clear with a ghosted white base coat and other colors to give him that mottled, multicolored camouflage look.

[bachamn]

That's because Cuttlefish and Squids are in the same family tree. They're almost essentially the same animal, with a few different characteristics! See this if you're interested in more info: http://en.wikipedia....wiki/Cephalopod

Oh I know all about the Cuttlefish; I did a pretty extensive report on them in one of my Bio classes in my undergrad. And of course I know that many squid can color change almost as dramatically as Cuttlefish but I've always been drawn to the awesome zebra stripe pattern and texture manipulation that the Cuttlefish have over the squid. They're also quite a bit more intelligent!