Customizing gone wrong

have to vent. I was working on my Dagobah Luke tonight. I had painted the arms to match the existing skin, then decided I didn't like it. I was going to have to scrape the paint off, so I figured I'd put them in some water at meduim heat to soften up the paint and plastic.

Well, I forgot about them. All the water evaportated, leaving plastic arms laying in a metal pot.

I know have a half burnt set of VOTC Luke Skywalker arms...

Anyone else do something this dumb?

I once tried to RIT dye the body of a Chap Mei jeep. Unfortunately, Chap Mei plastic is a lot more sensitive than Hasbro plastic, and the thing warped almost instantly. And not just a little...I mean it almost turned itself inside out.

I once soaked a Guile torso in some heavy-duty brush cleaner (something akin to acetone) to remove the painted on shirt (I wanted to create a wholly bare chest)...only afterward did I realize how badly that stuff also softens plastic, when the entire screw-hole connection literally crumbled like dry bread the first time I tried to put the torso together.

Shortly thereafter I was turned onto the fact that 91% isopopryl alchohol would do the same job with less damage...

I guess I've been lucky in that most all of my customizing accidents have involved damage to me and not my figures. I'm nursing a small section of ripped skin on my knuckle where I removed some hardened superglue after not realizing I got it on my finger. And I've learned to never ever Dremel late at night if I've been up all day... chunks of fingernail removed, and more scrapes and cuts than I can count have happened that way.

Though I did accidentally dremel all the way through the top of a GtG head hollowing it out to use with a 25th balljoint neck. That pissed me off to no end. But a little Fixit took care of that. Kinda...

I've put a dremel bit through a couple of heads. I cut a VvsV Wild Bill boot in half just messing around once. I cut my thumb pretty bad last September. My biggest mistake was when I was scoring a wrist to add a new hand. I was using this scuplting tool that looks like a mini ice pick. The thing slipped and whent all the way through my finger. It just slide the bone to the side. It was pretty painful the next day. I wish I had gotten a picture of it but my instinct was to get that sucker out of there!

[joemichaels70]

the worst thing i've done to a custom is shrink/melt some mail-in storm shadows while trying to dye them,
unless you count blowing the custom by some really bad washes...

the worst thing i've done to myself while customizing is smacking my fingers at hyper-sonic speed while
trying to use a power miter saw to cut apart a havoc flatbed. that scared me real bad -- i thought i lost some fingers...

learned my lesson on that one...

I don't think I've every done anything too terrible to screw up a figure (gimme time...lol), but I've cut myself several times with an Xacto knife...once pretty badly. Oh...lol...I just did this one this week actually...my Xacto rolled off the desk and stabbed my foot.

...my Xacto rolled off the desk and stabbed my foot.

That's one of my biggest fears when customizing. I'm so paranoid about it that I put the cap back on the blade after each individual use. If I'm putting it down, even for a few seconds, the cap goes on. I've had a couple close calls (more than once having it fall into my lap) so I don't take chances any more.

my Xacto rolled off the desk and stabbed my foot.

Similar thing happened to me - but I intentionally let it stab my foot: my dog was sleeping at my feet and the Xacto rolled off while I had my hands full - so I blocked it with my foot to save Hondo - hurt like a mofo, and the damn dog didn't even say thanks

But other than that, I've been amazingly lucky - I've only ruined a handful of parts while Dremeling, and I'll occasionally nick my fingers, but only once did it bleed bad enough to require any attention.

I tried to get the paint off a Superman custom I made (He was seen in the Superman Vs. Dios I did a couple years ago) and used acetone not realizing it melts plastic. The whole figure melted right in my hands. So he went in the garbage.

I don't think I've every done anything too terrible to screw up a figure (gimme time...lol), but I've cut myself several times with an Xacto knife...once pretty badly. Oh...lol...I just did this one this week actually...my Xacto rolled off the desk and stabbed my foot.

I once laid a running Dremel on my lap while I went to adjust something...and I was wearing sweat pants at the time. Let's say it gave the term "nuts in a vice" a WHOLE new meaning and cured me of that stupidity very quickly...(who'd thought you could wrap that much material around a sanding drum so quickly?)

Dropping X-actos is almost a once-a-day thing for me--so far they've missed my foot though. Though I have managed to open up my thumb and the "meaty" part of my palm pretty badly with them more than once.

[pluv]

Where to start. I have made so many mistakes while trying to hurry for whatever reason. I've flung and cracked heads while dremeling them. I've lost glasses I spent hours making by dropping them in the rug never to find them again. I've had guests spill water on freshly painted customs causing the paint to look all weird in places even after repainting. I've boiled vehicle shells to loosen them apart only to find they don't fit back together like they should afterwards.

My favorite mistake has to be when I tried to added articualted ankles to a figure. I dremeled intot he top of the ankle for part of the peg I had inserted into the leg. In the monring I went to pick the figure up and snapped him at the ankle joints. The super glue in the leg had run down into the ankle and the ankle joint and into the peg whole where it glued itself to the table. I ruined the table, the ankle joint, an d the legs I planned on using with that one. A weekends worth of cutting got ruined. To this day I still haven't revisited that particular project.

I have a habit of catching knives when doing dishes if I drop them, and have had my X-Acto knife fall onto my foot.

I wear leather moccasin slippers and the blade bounced off.

My advice to all of you guys who use X-Acto knives is go to the school supply section of any store and buy a pack of those rubber pencil grippers. They come in all different colors and shapes and are used by people (kids) to grip their writing utensils better.

I have a lime greenish one on my main X-Acto that has a triangle shape.

The rubber creates friction and the flat sides prevents the knife from rolling even when set on a table.

Plus I can get a better grip on the knife when making precision cuts...

LOL...good to know I'm not alone. It wasn't horrible, and I didn't even think it was too bad and finished what I was doing (sculpting, so it was time sensitive) and THEN noticed that blood was seeping through my sock!

I think I like the pencil gripper idea cuz I use it as a sculpting tool too, so it's always lying on my desk unless I'm painting.

Doc...I hear you...I almost wrapped my hair around a dremel last week! I almost never have my long hair down when I'm " working" but it was wet and I was letting it air dry...lol.

[joemichaels70]

for all you xacto rollers --

i just bought a set of knives (four for $13) from micromark that have hexagon rings on them to keep them from rolling, plus they are 'soft sided' for comfort --


i picked up some other cool tools, too -- i'll take some shots & post tonight --