Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

!WARNING! This tutorial is can be dangerous to your home, your person, and your minis. Beware!

What you will need:
1) Plastic Minis
2) A Lighter (with an adjustable flame is preferred)
3) Some What of a High Pain Threshold

In this example I used Termagants. The area we are focusing on for this tutorial is their tails, normally they stick straight out behind them.

1) Using a lighter, with the flame set somewhere between medium and low, make two really really quick passes across the length of the tail. This part must be done really fast, like 1 and 1/2 seconds or less kind of fast. Too much longer and you risk burn marks and melting the plastic too much. If you see smoke, you are doing it wrong.

2) This part must be done even quicker, A.S.A.P. while the plastic is still hot, use your high threshold of pain to bend the tail by grabbing it with your fingers and shaping to desired angle. Think natural, curvy, non-90'degree angles.
2a) It also helps to use three fingers, placed along the length of the tail, two on one side and the third finger on the other side; then bend with the outer two fingers. The middle finger (no pun intended) will help guide the tail to a curved angle.

3) Repeat...

These two simple steps must be done fast, and with a soft yet firm and steady hand. So know what you are looking for before you start. If you move too fast and too hard in step two you risk ripping the tail off or making an unusable angle.

Practice makes perfect. If you want to practice using the lighter to heat the plastic, or even want to shape it again, make sure you give it plenty of time to cool down between each time you heat it up. The added heat will stack atop of the old heat and cause a greater risk of flat out melting or leaving burn marks.

Due to the fast paced nature of this tutorial you can imagine that I am unable to provide pictures of what to do "during" each step. But here is the finished product:


Some bend up, some down, some side to side, use your imagination. This sort of thing really only works on plastic parts that have little or no detail. Parts with high detail might get lost/smashed when your finger bends the plastic to shape so be careful.

And remember what I said at the start of this tutorial kids:

!WARNING! This tutorial is can be dangerous to your home, your person, and your minis. Beware!

Why must it be bent with fingers and not tools?

Because the pain is part of the ritual!

I have considered heating the plastic to bend up some fingers in an otherwise open hand... Hadnt thought of a lighter (tried boiling water - didnt work).

Because, this tutorial is for real men who can take the pain! This game isn't for no pansies!

LunaHound wrote:Why must it be bent with fingers and not tools?

Good question LunaHound. The reasons it is better to use your fingers instead of a tool are three fold:

1) Time is of the essence. It is faster to dead drop the lighter and start right into shaping with the fingers. Picking up a tool adds precious nanoseconds of a delay. (Do not use Zippos, and aim for a safe spot when you do drop the lighter, as it can get pretty hot as well. For example: DO NOT aim for your lap)

2) It is easier to gauge how much stress you are putting on the heated plastic so you do not apply too much pressure and ruin what you started.

3)

SamplesoWoopass wrote:Because, this tutorial is for real men who can take the pain! This game isn't for no pansies!

(we will ignore the double negative at the end of that sentence, cause real men dont care bout no double negatives, that juss means it is twice as bad and twice as much not for any pansies, aint dat right men?)

Psyker_9er wrote:
DO NOT aim for your lap

Unless of course your aim is blisters in a VERY uncomfortable spot....

But seriously, why on earth aren't you using a candle?

and also why not use the heated salt methode? just heat an amount of salt (kitchensalt) and then in the heatet salt the plastic can melt to a certain degree. pull it out and bend at your wishes^^. read it on this site a couple of times.

Paintbrushturkey wrote: But seriously, why on earth aren't you using a candle?

One issue with a candle would be evaporating wax residue and soot. Plus with the adjustable lighter I used, I can control how much or how little flame to use.

Example: Darkkt mentioned bending fingers on an open hand. In that instance I would use the smallest flame to contain where I put the heat as much as possible and keep it from spreading unnecessarily to the rest of the hand.


(I will edit the original post to specify a flame adjustable lighter is preferred, thanks for all the feedback)

I feel compelled to mention that breathing plastic fumes is extremely dangerous...

not such a good idea to do it with a barbecue ligeter i tried it and now ive got blisters all over my left hand

Tools can also put an unnatural flatspot at the point of contact, where fingers can mold themselves to the cross section shape of the tail while you put the curve into its length.

Just dont get the plastic too hot or you will get thumbprints in your termagants lol.

grotsrus wrote:not such a good idea to do it with a barbecue lighter i tried it and now ive got blisters all over my left hand

HEY, I warned you! but welcome to manhood

Gitsplitta wrote:I feel compelled to mention that breathing plastic fumes is extremely dangerous...

I warned you too! Never said this was a safe thing to do. You are right about the fumes, however, the point is to only "heat" the plastic. Just enough heat so that it is malleable and shapable. Hopefully you are moving so fast that nothing "melts" or "burns", so if any fumes do escape from the plastic, they are minute and disperse with out any problems. If you see smoke, you are doing it wrong.


(odd, I just notcied that some how the first line of the tutorial got cut out, so I put it back.... And I will say it again here too: !WARNING! This tutorial is can be dangerous to your home, your person, and your minis. Beware!

Awesome Idea. I wish I hadn't already primed and painted a good portion of my Nids. I will try this out though. Thanks!

Real Men for the Win!

If you are feeling brave enough, after you practiced on a few with out paint, this technique works even when they are painted. I had some of the Termagants in the base coat phase after they where primed that I tried it on and it worked fine. Since yours are fully painted I would not blame you if don’t really want to.

If you do however, you have to move even faster though, because the "melting point" of the paint is less than that of the plastic Termagant itself.

Also, be warned that some of the paint might come off and attach itself to your finger. If that happens, you are doing it wrong

A few touch-ups might be needed afterwards, but it is your call though.

I did this before on some of my termies, and I used a candle, and smooth heat reistant work gloves I found at menards.

Lighter would work too, I just used a candle for constant flame and kept a hand free.

Acardia wrote:I did this before on some of my termies, and I used a candle, and smooth heat reistant work gloves I found at menards.

Lighter would work too, I just used a candle for constant flame and kept a hand free.

True, a candle would provide a stationary constant flame, but as I mentioned before, there is the risk of the evaporating wax leaving behind a residue. Then again, everything about this tutorial involves some kind of risk.

Which is why this tutorial aint for no pansies, specially them pansy types that think they are smarter than everybody just because they thought to wear them there flame resistant gloves.
(just kidding)

This weekend I am going to be putting together yet another pansy free tutorial titled:
"Fun With Plastic and Sharp Objects!"

Another idea would be to use a smoke free oil candle. Providing a stationary flame, no waxy residue, and still plenty of manly potential.

NakedBatBoy wrote:Another idea would be to use a smoke free oil candle. Providing a stationary flame, no waxy residue, and still plenty of manly potential.

If you boys want to have scented candles everywhere during your tea party go right ahead. If you boys want to keep your manicure pretty by wearing them flame slowed gloves go right ahead.

Even if you do have time to go shopping with your mommy to get these magical smoke free candles, I would still suggest an adjustable lighter.

That way you can control the amount of open flame you want to work with. And I'm sticking to my on this.
Large flame for larger areas, smaller flames for smaller hard to reach areas.

Now! If you MEN want to do this with more power; grab your welding torch, grab your gonads, man up, and we can get this done in 0.005 seconds.

Or just use a gas stove, I guess that increases the risk of really cooking your hand though.

Trilobite wrote:Or just use a gas stove, I guess that increases the risk of really cooking your hand though.

Now you're cooking! No, I mean literally, now YOU are cooking.

There is a fine line between manliness and insanity... very fine line... and you my friend, are riding that line to the danger zone. But chicks like dudes with scars, so keep up the good work.

(now for legal purposes I must say, DO NOT DO THAT! DANGER! DANGER! WARNING! WARNING! STOP! SAVE YOURSELF! TURN OFF THE STOVE BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE!)

purge the unlcean with everlasting holy fire!!!!!!!

just burn the whole gaking mess and call it a nurgle army...

Viktor von Domm wrote:purge the unlcean with everlasting holy fire!!!!!!!

just burn the whole gaking mess and call it a nurgle army...

Keep melting it and call it: "All that remains of the unclean one that we just PURGED with everlasting holy fire!" (Or , you can call it: "Atrotuotwj Pwehf" for short. )

But, I do like where your mind is going with this. Creating things through their destruction.

It is an art form it it's own right. I wish more people would see it like we do. And plus, it is a battlefield after all. Perhaps half of the Termagant's face is melted off from a blast of plasma like Ol' One Eye. But the little guy kept on going, like a good little trooper, under the Iron Control of the Hive Mind.

In that case, I could see how you might want to use a metal sculpting tool to shape the now melted plastic into more of a skull shape.

But Remember:

Gitsplitta wrote:I feel compelled to mention that breathing plastic fumes is extremely dangerous...

well you could as well heat up some metallinstruments like normal butterknifes or a screwdriver and press the on the model for plasmadamages... also as many persons on the forum posted as anegative circumstance when striping minis with nailcolor remover. melt the part with it, aplicate it with a brush (one you hate^^) and instant sunburnt mini^^.

on a side note: i dont have currently enough minis to try out such methodes. the ones i have have to be fielded with all their limbs and facial features attached^^.but if i ever have to much i will get my evil revenge on them for having such places where you can not get it painted without messing other parts up... makes me MAAAAAAAAAADDDDDDDDDD

Psyker_9er wrote:

NakedBatBoy wrote:Another idea would be to use a smoke free oil candle. Providing a stationary flame, no waxy residue, and still plenty of manly potential.

Even if you do have time to go shopping with your mommy to get these magical smoke free candles, I would still suggest an adjustable lighter.

That way you can control the amount of open flame you want to work with. And I'm sticking to my on this.
Large flame for larger areas, smaller flames for smaller hard to reach areas.

You can move the wick higher for a bigger flame and lower for a smaller flame too.

Sure, go ahead. If you want...

exhibit A) Special Oil Lamp: $3-$5-ish for extra parts and accessories.
exhibit B) Corner Store Adjustable Lighter: $0.97-ish no extra parts.

For the price of the oil and the oil stand, you can even go to the gas station and get a lighter with a naked person on it. Maybe two or three. But, we are talking about sculpting and hand painting delicate figurines here.

And even if you do get an oil lamp, you will still need a lighter at least to get the candle lit.

With a lighter, you also have better control of where the flame will be positioned.

With a lighter, you can take the figurine with you and do this on the go.

With a lighter, there is no risk of a cat knocking oil off the table and setting the house on fire.

i am guessing you got a nack for lighters, right?
do you sometimes look in a flame so long that your fingers get burnt and you didn´t eaven notice...?


no prob mate, the bulky helpers with the white jacket will be with you in a min....






















get´m boys!!!!!!!!!!

Viktor von Domm wrote:i am guessing you got a nack for lighters, right?
do you sometimes look in a flame so long that your fingers get burnt and you didn´t eaven notice...?


no prob mate, the bulky helpers with the white jacket will be with you in a min...

LOL

Also,

Psyker_9er wrote:
With a lighter, there is no risk of a cat knocking oil off the table and setting the house on fire.

Fing nosy cats.

You make good points though about the maneuverability of a lighter. The cost is actually comparable though because the candle is refillable. Eh, either way it works.

And kids, if you do decide to go the candle route, remember that there's other ways in which you can make up for it by being manly. (Examples include: peeing outdoors, spreading butter on your toast with a hunting knife, not showering for a week, challenging the next squirrel or raccoon you see and killing it with only your mouth - as if you're a wild animal...)

That is right, step right up, Boys and Girls! If you can catch, kill, and eat something using only your teeth; be proud! (The Hive Mind Loves You!)

Hold your head, and your new fresh severed half-eaten head, and your lighter or scented candle raised up high in the air and ROAR! (It is easier for the Lictors to find you that way.)

We do not discriminate here; we can all be heManly here, or Womanly. It is what you have on the inside that counts. (All of that delicious biomass.)

However, everybody should stay calm, there is no reason to panic. We can all still find peace on this, our own Home-world... So there is no need to leave this planet on any type of spacecraft or teleporters. ( Mycetic Spores will shortly be sent to your own town!)

Candle users, Lighter users, hear me: UNITE! We are all humans right? So there is no need to be telling any authorities about anything; or calling anybody mean names like "Mutant" or "Xeno Heretic". What if they are the normal ones?!? And we should all be like them! (All your biomass are belong to us!)