[dreamer]

Workbench Supplemental: What's your restoration?

Among the most rewarding modeling experiences I've had have been taking buildups that looked like trash and resoring them to the point you'd think they'd been built right in the first place. The first models I did on first returning to the hobby were the old Aurora monsters I still had, squareboxed glow editions. They weren't too bad off, but a Superboy I acquired was a real mess! To take something anyone would throw out and turn it into a thing of beauty...deeply satisfying. Also a fun challenge, and a gopod way to develop those skills.

So, have you tried it yet? What are you currently restoring or getting ready to?

I'm still working on Captain America now, wasn't in bad shape but needed seamwork and a better paint job on the grass. Getting ready to resoptre an Aurora Phantom, looking over the Leif Ericson ("UFO Mystery Ship" re-issue), numerous others. Got a whole backlog of old kits to redo!

Having trouble finding a few of them - somewhere around here I've got the flying saucer Ed Wood used, and an Aurora Blue Knight, but can't locate where they went.

 

[dreamer]

...that should read "Workbench Supplemental"...

Lousy ortten ypting.

had a neighbor once named Oton Ipting. Poor sod was born to be scapegoated. I blame him for everything.

 

[Cappy D]

I've done quite a bit of restoration work, and I agree, it is very rewarding. I have an old Aurora Spartacus waiting in the wings, and I recently acquired a very messed up Aurora Batmobile on the e-place.

- Cappy D

 

[KUROK]

I plan to restore an old AMT "Spock shooting the snakes" model that I got at an online auction for a great price. It's complete except for the tricorder but I plan to refabricate that and the phaser and communicator. That is, if I ever get 'round to it...

 

[AZbuilder]

well I plan to redo my late wife's PL/Aurora re-pop of the Wolfman one of these days. there is a few pics on my modeling site. You will see what kind of job I have ahead of me. I need to strip the paint and take it completely apart, so I short I need to rekit the build.

AZbuilder
John Davis

 

[Just Plain Al]

I recently came across a box in my parents attic that contained some of my models from 30 years ago. A few that I plan on redoing are the Spock w/snakes, Aurora Crusader, and the Black Bear w/cubs. I totally agree Jeff, it is one of the most satisfying aspects of this hobby of ours, to rescue a glue-bomb or de-paint glob a classic is great!

Al


_____________________________________________________________
Pity the poor dyslexic agnostic with insomnia who stays awake all night wondering if there really is a Dog.

 

[dreamer]

Man, I envy you guys who've got those rare Auroras that'll never be reproduced - that'd be a great experience: my favorite kind of kit (figure/dio), and the joy of saving a rarity. Someday I'll start snagging them on ebay, and I kinda hope they need real work! :lol: Maybe it'll even keep the cost of the auction down!

Got me one o' them Spock and snake kits, too, also missing the tricorder. Those snake scales are not going to be easy, those pieces are rather broken.

Found the Glencoe Ed Wood saucer this morning (or was it Glencoe?), most of it, still looking for the canopy. I want to use BMF and detail the thing a little.

I'm also soaking a Neanderthal Man in Castrol right now.

Not a kit, an actual Neanderthal man.

Okay, a kit. The old Pyro/Lifelike. Going through old kits like crazy recently...disassembling, stripping the paint, gathering refs and making notes. All prelim stuff. Alot of spaceships, even though I'm not ready to do 'em yet.

 

[DinoMike]

Not much in progress... but queued up for eventual restoration, I have:


AURORA KITS:

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
2 sets of Prehistoric Scenes
both Man from UNCLE kits
Batmobile
Dr. Jekyll as Mr. Hyde. (Glow version)

AMT KITS:

Spock with Snakes

MPC kits:

Mannix roadster (2 copies)
"Good Guys" Taxi (2 copies)
2 Haunted Mansion kits
1 Pirates of the Caribbean kit
"My Mother the Car" 28 Porter (3 copies)

Why multiples of some kits, you ask? Simple... I got imcompletes for good prices... will resin-cast missing bits as needed to finish them all up.

(Edited because I keep forgetting to add some of the kits to the list...)

 

[beck]

i got an Aurors Dr. Jekyll off eplace a few years back for about 10 bucks . so you can just imagine what shape he was in . had to fabricate some parts ( upper arm and front of shirt ) by taking molds off my friends kit .
i was able to get it apart fairly easily for it being a glue bomb . actually the glue spills that were on the floor worked out to be spilt chemicals . i made some little test tubes to lay about . had to make the beaker and spill and cobweb from scratch .
had a lot of fun with him though .
King Kong is another memorable reatoration . but that's a whole 'nother story .
hb

 

[MonsterModelMan]

Dreamer,

I'm working on Aurora Captain America kit.

Can someone direct me to a mold making source that will allow me to make a mold of capts two feet? I had to destroy one of his poorly built feet in order to correct the placement and the other was missing from my restoration project.
I origianlly thought that i would just sculpt them but I've since found another build. I may just use those to replace the missing ones but then I would have a second kit with missing pieces.
I once saw a gallon jug of some kind of latex (pink) that you could pour into a cup and make a mold with. It was very rubbery type of substance but I don't know exactly what it was called. Then, I need to figure out how to make resin to go into the mold. Something tells me that this is going to cost alot of $$$ to do this...

Dreamer...what do you do?

MMM

 

[John P]

I haven't started it yet, but I have an original Aurora Superman and Godzilla that I bought from a friend. He'd built them when he was 9, and boy howdy do they ever look it!

 

[dreamer]

Dreamer...what do you do?

MMM

Oh, wish I had a better answer...we need someone to tell us both the exact latex we need for molding with the best detail, then learn resincasting. As yet, I've been lucky in having only had to replace few pieces, usually ones I could create passable facsimiles of with putty or styrene...or found someone with the part in question. Sooner or later Im going to face the same dilemma as you, an important part with specific lines. That's going to need casting. na dthat's going to mean practicing it t'til you're (we're) good. maybe you can ask round, someone who has the parts and knows casting would be willing to make a pair of boots for you? I can try to sculpt them, but you know they won't be perfect. Take some time too, I haven't ordered the Apoxie clay yet.

I haven't started it yet, but I have an original Aurora Superman and Godzilla that I bought from a friend. He'd built them when he was 9, and boy howdy do they ever look it!

That was the same friend I got Superboy from. John's right, they look it in spades. But that restoration taught me alot! Gez, it seemed in some spots the builder got confused over the difference between glue an paint, and just swirled 'em both together and applied with a ladel! Some detail in the base was lost, and I discovered with my Dremel that the original sculptor must have used a rotary tool in the exact same way I did to give it texture - I was able to restore the base, fix an odd detail Aurora screwed up (there are smooth "vee" shapes where the cave was going to be placed in an earlier draft, never cleaned up when they reconfigured the look of the kit, and gave the "cave" an interior seamless to the rest by using the same texturing technique on epoxy putty for cave walls.

Wish I had a photo of it. It got damaged a little, needs some repair (restoring a restoration).

 

[Captain-Raveers]

My AMT/ERTL NX-74205 Defiant kit....gonna hopefully get a lot of paint thinner next week and strip the damn thing and paint it a lot better than compared to the paint job it has now.

Trent

 

[dreamer]

NO!

NO PAINT THINNER! DON'T DO IT!

You weren't being literal I hope. Listen, paint thinner damages plastic. You soak that puppy in thinner, you may be restoring more than just the paint job.

I found out the hard way on my Auroras. It's even worse on glow plastic, Dracula's head partially disintegrated.

Use Castrol degreaser, Pine-Sol, Easy-Off, or one of the paint strippers made specifically for the hobby. I prefer Castrol. None of those hurt the plastic.

 

[robcomet]

Which Castrol degreaser do you use? Does anyone know if it is available in the UK and by what name?

 

[dreamer]

Hmmm... I use Castrol Superclean Cleaner/degreaser - when I pay attention to whixh bottle I'm picking up. last time I came home with Castrol Concrete Cleaner becaus the bottle was identical. Won't help you though, there web site doesn't list any sited outssiode America where it's sold.

But that's just one alternative. There must be an equivalent over there, or a UK version of Pine Sol...? Guys? What say you? What do you know of?

Maybe that should be a thread all it's own, "available paint strippers in the UK". Get a better response if more people see it.

 

[Heavens Eagle]

My AMT/ERTL NX-74205 Defiant kit....gonna hopefully get a lot of paint thinner next week and strip the damn thing and paint it a lot better than compared to the paint job it has now.

Trent

Definitely DO NOT use paint thinner! I used it on a Hasagawa 1/72 Heinkel 51b floatplane years ago and the plane fell apart. Eventually though I redid everything found detail drawings and photos and built it into an award winning model. Still have it and it is a beutiful little kit, but what I began the rebuild with was almost more work than a new kit would have been.

 

[beck]

a while back someone ran a thread on paint stripping and listed a car modelling site that mention several products . ya might do a thread search and see what comes up .
hb

 

[Captain-Raveers]

:lol: Okay okay! I won't use paint thinner then...so what would be the best stuff for me to use??? How does paint thinner harm the plastic??

Trent

 

[beck]

it dissolves it .
hb