Vinyl Figures?

Horizon is defunct? Too bad. I run across the ocassional kit here in Japan. Primarily the comics-based stuff, like The Thing, Thor, Captain America, etc.
What are you looking for?

Yep horizon stopped making figure kits around 1998 IIRC. They made a few dino kits after that dunno if they're still being produced or not. Check ebay, most horizon kits pop up there for around $20-40, except for the Frankenstein and the Creature from the black lagoon which typically go higher, up to $75 or so. Not too many companies do vinyl anymore. It's not cost effective unless you're mass producing kits as the metal molds are very expensive to make. Geometric was one of the few remaining vinyl kit companies but they recently closed as well.

i should have said that there aren't many US companies making vinyl kits any more. There are several in Japan that still do vinyl...kotobukiya, max factory and few others.

You've certainly got that right, Lodger!
Kotobukiya, Max Factory, Kaiyodo, Billiken, Volks, Wave, M1, Atelier G, KOC, Ace Company, Bandai, Fewture, Marmit, Marusan, and Medicom Toy, just to name a few more!

GeoMetric is gone, too? Glad I got the Ymir and Cyclops when I did!

QUOTE: GeoMetric is gone, too? Glad I got the Ymir and Cyclops when I did!

yeah, they had pretty much quit making new models a year or two (or more) ago, but they had still been casting and selling their more popular kits. The head honcho got busy with his real job and decided to shut down this past june or july.
J-Hulk if you're interested in vinyl & resin figure kits you might wanna check out http://pub76.ezboard.com/bplbbmemberssite.

Too bad about GeoMetric.
Thanks for the link, it's an interesting site!

AMT/Ertl Made some star trek vinyls I still see them around sometimes There were some other subjects too. (One of the ST ones was a xmas gift a few years back and it was vinyl)

I was just given a vinyl kit yesterday, it's one othe amt/ertl vinyl kits, Emperor Palpatine. The detail on it looks great, there are some parts that seem like they'd be pretty rough as far as fit goes. Hopefully they'll get better if I use some hot water and tweak on them. If I lay down a good coat of future before I paint it, could I use enamels on top of them? I've never built a vinyl kit before. Any tips and/or hints would be really appreciated.

madda

Madda,
I would recommend using acrylics and not enamels on vinyl kits. You might want to prime it also befor painting. I suggest using Krylon sandable primer. Been using for years and it works fine. Be sure to clean your kits in soapy water to remove any release agent still remaining on the kit. As far as triming your parts, you might want to try using a hand held hair dryer to warm the parts before cutting. Be careful however, the vinyl will be very soft and as you know an x-acto is very sharp. Cut away from yourself. You might also want to fill the bottom of the kit to give it some stability and strenghten it. Some use plaster, others use wadded up newspaper or expanding foam filler sold at hardware stores. Others will use a product called "Mountains in Minutes" this is a two part chemical product sold at Hobby Shop for railroaders. Use the "superglue" products sold at Hobby Shops like Zap a Gap and others to assembly your kit. I know this sounds like a lot, but building figures can be very entertaining and artistic in your expression of the character and the life you can bring to it through your skills. I also suggest checking out a few figure publications for further info. Mags such as "Amazing Figure Modeler", Modelers Resource, Kitbuilders and Model Maniacs. You should be able to find some of these mags at your local hobby shop or possibly Barns and Nobles.

Hope you enjoy figures
Rogue

It looks like I may have to break down and buy some acrylics after all. All my paints are laquer or enamels,and I have a pretty good range of them. Of course, I like to buy paints, so having to get new types is not all bad.

I trimmed the flash last night, went pretty well, no cuts yet. The fit is pretty bad in a couple of places, I may see about using heat and bending it to fit better. Anyone know what kinda putty is best with vinyl? Maybe I should invest in some kind of epoxy? Hopefully this will come out looking okay, I'd hate to have the paint job come out looking like crap. Anyone have any suggestions as to what paints to use for flesh tones on something like this?

madda

Madda,
Sounds like things are moving along fine. With bad fits, I've found if you heat one of the parts to be mated before gluing, then attach it, it comforms better. It may not remove the seam needing putty, but aleast reduce it. For putty I've used Bondo (red putty) I bought at WalMart for my vinyl and resin figures. Seems to work pretty well and sands up easy (Have plenty of ventilation and maybe a filter mask). Flesh tones...Badger makes an excellent line of paints for figures known as "Freak Flex". They have a wide range of colors (including flesh tones) and are great straight from the bottle. Check with your local hobby shop for availablity or online. I also use Liquitex tube paints and mix my own flesh tones.

Have fun...it's yours to do as you wish..
Rogue

Thanks again for the tips sir! I'll look for freak flex next time I hit the lhs. I'll try the heat to get the pieces to conform soon. I have probably got too many projects going on at once right now :) Do you have any pics of figs you could post? I love seeing peoples work.

madda

Madda,
Never tried this before, but let me if I can place a couple of jpegs here. This is a test...



Ok...I give up. I've tried this several times now and can't get any pics on here. I know it can be done by the pics I've seen before here...namely work in progress thread. Ok guys HOW can I do it? Help a fellow out...

Rogue

The easiest way is to copy your link using right click. When you get the the part of your post where you want the pic to be you have to type (again no spaces). What you'd end up with is something like this:

if you take the spaces out, you'll get a pic in your post.


It's really not that hard once you do it a few times. Your pic does have to be somewhere on the internet though. If you don't have a host, check out the thread about RonUSMC's free image hosting. Hope that helps, I do want to see some pics!

madda

I hear your complaint , I wish I hadve picked up a few of the Elvira kits, now thye run about $100+ !! But, there is one source to get these old kits. The guys that put Horizon out of business in the first place....those nasty recasters, usually in Thailand. They sell many of them on Ebay. Some are good, some not, but they are cheap. Its the shipping that kills.
About the filler for the vinyl kits... I use the Vinyl cement made by Ambroid. I picked it up at Hobbytown. It works great for glueing vinyl, much better than superglue. And I even use it for filler too. It drys very fast and can be smoothed when applied so you dont have to do much sanding, which is difficult on vinyls anyway. Hope that helps, tim

I'll look for the vinyl cement product at my lhs when I go there tomorrow. Is it pretty thick like superglue, or runny like plastic cement? I read where a product called magic sclup is pretty good too. I'm new to the figure thing, so am a total newb in this area. Sorry for the double pic up there, accidental.

madda

Madda,
Eh, how does the right and left button concept work for us Mac owners? My mouse only has the one clicker.

Rogue

Hmmm, that I dont' know, I've never been a mac guy. Where do you go if you want to save a picture or copy a link or something, it should be the same thing. You could always just copy the link down and retype it. How do you like that mac?

madda

Acrylic paints for flesh: I use the testor acryl, 4 bottles, light and dark bases, warm and shadow tints you can make just about skin tone with them from cossacks to buffalo soldiers

when trimming vinyl try warming it a bit some time it cuts better soft

Madda (and everyone else),

If you like figure kits (vinyl, resin, plastic, whatever) you should check out Gremlins in the Garage. It is a phenomonal website devoted strictly to figures, has how-to articles, reviews, etc. and an absolutely HUGE photo gallery broken down to horror, historical, sci-fi, girls etc. Be sure to look at some of the work by Mike James in the 'Girls' gallery (220 pics in that one). I wish I could paint half as well as he does. This guy is amazing.

http://www.gremlins.com/index.html

Good Link Hoser. There is a good article on vinyl figures there. I'll have to explore farther. Painting and drawing is mostly a matter or practice. It's mostly about your eye, "does that look right" after a while, your hand just sorta gets it. Give it a shot man, with some practice, I'll bet you can do great work.

madda

Thanks for the encouragement Madda, though I will leave the drawing to others like you that actually have talent. (You do great work, BTW) Drawing stick figures is pretty much beyond me.
Among my MANY unfinished projects is Halcyon's vinyl Judge Dredd. It's mostly assembled and painted (except for washes and dry-brushing), and I have scratch built a semi-auto pistol to replace the Buck Rogers-looking weapon. I figured it'd be easy as the only flesh tones are the face/neck and the helmet covers the eyes. Wrong! Dont know how many times I've repainted 'cuz the skin just didn't look right. Think I'll check out the Freak Flex RogueJ mentioned.
The next time you go to Gremlins, look in the Sci-Fi gallery. Someone posted a pic of the Emperor you are working on.

Well, let me be self-promotional. I run a new figure kit ezine with an emphasis on sci-fi, horro, kaiju, and dinosaur kits at www.creaturescape.com. Check it out if you can (subscriptions are still cheap--hundreds of color photos).

Sean

answering your question about the vinylt cement, it is thick, like gell CA glue. In fact, its almost like melted vinyl.
Also, I use Badgers Freak Flex airbrush paints for my skintones. The only problem Ive had with them though are the big chucks, just use a filter before pouring into your airbrush. The colors are perfect though for skintones. Cehck my website, all the figures Ive built, I used the Freak flex.

Madda,
Think I may have this figured out...so here goes.

http://members.toast.net/blackswampmodelers/HulkBust.jpg

http://members.toast.net/blackswampmodelers/Gowron%20Bust.jpg

http://members.toast.net/blackswampmodelers/FrankensteinBust.jpg

http://members.toast.net/blackswampmodelers/DracBust.jpg

Hopefully that worked..

Rogue

Hey, those are excellent! Are some of the busts really big, or was that just the close up? Really good quality figures Rogue, I'm impressed.


madda

Roguej,

Nice looking figures. To answer JHULK from the beginning, I am not sure what kind of vinyl figures I am looking for. I have seen and liked most of the DC Comic ones. I was curious if someone picked up the Horizon molds. I wish I could get a couple but you cannot do much with out the funds.

Scott

Actually all are full figure models except the Drac. 1/6th Scale Horizon's Frankenstein, GeoMetric Designs Gowron and Horizon's Hulk. The Drac is from GeoMetric's 1/4 bust line (no pun intended).

Rogue

Rogue, those are all excellent!