Airfix figures - please shoot me

Man I picked up Dragon's Sdkfz 251/16 kit with 3 of those blasted soft plastic figs. Oh lord how I hate these things! Forget about it. There is no way on Gods green earth to get those beepin' seams to dissappear. Toss those jokers in the trash can.

If Dragon starts makin' all their figs with this type of material I will cry for a month straight.

SST

ahhhhhhhhhhhhh

brings back vivid memories of a set of them I purchased as a youngster in the 80s.

 I still remember it to this day!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Run screaming!!!!!!

David 

You mean there's actaully a USE for this crap?????

david

Do a search for Preiser figures. They've been around since the last ice age, but they are excellent. Regular plastic, many interesting poses, no bases. I picked up the pilots and ground crew in the late 70's and they still stand up to many others in that scale.

Preiser at Michigan toy

My friend Doug and I used to buy those Airfix figures by the boxfuls and set up elaborate battles in his backyard -- Afrika Korps versus 8th Army was a favorite.  Then we sit back and shoot em with sling shots and bb guns. 

Of course that was in the days when we'd get rid of old models by staging The Attack on Pearl Harbor and set them all on fire... when mom wasn't looking!

Brumbles wrote:

My friend Doug and I used to buy those Airfix figures by the boxfuls and set up elaborate battles in his backyard -- Afrika Korps versus 8th Army was a favorite.  Then we sit back and shoot em with sling shots and bb guns.  Of course that was in the days when we'd get rid of old models by staging The Attack on Pearl Harbor and set them all on fire... when mom wasn't looking!

LOL

mfsob wrote:

These may well end up being consigned to target practice ... I thought I had found a way to make the paint stay on, but the least little flexing pops off huge flakes. Why Airfix, or Heller, or anyone else chose to make what are actually quite decent figures in this size out of this godawful soft plastic is beyond me.

If you painted 'em, then coated 'em in two or more coats of Dullcoat, to both harden the surface and toughen it, might that do it?

Then when you shoot 'em they'll look much better, at least! 

After a lot of pondering I may, repeat may, have stumbled on a way to clean up at least the worst of the "frizziness" you get from trying to scrape/cut the mold seams off these guys - I tried heat.

Heat as in, "I wonder if holding a straight pin in a candle flame and then running it alongside the mold seam would smooth it out better than trying to cut it off?"

That was quickly followed by, "You have to be careful not to heat the straight pin up too much while holding it with your fingers."

After a couple of, "Wow, it's  amazing how quick this soft blue plastic melts!" comments, I think I may be on to something. Film at 11. 

I've not used the Airfix figures, but I've painted 1/72 scale soft plastic figures from Orion.

Here's a great web site with illustrations and information on painting 1/72 scale plastic figures:

http://www.angelfire.com/id/macp/techniques.html

I used the techniques to paint the figures for my Martin MB-2, but primed with Future floor wax instead of white glue.

 Here are a few more web sites that I use for reference:

• http://www.finescale.com/FSM/CS/forums/128908/ShowPost.aspx
• http://miniatures.de/html/int/fastpaint.html
• http://www.hat.com/Tips.html

 Here's how a couple of mine turned out. I'm still working on using a wash on the figures to bring out their facial features:

.

I'm pretty happy with the results, but I hope to do better next time. [:D ]