Maintaining Action Figures Clothing

Most of these tips are for cloth figure clothing.  These tips are by our opinion and we are not responsible for damages when trying these tips.

Steaming

Invest in a travel steamer or an iron with a steam function.  Get the type that looks like an upright canister with a side handle and a venting attachment at the top. Using this little miracle tool you can make uniforms look really sharp. It also will steam clean surface dust and help to upgrade the look of a cloth uniform. Regular ironing will scorch the fabric and leave shiny marks.  Work carefully and pull the cloth taut as you go. Hold the surface to be done between both hands and run it over the vents to "steam press" the garment. Holding it a little tightly helps. It takes a little practice and you'll probably get a couple of steamed fingers the first time out. Just work carefully and take your time.

Starching

Capes, berets and some other looser clothing needs some help keeping its shape. Try spraying it with diluted (1:1) starch, carefully forming the beret while on the figures head and letting it air dry. The item isn't rock-hard or anything it just stays where you put it now.

A way to form cloth berets, without a great deal of effort, to look like the way most soldiers wear them today. You'll need a bottle of Paul Mitchell Fast Drying Sculpting Spray or something similar.

1. Put the Beret on your figure and form it how you like.
2. Spray carefully and saturate the beret. Try to limit the spray just to the beret material.
3. Use a tooth pick or bamboo skewer to hold the beret in the shape you desire (you could stuff the item or make a form for it) to keep your fingers from sticking to the item as it dries.

Once dried, it's not sticky and not noticeable. 

Dyeing

The following alternatives work well on all cotton cloth:

1. A good dye to use is a VAT dye which will turn the fabric black (or whatever color you want) & will never come out. This dye is a bit caustic to use but works quick and lasts forever.
2. For a dye that is less caustic,use a Procyonb dye (sometimes known as cold-dyes). These dyes require much more soaking but are still permanent.

If you're going dye natural leather, use the Fiebing's Oil based dyes. The Tandy dyes are alcohol based and tend to leech the natural oils out of the leather causing it to crack on you after a short time. The Fiebing's, being oil based, doesn't do this, and is actually a little more resilient and produces a finish that's easier to apply evenly.

Sewing

Many problems seen in action figure clothing is the fabric unravelling (usually behind a seam). To prevent this, you "overcast the seam" which means setting the sewing machine on zig zag and sewing the hidden edge of the fabric on the inside. 

Use one little stitch to hold the collars down so they don't curl up.

You can use 1.2 mm brass nails for realistically sized buttons. Stick them through the material, cut of the excess (most of the nail) and add a drop or two of fabric tac. 

Gluing

Having trouble glueing those little fabric insignia's to the fabric uniforms of your 12" figures?  Aleene's Original Tacky Glue comes in a gold-colored squeeze bottle with a white top. It dries clear, and more significantly, flexible. So the insignia's won't peel off the figure when you move them around.

When glueing fabric to plastic, if you use modeling cement (either tube or liquid type), it will dissolve or soften the plastic you're working with.  If you use this, make sure you apply it to the piece of plastic, and not the cloth! 

Superglues (cyanoacrylates) are probably the best thing there is for attaching buckles or straps onto a model permanently. It will set instantly if applied to anything natural like cotton or skin. If you're attaching straps or buckles, be sure to only apply a tiny dot exactly where the cloth attaches or it wil make the entire strap stiff. 

Washing

Here's how to get those garments white and bright again. You need to buy two things:

• Softscrub With Bleach (the lemon version won't work)
• Efferdent denture cleaning tablets

1. Use a tupperware container large enough to lay the uniform flat.
2. Wet the piece of clothing and put it in the container.
3. Shake the Softscrub then apply it all over the item using a soft paintbrush.
4. Wait about five minutes then add warm water to the container so that it covers the uniform by about and inch.
5. Squirt some more Softscrub down on it and let it soak about 20-30 minutes - no longer.
6. Now take out the garment and rinse well under warm water.
7. Rinse out your container WELL and put about an inch and 1/2 of warm (not hot) water in it.
8. Pop in two or three Efferdent tablets and place your garment flat in the container.
9. Leave it in there overnight - about eight hours.
   Don't worry if the garment gets looking blue; it will go away in a couple of hours in the bath. It's removing any of the chlorine from the bleach and the baking soda and the Efferdent will really brighten the whites. You want all the chlorine gone because it would eventually yellow the garment. That's why using straight bleach isn't a good idea unless you Efferdent afterwards.
10. Take out and rinse. If it still isn't white or bright enough-try the Efferdent bath again.
11. Then rinse it well. You can use a "salad spinner" to spin all the excess water out.
12. Dry flat.

To remove magic marker, try rubbing alcohol. Pour through the fabric from the back. This works well on some markers and pens.

Next week: Hmmm not sure.  Check back next Monday.

Chinook & Hobby West

"Where the Fun Begins!"

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Creating Display Dioramas & Accessories For Your Action Figures

We regularly ask for tips, article ideas and general info from guys and gals just like you!  Recently, we were send this article. For the full article scroll to the bottom and hit the link.

This is just an opinion post about what you may try to do yourself. We are not responsible for any loss, injury, theft, etc. regarding any of the tips in this post.

Making an Oil Drum

• Take a 14 ounce can and remove the top and label. 
• Use one of the new Euro-Openers that cut from the side for best results. Eat contents and clean can. Dry well. Using a hot glue gun, glue the top back on. 
• Hot glue a 1/4" hex nut to the top near the edge and fill in the hole with glue. 
• Spray the can one of 3 colors: sage green, battleship gray or mint green. 
•  Label drums with rub on letters purchased from your local hobby shop.
• Display!

Making Walls

Here's on way on how to make a stone wall:

1. Items required: gravel, silicone RTV sealer (or caulking, or something similar), piece of wood as long as, and slightly wider than the section of wall you wish to build.
2. Glue the pieces of gravel to the wood using the silicone. Mix and match (like a puzzle) the gravel to give straight lines on the sides and eventually the top. The wall will get heavy enough to cause distortions if you try to do it all at once. Do about an inch or two high along the entire length of the wall and then let the silicone cure. Continue to add an inch or two in height every day until the wall is high enough. 
3. If you need a really thick stone wall, use a piece of Styrofoam and glue the gravel to the sides and top of the Styrofoam. The wall will still get heavy but the Styrofoam will help a bit!
4. If you fit the gravel together tightly, you can make a replica of a mortar-less stone wall. If you prefer to make a replica of a wall with mortar between the rocks, make the wall as noted above and let the silicone cure. After the silicone cures, run a bead of Elmer's or another hobby glue along the joints between the gravel and then sprinkle fine sand over the glue. After that dries brush off the excess sand. You can get fine sand in different colors from a hobby store that carries supplies for sand art.
5. Build the wall up to the end edges of the wood. This will allow you to make several sections of wall that will be smaller, easily stored and allow configuration changes for dioramas, etc. If you need to make a 90 degree corner, you can either make the corner as part of one section of wall, or make the wood ends as wide as the wall instead of a bit wider.
6. To finish off the sections of wall, glue dirt, model railroad ground cover, etc to the wood at the base of the wall. Also glue in a few bits of straw to simulate taller growing grasses, etc. -- Rob S.

Making Barbed Wire

How to Make Barbed Wire: Items needed: 30 gauge wire (found in hobby stores, Wal-Mart, etc - used for flowers & stuff), twigs (about 1/2 inch diameter), piece of wood (about 1/2 inch thick, plywood OK), glue, locking pliers or forceps, wire cutters, drill & bits, saw, rag.

1. Determine how much distance you want between fence posts. Also determine how high you want the fence to be (about 6 inches for a regular fence, about 16 inches or higher if you want to build a POW stockade).
2. Cut your wood about 2" - 3" wide and 2" - 3" longer than you want the fence section to be.
3. Cut the twigs to length, adding about 1/2 inch (or the thickness of your wood).
4. Drill 1/2 inch holes in the wood where you want the fence posts to be.
5. Glue fence posts into holes in wood. Set aside to dry thoroughly.
6. Cut a piece of the wire two times the distance between the fence posts, plus an extra 12 inches. For a 12 inch length of fence the length will be 36 inches (12 inches times two plus 12 more inches). The extra 12 inches of wire will be used to wrap around the fence post and secure the wire to the post.
7. Place the two ends of the wire together and pull the wire tight to form a doubled piece of wire.
8. Using the vice grip pliers or forceps, grab each end of the doubled wire and twist the wire. Keep twisting the wire until it has about 1/8 inch or less between the places where the wire crosses over itself.
9. Place the rag over the doubled & twisted wire and firmly pinch the wire (I fold the rag several times to give me a thicker pad of protection). Starting at one end of the twisted wire, squeeze and pull the rag along the length of the twisted wire (similar to closing a "zip-lock" bag). Do this a couple of times. What we are doing is setting the twist into the wire so when we remove the pliers/forceps the wire won't untwist by itself. You MUST use a rag or something similar because the wire will cut through skin if you try this with unprotected fingers!!! Set the wire aside.
10. Repeat steps 6 through 9 until you have one strand of wire for every inch to inch-and-a-half of post height.
11. Cut a bunch of 2" lengths of wire. Keep cutting, you'll need a BUNCH of these!
12. Take the 2" pieces of wire and wrap them around the twisted wire sections. Start about 3 inches from one end and wrap them every inch. Make sure you wrap them tightly against the twisted wire, and wrap each one about 4 times around the twisted wire. These will be the "barb" part of your barbed wire fence. Don't worry about how long the ends are, just wrap the entire length of twisted wire. Do this for all pieces of twisted wire you made in steps 6 - 9.
13. Take your wire cutters and snip off the extra length on each end of the barbs. Real barbs are about 1/2 inch long. I make the barbs a bit longer than normal (scale-wise) because they look better (i.e. you can see them!). Play around with the final length of your barbs and make them as long as you think looks good.
14. Wrap the ends of each section of barbed wire around the fence posts and twist the wire back on itself to hold the wire onto the post. BE CAREFUL - the barbs are REAL! ;-) Snip off the extra wire. Do this on both sides of the fence section, starting about 1 inch from the wood and working up about an inch for every piece of wire.
15. The fence section is finished. I make mine about 12 inches long so I can move them around easily. You can make them any length and any height. A good way to finish off the wooden bottom is to glue dirt, flocking, etc to the wood to simulate dirt, grass, etc. Need something besides fences? Make the sections of barbed wire and then coil them up to simulate coiled barbed wire. Use small (about 1 inch tall) pieces of smaller twigs glued into a wider section of wood, string the barbed wire between them and create "tanglefoot." Let your imagination roam wild! Good luck & have fun! -- Rob S

To see the complete article CLICK HERE
GI Joe® is a trademark of Hasbro, Inc.


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Happy Hobbying!!

Valerie

Tips for Restringing or Retightening Action Figures

Over the years, we have purchased many collections with action figures in pieces because the elastics broke. We have also had parents come in asking if we repair action figures or if we can show/tell someone how to fix one.

Rob can show you. It is fairly easy if you are patient and have a steady hand.  But because Rob is pretty busy and hard to nail down, he found an article that should help you out with some great tips, references and steps.

The following is taken from that article and there is a link at the bottom of this post so you can go see what else you can do to fix up those figures.

Before you read the article, here's a few things you may want to have on hand for when you're ready to fix your action figures.

1. a various selection of small 'O' rings or elastics
2. a sectioned container to sort the 'O' rings
3. a couple sizes of crotchet hooks (they come in metal, plastic & wood and can be found at craft stores)
4. fine tip craft scissors or sprue cutters
5. set of hobby screwdrivers

Are you sitting comfortably?  Then let's learn something neat!

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Idea 1
The best way to tighten your Action Figure involves a partial re-string. You need to shorten the single elastic (or you can use a new 'O' ring to reconnect the pieces) that connects the two legs and the neck. You need a long tool with a little hook on it like a crochet needle and a thin phillips screwdriver.

1. Holding Joe securely, pull his head away from the neck hole until you see the elastic that loops around the neck hook.
2. Push the screwdriver or crotchet hook through the loop to hold it securely above the neck hole.
3. This will allow you to easily unhook the neck from the elastic.
4. Set the head/neck aside.
5. Pull and separate the lower section away from the upper.
   Now you will have Joes two legs and abdomen section free to work on. 
6. You can shorten (tighten) the elastic by folding it an inch or so and then stitching it at that fold point. Make sure you stitch it securely.
   Now you can "re-string" Joe by putting the hook down through the neck hole past the arm elastics and out through the bottom of the chest hole. 
7. Hook your tool onto your tightened elastic and pull it up through the neck hole again. This will take alot of elbow grease. It will be very tight now..
8. Once you get it pulled just past the neck hole, stick in your screwdriver again to hold it above the neck hole.
9. Now, you can easily rehook the neck hook to the elastic.
10. Pull out the screwdriver, and you're done.

Joe is back to tight fighting shape! This process will also work for restringing or tightening the arm elastic as well. It sounds a little tough, but once you do it, it becomes really easy. -- John Medeiros


As for the floppy joints, I suggest the following (but only if you are brave): Grab some slide lock pliers, (you know, the big ones you use on the sink) and squeeze each pin and rivet gently until it begins to compress. Use the very edge of the plier face, and avoid contact with the plastic. I found this works better that tapping the joint with the hammer because you can watch the joint for stress cracks and stop at any time. You may experience a little paint flaking, but that is easily repainted. You also may want to wrap the pliers in a thin cloth. -- John

Idea 2:
I repaired a Cotswold Elite figure that had its arms come off. Anybody that has seen the cord inside these things should understand why. Here is how I fixed him:

1. Get a rubber band, the size that is used on newspapers and triple it up.
2. Take two bread twists and twist them together to form a piece about 4 or 5 inches long.
3. Tie one end of the bread tie to the rubber band, after attaching the rubber band to one of of the arms, and thread the bread ties along with the other end of the rubber band through the body.
4. Hook the other end of the rubber band on the other arm hook and then untie the bread ties. Your arms should snap right into place.

I don't know how long the rubber band will hold before it becomes brittle. It can't be any worse than that stupid cord that is in the figure though. This actually is a pretty easy fix as far as the arms are concerned. Give it a try if you ever have a figure do this to you. -- Jem


Other Ideas
Restringing arms and legs is easy except for the hip pins. They can be tricky to remove with out breaking them. Try a small awl or leather needle to pop them out. Then use some rubber cement to put them back in. To pull the rubber strings I use a coat hanger. The end makes a good hook and it is easy to pull the leg string out of the neck hole to attach the head. Do the same with the arm string . Hook one shoulder then pull the string through with the hanger and connect the other side. -- LordVader

When restringing arms and legs, I don't bother with the thigh pins myself. I leave them in if still serviceable. I bought a little bag of teeny tie wraps (the zip strip type) and just tie wrap the elastic loop to the still in there thigh pin. It works great with no noticable looseness for the extra .05 extra distance. -- Aaron


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This blog post is opinion only and any damage/injury or loss to product or person is the responsibility of that person and Chinook & Hobby West and it's employees are not responsible.