Wednesday 27 November 2019

Bod Converting - Body swops

Basically what´s shown here is a Torso and legs swop.
Obviously, swopping arms are bit more complicated but it also(in the majority of cases)  involves pinning and the method is similar to here.
Tools/Things needed
A sharp Hobby knife,
A razor blade (cut to a Point. This allows removing Flash etc from Corners)
Some normal Dress Pins (the pin in the pic has been used already for a conversion and cut but then resharpend..waste not want not
A pair of side cutters (to cut the Pins)
A toothpick (or use one of the Pins) for applying glue
A pair of thin nosed pliers (for pushing the Pins)
Glue. I use Pattex 100 gel
Two figures that will be converted.
Cut the figs in half, remembering to leave a bit of excess plastic on the parts wanted for the conversion.
Hold the two parts  together. The legs have a bit of  excess plastic left from the first cut and  Using the razorblade, thin slices are removed, matching the two parts each time until a decent looking fit is achieved.
The pin pushed through with the tip coming out roughly in the centre of the waist area. From the pic it can be seen where the pin was first pushed in , just behind the neck. This works well with all the figs from this set but sometimes it´s necessary to start the pin from the top of the head, which means more care in applying pressure to push the pin in,  as the neck can suddenly bend to one side and you might get a sore finger with a pin hole in it...happens to me often. Holding the pin with Thin nosed pliers helps or using those type of Pins with a coloured bobble type head. 
It´s sticking out a bit too far in the pic below so will now be withdrawn a bit and cut off so when it´s pushed back flush with the head (hat) or in this case, top of the pack, no part of the pin will be showing.
Position the Torso over the legs in the required Position and Holding both parts firmly in place between finger and thumb, press the pin through (Holding the pin with the pliers)
Cut off the pin as Close to the Point of entry (in this case just behing the neck)  and press flush (here using a flat edge on the sidecutters) The remains of the pin is now too short to resharpen but the head is usefull for rivets or such,  so it goes in a bits box.again..waste not want not
The two halves may have gone out of line a bit (swivelled) during the process so they can now be realigned. The plastic left over from where the elbow rested on the leg is  removed with the razorblade, then fill any gaps with glue and leave to dry. In the pic it appears that there´s a bit of overhang from the Torso to the legs but that´s because the glue is clear.
Cutting so that you end up with excess plastic on the halves wanted means, unfortunately, that the other halves can end up as useless for using in creating whole Body conversions, but they don´t get thrown away..there´s always bits and pieces that can be re-used...again, waste not, want not.

I´ve covered "headswops" in a previous post HERE