Clean up of vinyl figures help

[Mongo Mel]

Hello all,
I recently bought a vinyl figure and am having some difficulty cleaning up the mold seam lines. Traditional methods and tools like sanding sticks and #11 blades don't seem to be working well.
With it being a heavy walled hollow figure, I'm considering using a tiny bit in my Dremel to grind out the seam lines and patching with epoxy putty.
Before I go this route, does anyone out there have any suggestions?
Thanks,
Craig

 

[Mirofsoft]

Don't recommend it . The speed of the dremel will generate heat and the vinyl will meld

 

[yellowcat]

Heat up your vinyl figure with a hair dryer or a heat gun to soften the vinyl for easy trimming. Never trim a vinyl kit without heating it up.
Your #11 knife blade can slip and cut your fingers easily.

 

[balder]

What kind of mold seam lines? I've built a ton of vinyl kits and have never had one with mold lines. I second yellowcat's advice on heating the vinyl with a hair dryer. Heat until it's soft and use a sharp knife. It will cut easily.
Gerald

 

[FigureLover]

What kind of mold seam lines? I've built a ton of vinyl kits and have never had one with mold lines. I second yellowcat's advice on heating the vinyl with a hair dryer. Heat until it's soft and use a sharp knife. It will cut easily.
Gerald

I agree with Gerald, the reason they do some kits in vinyl is so that they don't have mould lines due to the casting process.. If you are talking about the joins between parts, then heat with hairdryer, push together and superglue. If you need to putty up, then anything like Aves or magic sculpt works perfectly.
Ben

 

[Mongo Mel]

Thanks to you all for your help and advice.
I'm definitely going to give the hair dryer tip this weekend. Much better idea than trying the Dremel

Gerald and Ben...I did several Horizon vinyl monster kits a long time ago and yes, they had no seams to deal with.
But this kit definitely has them. The pieces were actually on runners so I have to assume they were done with the more traditional injection molded method..
Impressive considering the complexity of the shapes. And the vinyl is really thick on the bigger, hollow pieces. For a vinyl kit, it weighs a ton!
I plan on joining the pieces and filling the joint gaps with Aves. I've only used their putty and love it. But I did pick up some of their Apoxy paste this weekend.
I hadn't heard of this before. If I'm right, I expect it to be a smoother and softer version of the putty.

If all goes well, I'll post some pictures as I progress

Thanks again.

Craig

 

[Gra30]

I have built a few vinyl kits.
From my experience a primer like halfords is best sprayed on before filling but after you have joined the parts.
The filler sticks better to the primer, can be blended easier and also any sanding if light enough blends the filer into the primer.
You don't want to be sanding filler next to raw vinyl as vinyl cannot be sanded well.
The best result is if you can blend into the primer so sanding is minimal, ideally none at all.
Cutting soft vinyl is great for major cuts but be careful of the blade going off course, it is truly like a hot knife through butter
If you want to Dremel anything, put the piece in the freezer first. You may want to do this several times over stages

 

[Stephan]

I second the others, built many Vinylkits, used the hairdryer method as well as the freezer.
Keep us updated.

 

[Mirofsoft]

If this can help, i have seen a Vynil cleaner

 

[Mongo Mel]

 

[Kevin D.]

Craig, good afternoon! I sent you a pm.

Kevin