Qs on reworking Ma.Ks

[Trysop]

Hello,

Now that I am thoroughly inspired by the numerous Ma.Ks that have popped up in the various boards on LA I have put my order in for some. I decided to go with the box set of 5 plastic Ma.Ks over the single resin figure as I could not resist getting 5 for the price of one and I have always found plastic much easier to work with than resin.

Now that I am thinking about Ma.Ks I was hoping some of you guys who have worked on them already, especially with plastic ones could share some info and tips about reworking them.

I have a few questions to ask but was hoping that if anyone had any thoughts or comments they could chip them in too.

Now my first Q is about the painting on the set of 5 plastic Ma.ks. Does this need to be stripped to do a good job for a repaint and re model?  The site mentions using acetone to strip the paint, and usually I use brake fluid on plastics but find that certain plastics can become quite brittle after a soak in brake fluid. So do they need stripped? And if so what have people found works best?

Next I was curious about what sort of plastic they are made out on and what glues work best with it, for plastic to plastic gluing does poly cement work ok? And for non -plastic to plastic gluing is super glue or epoxy better (I have found epoxy can come away from some plastics quite easily in the past).

And as for the models themselves, do they require much clean up when re modelling, do they have seam lines or any flash that need dealing with? Do they come apart easily enough to re-work or are they a bit limited?

If anyone has any info on any of the above that can share I would be very grateful, but also if anyone has any tip, thoughts, “don’t dos” to pass on please do so.

Thanks for the inspiration,

Cheers

[PeteMurray]

1. I'm not stripping mine. Be very careful with your solvents - hit it with the wrong one and it will turn into a shapeless morass of never-drying toxic goo.

2. I'm using Krylon for Plastics as a primer over the basecoat. There isn't that much fine detail I feel compelled to save.

3. The material seems to be some sort of PVC, so any polyvinyl-appropriate glue should work.

4. The models are pretty clean as far as mould lines work. The Gashapon-style figures come with arms and pauldrons unattached and just press together. I'd keep it disassembled at least through the first coat of paint.

[muppetman]

i don't strip my ones, i just used an emery board to rub them down before the undercoat went on..

i used super glue to stick em.. worked just fine.

[Trysop]

Hello,

cheers for the info, I just got a  bit concerned about rewoking them after previous failures when re-working plastic kist and models and thought i might save myself some pain by asking here.

Thanks

[Cosmotiger]

The ones that HLJ was selling off as "B-Grade" have a slightly sticky gloss coat on them.  I wiped mine down with a little paint thinner, then sanded them with 400 grit.  Primer went on fine over that, and I airbrushed a base coat over that.  That was about 3 weeks ago or so, and everything is still fine - nothing leaching through, paint stayed on, etc.   

I found the seam lines pretty pronounced in places, but they came off easily with an e-xacto and sandpaper.