It has always bothered me that the Polotoy skeletons come with horses that have saddles but no riders. Here is my attempt to put skeleton riders on those skeleton horses. I used 50mm skeletons that I bought in bulk from Oriental Trading Company. All I did was cut off the bases and lock the legs in place with twist ties. It is a very low tech and low effort custom job, but the results are not bad. I will add these guys to my Army of the Dead.
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To ditch those twist-ties:
ReplyDelete1) Dip the figure in boiling water.
2) Bend them into the shape you desire.
3) Quickly dip them into a bowl of cold water with ice cubes.
I've used this method in the past to re-pose plastic figures, including bending the legs of infantry to turn them into cavalry. Some types/thickness of plastic require multiple dips or a little more time in the boiling water.
I did that with several of the figures that needed a new bend in the middle to sit up on the horse. Sadly, the material is so soft that it will not hold the new pose at the legs without the twist ties. Maybe with repeated treatments?
DeleteFantastic!! These look great! Thanks for the scale chart at the end it helps me picture these among my various toy scales.
ReplyDeleteThanks. I have also put scale shots in with all of the armies and warbands pages.
DeleteThese look pretty darn good. The twist ties are barely noticeable unless you really go looking for them, as in that one picture.
ReplyDeleteThese look really cool and something different, You could make a massive cavalry army with these figures.
ReplyDeleteIf the hot-water method has failed, try a heated pin - work out where the main point of stress is and after bending and holding in shape, stab that point with a heated-pin and it should work! Practice on some junk!
ReplyDeleteH
I'll try that on the Amscan Skeletons as they are very hard to convert as ive mentioned previously,Thanks.
ReplyDeleteDarren
cool result!! ew
ReplyDeleteThese look great,the cable ties do the job just fine imo. Have you tried a superglue for all plastics? They come with an activator pen and the glue. The pen 'roughs' up the plastic to give the glue something to stick to.loctight and stick2 both do it.
ReplyDeleteI have not tried the new plastic superglues, but I have heard both good and bad things about them. A friend of the blog recently reported that no glue he tried would work on the Amscan skeleton figures. Have you had good results with the glue?
DeleteI have used them with both soft and hard plastic 1:72 scale figures and have had good results. Its the only glue i have had consistant good results from. I have found that the aplicator outlasts the glue but you can pair it with cheep superglue and it works just as well.
DeleteThanks. I might give the glue a try on my next custom effort.
DeleteFor glueing vinyl (proper PVC) you want plumbers sealant but you have to work fast and keep the lid on! For polyethylene nothing really works bar melting!
ReplyDeleteH