This was one of my favorite 'freak' characters in the original three Star Wars movies. This guy drew me in on subject alone. A bonus was that it was a vinyl kit. This was my first try at this medium. Up front, if you are curious about vinyl, jump in and try one. So; lots of discoveries and tips on this feature. The Kit The kit is a heavy one, the scale is quite large and this guy is no slouch. When I opened this I was struck by the heavy weight cardboard box. This is for safety; the pieces are prone to bending. As I found out heat and pressure on vinyl are effective at deforming the kit. Another interesting find was that inside the box the pieces were literally inside one another. I'm used to the orderly sprues. The detail on the vinyl is really nice and made me want to build it even more. I took an inventory of the pieces making sure I had a rough idea of where things went. This is a pretty easy kit to figure out. Clean up After I was satisfied with the loose mach up of the pieces it was time to start trimming. Vinyl kits are made by pouring liquid vinyl into a mold and allowing it to cool and solidify on the sides of the molds (maybe not the most accurate description but its close). This results in any excess over pour appearing at the open/top end of the pieces. This is similar to the resin block in resin kits. These over pour sleeves have to be cut off. I used a nice sharp #11 blade in the trusty hobby knife. One thing I learned quickly is that vinyl cuts very nicely and very easily. I took my time and cut slowly and very deliberately. I didn't want to have any accidental slices to have to fix. One thing I learned (this time the hard way) is that you should leave a bit of the sleeve on the piece as a guide for assembly. I trimmed up one set of fingers. On this one I trimmed 100% of this excess sleeve. When I went to test fit; the shape was fine. but... I quickly realized that if I had left about 2mm of the sleeve on the fingers assembly would have been easier. There is a recessed area on the 'receiving' part; in this case the hand side of the knuckle. The finger then matches up to the knuckle. If I left 2mm on the finger, it would have slid right down into the recess. This sleeve is a two fold benefit:1, you get a guide sleeve much the same as guide pins on injected mold kits; 2, you get extra area to apply glue. Live and learn, leave some excess and trim to fit slowly. At least I didn't rush into it and clean up All the pieces. I also found that for larger pieces sharp scissors work well to remove the excess. You can see this sleeve in the fourth photo. It fits right into the neck recess. I then washed all the pieces in luke warm soapy water. The nature of the molding process results in a great chance that there is release agent left on the pieces. I soaked the pieces for a few minutes. Then I let them air dry.   « Back1234Next » READ COUNT: 3033  |  PRINT  |  DISCUSS THIS About Scott Lodder (slodder) FROM: NORTH CAROLINA, UNITED STATES I modeled when I was a teenager. College, family and work stopped me for a while. Then I picked it back up after about 12 years off. My main focus is dioramas. I like the complete artistic method of story telling. Dioramas involve so many aspects of modeling and I enjoy getting involved in the ... READ MORE Copyright ©2009 by Scott Lodder. Images also by copyright holder unless otherwise noted. Opinions expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of ModelGeek. All rights reserved. Originally published on: 2009-01-01