Wardenstein
Member
- Joined
- Nov 2, 2021
- Messages
- 15
Hi folks. I’m a newbie here, who is hoping that folks here won’t mind sharing info, regarding the topic of modifying plastic parts, using electrically heated tools.
I want to see whatever info you fine folks are willing to share, but I can also “trade” some info on that topic, as well. I have done some pretty extensive conversion work (of a sort) on things like vehicular models; and I wrote a few published articles, that discuss that topic, in some fairly good depth. (If I do say so, myself.) I’m an American, but thanks to the power of the Internet, I used to be a writer for a publication called “Sci-Fi & Fantasy Modeller”. They were based in England. They’re no longer in business, but back issues are still available on places such as eBay.
I should add that I’m not strictly a “Sci-Fi Guy”: I have long had an interest in reading about historical modeling, as well. I consider myself a “cool shapes and colors” modeler, and to me, there’s plenty of that in both worlds: historical modeling plus the fantasy end of the spectrum.
I am hoping to “get the ball rolling,” as far as knowing what articles (even brief ones!?!) once came out. I will list the articles I wrote that touched on that topic (that is, of “welding plastic using electrically-heated tools) but I am hoping that folks here will feel free to chime in, and post whatever info they might know, on that topic: any links to where lists of articles (or videos?) can be found; anything like that. Just because I wrote about that topic, more than once, does not mean that I feel I “know it all” or that I feel I have even scratched the surface of how much coolness could result, by applying heat to thermo-plastics, to modify them in some way. I’m sure much more is possible! So if books mention this, or magazine articles, or anything like that ... I’d love to know when/where/etc.
My contributions to that “small library” of info started with an article in SF&FM (“Sci-Fi & Fantasy Modeller”) in 2010, but I’m aware that Bob Santos did an article in the March / April 1986 back issue of “Fine Scale Modeler” or FSM. (I even mentioned that other fellow’s article, in my article, in hopes that others, back then, might “tell me about more articles like that, in various magazines”.) In the May / June 1986 back issue of FSM, Ray Anderson had briefly touched on using a soldering iron, with a rheostat, to modify figures -- but it wasn’t the main focus of that article. (I’m all for “brief mentions” of the technique.)
I’ll quote a brief passage from the Mar/Apr 1986 article by Bob Santos, where he talks about a Pyrogravure device -- in part to say that I’m old enough to remember reading brief mentions of this device, “back in the day”. Usually it was in conjunction with talk, in books or articles, about that device being used to modify or do surgery on plastic model kit parts made by a famous company called Historex. (Which I’m sure many folks here know a lot more about, than I am ever likely to: I’m just saying “I’m vaguely aware of that tool being used -- but I’ve never seen one, in person”.)
The quotes by Mr. Santos said this: “Many veteran figure modelers will recall the French-made ‘pyrogravure,’ an earlier temperature-regulated wood-burning tool. Older versions could be modified to work with American receptacles, but after the tool was redesigned it became difficult to modify and disappeared from the American market. You’ll still find references to the pyrogravure in books, and the techniques discussed here are identical to those used with the earlier tool.” I mention those quotes by that 1980’s article by another author to say that (as far as I know, at this point, anyway) nothing that I said or did in my articles, below, probably deviated all that far from whatever articles came out, long before mine did. By which I mean that I can’t easily see thermo-plastics and heat being applied to them, changing, all that much, over the handful of decades since my 2010 article, and prior ones by other authors.) I presume, but don’t know for a fact, that what I wrote is merely a continuation of what earlier writers wrote, on the topic of using such tools.
The one area where I might be “wrong” is this: I modified a “blank tip” to become a very handy tool for re-sculpting kit parts. At that time, I didn’t know that some sculptors sometimes used a tool called a “burnisher” (originally made for print-making, and leather work; but not in a heated form) for sculpting things like polymer clays, so when I wrote my 2010 article, I didn’t know that I’d sort of “re-invented the wheel” in that way. I’d love to find out I’m not the first modeler who created a tip shape like that?!
Okay ... so ... moving closer to posting the links to the place that is kindly hosting the articles I once wrote. I will only add this info: those uploads were done by the original author (me), who had the written permission of the publisher (Mike Reccia, of “Sci-Fi & Fantasy Modeller” out of England) so in terms of rights, it should be problem free. For those folks not already familiar with SF&FM, know that it was pretty “high end” for it’s market niche: each issue was arguably closer to a soft-cover “coffee table book” than a “magazine”. They were full color throughout; they almost never had any adverts; and the regular issues were all 96 pages of nice, thick, glossy paper (plus four more pages, to count the covers). Some of the (themed) “special issues” had more pages than that (if being a bit smaller in physical size, per page). All of which is to say that any article in that publication was sort of “deluxe” in that it wasn’t in black-and-white; and it wasn’t forced to fit in to a few pages – “articles” for SF&FM were LONG ones: ten-plus pages instead of two, three or four.
It is a fragmented hobby, in some ways, with a lot of folks “in their own little world” – but I’m hoping that’s a thing that can be fixed; at least enough to share information? I know that, in some (but not all) cases, historical modelers sort of roll their eyes (or try hard to resist that urge) when someone from the fantasy end of the hobby is talking ... so please keep an open mind about the depth of the articles below. It might surprise some of the more hardcore “historical” folks out there, to see how nerdy some of we “sci-fi guys” get, in terms of the techniques we share with our readers. And as I mentioned, briefly, in my first article: I heard, but only in vague ways, that “model car guys” used heated tools to do something unspecified, that ended up in print, back in the day. No one seems to be able to tell me “where,” though: so I am assuming the best way to “prime the pump” is to show my articles to others, who may not have seen them: in hope that folks will then try to do some research in digging up issue names / numbers, etc., related to other articles that might be out there.
= = = = = = = =
Where are the articles written by Ward Shrake; and what is in them?
Scans of every page of the articles I wrote on this topic, plus some of the original photos (which are much easier to see, than the size they got printed in, at times: which is probably going to often be the case with any articles that anyone writes?) are stored in individual “albums” that are a part of the group on Facebook, called "Sci Fi/Fantasy Scratchbuild and kitbash modeler". (But please note that, even though the original publication's name and that web group's name sounds similar, it's not the same thing. It's two entirely different groups of individuals.) That group on Facebook has a section for "albums," where members there can upload things. If the links below stop working, over time, know that it’s currently found under the "media" topic, towards the top of the front page for that group. I uploaded my scans and photos there: but not all in one album. I put one article or topic, into one album: so it isn’t a big mess, figuring out “what goes with what”.
I’ll list the actual album’s separate links, below, but I’m also (out of paranoia, and knowing that the I’net changes over time) going to list the main “albums” area, here:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2043682082594379/media/albums
Just in case I’m not being paranoid enough, and that link, above, to the album section somehow breaks, here's a link that is “higher up” to that group's main or “home” page:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2043682082594379
Okay ... so ... with all that said, here’s the direct links to each of my articles, which are all (at least in part) on the topic of welding thermo-plastic pieces together; and/or sort of "re-sculpting" those polystyrene and/or ABS kit's plastic parts, using an electrically-heated tool. For extra paranoia / reference, I’ll also list the (slightly re-written for added clarity) names of each article’s album:
= = = = = = =
Album name = "Article Images -- 2010 -- Remodelling Max"
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.318696369930402&type=3
Description: This was the first article I'd written, that was only on that one topic (of using heat to weld and/or re-sculpt plastic). This article was all about what I did, to restore and upgrade an injected plastic evil robot (Max, from the Black Hole film) kit that a dog had chewed on. This article covers pretty much all of the basics of using that tool I used; including my notes on how and why I custom-ground that tip; and what the various "zones" on that very useful tip were supposed to accomplish: cutting, joining, smoothing, and so on.
= = = = = = =
Album name = "Article Images -- 2013 -- Hoppertunity Scratchbuild"
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.2975532582727553&type=3
Description: This was, as I saw it, part two on that theme of using heat to weld plastic parts together. This article has lots of info about a lot of different ways to scratch-build various sub-assemblies for a vehicular subject, but the project could not have been done (at least not as well, I don't think) without that technique of using a special, custom-ground tip, on a "Hot Tools" brand wood-burner, to basically re-sculpt plastic.
= = = = = = =
Album name = "Article Images -- 2013 -- Steampunk Hornethopeter diorama"
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.551736562630233&type=3
Description: There isn't much in this article, on that topic (of welding plastic, using electrically-heated devices) but there is some. Mainly, with a deadline looming, I had showed that some "delicate surgery" could be done: that is was possible to convert and/or re-pose plastic "army men" figures, from various kits, using that tool and that technique. Previous to this article I had mainly used the technique to modify larger objects, which had a lot more surface area; and thus, the bigger parts naturally "rejected heat" (to a point: care still needs to be taken, to avoid badly warping things) so adding a figure to a small diorama, to an article that was mostly about a really nice multi-media kit, was a bonus.
= = = = = = =
Album name = "Trash Bashing -- 2011 Contest -- Deodorant Container Gaming Vehicles"
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.534922627535179&type=3
Description: This one is not really on-topic for these forums: it's showing deodorant containers, turned into home-brewed vehicles that could have been used for tabletop games. This one was never released as an article in that English magazine or book (a "mook," as the publisher had sometimes referred to it) since it was sort of a "between articles" project I did, when Brian Roe ran a cool contest for enthusiasts of trash-bashing. (But it is pictured in "Ravage" magazine, page 65, April-May 2013 edition.) Even though I wasn't doing the build as an official "article," per se, I had taken photos as if I were -- (more or less just out of habit) -- so turning it into an article, a decade later, became a thing that was possible. The folks over at that group on Facebook seemed to like seeing those other article scans I had uploaded, so I searched for those older photos, on my older computers. I uploaded those images, and commented on each photo, to turn it into a pseudo-article.
= = = = = = =
Okay ... final thoughts, for today’s (lengthy) posting:
My intent with uploading this info, above, is two-fold. I want the folks that are here (on “Planet Figure”) who may not otherwise have any idea that such articles existed, to know that the articles above, do indeed exist. And due to the original author sharing them, and the publisher being okay with me doing it, they’re available easily and for free. I’ll note, however, that it is NOT my intent for any of those articles to fall into the “public domain”. I am all for my fellow hobbyists using the info, and sharing it with one another, if they find the ideas / info to be of any value, but I do want to retain the rights to what I wrote, etc. It took a lot of hard mental work, and a lot of experimentation and “nerding out,” to figuring out what I needed to know, back then. I did it without a whole lot of other people’s prior articles or books to act as a “jumping off” place – which brings me to the second reason I am posting this info, here on Planet Figure ... pretty please, folks, if you know of any books or articles or whatever (to include any how-to videos, or online articles) that touch even a little on the subject of using a “pyrogravure” or a wood-burning tool, or a rheostat-and-soldering-iron, I’d appreciate if you would post what you can recall, or look up, about where that info can be located. I’m always open to seeing what other folks have done, within the hobby! I am sure there is a “half-hidden history” of this tool’s use, that I’m not yet fully aware of. (Not just within the figure world: some “model car” folks also used heated tools to modify plastic kit parts; as I had mentioned hearing of, in that first article I wrote, from 2010. But even there, no one ever chimed in, to say “this back issue of XYZ car modeling magazine or book talked about that subject.) I’d like to know more, if possible! And I’m glad to be able to share what knowledge I have figured out, on that topic.
I want to see whatever info you fine folks are willing to share, but I can also “trade” some info on that topic, as well. I have done some pretty extensive conversion work (of a sort) on things like vehicular models; and I wrote a few published articles, that discuss that topic, in some fairly good depth. (If I do say so, myself.) I’m an American, but thanks to the power of the Internet, I used to be a writer for a publication called “Sci-Fi & Fantasy Modeller”. They were based in England. They’re no longer in business, but back issues are still available on places such as eBay.
I should add that I’m not strictly a “Sci-Fi Guy”: I have long had an interest in reading about historical modeling, as well. I consider myself a “cool shapes and colors” modeler, and to me, there’s plenty of that in both worlds: historical modeling plus the fantasy end of the spectrum.
I am hoping to “get the ball rolling,” as far as knowing what articles (even brief ones!?!) once came out. I will list the articles I wrote that touched on that topic (that is, of “welding plastic using electrically-heated tools) but I am hoping that folks here will feel free to chime in, and post whatever info they might know, on that topic: any links to where lists of articles (or videos?) can be found; anything like that. Just because I wrote about that topic, more than once, does not mean that I feel I “know it all” or that I feel I have even scratched the surface of how much coolness could result, by applying heat to thermo-plastics, to modify them in some way. I’m sure much more is possible! So if books mention this, or magazine articles, or anything like that ... I’d love to know when/where/etc.
My contributions to that “small library” of info started with an article in SF&FM (“Sci-Fi & Fantasy Modeller”) in 2010, but I’m aware that Bob Santos did an article in the March / April 1986 back issue of “Fine Scale Modeler” or FSM. (I even mentioned that other fellow’s article, in my article, in hopes that others, back then, might “tell me about more articles like that, in various magazines”.) In the May / June 1986 back issue of FSM, Ray Anderson had briefly touched on using a soldering iron, with a rheostat, to modify figures -- but it wasn’t the main focus of that article. (I’m all for “brief mentions” of the technique.)
I’ll quote a brief passage from the Mar/Apr 1986 article by Bob Santos, where he talks about a Pyrogravure device -- in part to say that I’m old enough to remember reading brief mentions of this device, “back in the day”. Usually it was in conjunction with talk, in books or articles, about that device being used to modify or do surgery on plastic model kit parts made by a famous company called Historex. (Which I’m sure many folks here know a lot more about, than I am ever likely to: I’m just saying “I’m vaguely aware of that tool being used -- but I’ve never seen one, in person”.)
The quotes by Mr. Santos said this: “Many veteran figure modelers will recall the French-made ‘pyrogravure,’ an earlier temperature-regulated wood-burning tool. Older versions could be modified to work with American receptacles, but after the tool was redesigned it became difficult to modify and disappeared from the American market. You’ll still find references to the pyrogravure in books, and the techniques discussed here are identical to those used with the earlier tool.” I mention those quotes by that 1980’s article by another author to say that (as far as I know, at this point, anyway) nothing that I said or did in my articles, below, probably deviated all that far from whatever articles came out, long before mine did. By which I mean that I can’t easily see thermo-plastics and heat being applied to them, changing, all that much, over the handful of decades since my 2010 article, and prior ones by other authors.) I presume, but don’t know for a fact, that what I wrote is merely a continuation of what earlier writers wrote, on the topic of using such tools.
The one area where I might be “wrong” is this: I modified a “blank tip” to become a very handy tool for re-sculpting kit parts. At that time, I didn’t know that some sculptors sometimes used a tool called a “burnisher” (originally made for print-making, and leather work; but not in a heated form) for sculpting things like polymer clays, so when I wrote my 2010 article, I didn’t know that I’d sort of “re-invented the wheel” in that way. I’d love to find out I’m not the first modeler who created a tip shape like that?!
Okay ... so ... moving closer to posting the links to the place that is kindly hosting the articles I once wrote. I will only add this info: those uploads were done by the original author (me), who had the written permission of the publisher (Mike Reccia, of “Sci-Fi & Fantasy Modeller” out of England) so in terms of rights, it should be problem free. For those folks not already familiar with SF&FM, know that it was pretty “high end” for it’s market niche: each issue was arguably closer to a soft-cover “coffee table book” than a “magazine”. They were full color throughout; they almost never had any adverts; and the regular issues were all 96 pages of nice, thick, glossy paper (plus four more pages, to count the covers). Some of the (themed) “special issues” had more pages than that (if being a bit smaller in physical size, per page). All of which is to say that any article in that publication was sort of “deluxe” in that it wasn’t in black-and-white; and it wasn’t forced to fit in to a few pages – “articles” for SF&FM were LONG ones: ten-plus pages instead of two, three or four.
It is a fragmented hobby, in some ways, with a lot of folks “in their own little world” – but I’m hoping that’s a thing that can be fixed; at least enough to share information? I know that, in some (but not all) cases, historical modelers sort of roll their eyes (or try hard to resist that urge) when someone from the fantasy end of the hobby is talking ... so please keep an open mind about the depth of the articles below. It might surprise some of the more hardcore “historical” folks out there, to see how nerdy some of we “sci-fi guys” get, in terms of the techniques we share with our readers. And as I mentioned, briefly, in my first article: I heard, but only in vague ways, that “model car guys” used heated tools to do something unspecified, that ended up in print, back in the day. No one seems to be able to tell me “where,” though: so I am assuming the best way to “prime the pump” is to show my articles to others, who may not have seen them: in hope that folks will then try to do some research in digging up issue names / numbers, etc., related to other articles that might be out there.
= = = = = = = =
Where are the articles written by Ward Shrake; and what is in them?
Scans of every page of the articles I wrote on this topic, plus some of the original photos (which are much easier to see, than the size they got printed in, at times: which is probably going to often be the case with any articles that anyone writes?) are stored in individual “albums” that are a part of the group on Facebook, called "Sci Fi/Fantasy Scratchbuild and kitbash modeler". (But please note that, even though the original publication's name and that web group's name sounds similar, it's not the same thing. It's two entirely different groups of individuals.) That group on Facebook has a section for "albums," where members there can upload things. If the links below stop working, over time, know that it’s currently found under the "media" topic, towards the top of the front page for that group. I uploaded my scans and photos there: but not all in one album. I put one article or topic, into one album: so it isn’t a big mess, figuring out “what goes with what”.
I’ll list the actual album’s separate links, below, but I’m also (out of paranoia, and knowing that the I’net changes over time) going to list the main “albums” area, here:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2043682082594379/media/albums
Just in case I’m not being paranoid enough, and that link, above, to the album section somehow breaks, here's a link that is “higher up” to that group's main or “home” page:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2043682082594379
Okay ... so ... with all that said, here’s the direct links to each of my articles, which are all (at least in part) on the topic of welding thermo-plastic pieces together; and/or sort of "re-sculpting" those polystyrene and/or ABS kit's plastic parts, using an electrically-heated tool. For extra paranoia / reference, I’ll also list the (slightly re-written for added clarity) names of each article’s album:
= = = = = = =
Album name = "Article Images -- 2010 -- Remodelling Max"
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.318696369930402&type=3
Description: This was the first article I'd written, that was only on that one topic (of using heat to weld and/or re-sculpt plastic). This article was all about what I did, to restore and upgrade an injected plastic evil robot (Max, from the Black Hole film) kit that a dog had chewed on. This article covers pretty much all of the basics of using that tool I used; including my notes on how and why I custom-ground that tip; and what the various "zones" on that very useful tip were supposed to accomplish: cutting, joining, smoothing, and so on.
= = = = = = =
Album name = "Article Images -- 2013 -- Hoppertunity Scratchbuild"
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.2975532582727553&type=3
Description: This was, as I saw it, part two on that theme of using heat to weld plastic parts together. This article has lots of info about a lot of different ways to scratch-build various sub-assemblies for a vehicular subject, but the project could not have been done (at least not as well, I don't think) without that technique of using a special, custom-ground tip, on a "Hot Tools" brand wood-burner, to basically re-sculpt plastic.
= = = = = = =
Album name = "Article Images -- 2013 -- Steampunk Hornethopeter diorama"
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.551736562630233&type=3
Description: There isn't much in this article, on that topic (of welding plastic, using electrically-heated devices) but there is some. Mainly, with a deadline looming, I had showed that some "delicate surgery" could be done: that is was possible to convert and/or re-pose plastic "army men" figures, from various kits, using that tool and that technique. Previous to this article I had mainly used the technique to modify larger objects, which had a lot more surface area; and thus, the bigger parts naturally "rejected heat" (to a point: care still needs to be taken, to avoid badly warping things) so adding a figure to a small diorama, to an article that was mostly about a really nice multi-media kit, was a bonus.
= = = = = = =
Album name = "Trash Bashing -- 2011 Contest -- Deodorant Container Gaming Vehicles"
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.534922627535179&type=3
Description: This one is not really on-topic for these forums: it's showing deodorant containers, turned into home-brewed vehicles that could have been used for tabletop games. This one was never released as an article in that English magazine or book (a "mook," as the publisher had sometimes referred to it) since it was sort of a "between articles" project I did, when Brian Roe ran a cool contest for enthusiasts of trash-bashing. (But it is pictured in "Ravage" magazine, page 65, April-May 2013 edition.) Even though I wasn't doing the build as an official "article," per se, I had taken photos as if I were -- (more or less just out of habit) -- so turning it into an article, a decade later, became a thing that was possible. The folks over at that group on Facebook seemed to like seeing those other article scans I had uploaded, so I searched for those older photos, on my older computers. I uploaded those images, and commented on each photo, to turn it into a pseudo-article.
= = = = = = =
Okay ... final thoughts, for today’s (lengthy) posting:
My intent with uploading this info, above, is two-fold. I want the folks that are here (on “Planet Figure”) who may not otherwise have any idea that such articles existed, to know that the articles above, do indeed exist. And due to the original author sharing them, and the publisher being okay with me doing it, they’re available easily and for free. I’ll note, however, that it is NOT my intent for any of those articles to fall into the “public domain”. I am all for my fellow hobbyists using the info, and sharing it with one another, if they find the ideas / info to be of any value, but I do want to retain the rights to what I wrote, etc. It took a lot of hard mental work, and a lot of experimentation and “nerding out,” to figuring out what I needed to know, back then. I did it without a whole lot of other people’s prior articles or books to act as a “jumping off” place – which brings me to the second reason I am posting this info, here on Planet Figure ... pretty please, folks, if you know of any books or articles or whatever (to include any how-to videos, or online articles) that touch even a little on the subject of using a “pyrogravure” or a wood-burning tool, or a rheostat-and-soldering-iron, I’d appreciate if you would post what you can recall, or look up, about where that info can be located. I’m always open to seeing what other folks have done, within the hobby! I am sure there is a “half-hidden history” of this tool’s use, that I’m not yet fully aware of. (Not just within the figure world: some “model car” folks also used heated tools to modify plastic kit parts; as I had mentioned hearing of, in that first article I wrote, from 2010. But even there, no one ever chimed in, to say “this back issue of XYZ car modeling magazine or book talked about that subject.) I’d like to know more, if possible! And I’m glad to be able to share what knowledge I have figured out, on that topic.
