I didn't see a customs thread so i figured I'd just ask. I have a lot of experience printing my own figures but even with high quality stuff like PETG or ID resin I'm getting fed up with the joint wear from printed materials. Do you anons have any recommendations for prefab revoltech / figma style joints? that way tolerance isn't an issue and I can just sculpt and print the in-between parts like I'm used to. Thanks. Now I'm gonna bump the thread with some pics of my last custom.
>>11636815my tiefling monk Amon. the internals are a heavily modified free kit. i basically just used the ball joint tolerances, everything else is new.
>>11636815made him lots of hand options, a custom kilt too. this is only relevant to the thread because he's holding out pretty well all things considered but his joints are still getting PLA floppy after a few months of idle play.
>>11636815it was also kind of of a massive pain sculpting the parts like an exoskeleton around longer joint bones. i think that with the usual joint plug-in setup it'll be a lot simpler. maybe also slightly uglier with the bulging joint sockets but well worth it for less rickety swivels
>>11636815meme hands
>>11636815i have more but you get it. here's the whole kit.
What you're looking for is Hobby Base Premium Parts Collection. Figure joints are figma style:https://www.hlj.com/1-12-scale-joint-technique-figure-joint-flesh-ylsppc-tn110and ball-shaped joints are Revoltech style:https://www.hlj.com/joint-technique-ball-joint-large-fresh-ylsppc-t128
>>11636855thanks. these look great, but i was asking cuz there's a lot of similar looking options. do you have experience with this brand?
>>11636863Yes, I've used them before. I'd put more trust in Hobby Base than the Chinese sellers on Amazon.
>>11636873makes sense. what have you used them for?
>>11636887Improving articulation on old McFarlane figures, but I don't have any pictures right now.
>>11636855Be aware that you might need to lube these up to get them moving smoothly. The ones I've had were stupidly tight.Also; use silicon grease, NOT shock oil. I learned that the hard way.
>>11637406noted, thanks
Speaking of Revoltech joints:Anyone else having severe issues with old gloss black ones? Like, the really old ones from around the time that Giant Robo, the New Getter forms, etc. were released?Recently reposed a bunch of them and quite a lot of them either had their pegs snap clean off, the cross-part in the center cracking or the revolver part barely even moving anymore.It's only an issue with the gloss black joints, though, and all the others move as usual and don't show any signs of cracking or snapping.
>>11644644Yes, my TV Evas that I got two years ago all broke almost immediately.
>>11644644Did you see any signs of leaking plasticizer on the surface of the joints? Maybe that's made them brittle, or maybe it's because of UV exposure.
>>11636855Are there any legal issues in regards to action figure joints? If I wanted to sell my own figures and made a mass produced mold with these things for articulation would I have to get a lisence from their manufacturer?
>>11647062>Are there any legal issues in regards to action figure jointsNo. But you sound very green. Do you have any idea how much it would cost to have any figure mass produced?
>>11647010Nope, at least not the liquid, yellow shit variant that people bring up; just the "usual" PVC-gets-kinda-sticky-and-attracts-dust one.And as said, it's ONLY that kind of joint.All the white, gold, red, yellow, etc. and matte black ones are perfectly fine.
>>11636824Looks great. Can you tell me more about whole process? I've been looking into doing something similar for some characters that don't have figs and I thought about using popular dummy-13 project as base on which I'd sculpt parts to make it look like characters I want.
>>11648970sure anon. it was a pain but i rushed it out to impress an artist connection i had made. it took about 3 weeks, but then another week or so of polish. I used the original lucky 13 skeleton, which i think is the precursor to the more popular dummy. I work in zbrush and made liberal use of booleans functions, and i printed it on a bamboo a1 mini. Zbrush is shit for tolerances and i don't know other 3d programs very well so it took a lot of trial and error.
>>11649837>bamboo a1 miniIsn't it FDM printer?Did you polish fig using sand paper to remove layer lines?>lucky 13 skeletonI'll look it up.
>>11653927>Isn't it FDM printer?it is. no sanding either. standard resin wears down at the joints almost immediately, and I didn't want to shell out for the expensive stuff. this is FDM PETG with a .2mm extruder on the printer. there's layer lines but they're honestly barely visible. and the PETG is inexpensive and holds up to play alright.
>>11656251>it is. no sanding either>there's layer lines but they're honestly barely visibleHow big is the fig then? Mind taking close-up pic?I'm planning to try to achieve as much quality and smoothness as resin kits have. I knew it'd require more polishing than resin due to FDM printers themselves not being able to print as smooth as resin ones, but I don't have setting for resin printer.>PETGDo you have comparison for using different materials for joints?
>>11656406He's almost exactly 6 in tall. about marvel legends size.>I'm planning to try to achieve as much quality and smoothness as resin kits havethis is basically gonna be impossible without sanding, but to be honest the layer lines with a .2mm nozzle and a slow layer height are nearly invisible if you're clever about support placement and tray setup>Do you have comparison for using different materials for joints?not really, PETG was suggested to me. PLA wears down quick and standard resin is worse. PETG will as well but it seems to have a much longer lifespan. all that said, there's no perfect cheap solution hence this thread, my next guy will use mold injection joints and hopefully be solid as a rock.
