Done the test. It's vinyl then...
Still new to this hobby why is vinyl bad
Done the test. It's vinyl then...
Still new to this hobby why is vinyl bad
The problem is they layer it with 2 extra coatings on top. The Vinyl is naturally red but they cover that with a layer of silver and red. On top of that, there is a layer of gloss. I'm not sure anyone knows for sure what exactly causes the paint to fade but it's that top layer that fades, causing the distortion of the red. Which is why if you follow xenom0rphs tutorial on fixing it, you can simply strip the top two layers of paint and then add a spray of gloss over the natural color red that the vinyl is so that it doesn't fade at all.I think with the past figures it's not the pain but the actual material that's fading. The material is cast in red and the vinyl doesn't hold the color as well. The styrene is fading as well, just at a different rate.
It's been supposed here also that if you leave the item MIB, this actually could accelerate the fading.
There are lacquers in the paint that need to evaporate, and the faded ones have possibly been sitting in the box for a while, and the lacquers being unable to go anywhere, they damage the paintwork itself.
It's just a theory.
Good news folks. I popped into work earlier and did a bit of tinkering.
I think i have found an easy fix for both the mouth and the lights in the eyes(I haven't done anything about the SIZE of the eyes yet, just the problem with the uneven lighting).
Okay. For the mouth, i took a little tin of gold paint(Not a perfect match, but close enough i think), and painted the black line gold. It was the only colour of gold i had, and although everyone here will know what i have done, no-one else looking at it would know.
The original look:
With the line painted:
And with the faceplate on:
And another angle:
And at a more realistic viewing distance:
Now, on to the lighting.
Here's the problem with the lighting: With the normal eye plate on the face mask outer, and the distance from interior light to eye plate, the light doesn't reach all the way across.
See this image here(Notice how the light stops about a third from the outer edge):
My fox for this was just as easy as the paint before.
I popped the clear lens out from the faceplate.
I then took a small square of 60 grit sandpaper(The coarsest grade i have), and sanded the interior side.
It roughed up the lens.
See here, the difference:
With this done, the light is FAR more even on the eyes.
With the lens out, it would also be possible to paint a new line on the lens and reduce the area that light would flow through, so making the eyes look smaller. I don't have a problem with that though.
Here are pics of the light(Just iPhone5 images. In hand, the eyes look a LOT better, and so does the mouth):
Do we NEED to quote the 3000x2400 size pictures?
Awesome work Username. I'm curious though, why does sanding the plastic on the eye lid cause the light to hit farther up the sockets? Wouldn't scratching it up like that cause the light to be dimmer?
Good news folks. I popped into work earlier and did a bit of tinkering.
I think i have found an easy fix for both the mouth and the lights in the eyes(I haven't done anything about the SIZE of the eyes yet, just the problem with the uneven lighting).
Now, on to the lighting.
Here's the problem with the lighting: With the normal eye plate on the face mask outer, and the distance from interior light to eye plate, the light doesn't reach all the way across.
See this image here(Notice how the light stops about a third from the outer edge):
My fox for this was just as easy as the paint before.
I popped the clear lens out from the faceplate.
I then took a small square of 60 grit sandpaper(The coarsest grade i have), and sanded the interior side.
It roughed up the lens.
See here, the difference:
With this done, the light is FAR more even on the eyes.
With the lens out, it would also be possible to paint a new line on the lens and reduce the area that light would flow through, so making the eyes look smaller. I don't have a problem with that though.
that looks awesome, can we see it on the figure?
Do we NEED to quote the 3000x2400 size pictures?
Awesome work Username. I'm curious though, why does sanding the plastic on the eye lid cause the light to hit farther up the sockets? Wouldn't scratching it up like that cause the light to be dimmer?
My guess is because the light cant really escape as much it stays in the eyes more giving it that more true IM look. Looks awesome man, I think I might have to do this.
doubt it very very much! It's the entire sculpt for gods sake.
You will understand when you have the sculpt in hand. The problem isn't the LED placement. It's the gap between the clear plastic eye piece and the actual enclosed lighting section of the head.
The eyes are so big you can "look into" the gap in the head. Moving the LED direction around as Username suggests, will solve nothing. The only way to solve this "issue" is to move the light section closer to the eyes,
diffuse the inside of the eyes (easy) and/or add another light source. But they would HAVE TO move forward to make ANY difference.
And it will still look poor even with rewiring, unless someone can resculpt the eye section. Not an easy job with an Ironman figure. All the sandpaper in the world won't replicate engineered/moulded plastic.
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