Poseable Resin Kit?

[Victor3]

HI all: I'm concepting a scratch-built mecha figure. The good guys always get toys made, the bad guys are always underrepresented. This'll be biggish too - probably about 1' tall.

It's my goal to sculpt this, then resin cast it. I also want the kit to be somewhat poseable, so builders can set them up differently and change their displays once in a while.

Is there a good way to manage moveable joints on a resin kit? Do ball joints work well in resin? Should I plan for acrylic joint inserts? Are there printable ratchet joints out there?

As I said, I'm just in the planning stage right now, but if anyone's got advice or ideas, I thank you!

[Ziz]

You mean poseable on the fly like a toy or poseable that the builder can decide what pose they want and then glue it that way? The latter is easier than the former.

[Victor3]

Preferably the former... But if it came to it, i suppose a static pose would be acceptable.

[Ziz]

Static pose is easier. Depending on the design, you could include alternate joints that would connect the limb components at different angles allowing the builder to choose the ones they want.

There's also structural integrity to consider. If you're talking about a foot tall finished piece, the legs will need to be strong enough to support the body weight, not to mention be able to be secured enough to balance if someone chooses a strange pose. Otherwise, you're looking at casting the parts with rods in them so things stay straight.

I'd say start coming up with design sketches - figure out what this thing needs to look like regardless of poseability. Once you can see the overall design, that will start to tell you how and where you can allow for joint options.

[Salamander]

If you want to make it poseable, use polycaps like those from Wave, Kotobukiya, and Hobby Base (all available through Hobby Link Japan and other places). I think Kotobukiya also offers special ABS joints for large and heavy resin cast mecha. Hobby Base offers some really hard and tight clear ball-joints that can be painted. You can use styrene or metal rods together with the polycaps.

Many Japanese garage kits use joints from these three manufacturers.

Resin casting joints probably won't work well, mostly due to wear and tear issues.

[naoto]

Perhaps some consideration should be put into making joints replacable (e.g. like in Revoltech figures)?

[tetsujin]

Perhaps some consideration should be put into making joints replacable (e.g. like in Revoltech figures)?

I would say so.

Those Hobby Base ball joints for instance: I love 'em and they're useful for all kinds of things... But they do crack apart sometimes. In general I'd say it's important to have at least the socket part of those be replaceable.

It's terribly uncommon to see builders add joints to a static-pose resin kit when building it (though static-pose mecha resin kits themselves are becoming less common. Mostly these days it's resin conversion kits to be applied to existing kits. It takes some work, hacking away material and installing joints (and they have to be joints strong enough to hold the kit's weight) but it can be done.

If you're scratch-building, that makes things a little easier. You can plan ahead and sculpt parts hollow (or make them hollow in the casting process) to save weight, and plan ahead for the placement of the joint parts.

One trick that I'm kind of fond of is casting resin around a polycap. This way you can build a joint with the polycap's resilience and friction, but have it look nicer than just an exposed joint part.

[Victor3]

Hmm, I was wondering about those acrylic Hobby Base joints. I actually have a few of those that I've put to work on an old 1/100 Regult kit. They seemed awful toight.

I'll check out the Kotobukia ones too. So, in that case, here's my idea:
If I sculpt the master around the acrylic pieces, then pull them out before the Apoxie cures, I should have a castable master that can easily fit the aftermarket joint. Si?

If I can make this work & people want the kit, would it be better form to stock up on the joints & include them, or just point consumers in the right direction? That's just theoretical @ this point...

Thanks for the thoughts, everyone!

[Salamander]

Those Hobby Base ball joints for instance: I love 'em and they're useful for all kinds of things... But they do crack apart sometimes. In general I'd say it's important to have at least the socket part of those be replaceable.

I had that problem on a plastic model kit where I used those joints to get rid of a styrene-on-styrene joint with very limited poseability. What I did is to cut a hole in a piece of styrene so that it snugly fits around the socket part. This will keep the halves together.

[Salamander]

Hmm, I was wondering about those acrylic Hobby Base joints. I actually have a few of those that I've put to work on an old 1/100 Regult kit. They seemed awful toight.

I'll check out the Kotobukia ones too. So, in that case, here's my idea:
If I sculpt the master around the acrylic pieces, then pull them out before the Apoxie cures, I should have a castable master that can easily fit the aftermarket joint. Si?

Can't you sandwich the joint between two resin parts?

I have a resin kit where the joints were made the way you describe, and its really easy to accidentally loosen the socket from the resin piece when moving a joint, especially when the (short) peg on the socket only has a little resin to hold onto. Not much of a problem in the legs thanks to gravity, but when a shoulder joint falls out every single time it becomes annoying.

If I can make this work & people want the kit, would it be better form to stock up on the joints & include them, or just point consumers in the right direction? That's just theoretical @ this point...

Thanks for the thoughts, everyone!

If you're outside of Japan you should maybe include the joints as they're harder to get than in Japan.


I find this blog very inspiring to see what one can do to scratchbuild a master for a resin kit: http://backyennew.web.fc2.com/blog/blog.html.

[Mad-Modeler]

I would go with static but posable kits like the old Wave or Yellow Submarine kits. (Quo Vadis, Valken, etc)

They got the ball joint moulded in and you choose the pose when pinning the joint.

Rubber/Silicone joints don't work that well. See VOLKS MM series.

[qweasd]

- spambot zapped -

[Mad-Modeler]

Check the Volks MM Resin kits for probs with their joints.

You can form the resin/putty master around a poly-joint if covered in vaseline.
Max watanabe covers it in his modelling book as does David Fisher, IIRC.