If only I could paint

Since the Volks Customize Figures are mainly resin, and it is bad to inhale resin dust, I decided to assemble them outdoors since my kitchen still has a fine coating of MSC and plastic ornament dust from my last attempts of handiness. It had been quiet all morning so I'd hoped everyone had gone away for the weekend but no sooner had I brought everything outside and laid out my tools than people started cropping up. I had deliberately put my Dremel case and other things on the chair next to me so no one would just plop themselves down but that didn't stop them from jawing at me. They simply stood and did it. One neighbor came by to talk to me about the other neighbors, one came by with medical test results I really had no interest in hearing about, etc. etc. Maybe I didn't look busy enough.

I am SO glad I started with the girl robot first. She had pre-drilled holes so she was practically a snap-together model.

Out of the box.




All of the resin pieces had these mold tab things on them that had to be clipped off and sanded down. That part took the longest.


It took me a while to figure out what "bushing" meant or was but this set came with a ton that had tiny grooves in them. Once the bushings were in the pre-drilled holes, each end of the joints had a tiny bead that fitted into the groove to align them and create a better fit. I though I would start from the ground up so legs first.


Then torso.


Then arms.


And head. And then whoops, I needed to drill holes in the the bottom of the arms where the hands would go. So I had to take her apart again.


The hole was only to a depth of 8mm but I managed to drill straight through because I didn't want to go look for a ruler.


But it worked out anyway.

I was really amazed at how well everything fit together and how well she moved and all. She felt quite sturdy and well-balanced.

I thought I'd tackle the others. The other boy looks just like the girl but in lime green so I thought I'd try #3 since he was different and I wasn't quite ready for the human figure which had twice as many parts.

You can see the mold tab things on all the pieces. I decided to forgo the jeweler's files I had been using and use the fine sanding drum on the Dremel. That wasn't such a hot idea since this robot was all curves and I am not coordinated so it's a little uneven in places.


This was one pure white in color and he's okay, I guess.


He is not as sturdy as the girl and he lists to one side because one leg is very slightly longer than the other.


Which is my fault. His instruction sheet says to drill the holes to the size of the pegs but the plastic thing of joint pieces included bushings, albeit without the fitted grooves. I tried it without them first and I didn't like the way they fitted together so I went back and re-drilled the holes to fit the bushings, except I did not have the right size bit (someone had borrowed my metric bits and I hadn't gotten them back yet) so I thought I would make do with a slightly smaller bit.

Which was not the smartest thing, I should have just waited until I had everything I needed. Given my love of magnets, I thought I might just forgo the joints in his legs in favor of magnets, like a Puki and most of the new bjd tinies. I think I'll buy a starter Magnetix set to see how their balls and bars work and I might learn something useful.

I know that when sanding resin, I should wear a face mask because resin dust is toxic. I did not do that. Sanded resin smells like hot glue and burns when inhaled. I can still taste it a day later. Once I started drilling into it, it got all over my hair and hands and everything else within 10 feet. I need to watch some more lab safety videos or something to drill these things into my head.