Delta Operator - Somalia. (detailing plastic figures)

The plastic injection moulding process, although becoming more cutting-edge, is still quite restrictive when it comes to more organic forms such as figures. What this process limits is the detail on the sides of an item when the steel mould halves are released. On a head for instance, this will mean the ears have no definition, whilst the face remains reasonably sharp. The torso may be fine on the front and back but the sides will lack detail. Obviously with resin figures this does not occur, the flexible rubber moulds allowing for undercuts and more complex shapes.

What I hope to describe is how to enhance, re-instate or create this lost or soft detail using tools you will probably already have, or can obtain very cheaply. The process too is very simple, it just requires all of the grooves, edges and joints to be lightly scraped to some extent.

I generally use two different scalpel blades for doing this, the weapons of choice for me are a No.6 curved blade and a No.11P pointed blade. I will always start off with new blades for each figure I prepare because the blade really does have to be sharp for this. I also find it easier to use the blade without a handle, just wrapping some tape around the end to hold them more comfortably and give me more control.

The curved No.6 is used for most of the work, this one is great for recreating undercuts and refining the points where dissimilar items touch, (belt-to-jacket, jacket-to-trousers, etc), and most general scraping.

The second blade, the No.11P (Not a standard No.11) has a very acutely angled tip which is perfect for recreating seam lines and detail around webbing and buckles. This is usually held more perpendicular to the surface so you are only using the very tip of the blade. The downside is that this blade will lose its’ point very quickly and it will need replacing most often, you are lucky if you can complete one figure with the same blade.

What you are trying to do is create a sharper edge around parts, removing the soft radii of plastic that makes detail look soft. Just take your time and work your way around the part methodically, gently scraping with the blade (as if you were removing a seam line) but make sure you don’t dig the blade in too deep. The key to the technique is to use very little pressure when scraping, you don't want to remove too much material or leave blade marks in the plastic. You are not ploughing furrows, so subtlety is key here. If you press too hard you are also more likely to get blade “chatter” where it jumps along the line and this leaves unsightly marks which are very hard to get rid of. Remember, it is easier to go over an area again than it is to repair it if you have gone too far.

The dodgy 3D image below shows the process, the material you are trying to remove and roughly the angle I hold the blades at.

You can see on this torso a couple of before and after shots. I have completed the scraping on the left hand side (as viewed), the right being untouched.

A quick note here on plastic density. Do a test on something unseen first before you commit to your potential masterpiece, I find that the plastic from different manufacturers varies quite a lot. Dragon figures range from hard to very hard, whilst Masterbox and Miniart figures are quite soft. You may have to adjust the force required to get a good result without damaging the part.

Very rarely it might be necessary to gently sand the area after scraping with some fine wet & dry, usually a rub with a piece of well-worn scotchbrite is enough to smooth everything out and remove any burrs. Finally I “dampen” the worked area with a very small amount of Tamiya extra thin cement, this removes any plastic fuzz that may be left over. Be very sparing with this otherwise all of that detail you just created will melt back into goo.

The main subject I’m using for this article is one of the figures from Dragon set 3022  “Delta Force, Somalia 1993”, one of that manufacturer’s earlier releases and whilst exhibiting fairly good detail, there is a lot going on with the uniform that we can improve on.

The figure is depicted wearing Ranger body armour over a standard BDU (Battle Dress Uniform) jacket. Over this he has an LBV, or load-bearing vest, with various pouches and strapping attached, so three levels of clothing just for the torso. We need to create the definition between these three layers and make them look like they are actually separate items. So I start by lightly scraping around the seams with the No.6 blade, moving to the No.11P for the finer details and seams, removing unwanted detail as I go along. I also removed all of the moulded straps and webbing, leaving a slight indentation, planning to replace these with more detailed versions.

This is the torso completed with another untouched to show what you actually get in the kit.

Normally I start with the legs, mainly because I find the most tedious part of this process detailing the boots, so I like to get this out of the way early on. Detail on boots is usually very soft indeed and the lace area in-particular can be very poor. Even if you don't go to town on the re-scribing of the rest of the figure, I think adding some detail to the boots really does make a big difference.

Once I tidied up and re-scribed the boots, I removed all of the lace detail and scribed a line to represent where the front would lace together over the tongue. In the past I have "laced" boots with fuse wire (which is very time consuming) or stretched-sprue (which has a tendency to melt if you use liquid poly to glue it on), but I discovered a far better and quicker way of getting a good looking, quick result.  I use a piece of diamond pattern mesh of a suitable size (I use aluminium because it is soft, but brass will work just as well) and then I cut a line of X's off the edge. Once trimmed to shape it is just a question of super-gluing it over the front of the boot and adding the lace holes with a fine needle.  You can get this mesh from varying sources but the one I use is Aluminium Micro-mesh by Scale Scenics.

Generally I will clean up and re-scribe all of the main body parts before assembly, mainly because I find it easier to hold them that way and you have more access to all of the part. Hopefully the pictures should give you a far better idea of the result, before and after. The orange parts in these pictures are an untouched version of the same figure from another set.

Once the parts are assembled, I begin to add the detail back in, either scratch-building detail or using better quality aftermarket parts. In this case I have used a replacement Hornet head, kneepads from Live Resin and an M733 from Trumpeter.

Pocket detail is a great example of how this scraping technique can be used to really bring an area to life. Concentrate in particular on creating an undercut for the pocket flap, making it look like it is a separate piece of cloth instead of a moulded on blob. A more tricky procedure is to reproduce the outer seam line around some pockets, this is where the 11P blade comes into its’ own. Just work slowly and methodically around the edge and don’t press to hard, you can refine this later when the preliminary line has been created. You may find it more comfortable to use a needle to create the initial line instead and then refine it with the blade.

Jacket buttons are usually mis-moulded and lack any definition and there are several different ways of replacing these. You can use a punch and die set with some thin plasticard or foil, or even just a thin slice from a piece of plastic rod or stretched sprue will work. Some years ago I invested in a gadget called the “nutter”, this is a series of punches of varying diameters that are used to literally punch a disc from a sheet of foil. This tool creates a slight dome shape to the button which looks really good when painted. An expensive tool but it certainly does give great results.

Another area that is usually crying out for some attention is the cuff detail on sleeves. Sometimes you can get away with scribing around the wrist area to make it look hollow, more often than not though, I will remove the hand and drill out the sleeve instead. Normally I glue a piece of sprue to the hand to re-create the wrist and file this to shape before placing this back into the hollow cuff. The advantage of doing this is that it gives you more flexibility if the original fit is not great or you want to alter the pose of the hand slightly. This is also the process I use to fit the head, usually using one from the excellent Hornet range.

For webbing and straps, a lot of the time you can get away with just scribing around the moulded on detail, it gets a little more complicated if you want to take it further but gives a far better impression. The first order of business is to get hold of a decent set of etched brass buckles, there are sets available from several manufacturers depending on your needs and the historical period being portrayed. The set I used on this particular figure, and the one I find most useful, is by Black Dog (35001 Fasteners and Buckles). This is one of the few sets that include the modern plastic buckles as well as several other traditional metal types in various sizes.

I have tried various materials for straps; lead foil, paper stiffened with super-glue and all sorts of other random materials, what I use now is common electrical tape. Any colour will do but I like to use blue as it is highly visible and is more obvious when you miss a bit painting it. Once the adhesive is removed (using a cloth dampened with lighter fluid), I find it extremely versatile and it is great for portraying straps under tension as you can stretch it slightly.

By far the most fiddly bit is cleaning up the buckles and threading the tape strapping through them, even with the aid of an optivisor !. The rest is easy, just scraping off the moulded-on versions and replacing them with actual 3D examples. Depending on the strap type and location, sometimes I will build up folds around the straps with putty to give the indication that the underlying uniform is being displaced by the strap. You can see an example of this around the straps on the kneepads of this figure. This gives a far more natural look.

As you can see from the pictures, I tried out quite a few different options for the arms before settling on the final pose. Couldn’t have yet another pointing figure now, could we !

The figure example I have used for this article has a complex, layered uniform with a large amount of straps, belts and buckles, so detailing this took quite some time. It is probably at the extreme end of the spectrum with regard to detailing work, by comparison a WW2 Russian soldier should take far less time to do. I think you will agree though, if you compare the detailed version with the stock figure it looks 100% better.

So here we have the finished figure, albeit without his goggles as yet, finally ready for painting.

It is easy to get carried away and rush this process but it does take some time and of course depends on the complexity of the figure and the amount of detail you want to add. You may not want to go fully down this detailing route, perhaps just using it in selected areas, but hopefully you can see that with a little work you can really lift basic plastic figures to another level. The benefits manifest themselves when you come to the next stage, it makes it far easier to paint them.

This article originally appeared in the January 2017 issue of Military Modelling magazine. And no, I still haven't got around to painting it yet !