Bandaged heads

[martin goddard]

New pack of bandaged heads coming along soon. These can be used for any period where a man might get bandaged and returned to combat.  I personally would tell nurse that i was too poorly to return to the front line just yet.  They should jazz up units.  I wonder if any army used dark or camo bandages to stop the man from being a perfect target?


martin

[Leman (Andy)]

I shall definitely make use of some of them.

[Colonel Kilgore]

What a great idea, Martin - thank you!

Yet another pack to add to my Colours order....

Simon

[Sean Clark]

I must try this head swapping business at some point.

[Colonel Kilgore]

It's actually not as hard as it seems. I waited years before giving it a go, being worried that the heads would not come off cleanly, or I'd end up having to fill and sculpt to fill in gaps.

But none of that in practice [I've only done VC to date] and the heads fit snuggly. Process:

1) grab figure in one hand and pliers in the other: twist, and off pops the head
2) file smooth the neck area
3) use a pin vice and a 0.8mm or 1mm drill bit: drill a hole for the neck stub
4) clean up any mould lines on the replacement head while still on the sprue
5) cut replacement head from sprue: here is where I may not be doing it quite right, as I didn't need the full length of "neck", and it was hard to get them to fit snuggly initially, so I ended up filing the neck stub into a slight downward-pointing "spike" [you don't want it too short, or the head won't stay in place]
6) fill hole with superglue and stick in head
7) apply more superglue around the finished job to make sure all gaps were filled if need be.

I now can't tell which of my figures have original heads and which were swaps: I'm very impressed with how easy and well the whole thing works. So have just bought a bunch more.

Go on - give it a go (after your hols)!

Simon

[Sean Clark]

Will do!

[Rittervonbek]

Martin I am sure I read somewhere that 14th army bandages were dyed jungle green.

[Fat Wally]

I'd agree with everything that the good Colonel has said other than I use a smaller thinner drill bit than the neck stub inititally to make sure you've got the hole in exactly the right place first.  Stops the larger drill bit slipping.

Also where the head and arm are joined make a vertical cut, perpendicular to the arm, to separate before removing the head.

Once you've got the hang of head swaps it can become an almost obsessive compulsion to head swap everything.

Kev

[Colonel Kilgore]

Thanks Kev - that's a good tip about the head and arm. I'd been holding off working on those kind of castings with head attached to something as well as the neck, but no excuse now!

One other thing I should have mentioned earlier: I have sometimes used a pointy scalpel as a kind of crude drill around the top of the main drilled hole: this can help the head bed in nicely and avoid it resting too proud / having a "giraffe look" about the converted model.

Simon