Hi All,
A few of our PLAYMOBIL figures received some canine customization. What - if any - material used in figure build could be use to fill dents, reshape noggins, and serve as prosthetic limbs? We can drill into limbs for armatures. Other repairs would require the material to stick to the plastic. The material would have to dry hard and withstand the occassional train wreck / pirate raid / Legio X assault / etc.
Thanks in advance!
Eric
Eric;
If Iâm not mistaken; most âPlasticâ figures, and other plastic parts used for Playmobile products are âSyreneââŠexcept possibly the more flexible parts or the gear boxes.
So, you can use lacquer thinner, MEC, Ascetone, or the more expensive small bottles of clear liquid plastic cementâŠwhich will âWeldâ the parts together. Some types of plastic filler can be used like putty to fill holes in the plastic .
If you have hobby stores that cater to the plastic model aeroplane gangâŠthey will probably have stuff that you can use.
Others; please feel free to correct me on this.
ANDâŠplease warn your gang of repairers of the dangers of those âLiquidsââŠthey should be handled with GREAT CARE.
FJM
Seems to be normal styrene. When I kitbashed the ore car, I treated it like any other styrene piece.
Figures ⊠
Not rolling stock âŠI believe âŠ
Depending on the damage, Iâd say just some Bondo spot putty. Easily available and cheap at your local auto parts store ( $5?). Hardens nice and takes paint.
I agree with Craig.
Also, if you want to do manual sculpting, Magic Sculpt is also a 2-part epoxy, but it can be worked with water for smoothing. Ainât cheap though.
https://www.amazon.com/Magic-Sculpt-Lb-Epoxy-Clay/dp/B003AL71FI
As for ideas, I donât have any, but this woman sure seems to take her Playmobil mods very seriously!
And this guyâŠ
And this dudeâŠ
I guess itâs a thing!
for âweldingâ plastik i use the stuff, that plumbers use for welding fittings to pipes. (much cheaper and more concentrated)
i use any brand of two-part epoxy for replacing or adding bodyparts or clothing.
best seem to be either the âgreenstuffâ and/or âmilliputâ
look the test pieces below. the skirt-mending and the piece of luggage to the right are from another epoxy, than the other luggage and the arms.
here the âgreenstuffâ used in reusable molds out of âwhitestuffâ
Thanks, Fred, in this case we are talking about repairing figurines whose sundry body parts have made a one way trip through the dogsâ alimentary canals. We can certainly try the plastic filler, which we have on hand, to fill some of the bite marks on the less mauled figurines.
Eric
Craig,
Also on hand. It works wonders on minor termite damage!
Eric
Thanks, everyone. There are a number of options here that are either on hand or readily available. We have some end-of-school-year projects to finish, and then weâll turn to!
Have a great weekend!
Eric
thinking about that, it might be an idea, to totally disasemble the damaged figures and let the parts soak in soapwater for some days before repairing.
these figures have enough hollow parts, that otherwise the re-animated figures might be shitty at best.
And what do we have here young Mueller. âTeacher my dad made us follow the dog around and gather up his poop so he could analyze it for any evidence of the people he ate!â
I am late to this party. But three thoughts come to mind: bondo, two part epoxy plumbers putty (comes in a tube and you knead it to mix), and thre are all sorts of epoxy clays for sculpting.
But here is a fun idea, what about actual prosthetics. A hook, a peg leg, or maybe a high tech thingy like them springs runners use. Ad some diversity to the clan.
Actually, the signifer for Legio X has a hook from his battle with the dogs. Cave canem, indeed!
Eric
Getting back to thisâŠ
I had tried two part modeling epoxyâŠ
âŠ
âŠand that failed miserably, though it has gone to several different projects and repairs, so no loss. For the life of me, I couldnât find putty locally. With the boys into rocketry, however, I found a brand I ordered via a supply source that rocket folks use to mount fins and such and blend them into their models.
!Not bad! I then selected an injured firemanâŠ
âŠsmoothed the stuff into the teeth marks, sculpted a hairpiece, and had Kid-zilla stick a firemanâs helmet on to make sure it fit.
Our fireman now looks like this:
The stuff stuck to the plastic, which means our first responder only needs a little paint. I will train the boys on how to use this stuff, and we should get âeveryoneâ back in action in short order.
Thanks for the tips!
Aloha,
Eric
P.S. You may have noted Gustav in the background. The postal service broke his snowplow at some point. We are in the tropics, so who cares, but, as it turns out, the screw that holds the plow in place also holds the steam chest closed! This putty actually fixed the broken stem, allowing us to put the old boy back in action. Except my throttle broke 
New projectâŠ
Eric;
I wish I had a current source for PlayMobil. (Mine went out of business!) Because they are toys, most large scalers ignore them. They can be refurbished into credible models. Example below.
That turned out quite well Dave. I love the couplers.
Am I opening a can of worms asking if I askâŠ
Bill this is well worth the read and follow the link to Mikeâs blog to see weekly updates of operation pictures from their weekly gatherings.
https://www.ovgrs.org/
Just get yourself a long flat bladed screw driver to join in on their fun.
See Fred Mills on this site for further info on your last two questions 
*Are they body mounted or bogie mounts?*
probably boogie mounted. playmobil cars need the couplers to keep the boogies aligned.
Bill;
They are Kadee G scale couplers and bogie mounted. The #1 size would probably work, but I like being able to use a small standard screwdriver for quick uncoupling. My issues were with mechanical knuckle couplers (Lionel, USA Trains, Delton, Aristo Craft). They had to mount low because the LGB uncoupler was the only version available back then. That meant that twigs, pebbles, pinecones, or just about anything you could forget to remove from the track centerline would uncouple randomly along the train.
Regards, David Meashey