Dragon's Rubber Figures

[ewahl]

Because I've been concentrating on my 2001 Space Pod (see that thread under Sci-Fi) for most of this year, I decided to take a refreshing breather and build something quick. I chose a Dragon kit #7257 from the 1/72 Armor Series, which is completely not my type of kit at all. In just five evenings I have nearly completed the kit (LCM(3) Landing Craft), including paint. There are six German steel angle iron tank/ship obstacles included.

 

I am now looking at the kit's 15 figures, which are nice but molded in rubber. Three are Navy crew operating the LCM and it's two machine guns, and the other 12 are Army soldiers who all seem to have reached shore alive. I've painted my share of plastic figures, but never rubber. What kind of primer is best? I'll probably use Vallejo paints for the figures. What type of glue can be used to attach the rubber arms, legs, and belt equipment? The weapons are regular plastic. The rubber seems to not want to permit mold lines to be removed easily, if at all.

 

I am trying to keep this an OOB build, so I am not planning to substitute other plastic figures for the rubber ones. The included clear vacuform water and shore base will be used for the finished scene. The LCM has beached and the front gate is down on the sand.

 

If you have successfully worked with Dragon's rubber 1/72 figures, help me out here please.

 

Thanks.

 

Ed

[Mark Aldrich]

Ed,

I do not build 1/72 scale. However, do you know if this is DS vinyl? If it is, it paints just like plastic. If it is the old Rubber, then I never found a way to keep the paint from flaking with the figures got bent.

 

 

Mark

[RONBO]

Ed, To glue use the Tamiya Orange Bottle glue it works great on DS (aka) dragon rubber parts. DS is dragon styrene. Not real rubber. If your parts are a tan color more than likely it is DS.

 

 

Ronald F.Thorne Jr.

[ewahl]

Hi, guys,

 

The rubber is light gray. It is the same color as the injection molded hard plastic of the rest of the kit. It is super flexible. The only way to clean off mold lines seems to be using a very sharp new blade to carefully cut off the raised ridges and sprue connection locations without digging into the figure's details. Does DS vinyl have the same flexibility and properties as the rubber ones?

 

Ed

[Mark Deliduka]

Yes Ed, the DS figures have the same properties as vinyl, but are designed to be glued and painted with 'regular' model glue and paints. I have used Testor's Orange Tube glue on these before and have had no problems. It holds perfectly. Also, my Testor's enamels went on fine over the DS plastic. I hope this helps.

[ewahl]

Thanks, guys, for the tips on which glue I can use. I tested three different types of glue on the rubber material to see which worked best. I let the test samples set up for 12 hours. Testors Orange tube glue and extra thick CA glue worked best; I could not pull the pieces apart. Tenax Pro Weld liquid cement held OK, but the pieces did pull apart with some effort. I had the same results on pieces I allowed to set only for an hour or so. This question is now answered.

 

Now to figure out how to trim the rubber. I tried some close trimming with a new #11 blade. Thick cuts through sprue attachment runners are easy. Thin cuts along mold lines against detail that must be preserved are more difficult without leaving tiny curls still attached to the main piece or digging accidentally into the detail.

 

The rubber cannot be sanded or scraped along or across the mold lines. The surface may scuff up, but the line does not disappear. I am wondering if a coating of Mr. Surfacer along the seam and mold line will fill in the depressions just enough to allow them to be scraped carefully down to where the rubber lip just shows.

 

I have yet to experiment with paint.

 

Ed

 

 

 

 

[RONBO]

Ed, You may try putting the parts in the freezer and then when it is good and cold take your flex file and sand the seams. This may help a medium to fine grit should do the trick. Hope this helps.

 

 

Ronald F.Thorne Jr.