Recapitation .. is that a word?

So… Once you’ve taken your pop apart. Now what? Pops get taken apart for a LOT of reasons. To sculpt and paint with more room, to interchange pop parts from different figures, to change positioning of limbs just to name a few. Once you’ve done your magic, you need to put them back together. Today we’ll focus on Frankensteining your pops into a whole being(ish). Kind of important, and sometimes tricky.

The Head

When you are just taking a pop apart to paint/sculpt and putting that head back on that body, there is little issue of fitting. Sometimes the neck piece gets warped, but generally the process is quite simple. If the head has the plug in, I heat the plug area to soften the hole and pop the neck back in. Here is where a heat gun shines as you can’t effectively boil the head once painted/sculpted.

If it’s a different body for the head, sometimes you need to get creative. My most used way to ensure that the pops don’t lose their head is to use a wire anchor. This only works if the head plug is out of the head. Using a small drill, I drill out a hole in the neck piece (very phallic item, I must admit) that is just big enough for a piece of lower gauge wire to fit through. I can’t honestly tell you what gauge I use because it’s a dollar store roll of wire from the garden center. It’s difficult, but possible to bend if that helps. Then I soften the head plug, fit it onto the neck piece, and push the wire through to anchor the head plug in place, still allowing it to turn. I add a dab of glue CAREFULLY to the top of the neck piece/wire connection to secure it. Too much glue here will stop the head from turning.

Sadly, if the head plug won’t come out of the head, sometimes the best option is to glue it into place. Just make sure your head is positioned properly as you won’t be able to move it after.

Arms

Arms are another piece that often need adjusting. The most common pop I change the arms for are Michael!Dean. His base (for now) has one arm with wide sleeves and one arm bent on his waist. I take both off, and sand down the wide sleeve (We’ll cover sanding and finishing in another post) of the straight arm. The bent arm is not used, and I fill in the hole in the body with sculpy, or milliput. I choose a straight hand that somewhat fits the look and sand it to match. Then the arm is dry fit, cutting the plug or widening the arm hole to fit tightly. I heat up the arm hole and plop some glue in and press the arm in. It’s important to hold REALLY tightly until the glue does an initial set so make sure you have some cotton swabs handy to dab the excess glue with your free hand. Once it’s set you can leave to fully dry. Once dry, they can be slightly heated to do a final positioning if needed. I recommend doing any major arm changes, like bending, before putting it back on the pop to avoid breaking the glue bond.

Most body attachments are just “Tab A into Tab B” situations. Occasionally you need to do flat cuts as outlined in the decapitation post. To attach these together I use wires to brace it from the inside. A dot of paint on one piece, carefully pressed into the other piece will give you placement of the holes for the wire. Drill, insert the wire, and test fit. Do any preliminary sanding you can to minimize what you have to do later. fill all holes with glue, insert the wire, glue the flat pieces and press together. Hold firmly until they stick, then tape/clamp them to dry. Once dry, do a final seal and fill the crack with the medium that will work best for that. Sometimes I use clay, milliput, resin, or liquid sculpy to fill depending on the texture I’m looking for and the strength that will be needed.

Now your pop is whole! You can proceed with the steps needed to finish and make it yours! As always trial and error will be needed. I recommend trying to find really cheap pops you don’t care about (garage sales and thrift stores are great for this) so you can practice what works for you before you try the big one. I have messed up expensive pops, it may happen, but don’t let that deter you! Some of my mistakes have turned into my best work!