Technique: Salt dipping, Repositioning limbs without all the cutting and sculpting Options

[Psythu]

Some of you may have seen my sniper scouts over in the WIP forums. Some people asked for a tutorial on "Salt dipping", so here it is.


Setup; put some salt in a small tin (the smaller it is the less likely you are to burn yourself on the sides, and the less energy wasted). Make sure it’s deep enough to prevent your model from touching the bottom, but not so deep you’re heating up a load of salt you won’t be using. The tin in the pic isn't full; it was when I used it but I spilt some before I took the photo. If you’ve got an element hob with a flat top you can probably get away with putting the tin straight on this, but since I’ve got a gas hob I put the tin inside a pan. Probably best if this is an old pan, since it might get slightly marked by the heat (i.e. mine did). Next to this put a bowl of water.





Now for the heat! The person I got this from recommended heating for 5 mins on high heat and a further 15 on low. Personally I think this is rather too much, but I’ve yet to experiment with that.


Dipping the model; this requires some care. Firstly, the salt is hot (duh) so you don’t want to be sticking your fingers in it. Secondly, if you let joins get hot (for example the flat/curved bit on legs where the torso’s glued to) then they may warp and the body won’t fit.

What I do is stick one leg in at a time, burying it up to the hip, but sideways so that almost all of the leg’s the same depth into the salt. The salt at the bottom’s likely to be hotter. After 30-50 seconds I lift the part out by the unheated leg, and bend the heated one. If you do this with pliers, be very careful not to squish the hot plastic. You’ll probably be able to tolerate the heat and bend it with your hand/finger; reposition the leg quickly and then put it into the water (holding it in position). It’ll harden up in seconds, and you can take it out again. It’ll also wash off any salt stuck to the model; I found mine came out looking like they were going to be permanently encrusted in the stuff, but it didn’t mark the plastic and it just washed off when I cooled them.




Before you commit models to this, practise. Cut off some sprue, and test it out. You can find out how much time makes the plastic soft, and how much destroys it. It’s better to mess it up with sprue then with some expensive legs; if you overheat the component chances are it won’t be repairable. The extremities of the part will also get worse the more times you heat them; one of my scouts has a rather fat foot from being put in more times then I should have.

One last thing; don’t bend limbs too far! Over the top poses might seem great at first, but actually you don’t need to alter models too much to get some good dynamism. Move them too far and your model will just look a bit kung-fu crazy. Hope this is of help.

[captain_shrike]

If you wanted to bend to bend two legs at the same time, on one model, can you stand the legs in the salt to waist height?

[Psythu]

If you wanted to bend to bend two legs at the same time, on one model, can you stand the legs in the salt to waist height?

I'd recommend bending them one at a time. It'll only add another minute to the total time, and it'll be far easier to control.

[Luther - the fal...]

Wow..

I'll have to try that, now where can I find an old frying pan?

Luther..

[InquisitorPalpat...]

Thanks for the tutorail Psythu, I'm going to give this a try. Do you happen to know if this works with resin parts as well?

[Psythu]

I'd imagine so - resin parts can be heated in very hot water, so this should be fine. Try and experiment with some scrap if you've got any though, because it'd be nasty if it went wrong.

[Commander Bly]

Wow im definetly going to try this but can you post some pics of the finished product?

Edit: Nevermind found the link at the top lol

This post has been edited by Commander Bly: Jul 3 2007, 09:59 PM

[Ganuus]

Great job on the tutorial. This is very simple. Thanks for giving in to our requests!



I'm a pirate, are you?

[Brother 'Ussell]

Simple yet brilliant at the same time, thanks for sharing!

Did you make any mistakes using this technique? and if so how, if possible, did you fix them.
I'm just curious about possibly obliterating details by bending at the wrong place and if its repairable.

[Psythu]

Did you make any mistakes using this technique? and if so how, if possible, did you fix them.
I'm just curious about possibly obliterating details by bending at the wrong place and if its repairable.

Plenty of mistakes. First mistake was (when practising with the sprue) putting it in vertically. It ended up too near the bottom, and the end kinda curled up... but if you imagine all 4 outer edges curling backwards (not the sprue curling sideways), making the end really fat. That was irrepairable, but it was sprue so it didn't matter.

The other mistake was with the first leg. After bending it at the knee I thought it should be moved at the hip so it wasn't so far away from the other leg (made him look kinda crazy). I heated it up and moved it at the hip, not noticing that this unbent the knee. So I had to heat it a third time to rebend the knee, and as a result of all the heating his boot got slightly fat and warped. No-one's noticed yet though, so it's not a massive issue.

So basically; you shouldn't destroy details by bending as it can simply be unbent, but you can destroy details by heating too much.

[warsmith]

Is it possible to obliterate the details whislt holding the models by hand?



Cheers

Dan

[Brother 'Ussell]

I tried it today and it worked pretty good, I did lose a bit of detail on one part by reheating it one time to many but overall I would call it a success.

[Psythu]

Is it possible to obliterate the details whislt holding the models by hand?

Not unless you squeeze reeeeeeeeeeally hard...

Are we going to get to see what you've made, 'Ussell?

[lilbill]

can u show us a model that has been salt dipped. also why in salt can u explain

[Iron Father Rik]

It has a lower melting point than plastic and at a temperature far less than a flame. This will not make the model too hot to handle, nor fully melt the plastic like holding a flame to it would.

It makes the plastic just about right and malleable.

[Brother Bohemund]

thanks for the tutorial! seems quite easy, have to try this.

[Teg]

Interesting... I'll try this later, but first: some questions. To whit: How hot does the salt get? (/^oC); And could an oven be used instead of a hob?

[Brother 'Ussell]

Sorry for so long replying to the request for a picture



It's not the best shot but I straightened the sword arm a bit so it was more pointing than hacking and I angled the arm holding the bolt pistol out a bit at the elbow.

Just did another one yesterday also which I'll post asap.

[Brother Chamberl...]

Would this work on metal models as well?

[Psythu]

I don't think it'll be useful for metal. It's a very soft metal to start with though, so heating it a little might mean there's less tearing if you bend it. Only way to find out is to try it, preferably on something scrap.

[LadyKat]

Men...geesh...if you don't want to mark the pot or pan you're using put a little bit of water in it. Watch the heating though because this will alter how quickly your salt heats because the water will heat around the tin...You may find you get a more even heat in your salt this way but definately be careful you don't put in too much water b/c if it starts to boil you'll have water splashing into your salt.

[brotherbigall]

I definitely have to try this!

[kravi]

Men...geesh...if you don't want to mark the pot or pan you're using put a little bit of water in it. Watch the heating though because this will alter how quickly your salt heats because the water will heat around the tin...You may find you get a more even heat in your salt this way but definately be careful you don't put in too much water b/c if it starts to boil you'll have water splashing into your salt.

Not fair to point out the silliness of men. It's the silliness of those who don't cook

--Me

[Roultox]

You try powdering your models bodies before putting them into the sand? Also, have you tried cutting a shoulderpad in half then flex it to your liking, then glue it back together? Finally, what about using pieces of sprue like greenstuff when you sculpt say, a horn and heat it up to bend it?

[dark_inquisitor]

would this work on arms as well?