Horizon's ED-209 Vinyl Model Kit... How to Build It?

Modeling Subjects Science Fiction
1

Hi all…

This is my very first post here, although I’m no stranger to the on-line hobby community (been a long-time member of ASAP’s “Star Trek Props & Discussion” forum, over on ezboard.com) [:)].

I am shortly expecting to receive a commercial kit of Horizon’s ED-209 – not one of those cheap rip-off recasts I’ve seen on eBay occasionally – and so need major assistance with the build-up process for this particular kit.

See, my main area of interest/expertise over the last four years has been Star Trek props/prop kits, which usually comprise of resin in the casting process. I have never before worked with a vinyl kit, although I have been told that it’s much different – and possibly much more difficult – to put together than a simple resin piece.

Now, I do know there have been other threads concerning this product, but I felt since my questions aren’t pertaining to the specific model itself, it would be best for me to post a new topic regarding the intricacies behind the whole process of assembling vinyl model kits.

I’ve typically only ever dealt with injection-molded (ie. regular kits, such as planes, ships, etc.) and resin (which would be pretty much all of my Star Trek props), so I honestly have no freaking clue how to go about building this puppy. If anyone could please assist me in this new endeavour, it would be much appreciated. Thanks a bunch, fellas! [:D]

2

There is a thread in this forum about an ongoing build of said kit with pics and quiet a lot of detail and info.

Read through that and than ask specific questions, also read through the kit Instructions well. Horizon ususally includes a small paper and how to prep and build Vinyl kits(The Thing is used as an example if I recall correctly)

3

Hi,Eric.I built about 3 of the Horizon ED-209’s.First you want to lightly scrub model with finger nailbrush in lightly soapy water and rinse very well,then let dry completly.If your kit is like the ones I had you probably have a lot of air bubbles.I filled all the bubble holes with a toothpics and superglue-gel,you may also want to probe the model with toothpic to find any bubbles just under the surface.you need to try to fill these also,if you don’t you will have dimples in your finish,over 75% of kit assembly is cutting out parts.I use a hair blowdryer to heat the vinyl until soft,take a brand new x-acto blade and cut along scribe lines.Be very carefull,even though the knife will cut like butter until the vinyl starts to cool,you may be tempted to cut futher,DONT,re-heat the vinyl again,this is the best way to preserve your kit and fingers.its easier to leave a little excess than to remove to much vinyl,after parts clean-up is finished and dry-fitting is done,its time to glue I’ve had best results with super-glue gel.If you heat the parts before you glue all assembly joints will be flush.I have used Krylon flat white primer on all my vinyl-kits as a primer,spray at least 3 mist coats to completely cover model,you can then use any type of model paint you want.I also used Krylon ultra-flat black for the meshed covered head,after this is dry dip your finger in a small pile of powdered graphite and lightly dry-brush the mesh with your finger,this will give you the proper sheen on the head.If you are worried,there is plenty of scrap vinyl to test your cutting skill,its just like stretching spur it requires practice.If you have any questions i.e.(installing a worm gear in leg) e-mail me and I will walk you through it.other than the bubble holes it is an excellent kit. have fun!

4

Been a long time sence I built the 209 so I’m not much help there but I will say a great big HOWDY and welcome to the group.

Matt

5

Hey fellas… [:D]

Thanks for the replies, information and tips. I’ll be sure to check out that other thread regarding this other ED-209 build-up. I did try looking down further, and a few pages back, but I guess I skipped over that one or something. Oops… [:p]

I’m sure that other thread will answer a lot of initial questions I have about building this sort of kit for the first time, and that instruction manual that’s included with the kit should be of great help as well [:)].

Regarding some of what was pointed out here, being a prop builder for over four years now I was aware of checking for any pinholes or air bubbles in the surface of the kit before getting around to finishing the piece [;)].

Believe me, whether it’s a resin ST prop kit, or a vinyl ED-209 kit, those sort of imperfections seem to be a constant in any casting medium (LOL)! [8]

Although, a new bit of info I wasn’t aware of was the whole heating the parts before/during assembly. I take it a regular hairdryer is good enough for that? [8D]

As of yet, I haven’t received this kit in the mail, but am expecting to get it within the next week or so, so once I get my hands on it I’m sure I’ll have more questions for you more experienced vinyl kit builders… [;)]

6

BTW, thanks for the warm welcome, Matt. I do appreciate it, dude… [8D]

Oh, and merkin63, do you have any pics of your ED-209 build-ups? Might be good for me to see what someone else has done with this kit, to help give me the sort of confidence I need in tackling my own… [:)]

For anyone who’s interested, check out my webpage – linked beneath each of my postings – to see what sort of modeling I do on a regular basis… [:D]

7

The hair dryer thing is my choice,opposed to hot water,because the vinyl will stay more soft longer for cutting or flexing parts to shape and also I don’t like the idea of handling wet vinyl using an x-acto knife.(I speak from exp.!)I will use cold water after I may have heated and flex parts to shape,the water will instantly harden the vinyl.My only gripe about the ED-209 kit was the fact that the bottom leg assembly is molded solid and the inst.recomend you paint the depressed areas black,but I wanted to be able to see the cool looking wormgear inside the leg,so I just cut out the areas and added a big long wood screw for the worm gear.It is a good size kit.I only have the super detailed kit left as people purchased my other to build-ups.I super-detailed the kit buy using the video;am I that old?,and an issue of the Tamiya model mag.that not only had ED-209 on the cover,but also in-depth building and detailing,you may be able to find that issue from someone in the forum.I lost mine along with a lot of other stuff due to burst pipes.I’m still shoping around for a digital camera with a macro lens and money is tight right now(disc surgery)but I’ll try to borrow a camera to post a pic.,much to my wifes’ disdain ED-209 is the guardian of our computer desk! I have instructed ED should my wife attempt to move him he is authorized to use lethel force to hold his position! I just bought Robo-cop at Wal-Mart on Dvd for under $10.00,a lot better refference than video.by the way the lower leg is hollow,I meant where the depressions are these are solid but you can still obtain exceptable results by just painting flt. black.I’m just a detail junkie!

8

Hey merkin! [8D]

About the hairdryer, yeah, I know what you mean by that, dude. I remember I once used the “hot water” heat technique on my Ent-D kit to correct a wierd warping/twisting of one of the warp nacelle struts (the starboard nacelle twisted downward/foward; guess it was pulled from the mold too early).

It worked great – I was able to straighten that strut right out – and you could never tell now that it was flawed when it came out of the box, but I did find it was really slippery due to the condensation. I didn’t have to do any X-acto knife work on it, of course, but I can imagine from your experience that that could hurt (ouch!) [xx(].

I’ll keep it in mind to use a combination of the two techniques for the softening/hardening of the vinyl parts when I’m cutting, reshaping and fitting them together. Thanks for the tip! [;)]

Although, I don’t know if I’d be brave enough to try “super detailing” it as you did, or hollowing out the solid-cast parts, as this is my very first vinyl kit build and so I don’t have any skill or experience with this type of kit. I might try to do a little, though, to see what I can get out of it [:)].

As for those pics, if you can manage to take a few, that’d be great, but not having a digital camera myself I can definitely understand how hard it is sometimes to do so. Take your time with it, my friend… no rush [8D].

BTW, sorry to hear about that disc surgery, dude. My step-father has a fused disc in his lower back, so it’s always causing him grief. That obviously comes first before any of this, so go take care of that, and we can deal with this later [;)].

Right now, in my own collection I have all three movies on VHS – yes, the third one wasn’t all that good, I know, but I wanted to have the complete set – but since Wal-Mart has those DVDs on sale now, I think I may go out and get them myself. I sure hope your wife knows better to leave ED alone, otherwise she may have to feel the wrath of his “lethal force”! [:D]

9

Actually, I was just thinking… what with all the X-acto cutting I’ve done with sheet styrene for the few scratch-built ST props I’ve put together, I should be able to apply that knowledge and skill to this kit build fairly well, don’t you think? Would cutting that sort of plastic be comparable to vinyl, in fact? If so, then I shouldn’t have as hard a time with cutting the parts as I thought, what with me then having a basis for comparison… [:)]

10

The trouble with vinyl is even though you usally have score lines and when the vinyl is heated it is real easy to get your blade twisted because the vinyl is soft when heated as rule of thumb never force blade if it gets tough to cut either reheat or change blade or both.If you like the kit and I’m sure you will you may be able to find Horizons’ Robo-cop kit.He is about a foot tall and has a removable helment so you can see all his cybernetic detail on the back and sides of head,you even have the bullet hole scar on Peter Wellers’head.highly reccomended kit.

11

Well, from what I know, when cutting vinyl you should move the part, not the blade, so as to minimize any chance of that (yes, I already did some reading of that other ED-209 thread… very informative… hehehe [8D]).

Of course, reheating the vinyl or replacing the blade would probably help with that a lot, too [:)].

And yes, I am aware Horizon had come out with an actual Robocop vinyl kit. I haven’t seen any decent pics of it yet, so I didn’t know it was that detailed. I also like the fact that Horizon’s Robocop kits are such large scale, so as to see as much of the detail as possible (I’m big on detail). I am definitely going to want to get my hands on that kit, too! [:D]

12

Hey Eric,you may be able to find the May 1992 issue of Fine Scale Modeler it had an amazing build-up of Robo-cop by a guy named Joseph Jobe,it was cool,he made all the joints move to place in different poses,he also totally scratchbuilt the inside leg holster and all the gears and details.

13

Eric,
Nice prob builds and welcome to these forums! I’m glad my site (Building Horizon’s ED-209) could be of some help. That’s the main reason I built it, when I was starting my ED-209 10 months ago. I could not find enough reference on this particular kit. It’s a nice kit but there is a lot of room for improvement. I was very intimidated at first since this is the first vinyl kit I have ever worked on. I hadn’t modeled in over 7 years and even then, I usually only glued and painted. I have been working slow on this kit but not because it is difficult. What I like about vinyl kits, or at least this kit, is that it involves alot of troubleshooting which has helped improve my modeling skills and gain experience.

One of the biggest problems with Horizons ED for me was the lack of alignment pins, particularly in the two head pieces. Also, if filling, consider this product…Mountains in Miinutes. I used SEM #39133 for primer. I wish I would have decanted it for airbrushing since it dries a bit grainy and thick out of the spray can. I also beleive I could have gotten away with using Krylon primer. I’ve come to the conclusion that lacquers work as well as acrylics on vinyl but experiment before application anyways.

I guess the best advice I can give is to just jump into it! If the weather gets better this week, I will finish up my ED. I am using Alclad paints for the metallic areas. I’ve never used them but I did experiment on some spare styrene and got good results.

Have fun on your kit and if you have any specific questions, PM me and I will be happy to help!

14

Yeah, doing vinyl and pure resin kits from time to time is a good way of keeping some basic skill fresh and also teaches how to deal with kits that are not designed to be “Shake and Make” as are so many Plastic Models today.

Yesterday I managed to pick up 5 1/144 Plane models at the Dollar store(local equivalent).
Great little kits come in plastic bags with glue, decals, etc they are not precision engineered and will need quiet a bit of TLC to make them look nice.

I like to pick up little challenges like that.

Back on topic.

The main difference I found in the kits seems to be the parts and surface preparation and assembly. Once they are primed they are the same to me.