Head swops

I,m sure many of you here have done heads swops and I,m sure if you all chimed in on how you guys go about doing your head swops we would have a few different methods.
Some guys will just simply cut the head straight off  and simply glue on another. This method is the most basic and I,m sure guys who have tried this have learned pretty quick that this method is not very sturdy and they most likely had the head fall back off.
 Then there are a couple of ways of pinning the heads with rod and glue and then there is hollowing out both the head and neck and filling both holes with putty and then you can also do both the rod and glue combined with putty.
I,ll explain all these methods but the photos will show how to do the last option of both putty and rod and glue.

I like this method best because even if your drilled holes do not line up perfect you still can fine tune in the fit to where you want it, but with a pin and glue if your fit is off you,ll pull it back apart and tweak your work and maybe re-drill to get it to line up. This is not that big a deal getting it right on a head swop pinning and gluing but this same method is also used on arms and other body parts also where the proper lining up of the parts will be very important.

All right lets get to the pictures and getting the heads cut off! You DON,T want to make a straight cut to take the head off! Cut around in a circle being real careful that you stay to the collar line. Once you have a solid cut around then you can finish cutting all the way through or twist the head off.

I like to do my head cuts down into the neck at a bit of an angle and then twist the head off, this leaves the neck with more plastic with a taper to be fitted into the new body and leaves the body it came from with the start of a hollowed out neck to accept a new head.

This is a bit more tricky to get used to and you have more of a chance of cutting your fingers this way so be careful and work your way up to this if just getting started.

This first pic shows the angle I was talking about to cut off the head at a taper work your way up to this angle cut if just getting started and remember to make a smaller cut all the way around the head and then make the final cut or twist to remove the head to avoid a bad cut that will ruin the collar line on the figure.

Pic #2
Some figures like this one here will have detail on the neck line that you will want to keep that is in the way of making a clean straight cut. You will have cut up on an angle and make this cut first being careful to cut what you want to stay and then be careful not to cut this piece off when you make your final cut.
You can fine tune the cut on this tassel piece after you remove it try and cut it in a spot where you,ll have enough plastic on the neck to repair the collar cut and also be able trim the tassel cut also so pretty much in the middle.

Pic #3  Now that the head is off take your hobby knife and stick in the middle of the neck hole and start a little pilot hole by twisting the knife.
If your just going for wire pin and glue you just need to make a pilot hole to get your drill bit in and just use a fine bit the same size as your wire and about a 1/2 in to 1in deep.

This is where I,ll explain how there are 3 different methods You can also take the hobby knife and continue twisting and cutting out the neck hollowing it out to accept 2 part putty and do the same to the head also and fill both sections with two part putty and make the join with a 2 part putty pin and 3rd You can combine both methods together and do both as I will explain next!.
Pic#4-Alright here is the neck hollowed out to accept putty
Pic #5-This is the hollowed neck to be drilled and then Pic#6 of the drilled and hollowed body and also a small ball of 2 part putty that,ll be added in when the head is to be set in place.

Next Is the head Pic #7 This is pretty much the same as the body Use the hobby knife to get a pilot hole then drill if just going for rod and glue or if your going for just putty or putty and pin You,ll want to hollow out the neck to accept enough putty to make a putty pin.
If your going for both you,ll also want to drill out the head but be careful not to go to deep and drill right through the head or worst yet through your fingers!!!

Alright next Pic is of getting the pin in the head! You can use many types of wire there are many different kinds and thickness What you use and like is a matter of opinion so I,m not going to get to much into that right now but I like to get a size that fit my smaller sized drill bits with a good fit and that is not to rigid in case I need to bend it a bit. I have used different wires in the past but this floral wire in the photo works fine for what I,m doing.
Its always best to fit the wire into head first and get that glued on because the head is small and you don,t have much play in the wire where as in the body you can drill the hole as deep as you want and then cut back the wire on the head to the size you need.
The picture shows the wire to be glued into the head and if you look close you,ll see that there is putty wrapped around the wire. This is what you can do to build up the wire to fit the hole if the wire is to loose because you don,t have the right sized wire and drill bit, but this will also give you more play in the line up of the head to the body also.
Just add some glue and get it as deep as you can in the hole. The next step will be cutting it back and checking the fit into the body.

Next step after the fit has been checked is to add a small ball of putty like in the photo above and join the head to the body and position it as desired and using the hobby knife scrape away the extra putty that comes out as the two halves are joined.

Well that,s it for head swops!
FISH! <"))))><