Well it is not my day! I have been working on a little Punkin kit this week as a budget baby. Heat setting going fine. Had just put the limbs in for the final bake to seal the heat set varnish. Time was up and went to the oven to find all 4 limbs melted! Yes, melted! Didn’t do anything any different than I have done all week other than I put them in for 12 minutes for the varnish instead of the 8 mins I do for paint. I had noticed these limbs seemed a bit more pliable than usual. I am guessing the vinyl was thinner? I dunno. I didn’t even like the kit anyways but now I have a Punkin head with no limbs. I have no desire to buy more limbs. I will either just sell the painted head or make a bundle baby. Not sure what at the moment…
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Not my day either. I finally gave in and stripped my “Sugar”. I’ve been having issues all week with her and finally just said “I’m done trying to fix this!” So here I am, back with the blank kit. Oh well, her skin tones were darker than I wanted them to be anyway. Now she’ll be perfect, right?
You couldn’t reshape the limbs? Were they too melted for that? I do nine minutes on the varnishes. Then I cool, turn everything over, and do nine more minutes.
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You could not have accidentally knocked the heat setting dial?
Limbs are too melted. I checked and I didn’t knock the heat dial. All I can figure is that the vinyl was thinner and couldn’t stand the longer time. I will know next time to pull the BB parts out at 8 mins and just heat set an extra time.
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I never bake for more than 8 minutes for anything. I was always taught no more than 275 degrees for 8 minutes. You are supposed to bake the matte varnish 3 times, cooling completely between each bake.
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Well I was taught to bake matte varnish for 12 minutes at 265 and have done it that way for years. However, on the softer kits I usually go 9-10 mins. I didn’t think about cutting the time down on these limbs but in hindsight, I now know I should have. Also I have never baked 3 times. 1-2 times usually does it for me using the 12 mins method. We live and learn.
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