What is the best way to remove Sideshow heads?

[JustinLuck]

Ok, well yesterday when I was preparing Anakin for painting, I took off his head as I have done before. I heated the neck up with a heating tool while rotating his body around for about 10 seconds. The neck was hot to the touch. I then tried removing his head at a slight angle because the base would pull up when I pulled directly straight. Well, as you might know where this story is going...POP, his head comes off ALONG with the peg! Yep, the disc shot down with the spring. Anyone else have this happen? Well, anyway, I had to go along with it because there isn't much way I can fix this. So right now, his head is securely attached, but the disc lays ontop of the spring, instead of underneath it. The downside is, his head moves around loose like a bobble head. LOL

BUT, there are advantages! Now, he has superior neck posing and the slightly longer neck makes his clothes look less bulky (as can be seen in all of my Anakin repaint shots).

As exciting as this new neck 'feature' is, I'd prefer to choose when this happens rather than it just happening whenever it feels like. ;)

So, is there a tried and true method of head removal that only includes the head and not the peg?

[pixletwin]

I love ya Justin, but the first thing I would do is a search for similar threads which have all ready addressed this question.:o

The Reader's Digest answer is this:

Most prefer to heat the head up with a hair dryer and it plops off quite easily.

Other (myself included) like to dip the head in boiling water and plop it off.

Either way, as long as you heat it up long enough, you won't break anything.

[JustinLuck]

LOL, thanks Pixle. I was aware of those two methods. I use the hair dryer / heat gun. I guess 'luck' just wasn't on my side. :o I am just curious if there is a certain angle that is better to pull at than others. I would use boiling water, but I am worried what it might do to acrylic paint. Of course, after a repaint is finished and a sealer is used, it is probably ok.

[Shai]

DEJA-VU....:monkey3

[Gruff Old Bear]

Heat gun is trickier than a hair dryer because it's a lot hotter. Remember it is made to remove paint...:cool:

[JustinLuck]

Hey Gruff, yeah I guess I learned from experience. ;) Now I hold the neck much further away from the heat tool, and it works great. Although, sticking a head back on can still be difficult. Anyway, even though Anakin's neck is loose, it is still securely attached and the cool thing is that his clothes appear more realistic with the slightly longer neck.

[drod26]

Head comes off ALONG with the peg! Yep, the disc shot down with the spring. Anyone else have this happen? Well, anyway, I had to go along with it because there isn't much way I can fix this. So right now, his head is securely attached, but the disc lays ontop of the spring, instead of underneath it.


Is there a way to salvage this the body and get the peg back on? I just bought a used Yavin Luke to replace the body of my jedi luke but when I was taking the head off, the head and the peg came off, the spring is inside the body...:confused: