Bucky Surgery Kit When buying 4th class Bucky skeletons and parts they often come with various imperfections and problems, which we love because it allows us to get stuff for a great price. Many of the problems the buckys have can be fixed, I'll show you how.

As you can see he clearly has a case of what I call Batwing Jaw. He also has some blue and gray coloration to him in places. Both of these are easily overcome with some of the directions explaining how to get the most of a terrific bargain below, Thank You my friends at Bucky Boneyard Bargains.

First and foremost if your skull is misshapen stop beating yourself in the head with a hammer and squishing it in a vise! Whew! These skulls are made from a thermoplastic; therefore they can be reshaped after they have been heated up. As they cool they will take on the new shape you give them. The jaws are usually the only really messed up parts of the skull as far as I know. This can be fixed in the way, which is described below:

Fill a pot up with enough water to cover the jaw and heat it up on the stove. You want the pot to be about 140°-150° F. Now take your skull apart (the easy part..) and keep track of all your pieces, you will need them later. Place the jaw in and let is set for about 10 minutes or until flexible.

I'll rearrange your jaw for ya...Pull it out of the pot with a pair of tongs, set it on the skull, and hold it in place where you want it to go. Now wrap some string around it in all different directions, holding it into the position you want the jaw to be in. Tie the string up tight and set the skull off someplace where it can cool, on a counter top or in the fridge.

White Spray Paint...Need I say more?

This can be achieved with brown shoe polish and a polish brush. Just take your brush, dab it in a little shoe polish and lightly work it onto the skull with a look you enjoy. I think it looks better when it isn't worked in. You can test styles on the inside of the skull first if you wish.

I was just lucky enough to pull this off. This skull is actually nickel-plated. (looks about the same as chrome, but just plates better) While I did this I was working at an electroplating shop during my summer vacation. There we did all kinds of plating, from fine jewelry and antiques to industrial plating. I was able to talk my boss into allowing me to plate my skulls with nickel, as long as he got to use one as a show piece at a local exhibition. Not much to say except that it's amazing how cold the skulls feel when they are covered with metal. When I talked to my boss about it after I finished he was surprised that it turned out so well. He said that it was a fine piece of work, he would be proud to show at the exhibition fair. He also said that if somebody had brought that in as a job to do it would have cost $200+ for one skull and $400 for the pair I did. I think I made out quite well don't you think? After the exhibition he said that my skulls were the talk of the town and got lots of praise (as I figured they would) and apparently caught lots of attention from hobbyists. I even had some people contact me about them. It was quiet a trip!

Step 1:
For this project we use wet sand to construct a mold for the expanding spray foam. Dump some sand into the bin filling it to about 4" deep. Add some water to the sand and mix it in. You want your sand damp and cool to the touch, not too dry and not too wet. Take and lay out some plastic wrap.

Step 2:
Set your skull face down on the plastic wrap and press the skull down firmly. When you can't press it down any further gently rock it back and forth as you work it down a little further. Carefully remove the skull, then the plastic wrap. Prepare your sprayfoam and fill most of the mold with the sprayfoam. Now set aside mold and let it set up over night.

Step 3:
After the sprayfoam has set up remove it from the sand and let the face dry for a few hours. Next take it and cut the backs off with a hacksaw. After the backs are cut off the skull will shrink a little, due to the back getting some air. Brush up the face with your brush or broom. Fix it up with your Dremel tool and paint it. This it GREAT for all sorts of projects :)