Modifying Power Team Hands

Before I even start this post I'm going to tell you upfront that you can skip everything I'm about to do because you can buy really inexpensive hands at [MonkeyDepot.Com.]  They are even having a sale on some of them today.

I have never purchased these hands or used this company so I have no idea about their product quality or customer service.  The company has been recommended to me by other bloggers though.

With that out of the way, if, like me, you wanna be a little crafty now and again or you are even cheaper than myself (if that's possible) then read further.

These are the variation of hands used by Power Team: full flesh, fingerless gloves and heavy duty work gloves.  Unfortunately, probably 99% of them come ready for heavy duty.  I've attempted three methods of replacement for this, the first of which uses the actual work glove itself.

I used an exacto knife to whittle down the glove and shape it into a hand.  A metal finger nail file sanded away some of the texture.  Because there is a molded strap decoration on the glove, I cut above it which revealed a square portion of the peg that is visible when you insert the hand.  I'm painting it anyway, so I didn't care.  Cut below that strap if you don't want the square peg to show.

I applied three coats of gesso to cover the black (white paint is fine if you've no gesso).  After painting it I thought that might be too much gesso and I only did one coat on the second hand.  Nope - three coats was the right amount.  I'm horrible at mixing paint so I messed around with the colors above to try and get a good match.  I didn't really need the dark brown at all.

All that gesso bulked up the hand and took away a lot of the definition between the fingers.  I should have whittled away more from the hand and shaped the fingers as well.  I did that on my second try and it looked more hand-ish, instead of like a fat meat puppet.

Granted, it's not cute, but at least is not a black glove anymore.  I wouldn't zoom in on it but it's fine from a distance - a distance far far away, lol.

The left hand, with its one coat of gesso, is not as smooth as the right.  I used matte varnish on both hands and it gave them more of a shine than the doll's flesh has.  Eh, neither one is going to win any prize but if you like to sculpt, sand and paint this might be the method for you to try.

I consider this next method a complete failure.  I just wasn't digging it.  The idea had merit but because of the material, it's not going to work well in the long run.  I'm showing you the photos anyway, though. ^__^.

I used a rubber Ken hand for this because it's nicely shaped, the coloring is a decent match and I had a bunch laying around, so what the heck.  What I wanted was to have a single hand/peg combo.  The problem is that Ken's rubber is very soft and at some point the peg is going to twist off and get stuck in the arm hole.  This gave me a another idea though.

Still using a Ken hand, I cut off the exact amount I needed with my easy cutter.  I used small scissors to start a pilot hole and then dremeled into the wrist.  Big Lots sells the perfectly sized bamboo skewers that will fit snuggly into a Power Team arm.  Put a dab of glue in the hand hole if it's a loose fit.  Insert the bamboo between the two, cutting it at the end going into the arm until you get a snug seam.  This works quite well.  Sure, the hand's not articulated at the wrist, but neither was that glove.

 

If you have something metal or harder, of course it's going to last longer than the bamboo, but for something cheap and easy to cut, it's darn good. It looks way smaller than the Power Team hand and isn't as defined, but it's better than a thick glove.  And, if you don't like the look of the cut...

... give him some watches and junk.  Of all three tries I rather like this one the best.  Even with having to use a drill it was still the fastest and simplest.  I know that Monkey hands would be even simpler, but I enjoyed fiddling around with these so it was worth it to me.