Michigan Dawg
Marksman
Here's my version of an ironing station for action figure clothing.
I spent part of a weekend constructing an ironing station for my 1/6-scale uniforms. I've long wanted to do this as every time I iron something with a full-size iron it seems to take forever due to the inordinate amount of care one must use. I always worry about accidentally ironing a button or piece of insignia that somehow finds itself under the flat of the iron and gets melted and subsequently ruins the garment. And sometimes it's just hard to correctly press collars and cuffs with the overly large tip of the iron.
Perhaps the larger question is why one would want to iron anything at all? To answer that, I'll give you my general tips on action figure clothing and what to me are important considerations.
First of all I usually undress a brand new figure immediately after removing it from the box. I do this because the clothing typically has excess dye in the fabric which over time may leach out and stain other clothing items or even the figure's face and body (sometimes you'll see a hat sweat band stain on a new figure's head where this leaching action has occurred while the figure was still in the box). If I'm not planning to immediately display the figure I will typically store individual clothing items in a plastic storage bag.
Before dressing my figures I always launder the clothing. This will remove the excess dye and has the added benefit of removing the sizing in the fabric. The sizing is added during manufacture of the fabric to give it both stiffness and smoothness which makes sewing easier. But the sizing (at least the industrial amount) really makes it difficult to shape our diminutive 1/6-scale clothing and to get it to drape somewhat naturally on the figure body. Laundering the fabric will help to remove much of that sizing and virtually all of the excess dye.
I hand wash the clothing using Woolite in a small plastic container of hot water. Again, because of the excess dye that is going to come out of the fabric, I only wash like colored items in a single bath. Save the white shirts for their own bath as you don't want olive drab or feldgrau dye to tint them!
I let the garments air dry and then they can be pressed to remove any wrinkles. Of course, for our action figures we sometimes want wrinkles in the clothing for scale appearance; first, though, we press the clothing to remove all wrinkles and then add them back where we want them to be.
Before ironing, one should lightly dampen the fabric with water or a water-starch mixture which is what I like to use. To do this, I spritz it on the garment with a small pump spray bottle which one can find at Hobby Lobby, Michaels, and the like. You can see all the items I use in the last picture below.
I then use a small iron which I found at my local Michaels. It works perfectly with my new ironing station and is just the right size for ironing small items of clothing.
I think the ironed clothing in particular brings an added crispness to the overall figure presentation but like everything in our hobby it's certainly a matter of individual taste and expression.
The ironing station I constructed was made completely from scraps of material I had on hand. The base is about 5" x 12" and is a piece of OSB or particle board from a cabinet shelf project. The ironing board is made from a leftover piece of mahogony from another cabinet project and I cut it to shape using my Proxxon scroll saw. The wooden dowels came from some hobby project a long time ago. The dowels allow me to iron pants legs and arm sleeves and I would think will really come in handy the next time I need to attach insignia or a cuff title to a sleeve. I chose three different dowel diameters pretty much at random eventually settling on 5/8", 3/4", and 7/8". I can't say I put a lot of thought into those diameters but all of the coats, shirts, pants, etc. that I experimented with seem to fit one or more of the dowels pretty well.
The dowels and the ironing board are attached to a piece of 2x2 board cut to the width of the base. After drilling the pockets for the dowels into the 2x2 with forstner bits I then glued it to the base with gorilla glue. I painted the assembly before attaching the dowels and ironing board. I wanted to make sure the dowels and ironing board remained unpainted/unfinished as I didn't want any paint or stain to leach out as a result of a hot iron on the surfaces. I glued the dowels in the 2x2 with carpenter's glue and then from underneath the base ran a dry wall screw through each dowel into the 2x2. The dowels and the 2x2 in particular are not going anywhere! I then attached the ironing board to the 2x2 again with countersunk drywall screws for a nice appearance. I finished it off with four felt feet on the underside of the base.
My initial experiences with my project have been most positive. It's been considerably easier to iron the small clothing items while seated at my work desk where I have adequate light and can position and move the ironing station to my advantage.
Hope you like it and please let me know if you have any comments or questions.
I spent part of a weekend constructing an ironing station for my 1/6-scale uniforms. I've long wanted to do this as every time I iron something with a full-size iron it seems to take forever due to the inordinate amount of care one must use. I always worry about accidentally ironing a button or piece of insignia that somehow finds itself under the flat of the iron and gets melted and subsequently ruins the garment. And sometimes it's just hard to correctly press collars and cuffs with the overly large tip of the iron.
Perhaps the larger question is why one would want to iron anything at all? To answer that, I'll give you my general tips on action figure clothing and what to me are important considerations.
First of all I usually undress a brand new figure immediately after removing it from the box. I do this because the clothing typically has excess dye in the fabric which over time may leach out and stain other clothing items or even the figure's face and body (sometimes you'll see a hat sweat band stain on a new figure's head where this leaching action has occurred while the figure was still in the box). If I'm not planning to immediately display the figure I will typically store individual clothing items in a plastic storage bag.
Before dressing my figures I always launder the clothing. This will remove the excess dye and has the added benefit of removing the sizing in the fabric. The sizing is added during manufacture of the fabric to give it both stiffness and smoothness which makes sewing easier. But the sizing (at least the industrial amount) really makes it difficult to shape our diminutive 1/6-scale clothing and to get it to drape somewhat naturally on the figure body. Laundering the fabric will help to remove much of that sizing and virtually all of the excess dye.
I hand wash the clothing using Woolite in a small plastic container of hot water. Again, because of the excess dye that is going to come out of the fabric, I only wash like colored items in a single bath. Save the white shirts for their own bath as you don't want olive drab or feldgrau dye to tint them!
I let the garments air dry and then they can be pressed to remove any wrinkles. Of course, for our action figures we sometimes want wrinkles in the clothing for scale appearance; first, though, we press the clothing to remove all wrinkles and then add them back where we want them to be.
Before ironing, one should lightly dampen the fabric with water or a water-starch mixture which is what I like to use. To do this, I spritz it on the garment with a small pump spray bottle which one can find at Hobby Lobby, Michaels, and the like. You can see all the items I use in the last picture below.
I then use a small iron which I found at my local Michaels. It works perfectly with my new ironing station and is just the right size for ironing small items of clothing.
I think the ironed clothing in particular brings an added crispness to the overall figure presentation but like everything in our hobby it's certainly a matter of individual taste and expression.
The ironing station I constructed was made completely from scraps of material I had on hand. The base is about 5" x 12" and is a piece of OSB or particle board from a cabinet shelf project. The ironing board is made from a leftover piece of mahogony from another cabinet project and I cut it to shape using my Proxxon scroll saw. The wooden dowels came from some hobby project a long time ago. The dowels allow me to iron pants legs and arm sleeves and I would think will really come in handy the next time I need to attach insignia or a cuff title to a sleeve. I chose three different dowel diameters pretty much at random eventually settling on 5/8", 3/4", and 7/8". I can't say I put a lot of thought into those diameters but all of the coats, shirts, pants, etc. that I experimented with seem to fit one or more of the dowels pretty well.
The dowels and the ironing board are attached to a piece of 2x2 board cut to the width of the base. After drilling the pockets for the dowels into the 2x2 with forstner bits I then glued it to the base with gorilla glue. I painted the assembly before attaching the dowels and ironing board. I wanted to make sure the dowels and ironing board remained unpainted/unfinished as I didn't want any paint or stain to leach out as a result of a hot iron on the surfaces. I glued the dowels in the 2x2 with carpenter's glue and then from underneath the base ran a dry wall screw through each dowel into the 2x2. The dowels and the 2x2 in particular are not going anywhere! I then attached the ironing board to the 2x2 again with countersunk drywall screws for a nice appearance. I finished it off with four felt feet on the underside of the base.
My initial experiences with my project have been most positive. It's been considerably easier to iron the small clothing items while seated at my work desk where I have adequate light and can position and move the ironing station to my advantage.
Hope you like it and please let me know if you have any comments or questions.
Last edited:
