To be honest, the teeth supplied with our Hachette 1:2 scale Terminator T-800 partwork endoskeleton are not that great. They don’t look organic, they have visible casting seams, a weird center tooth on the lower jaw, and are missing the recognizable ‘Schwarzenegger’ gap in the upper teeth. Even after I tried to fake the gap and weathered them a bit, they still just didn’t look ‘right’ on my model.
While these original teeth may be acceptable for many builders, I was hoping that the modding community would produce something better. And finally, they have. Thanks to the dynamic duo over at Model Modz who teamed up with Rafel Lin, we now have access to their amazing Replacement Teeth mod:
These are high-quality 3-D printed resin and come in painted or unpainted. I ordered the painted set.
Installation
My T-800 skull was nearly fully assembled by the time the Replacement Teeth mod arrived (I was up to Issue 34). Therefore, these steps involve taking some of the skull apart. The first thing we need to do is get to the jaw motor.
Step 1
Remove the faceplate by pulling it forward away from the head:
Step 2
At the rear of the skull, remove these two screws at the base. Keep track of all of these screws so you can put them back later:
At this point, you should be able to lift the cranium straight up and off the head:
Step 3
On the left side of the head, we need to slide the slot of Head Motor Joint B up and off the motor pin. This will allow us to open the jaw much farther and make the install easier.
Be careful here, just lift the joint enough to move it off the pin:
Step 4
With the jaw released, open it all the way and prepare yourself for some scale dentistry. Using pliers or some similar tool, gently remove all of the original teeth pieces.
I found that slowly working them in then out cracked the glue and released the teeth. It is an oddly disturbing feeling to pull out teeth, even if on an inanimate cyborg head:
Our T-800 looks like a old fart with gummy lips now:
Step 5
With the original teeth out, we need to remove any leftover plastic bits that may still remain in the gum line. The gum line needs to be flat and smooth for the Replacement Teeth to fit well.
I used a hobby knife to scrape off any broken pins from the old teeth:
Step 6
Grab your new bottom row of Replacement Teeth and firmly seat it down into the recess of the jaw.
This fit snugly on my model and did not require any glue:
Step 7
Turn the skull upside down and repeat this step for the upper row of Replacement Teeth.
On my model, this needed a line of super glue gel to stay in place. I felt like I was installing dentures!
Step 8
With the new teeth installed, fit the slot of the Head Motor Joint B back over the motor pin:
Refit all of the skull components you removed and you are left with a fantastic new mouth. That completes the install!
By the way, there are some builders (like myself) who cut grooves into their faceplate to better shape it around the original teeth. I want to say that these Replacement Teeth almost fit perfectly into my existing grooves!
While these Model Modz teeth are massively better than the original Hachette teeth, I felt they were just a bit too clean. Therefore, I broke out my Tamiya Weathering Powders Set B (the Soot color) and some Citadel Nuln Oil to weather them up a bit.
I used some thin cotton swabs to poke the powder into the spaces between the teeth, then went over everything with the oil wash. Finally, I used a cotton swab dampened with isopropyl alcohol to rub the faces of the teeth a bit and clean up any mess:
In the end, I think the weathering turned out pretty decent:
I want to thank Chloe, Corrie, and Rafel for all the work that went into getting these teeth as perfect as they could and allowing us to really make our models shine! Just as a before/after comparison, I created this image to show the huge difference in both teeth after I had weathered each of them:
