Well, I gave the soldering iron trick a try last night using a beat up Sol Air CX4 and a Lamborghini Murcielago from my bucket of cars I got a while back, that way if it went wrong, it was no big deal to me. The test proved very successful!
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However, the real test would be if it could get this Ex Corgi Ferrari 308 GTS apart.
Corgi went the extra mile and decided to put 5 rivets on it!
They were certainly thinking on their feet when they made this casting.
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Even this 308 GTS proved to be no match for this tactic!
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The way I see it is, if it can deal with this one, it can deal with any of them. (With plastic bases of course) While it takes longer than drilling, mainly because you have to give the soldering iron some time to heat up, I highly recommend this technique! 👍
A few things I want to note is try this with a casting you don't care about first, that way you can understand how to do it and if you screw up it's no big deal. Putting your fingers on the wheels didn't work too well for me, but using a flat head screw driver to pull the base up did and it's much safer too. Any way to pull up the base will do. When you heat up the rivet, it will also heat up the rest of the casting as well so be careful! I was concerned about it melting the paint off, but I didn't have that problem surprisingly. Of course, last but not least, be very careful when using a soldering iron! Hope this helps!