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how to customize figure

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  • Member since
    July 2008
  • From: Vancouver, the "wet coast"
how to customize figure
Posted by castelnuovo on Friday, February 20, 2009 7:14 PM

I have an idea for a diorama.

How can I build few infantry soldiers, sort of a ragtag group. Some of them would be civilians, some with army jackets but civilian pants or vice versa? Some would have German or American WWII helmets or no head covers. Armament would be some AK-s, bolt actions, RPG mix of all. It would also involve a tank commander.

Also, How to position them in the position I like.

Thanks for your input.

  • Member since
    January 2009
  • From: Central CA
Posted by Division 6 on Sunday, February 22, 2009 5:44 AM

The short answer

exacto knife, razor saw (opional) and epoxy putty.

shave and mod the figures and use the putty to add detail fill gaps and mod the clothing.

drill and pin the joints for strength.

 

Eric... 

  • Member since
    October 2006
  • From: Singapore
Posted by red1 on Monday, February 23, 2009 9:06 AM

Hi Castel,

First you need 2 be clear who your fighters are fighting for. They seem to be guerillas from what u wrote. What nationality are they? The civilian clothes and terrain can somehow reflect was country they are from. You need references for those. For weapons there are aplenty to play with...

 Frm there then you can convert  existing figures or scratchbuild your own. Wink [;)]

Visit http://2paintminiatures.com for beginners guide to painting miniature figures:-)
  • Member since
    June 2008
  • From: Iowa
Posted by Hans von Hammer on Wednesday, February 25, 2009 11:03 PM
 Division 6 wrote:

The short answer

exacto knife, razor saw (opional) and epoxy putty.

shave and mod the figures and use the putty to add detail fill gaps and mod the clothing.

drill and pin the joints for strength.

 

Eric... 

What he said... 

Plus... Cut the figures at the joints... Spines are tougher, so cut torsos at a line just above the belt-line, and just below the shoulders for "hunched-over" looks. Check poses by assuming the pose yourself, in a mirror if you can, and pay attention to where your arms and legs go, which way your feet point, whether you're balanced or unbalanced, etc... Even better way is get someone to assume the poses you want and shoot some pictures...

Figure-bashing is fairly easy, once you figure (pun intended) out the basics of how people stand, sit, and move, and where all the body parts (again, intended) go in relation to the others...

Grab some you don't care about and start chopping!

 

As for the rest of the clothing, it's actually easier than the converting the poses.. Sand/scape/grind off what you don't want, cut pockets, sleeves, stuff like that from paper or even better, epoxy putty rolled thin, and apply them to the figures... I use tape, foil, paper, putty, all kinds of stuff to add little details...

Now here's a few detail shots in 1/35th.. I apologize for the quality, I'm a modeler, not a photographer..

I needed a Tank Commander to be firing his pistol at a bad guy on the balcony above him, but didn't have figure that suited the situation, so I started here, with a Tamiya TC's right arm...

I wasn't extended the way I needed, so I cut at the inside of the elbow, almost all the way through, but not quite, about 2/3rds... Then I used a candle flame to carefully heat the arn at the joint and straighten it out.

Then it was a simple matter of filling the gap with some Testor's white putty (I prefer this with figures, since it dries fast, but also can be thinned with alcohol and smoothed with a finger)

Now that that's done, it's just a matter of drilling a hole into the shoulder of the torso, and one into the shoulder of the arm and positioning it to the right angle and cementing in place.  Then fill any gaps or use putty to build up any spots that need "bulking up"...

Note the figure's neck needed to be rebuilt to be looking where the pistol is pointing.. That's done by cutting off the head, then drilling a hole into the torso and one at the bottom of the head, using a a piece of wire, straight pin, paper clip, whatever you got laying around (actually had someone ask me where to buy a piece of wire once), for a spine.  So now do the same thing with the neck that you did with the arm..

I'll post the finished guy when he's ready for the dio, but here's the test-fitting:

Oh, BTW, here's the bad guy (catching a .45 slug with his teeth)... He was done pretty much the same way, although I used a set of legs from one guy, torso from another, and arms from a couple more.. The fist with the grenade was done by taking the grenad, cutting off the portion that would be in his hand, then attatching it to the fist, and small piece of the handle with the fuze-string glued to the underside of the fist.

Hope this helps a little...

 

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