I could modify some O scale figures if they are close enough for what I want. I do have the RoG British pilots and ground crew, plus a few figures from some of the Monogram kits I have...
I would welcome a write up on casting figures and such as this is something I do want to start doing in the near future. I know there are several of the figures that come with some of the Monogram kits that I would like more copies of.
Don Hammer please do that toot on figures man ! You have a way of making what seems complicated very simple.
Everything I know about casting I learned from Shep's diorama book, lol... I use the casting stuff from Hobby Lobby (the Alumilite resins) and RTV Rubber too.. But I use epoxy putty, even plaster for some things too.. I also use clay, foil, plaster and the like for molds to cast one-sided objects...
I'll see if I can write up a tute in the very near future... (I learned a couple short-cuts that Shep didn;t write up, lol..)
I think I will order the Shep Paine book. I know everyone here raves about it and I have dismissed it in that I have quite a few Model Railroad scenery and such reference books, and figured most of the stuff is covered in those.
By all means, buy it... 2nd edition is preferred, but 1st will do nicely too.. The 2nd Edition covers more dioramas, and goes into greater detail on shadow-box dioramas, forced-perspective, and other SFX... Even shows how he used mirrors and lighting to create the "ghosts" of Custer and some of his men in a Little Big Horn dio-box..... It's incredible..
I did a lot of model RR scenery too, back when, bought the mags, (John Allen's layout was fantastic)and some of it's quite useful, but overall, they deal too much with HO... Very little figure-conversion stuff.. Shep deals in 1/48 and 1/35th-1/32nd a lot more... You can also go to this site:
sheperdpaine.atspace.com/index.htm
There you'll find his diorama tip-sheets that used to come with select Monogram kits.. Nowhere near as detailed as his book, nonetheless, it's a good starting point.. You'll notice that he uses very few after-,arket sets of figures in the aircraft dioramas, sticking with the Monogram figures about 99% of the time.. (Pay attention to the C-47 (the paratroopers), B-24J, and P-61 dios (Although the conversion he did with the pilot figures from the TBD and turning two of them into a pilot helping his wounded gunner is AWESOME!)
The main thing is that he uses mostly Monogram figures in the kits, (even some those horrible 1/35 figures from the old Monogram Infantry set). So I kinda do the same thing in 1/48, casting boo-coo copies of various figures, especially ones like the Do335 "Schwarze Männer" i.e."Black men", from their coveralls), the bare-chested mechanic from the P-61 and his buddy, "No Hat Canteen-guy", and the TBD, F-86, MiG-15, B-25, B-26 (Marauder gunner too), P-51D, Me262 and other "one-of-a kind" Mongram pilots... ( Casting REALLY helped out with the "in-flight" figures from the ProModeler B-17 and B-24 kits too.. Getting ETO bomber crewmen in full cold weather flight gear is difficult, at best.. I got a bunch of now, lol.. Before those kits came out, all we had was the seated B-25 pilot, and the top turret gunner from the B-26 Marauder)
It was those diorama sheets that got me started doing dios and figure-conversions, in fact.. My first one was a copy of his M48 Patton diorama.. Way back in about 1975, I think, lol.. I've never looked back since then, and never build anything for "display" anymore, only dioramas and shadow-boxes...
The main trick to modifying figures is to put yourself in the same pose you want to create, and looking in a mirror, paying attention to where your limbs are, where your weight is, etc.. Then taking your figures and cutting at the joints of the arms, legs, feet, and head, and "belt-line" for torsos.. I'll write something up, very soon.. I promise..