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1/6th SCALE BODY MODIFICATIONS
1/6th SCALE BODY MODIFICATIONS
by Rob Sorrels
1. Hands: Tired of your figure holding a weapon and not being able to "pull the trigger?" Take a hobby knife and carfully cut the trigger finger away from the rest of the fingers! On HOF-type figures you will also need to trim the trigger finger's sides as it will be "slab-sided" when you cut it away from the rest of the fingers. Carefully trim the 90 degree corners off the finger and it will look better. The CC-type figure already has nicely rounded fingers, so this step won't be needed on a CC hand. On Cotswold Elite gripping hands you can trim some of the extra plastic off the inside of the trigger fingers to enable it to fit on the trigger better.
2. Elbows and knees:
HOF-type bodies; since the articulation is internal, HOF elbows and knees can be improved by carefully trimming off some of the thick plastic skin covering these joints. If you are careful with a hobby knife, you can trim away enough skin on the inside of these joints to improve the articulation by about 20% or so. If you will never dress the figure in short-sleeved shirts or short pants, you can even trin the skin away entirely on the inside of these joints!
CC-type bodies; as good as the articulation is on the CC figures, you can improve it by carfully trimming away some of the plastic on the inside of the joints. On the elbows, trim away plastic from the bicep area right above the joint. If you have access to a vintage, ME or Elite figure, you can use it as reference. On the knees, trim away the plastic from the back of the thigh just above the knee joint.
3. Hips: On both HOF- and CC-type bodies, you can take a Dremel tool with a router bit and grind away some of the plastic just above the legs on the front of the pelvis. You can go pretty deep before you get to the hollow center of the pelvis piece! This will allow the figure to sit with its knees up higher, kneel better, etc.
4. Feet: The SotW line has come out with a bunch of nice looking footware. The SotW boots fit nicely on HOF feet, but the CC feet are way too large for most the SotW footware. You really gotta like the footware to do the following "improvement" to the CC bodies! Take a hobby knife and carefully trim off about 1/8th inch off the heel and round it off again. Carefully cut the toes off and reshape the front of the foot. The CC figure can now wear the SotW footware! (I TOLD you you really had to like the SotW footware!!!)
1/6th SCALE BEARDS
by Rob Sorrels
Tired of clean-shaven Joes? Here's two ways of adding "whiskers" to your figures.
1. The five o'clock shadow method.
Items required: GI Joe, large pin (I like the T-shaped pins, easier on my fingers!), acrylic paint.
Put a small dab of acrylic paint in the general area where you want Joe's beard to be. Don't paint the entire beard, just a spot about the size of a pencil eraser. Immediatly take the pin and start poking it into the Joe, thru the paint, in the area where you want the beard. After poking for awhile, wipe off the paint. Repeat this process until you have the beard the way you want it. The pin will leave a small impression that fills with paint. When you wipe off the paint, a little bit of it will remain in the impression, looking like a 5 o'clock shadow. You can vary the size of the whiskers by how big a pin you use and hard you poke it into the plastic.
2. Full beard method.
Items required: GI Joe, Sculpy modeling compound (or some similar brand), acrylic paints.
Use the Sculpy to mold a beard onto Joe's face. Get it just the way you want it, then follow the instructions on the package and bake Joe until the Sculpy is cured. Joe will get a bit soft and rubbery, but won't melt. He'll return to normal when he cools. After he cools, paint the beard with the acrylics. I like to use a clear overspray to blend everything together. The Sculpy with be hard, and the head will remain pliable. If you squeeze the head, the Sculpy will crack so pullover t-shirts and the like are off limits for this kind of a bearded Joe!
(After you get the bearded Joe to your liking, you might want to cast a resin copy of the head. See my tips on resin casting for details how)
