New CS Kitbash Guy

Thought I'd share my latest kitbash project: A Confederate Infantry Sergeant. I really love how this guy turned out. I have to say one thing--BattleGear is awesome. It's a company that makes stuff for 1/6th figures and it is amazing. A bit pricy, but really worth it if you want your figure to look really snazzy.

Here is a head shot, showing his kepi (hat). The hat is made by BattleGear, as are the brogans (shoes). They are both just amazing.

Originally, I bought an In the Past Toys uniform set for this guy. The figure itself is a Dragon "Terry" figure. I think he was originally a Navy Seal.

Upon receiving the ITPT set, I had mixed opinions about it. The uniform itself (pants, shirt, vest and frock coat) were really nice. The buttons, amazingly, really button up. I mean, the little teeny 6th scale buttons have little teeny 6th scale buttonholes for them. Yikes. I appreciate authenticity but man. You almost need a gnome to button and unbutton these things. It's tedious and you really have to be nimble fingered. It'll try your patience. Most coats and things like that have buttons sewn on but actually have snaps on the inside that make it a heck of a lot easier to work with. So yeah, just a heads up there on the ITPT uniforms...at least the Civil War ones. You almost need a pair of tweezers to button the coat up. I was lazy and didn't button all of the buttons up. I think it'd driven me bonkers. I omitted the vest, or waistcoat, that went over the white shirt and under the coat altogether. Way too many teeny buttons for me to deal with....

Now, as said, the hat is BattleGear as are the shoes. The ITPT set did not come with shoes, oddly enough. I was kind of disappointed--the Sideshow Civil War uniform sets come with shoes, a lot more gear, and weapons. Oh well.

The set did come with a hat however, and it was a joke. It was awful looking, didn't fit the figure's head properly, didn't really even resemble a kepi in the slightest. I will probably add a picture here later to show how ridiculous it looks.

So yeah--went to BG for the hat. It was a great choice. It was around 10 bucks, but worth it. It has a nice shape and fits his head perfectly. I have to say, after buying BG stuff I highly recommend them now. You can buy some of their stuff at GoodStufftoGo too, which is actually where I purchased mine from. Another great place to get your 1/6th stuff from, I might add.

So here is the final shot I got of the Sarge for today. I was going to take more, but the camera battery konked on me. I will post more later.

Oh yeah--the sleeve chevrons came with the ITPT uniform set too. You have to glue them on though.

Kitbash of an 1880s Cavalry Officer

This is a kitbash I did awhile back of a Cavalry Officer. The uniform is from Dog Soldiers and the figure is a Dragon figure. As with "Ambrose", who I posted pics of a few days back, I sculpted the mustache myself out of Sculpey clay. I liked the fierce expression on this figure, which is why I chose him.

Just Some More Photos of Stuff!

So I opened Hermann ze German (I just love his nose and nifty hat). He is standing in front of a box that contains two more figures I bought recently (got a real bargain on them) --the machine gun team Heinrich and Erich. Scored them for 58 bucks!

Here are Heinrich and Erich in the box. I have loved these guys since I first saw them back in (I think it was 2003) at a flea market. I could have bought them then and there for 150.00! Too rich for my blood though. I found them at Amazon.com for 58 dollars, as mentioned. Pretty good deal!

So that is a couple of my newest additions. I also recently bought Dragon's Red Army Tanker "Vassily" and German Feldgendarme "Hugo," which I will post pics of soon.

It's all about finding the bargains!

Also, as mentioned in an earlier post, I am doing a video review of Lewis and Clark figures from Manitou Free traders.Still working on that so stay tuned. I am thinking video reviews might be easier than photo reviews, so we'll see how that goes. I have seen a few on YouTube that were very informative and helpful, so I think that may be the way to go.

In fact, there is a nice one of Heinrich and Erich right here. It's an "unboxing," which is fun.

In-The-Box Shots of Lewis and Clark

I got Lewis and Clark today, made by Manitou Free Traders. Here are some in-box pictures:

Lewis

Clark

Closeup of Lewis

Closeup of Clark

I've never done this before, but I am thinking I will do a video review of them. I'll post it here when I do. They are too awesome.

Ooo! Lewis and Clark!

Yes!

I have ordered a couple of new figures this evening. I was going through an old Cotswold Collectibles catalog last night and noticed that a company called Manitou Free Traders had released Lewis and Clark. I did a search online for them and found a good deal on them at a site I love called GoodStufftoGo, so I snapped them up.

Michael Crawford did a good review of Clark, I can't seem to find one of Lewis by him (or anyone) though. Anyway, here's the link to the Clark review:

Clark

Of course, when I receive them I'll do one of my own.

Woohoo! I'm jazzed about this because I love the American west, I love the whole Lewis and Clark exploration thing...man. EEE! Looking forward to getting them. Now if someone would just come up with a Zebulon Pike figure... >___>

Ambrose

I found some pictures of this guy I kitbashed a few years ago (2006 or 2007, I think), so DOUBLE POST TODAY! Yayyyy.

This wasn't my first kitbash, my first was a Luftwffe officer (which I'll share in a later post). This was, however, my first attempt at making facial hair on a clean-shaven doll--oops--I mean action figure.  >__>

Anyway, not the greatest pictures. I need more, and I need bigger ones. And ones where the dang flang doll stand isn't showing. *doh*.

I'm not sure what made me name him Ambrose. I guess because he has some massive sideburns and the word "sideburn" was coined from an admiral Burnsides who fought for the Union in the Civil War. Anyhow...

The Dragon figure I used was actually a German figure called "Helmut". Up there on the top left (above) you can see what he looked like before I added the Sculpey sideburns and mustache. I had no clue about how to attach the Sculpey to the face, and I am sure there is a way better way to do this, but here was what I did and it seemed to work (his facial hair is intact to this day, at least):

1. I applied a bit of superglue to the face where the facial hair would go (i.e. down the sides of the face, on the upper lip). Then I had to act quick, because the glue dries fast.

2. I applied the first Sculpey layer, texturing it with a toothpick as I stuck it on. That provided sort of a "foundation" on which I could build up on the' burns and 'stache.

3. I built up the facial hair till I was happy with it. I used a needle tool from some ceramics tools I have (I use it a lot with Sculpey) to make the texture. A toothpick would also work well.

4. Sculpey has to be baked, but I obviously couldn't stick this guy's head in the oven. So I used a blowdryer to harden it. Seemed to work just fine.

5. I mixed some acrylic paint up umtil I had a color that matched the figure's hair. First, though, I painted the entire "beard" with dark brown paint. I drybrushed the blond color on top of it. Since acrylics are water-based, if I happened to accidentally get paint anywhere on the face I didn't want it, it wiped right off with a wet paper towel.

6. I sprayed over the facial hair with Testor's Dullcote (clear, non-glossy sealer). Testor's is the only brand of clear overspray stuff that I have ever found that will dry on a painted Sculpey object. For some reason, any other glosses or clearcoats of any kind I have used tended to stay tacky, therefore, every time the object was touched, it got screwed up, usually a big ugly fingerprint being left embedded in it.

Here are a couple of closeups:

I'm sure the more of these I do I'll improve. But, being my first ever, I'm pretty proud of it. It's amazing how different that facial hair made this figure look.

More pics, including a full body shot:

Yes, next time the doll stand will be hidden...

So, the complete specs on this guy are:

Name: Ambrose
Title: Private, 1st Texas Infantry, Confederate States
Uniform made by Sideshow Toy
Figure by Dragon

I had a ton of fun doing this. My next project was a 1870s Cavalry Officer, which you'll see in the near future.

Hermann ze Germann and Other Thoughts

First, I wanted to post a nice in the box shot of the latest editions in my "family" (heh):

"Hermann", by Dragon

"Bob Richardson" by Dragon

I can tell I'm going to have my work cut out for me putting Bob's stuff on him. Yeow. Kind of like Stanislas (who I'll be reviewing soon, and I'll elaborate on that then).

I want to mention here that I got a great bargain on Hermann. 24 bucks on Ebay! WOO! Not too bad for a Dragon figure. He's a fairly early one, too, I think. Bob wasn't bad either, maybe around 29 bucks? That's one thing I love about Dragon, you get a quality figure at a decent price (usually).

It'll be awhile before I start posting any full-fledged reviews, but I did take some snapshots of some of my collection last night to post here for fun. If you're into sixth scale, you'll no doubt recognize many of these people:

Not a great picture, but these are the vehicles (is a horse a vehicle?) I have. The motorcycle is an Indian, yes, I know. Probably not accurate. But I customized the bike to be "German" and dry brushed it to make it look cool. I'll post more pics of it later.

Fromt half of the Kublewagen Ambulance, with Eugen driving it. That Feldengarme is Karl, a Dragon figure. That nifty sign comes with him!

These are the guys that are standing on my bureau. German WWII, Civil War, Russian...I have quite a variety. I hope to separate them out into groups soon (all the Afrika Korps guys together, etc etc).

Closer shot of the bureau group.

Dragon's Vladimir and Dmitri; Sideshow's Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp.

Some more assorted figures, I have adopted an old entertainment center as a display shelf for them.

Another shot of the above figures.

I love the guy with the phone's face sculpt. He's "Sepp" from Dragon. Kind of out of place with the Civil War dudes, but as I said, I will get more organized one day.

That guy in the center (leather coat) is a kitbash I did of a Panzer officer. He's one of my faves.

The guy in the center, the Confederate, is another kitbash I did. I made the beard myself out of Sculpey clay.

Russian Krechet guy bi BBI, Herbert, a U-boat Captain by Dragon, and Alexei, a Soviet NKVD (secret police).

Marius, a Panzer trooper by Dragon and Oberst (Colonel) Max, also by Dragon. Oberst Max is from the movie "The Eagle Has Landed" and was played by Robert Duvall.

These are some guys that stand on my bookcase in the living room. There are some Dragon guys on the opposite end, but this end is G.I. Joe figures. Of course that's Sideshow's wonderful renditions of Cobra Officer and Cobra Commander there on the end.

Here are all the "Book Case Guys." L to R we have: Georg, a Kriegsmarine Warrant Officer by Dragon; Ernst, a Panzer StuG Commander by Dragon; Pieter, a Dragon Fallschirmjager; barely peeping over his shoulder is a 2008 repro of the G.I. Joe Action Sailor; an original 1970s fuzzy-haired G.I. Joe Action Soldier, and the two Cobra guys.

Of course, this is Bib Fortuna from Return of the Jedi (Sideshow). He didn't really go with the other guys, so he stands alone. I'm not a huge Star Wars fan, but I always loved Bib for some reason and he was a real bargain for a Sideshow figure.

So, there you have it, folks! A nice "intro" to my collection (and that wasn't even all of 'em!). O__o

Ii'' begin posting reviews when I decide who goes first. Stay tuned!

Welcome to 1/6th Scale Figure Land!

Hey! I'm Amy and I collect small plastic people. In other words, those 12" action figures (or ahem--dolls--*cough cough*). Personally the name "doll" doesn't offend me. Maybe because I'm a girl? I don't know...

Anyhow, on that note if you are here to find Barbies and that sort of thing, sorry. Yeah, I figure you may have jumped to the conclusion after reading up above that I'm female. So I'll clear that up real quick.

The kind of 12" figures I am referring to happen to be mostly of the military variety. It started with G.I. Joe, of course. I collect other types of figures too, but the bulk of my collection consists of military figures. Civil war and WWII make up the bulk of it.

I'll go back to where I am pretty sure it all started:

When I was about 9 years old, which would have been the Summer of 1982, my friends down the street wanted to play G.I. Joes. Now, being a tomboy, I had a lot of guy friends as a kid. A couple of my pals had just gotten some of the newly released 3 3/4 inch G.I. Joe figures and some vehicles and what-not. I decided to see what they were talking about.

My little brother and I were soon hooked on the Joes, and one day at K-Mart we begged my Mom to buy us one. I think both of us got "Rock n' Roll" that day. I'm not sure why we got the same guy, but I know that "Rock n' Roll" and "Breaker" were my favorites so far.

I think those figures ran around five bucks back then, which was a little high for an action figure, and my folks were on a tight budget so we had to slowly collect the Joes over time. However by the end of that summer, I had at least four, I remember: "Rock n' Roll," "Breaker," "Grunt," and "Zap." I know that later down the line somewhere I acquired "Flash", "Short Fuse," "Snake-Eyes," and "Duke." I don't believe I ever got any of the vehicles, but I do remember my kid brother getting the tank that came with "Steeler."

Well, my fondness for the Joes never really waned. All my adult life I have picked them up in flea markets or whatever if I saw one I had always wanted as a kid or whatever. I even played G.I. Joe with my two brothers until some people were raising eyebrows about a kid my age (and a girl, to boot!) playing with G.I. Joes. But I was a cool big sister, y'understand.

A couple of years ago, for some odd reason I caught some old G.I. Joe cartoon episodes on T.V. very late at night and it got me lamenting about my very first Joes and how I didn't still have them. I'm one of those people that keeps damn near every toy I ever had. Only recently have I been able to sever the sentimental ties and part with some of my childhood treasures on Ebay. But at that point, watching those old Joe episodes (and getting a huge kick out of them), I thought I might check Ebay and see what those original 3 3/4" ones were selling for.

They weren't cheap, but they weren't outrageously expensive either. So I replaced my figures of Grunt, Zap, Rock n' Roll, Breaker, Flash, Short-Fuse, and Stalker. I got some additional ones I hadn't had too. I got the jeep thing driven by Clutch (I forget the name of it at the moment) and the Mobile Missile System that came with Hawk. Duke was the only one I couldn't find at a reasonable price.

Now to come to where the 12" stuff enters the picture...

On my search for a "Grunt" figure, the result list came up with a lot of 12" Grunt figures. In the early 90s, Hasbro released some 12" Joes in their "Hall of Fame" series, and he was one of them. "Basic Training Grunt" was his official title. I remembered having seen the H.O.F. Joes in the store and thinking "Hehe! Cool." However by that time I wasn't collecting much of anything, I had just entered college and didn't have mad money to spend, so to speak.

So whilst on Ebay, perusing the results of the "Grunt" Search (man, that sounds funny), I decided to buy one. I think he was 5 bucks or something. When I got him, I thought he was pretty awesome. I mean, Grunt had always been one of my favorites and was one of my first Joes as a kid. He's not real articulated like the original 12" Joes from the 60s-70s, but he's pretty cool. Definitely made to play with.

That led to my next stage in the 12" process. I was hooked now, but I had no idea what kind of sixth-scale stuff was out there.

At Toys-R-Us one day  in 2002, I decided to look in the G.I. Joe section. By then, they were selling 12" Joes of all kinds. After the Hall of Fame 12-inch figures, they came out with more and more, and they eventually got more articulated and detailed. They eventually even came out with a line of "anniversary" figures about 2 years later that were repros of the original 1960s Joes.

On the day I was looking at Joes at Toys-R-Us, I noticed another line of 12" figures in the same area put out by 21st Century Toys. They had a couple of German WWII figures, and after taking a look at them, I decided I had to have the Panzer Commander. He was just too awesome to pass up, and at 15 bucks wasn't priced badly at all.

The Panzer Commander was my first step  toward even cooler brands, like Sideshow and Dragon. The 21st Century Toys figures are really nifty for the price though, and articulated like the early 12" Joes. This was the first "highly poseable" 12" figure I had ever had, so it was fascinating. I also marveled at all the detail in the clothing and accessories.

I ain't seen nothin' yet though!

I was at a flea market in a nearby small town and noticed, in a display case, some  German and U.S. WWII figures by a company called Dragon. I had seen some Dragon figures briefly online someplace, so this was exciting to see them at a local place. I was now really hooked on the Panzer troops after buying the Panzer Commander (I'd even bought a book about Panzer Divisions) and they had one figure called "Viktor" who was a Panzer LEHR officer. The price was steep, about 45 bucks, but I went ahead and bought him. So I now had my first Dragon figure.

The quality of the figure and the detail bowled me over. I was now a full-fledged addict. I was soon on Ebay daily, browsing through Dragon figures. Soon, I was looking at other brands like Sideshow and Ignite.

And soon, I was purchasing my first Sideshow figure. It was Baron von Richtofen, better known as The Red Baron. A couple years later, I bought a "companion piece" to go with him, a WWI Lieutenant. They look snazzy together, and for fun I put the Lego Fokker Triplane in there:

...and the rest is history I guess!

Basically, I started collecting more and more and couldn't stop for awhile. I am bad about that. Today I have over 100 (which is actually small potatoes compared to a lot of collections I've seen online!) and have even begun to sell a few. There are ones I would never sell, of course, but sometimes it's nice to rotate the collection a bit, see new faces. You know?

So this blog is going to be about my collection, mostly. I will review figures, share thoughts/feelings/opinions/etc etc about stuff, post pictures of newly acquired figures, that type of thing.

So after that extremely wordy and rambly intro, Welcome and Enjoy! Please feel free to post comments and suggestions and the like. I love hearing from other 6th scale enthusiasts.

A couple of things to add real quick: The links over on the right are action figure related sites I recommend/have dealt with. If you know of other good ones, please let me know and I will add them.

Another thing: I have a lot of WWII stuff, and a lot of it is German guys. I am not a Nazi sympathizer or anything even remotely like that. I have a fascination with WWII, the uniforms, the history--I look at them as educational figures. Sure, they have swastikas on them but the companies that make them are making them as authentic as possible, so that is necessary. Don't get the wrong idea about me, in other words!

Now for a few more quick snapshots taken in 2007 of some of the figures I have:

BELOW: The Kubelwagen is made by Dragon, as is it's driver, "Eugen", the medic. The wounded character in the back is a kitbashed Luftwaffe pilot I call Maynard. Just to the left of him is a Soviet NKVD, Alexei Petrovich, also by Dragon.

One of my favorites, "Dieter," by Dragon. He's a Wehrmacht Bicycle Scout.

Various 6th scale figures (clockwise from top left): Dieter again; George Taylor by Dragon, Georg by Dragon, Bazooka (A G.I. Joe), Vladimir by Dragon, and Dmitri by Dragon.

Another favorite: Horst and Blitz, by Dragon.

Another hodgepodge of dudes (L to R): Sepp by Dragon, the Panzer Commander mentioned in the story above, Herbert by Dragon, Edmund by Dragon (on bike customized by me), Marius by Dragon. The G.I. Joe in the background (in package) was a 40th anniversary Action Pilot from 2004 (since sold on Ebay).

There will, of course be many more pictures in this blog so stay tuned!