Sunday, August 26, 2007
Third Project - Gurkha Rifleman
I've just finished my third project (a Gurkha Rifleman) and posted the results at www.actionmanhq.co.uk. Again, I've pasted my original explanation below. I hope it makes sense :) Photographs to come shortly...
"As promised, here is my third VAM custom project.
I apologise for posting details so soon on the heels of the Steiner project. It’s a long story, but I’m heading overseas for a number of weeks and I was keen to post details before I fly out.
As I have mentioned previously, I wanted my third project to focus on a fictitious ‘Military Series’ (as opposed to my first two projects that were ‘Cinema Series’). My intention for the ‘Military Series’ was to concentrate on military uniforms not covered in the original VAM line.
For my third project, I decided to customise/kit-bash a World War 2 Gurkha Rifleman (circa 1941/1942, possibly serving in Malaya or Singapore).
As with my first two projects, the retail packaging is hand-made, with minimal use of computers, etc. I did make a subtle change this time, with the inclusion of a photograph of the uniformed VAM figure on the rear of the box.
With regard to scratch-built items, the most interesting component was the design and construction of the kukri. I was determined to scratch-build my own and I am happy with how it turned out. The blade of the kukri is made from metal. I sharpened the blade edge, so it’s certainly not for kids. The hilt is made from Sculpey. To enhance the kukri blade, I adhered stickers that have a mirror finish to catch the reflection of the sun. Additionally, using a diamond-edged saw, I cut two notches at the base of the blade to represent the kaura. Depending on who you speak to, these notches have a number of applications – preventing blood from reaching the hilt, catching a combatant’s blade and snapping it or representing the Hindu Goddess Kali. Take your pick!
The kukri sheath is made from two pieces of cardboard, which I stitched together with thread to represent leather, etc. Essentially, I wanted the sheath to look like it had been well-used and perhaps constructed by the Rifleman whilst in the field to replace an original damaged one. I also constructed the karda and chakmak (the small knives on the front of the sheath). Both were made from metal and Sculpey. For those that aren’t aware, the karda is essentially a utility knife (think Swiss Army knife) and the chakmak is used to burnish the main blade of the kukri. My versions of the karda and chakmak are larger than they should be. For the purposes of VAM, I wanted them to be slightly larger and useable.
The Gurkha hat (which started life as a BBI Australian Slouch Hat) was also modified. To remove the ‘curl’, I reshaped the hat by soaking it in boiling water. It was then repainted and I also attached a custom chinstrap and insignia.
The socks are repro VAM in origin. To make the socks slightly more authentic, I also made a pair of customised garter flashes. You might be able to see them in some of the photos.
I decided against adding any further insignia, as I wanted to keep the figure relatively simple.
The rest of the uniform and accessories are either of Dragon or BBI manufacture. I went a bit overboard on the included weapons/equipment, but for a reason (see below).
As with my Sergeant Steiner project, I have included within the retail packaging a VAM Collector Star Booklet and a fictitious Collector’s Club application. To make the ‘Military Series’ slightly more distinctive, I also designed and incorporated a ‘Facts & Figures’ card to compliment the package. I envisaged that these cards could be collected by the ‘purchaser’ to make a larger reference set. A similar set of reference cards were actually produced back in the 1970’s and as I remember they were quite popular with kids (although they weren’t connected with VAM).
Whilst I have been working on this project, I have also been constructing a Gurkha diorama (hence the need for lots of weapons and equipment!). I will post photographs of the diorama in due course.
The ‘woodland-style’ photos posted below were taken on the side of the mountain where I live. The ‘jungle-style’ photos were taken in a remnant of rainforest about three minutes drive from my house.
Hope you enjoy!"
"As promised, here is my third VAM custom project.
I apologise for posting details so soon on the heels of the Steiner project. It’s a long story, but I’m heading overseas for a number of weeks and I was keen to post details before I fly out.
As I have mentioned previously, I wanted my third project to focus on a fictitious ‘Military Series’ (as opposed to my first two projects that were ‘Cinema Series’). My intention for the ‘Military Series’ was to concentrate on military uniforms not covered in the original VAM line.
For my third project, I decided to customise/kit-bash a World War 2 Gurkha Rifleman (circa 1941/1942, possibly serving in Malaya or Singapore).
As with my first two projects, the retail packaging is hand-made, with minimal use of computers, etc. I did make a subtle change this time, with the inclusion of a photograph of the uniformed VAM figure on the rear of the box.
With regard to scratch-built items, the most interesting component was the design and construction of the kukri. I was determined to scratch-build my own and I am happy with how it turned out. The blade of the kukri is made from metal. I sharpened the blade edge, so it’s certainly not for kids. The hilt is made from Sculpey. To enhance the kukri blade, I adhered stickers that have a mirror finish to catch the reflection of the sun. Additionally, using a diamond-edged saw, I cut two notches at the base of the blade to represent the kaura. Depending on who you speak to, these notches have a number of applications – preventing blood from reaching the hilt, catching a combatant’s blade and snapping it or representing the Hindu Goddess Kali. Take your pick!
The kukri sheath is made from two pieces of cardboard, which I stitched together with thread to represent leather, etc. Essentially, I wanted the sheath to look like it had been well-used and perhaps constructed by the Rifleman whilst in the field to replace an original damaged one. I also constructed the karda and chakmak (the small knives on the front of the sheath). Both were made from metal and Sculpey. For those that aren’t aware, the karda is essentially a utility knife (think Swiss Army knife) and the chakmak is used to burnish the main blade of the kukri. My versions of the karda and chakmak are larger than they should be. For the purposes of VAM, I wanted them to be slightly larger and useable.
The Gurkha hat (which started life as a BBI Australian Slouch Hat) was also modified. To remove the ‘curl’, I reshaped the hat by soaking it in boiling water. It was then repainted and I also attached a custom chinstrap and insignia.
The socks are repro VAM in origin. To make the socks slightly more authentic, I also made a pair of customised garter flashes. You might be able to see them in some of the photos.
I decided against adding any further insignia, as I wanted to keep the figure relatively simple.
The rest of the uniform and accessories are either of Dragon or BBI manufacture. I went a bit overboard on the included weapons/equipment, but for a reason (see below).
As with my Sergeant Steiner project, I have included within the retail packaging a VAM Collector Star Booklet and a fictitious Collector’s Club application. To make the ‘Military Series’ slightly more distinctive, I also designed and incorporated a ‘Facts & Figures’ card to compliment the package. I envisaged that these cards could be collected by the ‘purchaser’ to make a larger reference set. A similar set of reference cards were actually produced back in the 1970’s and as I remember they were quite popular with kids (although they weren’t connected with VAM).
Whilst I have been working on this project, I have also been constructing a Gurkha diorama (hence the need for lots of weapons and equipment!). I will post photographs of the diorama in due course.
The ‘woodland-style’ photos posted below were taken on the side of the mountain where I live. The ‘jungle-style’ photos were taken in a remnant of rainforest about three minutes drive from my house.
Hope you enjoy!"
Friday, August 17, 2007
Third Project...
My third project will be delayed slightly. Will post photos here and at http://www.actionmanhq.co.uk/ when I get the chance. The weather hasn't been good in this neck of the woods, so I haven't been able to take any photographs yet. Cheers, Craig.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
A Recommendation!
Actually, before I post my Steiner photos, I should recommend www.actionmanhq.co.uk If you are at all keen on Vintage Action Man (or his modern off-shoot), I can't recommend this site enough. You'll find a great bunch of Action Man fanatics on the forum and some great resource photos and information to boot.
Second Project - Cross of Iron/Sergeant Steiner
Still coming to grips with this blog - it appears to have a mind of it's own sometimes :)
After completing my first project (see below), I began work on my second and third. On completion of the second project I again posted the results to http://www.actionmanhq.co.uk/. To keep things simple, I have posted my original explanation of the project below, followed by some photos. Enjoy!
"Since finishing my first VAM custom project (see ‘Return of The Jackal’ thread elsewhere on this forum), I’ve been busy on my second and third projects. I decided to work on two projects simultaneously, basically to save time as some of the designs/components were essentially the same. I decided to create a second ‘Cinema Series’ item, as well as my first ‘Military Series’ project. The ‘Military Series’ project is 90% complete and I will post photographs on completion.
For my second ‘Cinema Series’ project, I decided to kit-bash/customise a Sergeant Rolf Steiner VAM figure from the 1976 movie, ‘Cross Of Iron’ (directed by Sam Peckinpah). As with my first project, I also wanted to design and construct the retail packaging to compliment the figure. ‘Cross Of Iron’ is one of my favourite war movies. For those who haven’t seen it, it is available on DVD (just make sure you track down the newer widescreen version).
Sergeant Steiner seems to be a popular choice for 1/6 scale kit-bashing. If you search Google Image, you’ll likely come across at least a few examples. As some of you will know, DML (Dragon) released an official Sergeant Steiner figure some years ago. However, my intention was to recreate a VAM version of Sergeant Steiner and not to rely on ‘Steiner-specific’ items already manufactured by Dragon or other companies.
I didn’t scratch-build on the same scale as my Jackal project, however there was quite a bit of customising involved with regard to Steiner’s M43 field tunic. I had an old DML German uniform in my spares collection and I decided to customise it to match that of Steiner’s. The modifications to the tunic were as follows:
Scratch-built a ‘Das Krimschild’ badge and attached it to the left arm of the tunic.
Scratch-built a ‘Panzervernichtungsabzeichen’ badge and attached it to the right arm of the tunic.
Painted the buttons silver to match Steiner’s tunic.
Bought and attached a number of additional awards/medals, to match Steiner’s tunic (including an Iron Cross). I obtained these from a number of 1/6 scale sites on the web.
Painted a white line around the collar of the tunic.
Replaced the tunic shoulder boards with the correct Infantry ones (also custom-made) and modified them to display the correct rank.
The remaining weapons and accessories are of Dragon and/or BBI manufacture. For information on how I constructed the retail packaging, please refer to my ‘Return of The Jackal’ thread. As with my first project, the retail packaging and box-art was hand-made to give it a 1970’s feel, etc.
I wanted to include a number of ‘added extras’ in the retail packaging. In addition to a ‘Cross Of Iron’ movie poster and a VAM Collector Star booklet, I designed and enclosed an application form, allowing the ‘purchaser’ to join the fictitious ‘Palitoy Action Man Collector’s Club’. I’m pretty happy with how the application form came out. I’m tempted to send a completed one to the address and see what happens!"
After completing my first project (see below), I began work on my second and third. On completion of the second project I again posted the results to http://www.actionmanhq.co.uk/. To keep things simple, I have posted my original explanation of the project below, followed by some photos. Enjoy!
"Since finishing my first VAM custom project (see ‘Return of The Jackal’ thread elsewhere on this forum), I’ve been busy on my second and third projects. I decided to work on two projects simultaneously, basically to save time as some of the designs/components were essentially the same. I decided to create a second ‘Cinema Series’ item, as well as my first ‘Military Series’ project. The ‘Military Series’ project is 90% complete and I will post photographs on completion.
For my second ‘Cinema Series’ project, I decided to kit-bash/customise a Sergeant Rolf Steiner VAM figure from the 1976 movie, ‘Cross Of Iron’ (directed by Sam Peckinpah). As with my first project, I also wanted to design and construct the retail packaging to compliment the figure. ‘Cross Of Iron’ is one of my favourite war movies. For those who haven’t seen it, it is available on DVD (just make sure you track down the newer widescreen version).
Sergeant Steiner seems to be a popular choice for 1/6 scale kit-bashing. If you search Google Image, you’ll likely come across at least a few examples. As some of you will know, DML (Dragon) released an official Sergeant Steiner figure some years ago. However, my intention was to recreate a VAM version of Sergeant Steiner and not to rely on ‘Steiner-specific’ items already manufactured by Dragon or other companies.
I didn’t scratch-build on the same scale as my Jackal project, however there was quite a bit of customising involved with regard to Steiner’s M43 field tunic. I had an old DML German uniform in my spares collection and I decided to customise it to match that of Steiner’s. The modifications to the tunic were as follows:
Scratch-built a ‘Das Krimschild’ badge and attached it to the left arm of the tunic.
Scratch-built a ‘Panzervernichtungsabzeichen’ badge and attached it to the right arm of the tunic.
Painted the buttons silver to match Steiner’s tunic.
Bought and attached a number of additional awards/medals, to match Steiner’s tunic (including an Iron Cross). I obtained these from a number of 1/6 scale sites on the web.
Painted a white line around the collar of the tunic.
Replaced the tunic shoulder boards with the correct Infantry ones (also custom-made) and modified them to display the correct rank.
The remaining weapons and accessories are of Dragon and/or BBI manufacture. For information on how I constructed the retail packaging, please refer to my ‘Return of The Jackal’ thread. As with my first project, the retail packaging and box-art was hand-made to give it a 1970’s feel, etc.
I wanted to include a number of ‘added extras’ in the retail packaging. In addition to a ‘Cross Of Iron’ movie poster and a VAM Collector Star booklet, I designed and enclosed an application form, allowing the ‘purchaser’ to join the fictitious ‘Palitoy Action Man Collector’s Club’. I’m pretty happy with how the application form came out. I’m tempted to send a completed one to the address and see what happens!"
My first project - The Day of The Jackal
Okay, this is my first formal post - I hope it is easy enough to understand. Images of my first project were originally published on http://www.actionmanhq.co.uk/ in July 2007 (and are still available there). Below I have cut and pasted my original explanation for the project...saves a bit of time!
"Although I’m fairly new to the board, I thought some of you might like to see a project I’ve been working on for the past couple of weeks. I’ve wanted to customize/kit-bash a VAM for some time, but I wasn’t sure where to start. I recently watched the movie, ‘The Day of the Jackal’ (the original 1971 release) and I thought that it would provide good material for a VAM custom job. Initially, my intention was to just recreate ‘The Jackal’ himself, with appropriate clothing and accessories and to then take some photographs, etc. However, as I started the project, I decided that I would try and complete the ‘whole package’, including a mock-up of retail packaging and a number of other additions.
My plan was to imagine a VAM toy that I could have purchased when I was a kid back in the seventies. I envisaged an alternate VAM line called the ‘Cinema Series’, with Palitoy producing uniforms and accessories of popular movie characters (such as ‘The Jackal’).
The retail box that I created has exactly the same dimensions as the cardboard Red Cross Parcel that was included in the VAM Escape from Colditz box-set. I had an old, tattered one in my own collection and I ended up using it as a template for my project.
I used a combination of both 1/6 scale accessories (some of which I obtained from Ebay) and scratch-built items. As this was my first custom project, it provided me with a good opportunity to test different techniques, etc.
I used basic hobby skills to design the box images, etc. I didn’t use any sort of fancy Photoshop program (as I have no idea how to use them). I used my HP bubble jet printer/scanner and the basic scanning/editing software that came with it (called HP Gallery). I also used Microsoft Word to compose some of the banners, etc. For everything else I used a glue stick, paint, scissors and coloured paper.
The following items were scratch-built;
Retail Packaging (with the exception of the rear photographic images, which I found surfing the net)
Cravat/Neck Scarf (I used some red cloth and painted on some white polka-dots…it has the same dimensions as the VAM Panzer Captain scarf)
.22 cal Sniper’s Rifle (I constructed this out of aluminium tubing…incidentally the same material as used in the film. The rifle is comprised of 12 separate pieces and the stock is made out of Sculpey)
Melon Target (I used Sculpey to fashion the actual melon and painted it with an acrylic gloss green paint to match the mottled texture of a real melon)
Map (used a JPEG found on Google Image)
Passport (as above and constructed it with a number of ‘pages’ to give it some depth)
Cigarette Packet (as above and used a gold marker pen to recreate the cigarette foil)
De Gaulle Dossier (I constructed the actual manila folder myself and found the photographic images of De Gaulle on the net)
Action Man Competition Entry Form (composed using Microsoft Word)
The other items (long-sleeve shirt, trousers, boots, wristwatch, pistol, grenade and money) are all Dragon or 1/6 scale custom accessories.
The briefcase was bought on Ebay and is made specifically for 1/6 scale custom jobs. They are available in both brown and black.
The Collector Star Booklet is an authentic VAM one.
To complete the project, I obtained a signed photograph of Edward Fox from Ebay (purportedly the real thing!).
My plan was to imagine a VAM toy that I could have purchased when I was a kid back in the seventies. I envisaged an alternate VAM line called the ‘Cinema Series’, with Palitoy producing uniforms and accessories of popular movie characters (such as ‘The Jackal’).
The retail box that I created has exactly the same dimensions as the cardboard Red Cross Parcel that was included in the VAM Escape from Colditz box-set. I had an old, tattered one in my own collection and I ended up using it as a template for my project.
I used a combination of both 1/6 scale accessories (some of which I obtained from Ebay) and scratch-built items. As this was my first custom project, it provided me with a good opportunity to test different techniques, etc.
I used basic hobby skills to design the box images, etc. I didn’t use any sort of fancy Photoshop program (as I have no idea how to use them). I used my HP bubble jet printer/scanner and the basic scanning/editing software that came with it (called HP Gallery). I also used Microsoft Word to compose some of the banners, etc. For everything else I used a glue stick, paint, scissors and coloured paper.
The following items were scratch-built;
Retail Packaging (with the exception of the rear photographic images, which I found surfing the net)
Cravat/Neck Scarf (I used some red cloth and painted on some white polka-dots…it has the same dimensions as the VAM Panzer Captain scarf)
.22 cal Sniper’s Rifle (I constructed this out of aluminium tubing…incidentally the same material as used in the film. The rifle is comprised of 12 separate pieces and the stock is made out of Sculpey)
Melon Target (I used Sculpey to fashion the actual melon and painted it with an acrylic gloss green paint to match the mottled texture of a real melon)
Map (used a JPEG found on Google Image)
Passport (as above and constructed it with a number of ‘pages’ to give it some depth)
Cigarette Packet (as above and used a gold marker pen to recreate the cigarette foil)
De Gaulle Dossier (I constructed the actual manila folder myself and found the photographic images of De Gaulle on the net)
Action Man Competition Entry Form (composed using Microsoft Word)
The other items (long-sleeve shirt, trousers, boots, wristwatch, pistol, grenade and money) are all Dragon or 1/6 scale custom accessories.
The briefcase was bought on Ebay and is made specifically for 1/6 scale custom jobs. They are available in both brown and black.
The Collector Star Booklet is an authentic VAM one.
To complete the project, I obtained a signed photograph of Edward Fox from Ebay (purportedly the real thing!).
I’m looking forward to my next project, which will probably be along similar lines and hopefully I can improve on my technique. One idea I have for the future is to recreate ‘The Jackal’ in his war veteran’s disguise (black three-piece suit, black beret, crutches with hidden rifle, medals, etc.). I would also like to try my hand at a ‘Military Series’, focusing on military uniforms that were not covered in the original VAM line. It’s a case of selecting subjects/uniforms that provide a good balance between kit-bashing and scratch-building (which is the fun part)."
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