Here are some details of a side project I have just finished. Again, the text is from the AMHQ site.
"Following my recent obsession with sandbags, I thought I’d try my hand at an ‘official’ VAM accessory set.
I needed to make a new batch of sandbags, as the ones I made a month or two ago were permanently glued together for the Gurkha newsreel project.
The retail box was not scratch-built this time. I found a nice pre-made one that was the perfect size. All that the box needed was a coat of green paint. It holds the forty new sandbags quite nicely."
As the title suggests, I'm currently working on my 5th and 6th projects (plus a couple of side projects). I'll post the results when I can. Cheers, Craig.
I've finally completed by fourth project. Below is my post from AMHQ.
"Here’s one for the Aussies on the forum!
For my fourth project, I wanted to try my hand at a customised/kitbashed VAM ‘Mad Max’ figure, from the film of the same name.
Although the sequel is probably more famous (and is certainly a great movie in its own right), I never get tired of watching the original. Again, it has a quirky nature all of its own - similar to ‘The Day of The Jackal’ and ‘Cross of Iron’. In my opinion, the vehicle chase scenes have never been bettered and the dialogue between the characters is still wonderful to listen to. If you haven’t seen the film and are keen to watch it, make sure you track down a DVD copy with the original Australian voice-track – not the dubbed US version (blasphemy!)
To make this project slightly different, I designed the retail packaging so that the item was an Australian & New Zealand exclusive, limited to 500 pieces and only available to those two countries. Back in the day, Australia and New Zealand always seemed to miss out on promotional offers – this is my way of getting revenge! Instead of the dark green packaging that I have used on previous projects, I went for black this time (to signify that the item was an exclusive).
I purchased the leather jacket/pants on Ebay. The jacket is not a perfect match to the movie one, but it was the best I could find, and is pretty close. I customised the jacket by adding scratch-built badges and leather patches. The sawn-off shotgun is also scratch-built, using aluminium tubing, sheet metal and Sculpey. All other items were obtained from Ebay or were already in my spares collection (such as the boots). The t-shirt under the jacket was originally white, which I dyed eggshell blue to match Max’s t-shirt from the movie. The weather in Queensland hasn’t been too flash in the past few days, so I was restricted to taking photos around my home."
Greetings! As the title suggests, I have developed this site to display some of my Vintage Action Man (VAM) custom/kit-bashed projects.
For each VAM project that I complete, you'll find that I post a fairly lengthy explanation, outlining the rationale and techniques involved, etc. If this is your first visit, I would suggest that you start with my first project (The Day of The Jackal). You can find it by scrolling to the end of this (now very long!) page.
I will generally only update this blog when I have finished a new project or if I have some snippet of information I think is really worth posting.
Feel free to leave any comments/feedback or alternatively I can be e-mailed at craig_calvert@hotmail.com. Hope you enjoy the site! Cheers, Craig.
DISCLAIMER: Although I utilise both the Palitoy and Action Man trademarks/logos, my one-off projects are purely for nostalgic and hobby purposes - I've never sold my projects to other collectors, nor have I made any profit from them.