At long last, my squad of Marines are combat drop ready. (Still need to finish Bishop, but who counts him?!)
Dietrich was by far the hardest marine to make and by no means do I think she is actually "done". There is a huge void in the 1/6th world for female options. Forget about finding a Cynthia Scott look-alike. Its all I could do to find a female that wasnt a "vixen/doll" type head. Female sized boots and armor?! HA! Had to get creative. For nowt he foundation is just a late 90s GI Joe head from their 'GI Jane line". Its as generic and non-sultry as I could find.
I hope to upgrade heads at some point and forgot all about her wrap on her hand when I took the pics. As always, these are cell phone pics and kind of suck! Sorry for the dark/blurryness. I'll fix everything and take proper ones as soon as I am able.
I still can't shake the feeling it looks like "Colonial Marines Barbie" but its the best I can do for now!
Anyways...
Her helmet cover was made using excess material from cutting down my Wierzbowski figure's sleeves and "liquid stitch".
(The waterslide Nurse Caduceus needs some work)
BDUs are semi-tailored using liquid stitch. Simple folding parts over and gluing them down to avoid excess bagginess.
(The "Kiss my..." bled too much. Impossible to fix without replacing pants and I'm kind of bitter)
To show scale next to the upgraded Apone
I kind of lucked out on the Armor in a sense. Hot Toys armor is overpriced and is WAY too big to fit a female body. I was expecting to need to scratch build my own, but I stumbled across a set of old resin armor on the OSW forum. It appeared to be the "russian" variant based off the EVA kit. From what I gathered they were unsanctioned recasts and are to be despised, so I had no problem chopping one up. (I am aware of the fact that by buying it, I did in part keeping the evil legacy going, and I do hate that, but it ends here).
With a dremel I cut away the knee pads (making them smaller and more accurate) and the armpit area of the back and breast plates (making them smaller). I scratch built the middle lobster plate and trimmed down the lower plate. The shoulder bells and shin guards were already smaller than the hot toys versions, which made life easier.
To get the breast plate to fit, I soaked it in boiling water for a bit. Since it was already reduced, the resin softened and I could bend it around the figure for a snug fit. Boom. Instant female sized armor. The ab plate was even already attached to the breastplate just like her real one.
Example of naturally smaller features (resin on left, Hot toys on right)
To finish it all off, I slapped on as many loose hot toys accessories as I could scrounge up to accurately hook her up and painted the armor as best I could. I did use Olive Drab in the paint so it would come closer to matching the Hot Toys figures it would be displayed with, but I couldnt bring myself to use that aweful yellow/green tint instead of 'sand' that hot toys uses. Just aweful.
Fine tuning and tweaking will follow, as with all figures. Big Big Big group photo shoot party to come when everyone is perfect. For now, whenever I am feeling down I just roll into my man cave and let these guys brighten my day!
(Never mind the fact that my bank account after taking on this undertaking is usually why I'm feeling down!!!
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