Head: SW:TPOTF Lyn Me w/ NS Ace Helmet
Chest/back, arms, upper legs: NS Scarlett
Hands: SW:AOTC Jango Fett
Waist: NS Baroness
Lower Legs: Link
Harness: Scratch built, using a push mold pouch from Ice Viper vest
Sidearm: ???

Design:

The GI Joe Collector's Club Freestyle figure might be the single best piece the collector's club has ever put together. However, I can't bring myself to fork over the ridiculous eBay prices. So I thought it best to add a custom of the character to my collection. It would be easy enough to put together a custom that uses the same parts that GIJCC used. So close, in fact, that it would seem like making an "imitation figure" instead of a true custom of the character. To make it feel like a custom with its own merits, I switched gears and worked in the despised New Sculpt format.

I picked the parts after looking at images of female pilot uniforms, particularly those of F-22 pilots. I don't know if the flight suits vary from aircraft to aircraft or not, but the female pilots' uniforms appeared to be fairly well form-fitting. This made the NS Scarlett/Baroness parts pretty good for a base, with the addition of the Link lower legs for the covered boots. To give the figure some height and better proportions, I used the Lyn Me head placed inside of a NS Ace helmet and replaced the tiny hands.

The parts don't make for a perfect or accurate flight suit... but the 25A parts used by GIJCC weren't flawless either, so I'm not too worried about it. The center of the uniform and upper legs are form fitting, with looser fitting material around the lower legs and arms. Kind of futuristic sci-fi and kind of 70's disco outfit at the same time.

Colors & Paint:

Instead of following the GIJCC figure, which used an olive drab flight suit with a black harness, I went with an almost minty green flight suit. For the vest/harness, I used several greys, ranging from charcoal to almost blue. Not particularly realistic, but since the uniform is highly stylized it feels right. I did keep the red visor on the black helmet, though.

I don't know why GIJCC has started giving some of its figures orangey-bronze weapons. It's unrealistic, perplexing, strange... and downright awesome. I painted the sidearm to get the same feel as the GIJCC weaponry.

Sculpting & Modifying:

I removed the head tentacles so the Lyn Me head would fit inside of the Ace helmet. The downside is that the helmet isn't removable.

I initially tried to use a 25A Scarlett harness over the figure, but it just didn't look right on the smaller framed figure.

I ended up scratch building the harness. This was done by lots of things. I used a push mold pouch from the Ice Viper vest. I sculpted the neck support collar from epoxy and built the tubing out of a paperclip wrapped with wire. I added a few new straps to the torso and painted the existing ones.

The Scarlett arms weren't bulky enough and didn't have the right look, so I added tape "sleeves" to them. Bulking up the arms also downplayed the hideously oversized NS shoulders. I didn't like the short sleeves of the GIJCC figure, so this was also a design change I would have made anyway. I also removed the tiny NS hands and added the larger SW:AOTC Jango Fett ones. The bulky shoulders are a mess and almost ruin the figure. Almost.

Thanks for looking.