Took a break from my creepy twins to finish up Greyryder V2's accessories. I also took time to add different joints, to his feet. They function similar to the rocker ankles that some of the newer MU figures have had. I finally have my dimension hopping super-scientist werewolf.
When I draw him, his scabbard deploys by moving up, swinging down, and then opening in several segments, For the figure, I kept the segmented look, but kept it to a single panel on each side. However, it now has to move both up, and outward, before it swings down. The shoulder cannon was simpler, to pull off. I didn't realize until after I took all these pictures, that he was hip thrusting, the whole time. I also forgot to paint bore of the dart gun on top of the cannon.
Everything stowed:
Scabbard in action:
Shoulder cannon:
Dear Hasbro G.I. Joe team; it's possible to make an action figure that can look up:
Action poses, with photoshopped optic glow:
For those curious about how I built the back pack, here's descriptions and in progress shots.
The main part of the backpack is little more than a half cylinder, with the ends cut at angles. The shoulder cannon is built around a joint pulled from a Legends class Transformer, and just needs a piece of tubing sticking out to fasten it to. The sword scabbard mount is more complicated. To deploy, it needs to slide both up, and out to the side. It then needs to pivot, swinging the sword's handle down over the figure's left shoulder. Sometimes, when I get tired, I tend to zone out and just think about things. That let me come up with a stupidly simple mechanism, that not only gives me all the movement I need in the sword arm, but also restrict the travel on the pivot, and lock out the pivoting action when the mount is in the arm position.
All of these pictures are larger than the actual sizes!
A hole drilled at angle through the tube the arm is made of let's it ride on a length of brass rod, set at a similar angle. I had to notch out the end of the tube, to clear structure, so I reinforced it with a piece of smaller tubing, inside. This rail mounting keeps the end of the arm from drooping.
Slid half way up, gives an unobstructed view of the end of the arm:
The pivot relies on a piece of the same brass I made the rail from set into a hole in the acrylic axle. The brass pin rides in a slot, both limiting the travel, and keeping the axle from sliding in and out. The pin is cut just a little long, to sit in a hole in the bottom of the backpack. Once the pin is that hole, the pivoting mechanism is effectively locked in place.
The cannon, before final details:
The scabbard uses a single clam shell panel on each side, hinged off a common axle. The hinges are doll house hinges, with the original hinge pins removed, and a length of brass rod, same as I used for the sword arm rail, run through. The brass I used is bigger around than the original pins, it tightened up the movement, and eliminated all the slop out of them. They still move easily, but are stiff enough to hold their positions.
And, here's the sword, Darquesbayne. (read: Dark's Bane) It's held stable by two small prongs built into the scabbard, until the sides are closed.
can't believe that's all scratch built, well done.
