25th Anniversary Tunnel Rat

iwbeta · **Posted:** Fri Dec 28, 2007 3:43 pm

There have been a quite a few Tunnel Rats of late, so here is my take. I kept his design as close to the original '87 version as possible. The knife being swapped the main difference. I swapped out his man cannon for the compact SAW style gun that came with the BBI pilot. 'Nam era tunnel rats carried a knife and pistol, never got why TR carried that monstrosity or how he got it through tunnels. The flashlights are removable from his pack.

The figure is a heavily reworked Shipwreck. I cut down his lower legs and arms, then dremeled away all the Popeyeiness of the forearms.

Keenan · **Posted:** Sat Dec 29, 2007 1:04 pm

I'm really glad you got the height right (my major gripe with the other 25th ones I've seen).

TunnelRat · **Posted:** Mon Dec 31, 2007 3:42 pm

Love it!

<---of course

xhairs · **Posted:** Mon Dec 31, 2007 5:15 pm

i love it and the fact hes the right hight and the gear works great for him. nice job

Tanstoys · **Joined:** Sat Aug 11, 2007 11:02 am

yep he';s cool. Not sure about the head but the rest is cool. When I started makingmine for shortness I used shs moleman lower legs with shippy's upper and he was way too short then so I went back to making him all shipwreck legs, so if anyone wanted to use the combo I tried it looks bad..
Yours is cool you made the right height , congrats

Chief · **Joined:** Tue Jun 26, 2007 10:19 am

Very cool - love the head mods, I never would have guessed that was a Shippy head.

I've been working on a similar TR (using the comic-pack head), but I hadn't chopped the legs yet because I was afraid they'd be too out of whack. On yours, does he look right when he bends his knees with those shortened "shins"?

Awesome job as always!

iwbeta · **Posted:** Tue Jan 01, 2008 1:48 am

The knees look good, Shippy just has extra long lower legs. With the head, I was aiming to be closer to his filecard art, with longer hair and some hair sticking out from under his bandanna, just trying to be different.

Taliesin Crow · **Posted:** Mon Jan 14, 2008 10:34 pm

I was without internet when you posted this so I missed it but I am glad I went through to see what I missed. I like the shorter legs but now his torso looks a little too long and out of proportion, don't know if theres any way to fix that but if there is I would definitely use your idea of shortening the legs.
Great work over all man!

chaosx · **Posted:** Mon Jan 14, 2008 11:20 pm

where the hell did you cut his legs...they look seemless. This is one of my favorite customs and I may steal this idea if I don't see a 25th soon

iwbeta · **Posted:** Tue Jan 15, 2008 12:06 am

I sliced the lower legs off right at the top of the creases in Shippy's pants, then dremeled out a new socket.

pluv · **Posted:** Tue Jan 15, 2008 1:13 pm

iwbeta wrote:

With the head, I was aiming to be closer to his filecard art, with longer hair and some hair sticking out from under his bandanna, just trying to be different.

I like the hair the way you have him, but for me it isn't thsoe changes that don't look right. It is the chin. From the front he has this weird PopEye chin and from the side it is almost completely flat. It doens't come out to a point at all that I can see. I wouldn't switch the head or anything. I would just go back and try to redefine his chin a little bit.

Lt_L1zrdking · **Posted:** Tue Jan 15, 2008 5:03 pm

I love it with the exception of what Pluv pointed out. He has the biggest chin ive ever seen :lol:

iwbeta · **Posted:** Tue Jan 15, 2008 5:13 pm

The chin was a problem, I messed up the first Shippy head I used, took off too much chin, so I was a bit hesitant when I worked the second one. I may try to dremel down, then shape the chin back with epoxy.

Malcolm · **Joined:** Mon Dec 24, 2007 10:30 pm

I dunno, by making the lower part of his legs shorter, it makes his legs really stumpy, I think leaving the legs as they were would of been better, even if he is ment to be slightly smaller.

The rest I really like.

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25th Anniversary Tunnel Rat

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