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Well it's been several years since I've done anything more than an LBC or two, and I finally was able to sit down and do some things today that I've been wanting to do for a long time.
Before, I basically did some parts swapping, painting, and was just beginning to delve into sculpting when I had to put everything away. Today, I wanted to get into modding.
Ever since the 25A figures came out and I was disappointed by what I felt were dismal efforts to add articulation to our beloved 3 3/4 joes, I've wanted to take that extra articulation and bash it onto the more playable RAH style.
Today, I picked up my old Flint and Stalker repaints and decided to see what I could do.
First up, the arms. My Flint was just a repaint of the 85 version. I really like the generic "claw" shape of the RAH hands, as they typically don't make me wish the figure had a hinge joint on the wrist like most 25A/ROC figures do. The generic shape means that I can swivel the gun at any angle with the arm rather than having it fixed the way the more detailed hand shapes force you to. I was planning on modding a soft RAH hand to use, but Spy Troops Recondo had basically the same shaped hand, and it was gloved, so it was perfect.
I was unsure exactly what to do about getting the hand to pop into place once I drilled the hole into the forearm, so I figured I would just drill and experiment. To my surprise, the drill heated the plastic in Flint's forearm so much that it became soft, and the new hand easily slid in. After letting it cool, the hand was fixed in place, almost as secure as it had in the forearm it came from! No mods needed whatsoever!
Stalker was far more difficult. I tried cutting his hands off and modding them with the wrist pegs from a 25A figure, and I couldn't get them to attach to the hand as well as I would have liked. I ultimately gave up and just stuck some 25A Stalker hands into the forearms for now.
Next up was the feet. One thing I've noticed about 25A/ROC figures, is that the feet articulation is so limited, that you can't even take advantage of the double jointed knees. Even when you trim away a bit of the plastic to get the ankle joint to move more, there really aren't many poses that require double jointed knees to achieve. The only pose I can think of that would need this, is a full crouch, but even 25A Joes can't pull that pose off convincingly due to limitations in the ankle, knees, hips, and mid torso. While New Sculpt figures are lucky if their knees bend to a 90 degree angle, Most RAH figures can bend to 90 degrees and greater. In fact, after toying around with it, The RAH knee and the 25A ankle work great together.
Doing the mod was pretty simple, I just sliced off the boots from a couple of 25A figures and drilled a hole in the middle. I then sanded off the boots from Flint and Stalker, but leaving a bit in the middle extending down to fit into the hole of the boots from the 25A figures. A bit of crazy glue and the boots are very secure. Now Flint and Stalker can get into crouched positions!
Lastly, the heads. This was my most challenging mod. What irks me about both RAH figures, New sculpt, and 25A figures is that no matter which style of construction you use to build their neck joint, it always misses the mark. They early swivel necks obviously couldn't move up and down. While the ball jointed necks could widely move up and down, they lost a lot of their ability to turn left and right. New sculpt was inconsistent, but after the fitst few waves they went to that half ball joint that was no better than an early swivel joint, thus losing their ability to move up and down. 25A really isn't better. Placing the ball joint at the top of the neck does give the figure the ability to move left and right, but the up and down motion is either impossible due to the shape of the joint or awkward, as though the figure is trying to see if there's anything on his shirt when he looks down. The human neck moves at both the top and bottom, and there's no reason a joe figure can't achieve this easily. The answer, is a hybrid of both a ball jointed RAH figure and a 25A neck.
To achieve this, I bashed 85 Flint's ball joint onto 25A Flint's neck ball. The range of motion is GREAT! Flint can now bend his neck forward while still looking upward, then swivel to the left and really give a good approximation of looking through the sight of a rifle. The result is so good, that I'm really shocked that hasbro isn't making their figures like this.
Now, I've never gotten into casting, and I still don't have the resources or room to do it in. I would LOVE to have a few dozen hybrid neck joints to work with, and also, if possible, some RAH hands with 25A wrist pegs. If anyone is interested, PLEASE contact me!
Also, I apologize for the lack of pictures, my new camera is having compatibility issues with my antique computer!
_________________ I don't care how badly I have been defeated. I declare victory nonetheless.
Last edited by Wowboy on Mon Jan 25, 2010 12:25 am, edited 2 times in total.
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