Sixth Army Group

[Erkennungsmarken]

After the response that I received for my posting on my MG gunner, I have written the following tutorial on how I adjusted the second crew member.

1. First remove the figure’s head. This is best done by dunking him in to a mug of boiling water, taking care not to scold oneself! The head should then come off easily.
2. Now that you have separated his head from the body, put the head back in to the hot water. This will make the cutting easer.




3. Taking a sharp scalpel or hobby knife, cut away the neck from the head. The line should be from the bottom of the chin, round the jaw line up to the ear, and then around the back of the head at the hair line to the other ear. Back down the jaw line to the bottom of the chin again.




4. You will then need to remove some of the thickness of the inside of the neck line, putting a chamfer on it. Careful doing this as you will be cutting close to your fingers! The head should still be soft, so you should not have to push too hard.



5. Next, take an arm from an old figure and cut through at the top joint. (In this example I have used a ‘Dragon’ Figure, as the shoulder is nearly round, and makes a good ball joint).



6. Once you have your shoulder/ball joint, drill through the swing arm several times at right angles, and insert small nail pins. This will stop the joint from pulling out or turning.



7. Smear a wax release agent or barrier jell on to the ball of the joint, to prevent the fast cast resin, used in the next stage, from binding up the working of the joint.

8. Mix up some fast cast resin and pore it in to the up turned head. Don’t fill it quite to the top as the joint will displace some of the resin. As a precaution I waxed the head to stop overruns from sticking. This need to be thoroughly cleaned of the head before any painting you may wish to do afterwards.



9. Once cured the head was stuck to a block, (to gain a better grip of the ball joint), and if the wax release agent has done its job properly, the head should move forward and back.



10. Next, cut off the very top of the stump left on the neck connected to the body of the figure. This has to be done to prevent the neck from being too long.



11. Then, trim the neck ring cut off the head, and put a chamfer on it. Place this back in its place on the body.

http://erkennungsmarken.smugmug.com/photos/78081094-M.jpg

12. The head can now be glued back in place atop its body. The result is reasonably neat and can easily be disguised with a scarf or head over.[



The figures head should now articulate at the top of the shoulders and at the top of the neck allowing the full movement of the head.










It does mean sacrificing an old figure, but for a couple of figures in your collection, the proper prone position can be achieved.

[Dubar1]

Now that's using the ole noggin!!! Good job

I have a box full of SOTW super articulated figures, I think I'll go take a look to see what can be used from them.

[BigFergSS]

Thats ingenious!!! It makes a HUGE difference in your MG crew. The rifleman you have at the bottom of you post is PERFECTLY posed and natural!!

[Krieger]

Cool tutorial - thanks for posting. Will have to give this a try for my Bren gunner.

K.

[Lost Records]

Excellent tutorial!

[mp1stshirt]

Fantastic tutorial.........going to give it a try.....

Thanks,
Bob

[Leatherneck]

Cool technique!

[10th-SS_PzDiv]

Very nice tutorial!!!

[pangaloss]

That is brilliant. When I first saw your prone Mgunner I thought "Really nice but too bad he has to remain a prone figure." But now I see this is not the case. You still retain a multi posable figure but now he's got the ability to pose in a realistic prone position like no other.
Excellent.

Tim

[jepy]

To quote my favorite beer commercial, "brilliant!"

I'm going to do up a couple figures as soon as I get my babies in to bed.

J-P