1:6 Gimli Custom - How To Guide...

Well, it seems like the lurkers and latecomers are finally joining us in picking up the torch where Sideshow dropped it and completing The Fellowship. To save everyone's sanity, both those who've completed the build from the repetition of reposting the same thing over and over again to answer the many forthcoming questions, and the newcomers from being bombarded with "search is your friend" or having to peel through hundreds of pages and thousands of posts in the Gimli Custom thread, it's all right here. While some builds and pieces may differ (and they look great too!), here's the popular gist of what was used to make a 1:6 Gimli Custom worthy of fitting right in with your Sideshow 12" LOTR figures, and just how we went about building the little bugger...

DiD Gimli Body Modifications

It goes without saying that as it stands, none of the bodies will work. The ToyBiz soft body is too short. It's actually shorter than Sideshow's Frodo. The DiD body is too tall. 11.5" dwarf anyone? Didn't think so. Good news is, the DiD can be made to work. And it does, well. And let me stress, this is considerably EASIER than it looks, so don't get overwhelmed by looking at the pictures and thinking "&#@$, I can't do this!" because you can. It really is a piece of cake.

Gimli needs to be a head taller than the Sideshow Hobbits but no taller than the shoulder of Sideshow's Boromir, or in this case, we used the uber sexy Giles:



Let's get started...

First, you'll need to strip down Gimli (1:6 pole not included, sorry) to his naked, leprosy-looking flesh. Don't worry when you see black splotches on his arms and legs, that's normal and most likely a result of the dye used for the clothes. Once he's all sexy, give his head a good wrenching. You'll need to pry the outer face off of the inner headrest so that he looks like the first image in Pix's tutorial. Take it away Pix....

Ok I am endevoring to make a comprehensive tutorial on how to customize Gimli with ALOT of help from thenammagazine:



1) Cut the forearms down to the bottom of the hand socket. [For this, Pix used a box cutter. I prefer a razor blade (paint section at your local WalMart) since it's sharper, but will require considerably more caution when using. Remember, always, and I stress ALWAYS, cut away from your person.]




2) Lie the body down flat but keeping the midsection turned at a cross angle to the body and cut along the seam with the screw driver nice and deep down both sides of the midsection (being careful not to mar the belly and the chest pieces.



3) Place a flathead screwdriver in the cut in the seam you have made and get a hammer. Drive a wedge until you get one side open and repeat with the other side. [Go ape$#!+ on this piece though. You won't be needing it anyway and it's only going to feed the garbage. If you're finding it hard to gain entry, crack it apart with a hammer. Just use caution not to damage the surrounding pieces or the internals.]






CONT'D NEXT POST...

Just FYI: I will be deleting posts in this thread so as to keep the important stuff on top.

...BODY MOD CONT'D...(Part 2)

1) You need to separate the chest pieces. Its probably better to do this from underneath the chest cavity [recommended as it hides the damage] rather than the shoulder but I figured that it will all be covered up with clothes and such anyway so who cares? Cut the seams with an exacto knife the same as with the mid section. [Should you go underneath, be sure to trim any rough edges before reassembly.]

2) [Pick a POE (or point of entry for those non-military people among us) and run your razor blade across the seams of the chest, to weaken the glue.] Stick a flathead screwdriver in the cut seam as before.



3) Pry the two halves apart and the whole thing will fall apart and you will panic and curse. But its OK as long as you didn't break any of the parts. (NOTE: Remember which arms went in which sockets since it seems if you get them mixed up they will be REALLY REALLY loose!) [One of the easiest ways to prevent arm wobble which may occur regardless, even if the arms are in the correct sockets, is to lay down a small amount of clingwrap across the sockets before placing the arms back in. you can easily test this by putting the body back together (arms in place), squeezing it tight and giving it a good shake. If the arms don't move, you're good to go.]



4) This is the really tricky part. You have attach the stomach part to the inside of the chest cavity where the midsection used to attach. While keeping strait (because the tendency is for it to flip off) you need to reattach the neck post and arms so that it looks something like this:



[This step actually doesn't have to be that hard. Unfortunately, in his impatience p) Pix started without me. SO... Still have the internals from that middle piece you cut out? Unscrew them and remove the plastic washer. Then, carefully unscrew the plastic stem at the waist of the body, add the washer on top (so that you have two, back to back), and screw it back together. Then, the two washers will easily hold the torso piece between them and you won't be caught acting like the damn thing's a mousetrap ready snap your finger.]

5) Now glue around the edges (being careful not to put glue by any joints) and carefully put the front chest piece back on be really careful not make the stomach mechanism dislodge). It took me 3 tries before I got it right [If you use the extra washer, you'll surpass the agony of retries ]. But now I have a (relatively) dwarf sized Gimli.



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...BODY MOD CONT'D...(Part 3)

[With a blowdryer, go ahead and give the headrest a good heat and peel it off the neck. You won't be needing it. Except for the feet, at this point in the modification, your body should look like so:]



1) Break off the toes off of the DiD body [I actually used the razor blade to slice off the toes, leaving the small "hinge" in place then just turning it so that the round part faces out and the flat edge faces backward. It's more visually appealing and doesn't make poor Gimli's feet look like the front of the Millennium Falcon. See above pic for example.]:



2) Carve down the DiD neck post [into the shape of a straight post, removing all of the mushroom-like lip.]:





At this stage, modification of the DiD Gimli body is complete.

<hr style="color: rgb(51, 102, 51); background-color: rgb(51, 102, 51);" size="1"> <!-- / icon and title --> <!-- message --> Tried repainting my Gimli, still need to touch up a few areas.

What do you guys think?

Great repaint and Fantastic tuturial!

Here's a repaint WIP of my Gimli:

GREAT repaint! Love the beard

You're all so talented!

Would an extra hobbit elven cloak fit on the TB Gimli?

you mean around the neck or lengthwise?

Lengthwise. I may have to mod it neck wise.

The Josh said:

Lengthwise. I may have to mod it neck wise.

Click to expand...

Are you talking about the regular TB "soft" Gimli? If so, yes, easily and no mod necessary. Just heat up the head and it'll pop right off, then just put the cloak over the neck and pop the head back on.

ToyBiz "rotocast" Gimli Modifications



This is more of a butchering than a modification really, since you'll be taking pieces from him to dress your DiD Gimli. While several freaks have just used the "soft" parts we chose to use the rotocast here since they're not only easier, but the "rotocast" gauntlets offer cut wrists which adds articulation to the overall piece and makes posing with his axe, that much easier. Should you stay with the soft, in WorGar's Gimli Custom thread, there are alternative means for articulation. However, that's considerably more work (we're lazy ) and the size difference is really trivial. Anyways, onto the process...

Ok. I boiled off the Roto-Gimli's boots [I actually just cut them straight off with the razor blade and then used a little heat and a screwdriver to pull out the plugs. So whichever floats your boat. But if you're boiling, keep the water hot...]:



I also used a saw and chopped off the gauntlets/Gloves from his arm and filed down the rough edges on the gauntlet using my wife's nail file. Then I boiled the arm stumps and pulled them off [Again, Pix made more work for himself than necessary . If you're boiling, just dip his arms and pull the gauntlets right off. Then, slice through right at the top of the gauntlet (just above the little "cloth" piece) and discard the rest of the arm.]:



[By heating up the pieces, both the gauntlets and the boots will easily slip over the wrist stumps and trimmed feet of the DiD body like a glove, or two and boots!] And here he is at this stage [of the build]:



[If you're a progress rat and need to see your progression for $#!+s and giggles, you can dress him up in all his regalia. Here's what he'll look like:]



[Since you'll only be heating them up to take them off for the rest of the mods, I strongly suggest you hold off on assembly until just about all the modifications are complete as it will make it less time consuming and easier, but hey, I assembled mine after each step too! ]

I still need to get the shoulder pieces off of the roto-Gimli and do some futzing with the clothes to make things seem a bit more in proportion, but this far in the game I think he is looking pretty good.

CONT'D NEXT POST...

Could someone help me out with the fat-suit. I checked out Monkey Depot, TA and ebay but I couldn't find any. I think I am doing something wrong.
Also, will this chainmail work as well?

https://cgi.ebay.com/IGNITE-1-6-Kni...ptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?_trksid=p3286.m20.l1116

I don't thnk that chain mail will work without a lot of cutting.

carbo-fation said:

Could someone help me out with the fat-suit. I checked out Monkey Depot, TA and ebay but I couldn't find any. I think I am doing something wrong.
Also, will this chainmail work as well?

https://cgi.ebay.com/IGNITE-1-6-Kni...ptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?_trksid=p3286.m20.l1116

Click to expand...

Actually, that mail will be too short. I'm PMing you a couple of links to the items you requested.

If it were me I would just wait for EC to report on how his casts of the armor bits go. You might be able to score them from him. I think $40 i s too much for some chopped up bits.

thenammagazine said:

Actually, that mail will be too short. I'm PMing you a couple of links to the items you requested.

Click to expand...

I think it'd work out okay to use, but as pix pointed out, it'd take a fair amount of cutting. The thing I do not care for about the other mail is the brown stitched edge.

its the brown trimming that has kept me from pulling the trigger on buying it too.