Building your MARINES - CORRECTLY

[Staps1138]

I used an HT Alice body from one of the RE movies but it has a big booty and it's not muscular either.

 

[slikkerias]

Hi all,
Vasquez is on her way here and I wanted to hear if you guys could point me to a few tricks and mods. I'm gonna do a repaint and guess I should swap the body. thanks in advance!

 

[bigbisont]

Hi all,
Vasquez is on her way here and I wanted to hear if you guys could point me to a few tricks and mods. I'm gonna do a repaint and guess I should swap the body. thanks in advance!

Back on post#2014 I posted some highly suggested mods. This was the Vaz section (with some updates):

For Vasquez
-Ditch the VP70 and holster completely. Get a S&W Model 39.
-Use her OD belt and find another to build a holster chest rig so the model 39 sits under her breastplate
-Ditch ALL pouches. She has zero.
-I recommend trimming the sleeves on her BDU even further back than they are
-You can change her boots if you want, but accurate french ranger boots are not made in women's sizes. Her boots WERE black and were NOT the jungle boots the men wore, so don't stress it too much. Her stock black boots are not as terrible as they could be. If you don't mind big boots you can find the correct style on the DiD algeria figure.
-Take the mislabeled 'batteries' she came with. They are the 'belt tools'. Hot Toys screwed that up. Give them to Hicks and Hudson!!! (1 each).
-Add a short "boot knife" tied to her right boot
-Ditch the hand welder (ONLY when full smart-gunned out. When she ditches the smart gun rig and starts carrying the pulse, she starts to use Hudson's hand welder and its accurate for her to have one. But she never had one to start the movie nor when carrying her smart gun)
-If you want to display her without the smartgun, its not a bad idea to get a racal headset from either the chewy or Han figure. Both need to be chopped and reglued into the correct position, so neither is preferable as they both need work.

As for a new body, I have a plan to combine two bodies into something I hope is an upgrade. Right now its just a theory so no pics yet, but I will def be posting pics when I start the experiment.

 

[slikkerias]

Back on post#2014 I posted some highly suggested mods. This was the Vaz section (with some updates):

For Vasquez
-Ditch the VP70 and holster completely. Get a S&W Model 39.
-Use her OD belt and find another to build a holster chest rig so the model 39 sits under her breastplate
-Ditch ALL pouches. She has zero.
-I recommend trimming the sleeves on her BDU even further back than they are
-You can change her boots if you want, but accurate french ranger boots are not made in women's sizes. Her boots WERE black and were NOT the jungle boots the men wore, so don't stress it too much. Her stock black boots are not as terrible as they could be. If you don't mind big boots you can find the correct style on the DiD algeria figure.
-Take the mislabeled 'batteries' she came with. They are the 'belt tools'. Hot Toys screwed that up. Give them to Hicks and Hudson!!! (1 each).
-Add a short "boot knife" tied to her right boot
-Ditch the hand welder (ONLY when full smart-gunned out. When she ditches the smart gun rig and starts carrying the pulse, she starts to use Hudson's hand welder and its accurate for her to have one. But she never had one to start the movie nor when carrying her smart gun)
-If you want to display her without the smartgun, its not a bad idea to get a racal headset from either the chewy or Han figure. Both need to be chopped and reglued into the correct position, so neither is preferable as they both need work.

As for a new body, I have a plan to combine two bodies into something I hope is an upgrade. Right now its just a theory so no pics yet, but I will def be posting pics when I start the experiment.

Wow, this is great info! Thanks!!

 

[Lee in MI]

Wow...this just shows you how popular these figures are. This thread has been going since 2007!!! TEN FRIGGIN YEARS!!! I remember when these first came out and I was just getting into high end 1:6. I missed these but got in on some of the Predator and Robocop kits...still have em.

I think one of these third party guys could KILL making a complete set of these bad boys...the Predator Jungle Strike Team as well.

Very expensive but they have parts available for anyone looking:
https://www.blackopstoys.com/search?q=aliens+colonial+marine

 

[hammer-nb]

For Vasquez
-Ditch the VP70 and holster completely. Get a S&W Model 39.

Anyone got a bead on finding an appropriate 1:6 scale M39 pistol?

 

[bigbisont]

Anyone got a bead on finding an appropriate 1:6 scale M39 pistol?

Try looking for a MK22 "Hush puppy". That is a model 39 that was fitted out with a silencer and stock used by seals in Vietnam, so a couple Vietnam figures came with them. Dragon, 21C toys (Ultimate soldier) and Hot Toys all did 1/6th 'hush puppies' at some point. There may be others.

The pistol's sights are all wrong (Vaz had a 1st generation one with the 'lollypop' sight) and the grip needs to be altered. You would need to modify/cut down the sights as best you can and fill-in/paint the grip (to look like a smooth ivory grip), but that would be your best bet as a starting point.

 

[asgardianboy]

Hi you guys.
Any recommendations for headsculpts for Drake, Bishop, Vasquez and Newt? (no customs, but off-the-shelf, readily available, mass-produced, not-so-expensive head sculpts)
Any tip as to where I can buy a 1/6 version of Vasquez' bandana?
Thanks,
m.

 

[asgardianboy]

While we are at it, can you also provide your recommendations for headsculpts for Hudson, Spunkmeyer, Hicks, Apone, Frost and Apone? Please avoid expensive, custom options. Just look-alike,
Thanks again!
m.

 

[hammer-nb]

Any tip as to where I can buy a 1/6 version of Vasquez' bandana?

Yay! Something I can help with.

Corrose on the forums here does bandannas -[Sales thread here].
I bought one of his bandannas and managed to pick up a spare HT Vasquez head off of eBay some time ago, with the intent of dremelling off the plastic bandanna and replacing with Corrose's fabric-y one.

However, I've since bought HT Platoon Chris Taylor head which has a much nicer fabric bandanna, and pre-rolled too. Still yet to actually do the cutting, but hopefully will make some time in the next month.



P.s. cheers for the info re the M39 vs MK22 bigbisont!

 

[olbertfrog]

I had an Apone for years wanted to turn him into a Hicks but i finally sold him recently.
This thread got me drooling over the years.
Really great custom works guys.

I kept my drake , head repainted by elvis1976.
Any tutorial to What needs to be modified?

I doubt they would redo smartgunners but i hot toys Will finally move their asses and do some marines.
They clearly have the licence, hope they get the likenesses for at least Hicks and Hudson.

 

[slikkerias]

Yes, there's a lot of modding to do and the sculpts and paint are off, but I still really appreciate the old Hot Toys figures. So many of the pieces, they would now do in cast plastic, were real fabrics and pleather. There's just something about them that I love.
As much as I'm sure I would need get the new versions, if they do eventually come, I would also feel sad for loosing the old ones...

...and yes, I still need to repaint Vasquez, do body swaps and so on.

 

[asgardianboy]

Thanks for the heads-up!!
Anyone else?
m.

Yay! Something I can help with.

Corrose on the forums here does bandannas -[Sales thread here].
I bought one of his bandannas and managed to pick up a spare HT Vasquez head off of eBay some time ago, with the intent of dremelling off the plastic bandanna and replacing with Corrose's fabric-y one.

However, I've since bought HT Platoon Chris Taylor head which has a much nicer fabric bandanna, and pre-rolled too. Still yet to actually do the cutting, but hopefully will make some time in the next month.



P.s. cheers for the info re the M39 vs MK22 bigbisont!

 

[slikkerias]

Repainted and body swapped (to a better but far from perfect body) my Vasquez. Makes a world of difference!
...now I only need to get Apone and Hudson. Patience...

 

[Manannin]

What boots are on your Vas? I like the ones I have but they are a little big...

 

[slikkerias]

What boots are on your Vas? I like the ones I have but they are a little big...

Oh, these are stock. The ones she comes with.

 

[Manannin]

Oh ok haha! Thanks! I don't remember them having real laces.

 

[P.]

Oh ok haha! Thanks! I don't remember them having real laces.

yep those were the times when hot toys made figures consisting of hundreds of parts, painted them with weathering and charged no more than $150.
now they mass produce them, mold entire parts as one piece of plastic, paint them with one cheap layer and charge $300.

 

[slikkerias]

yep those were the times when hot toys made figures consisting of hundreds of parts, painted them with weathering and charged no more than $150.
now they mass produce them, mold entire parts as one piece of plastic, paint them with one cheap layer and charge $300.

Yes, but they do have a very nice grayish tan now a days. Like the figures have been heating with coal... that's very expensive to produce, isn't it? ...also really makes up for lack of accessories.
...I was so pleasantly surprised about the value for money when I unboxed my Princess Leia a few months ago. Though the dress needs to be exchanged for an expensive custom dress I still got both nice boots and a fine head sculpt for my €240 ;-)

 

[P.]

i bet HT don't re-release marines because they are developing a new groundbreaking level of molding armor altogether with clothes. and bodies. and weapons. no more lost accessories/broken pegs!