1/6 QORANGE QOTOYS QOM-1032 American Civil War 7th Iowa Volunteer Regiment in Charlotte (1862)

[redxavier]

After the initial surprise (and a bit of disgust), I kind of like the head sculpt. It's not often that we get these kinds of expressive faces.
But I think the reality is that we want heroic and stoic characters on our shelves, and this seems a bit too ugly and real.

 

[Asta]

That sculpt is a... choice. Not really my interest, although the Civil War is a deep well if they made their way to a Fire Zouave uniform that'd be hard to resist

It's still getting roasted on BBICN.

The last two comments:

This head sculpture is completely unqualified, and it makes people feel fear and disgust.

Don't the manufacturers think it's funny?

It might not look so bad in hand, like DID's yelling Feldgendarme, but it's still very scene specific.

I have back up sculpts ready. I needed two for the Confederates and two for the Federals. It was a time when almost anything went regarding facial hair in the military, so it's not hard settling on replacement heads.

Photos from the time show clean shaven; beards from short to very long; big moustaches; pencil moustaches; goatees. The only real limitation was that Union soldiers weren't meant to have their beards too long.

 

[Asta]

The figures put me in mind to assemble a watch list, which I've started working though chronologically.

Vera Cruz (1954) - a tenuous Civil War link but Qorange's Napoleonic and ACW series reminded there was a western set in Mexico that had armoured lancers in it. It didn't take long to track it down to the Austrian Imperial Uhlans in Vera Cruz.

Major Dundee (1965)- another tenuous one and an odd movie as well, also with lancers in Mexico, though this time French.

The rest are more on point:

Glory (1989)

Gettysburg (1993)

Ride with the Devil (1999)

Gods and General (2003)

Cold Mountain (2003)


I'm just beginning Gettysburg.

When I've finished I'll watch Ken Burns' nine part The Civil War (1990). Never seen it before, but his Vietnam series was excellent.

 

[Mondragon]

the Civil War is a deep well if they made their way to ...

Not as celebrated, yet It'd be great to see some Navy specific figures- Command and crew
Particularly a figure of David Farragut, flag officer of the United States Navy during the American Civil War.
Son of a Spanish merchant captain from the Mediterranean island of Mallorca father, and a North Carolina Scotch-Irish American mother.
The first rear admiral, vice admiral, and admiral in the United States Navy.
Remembered for his order at the Battle of Mobile Bay- paraphrased as "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!"

+ a couple of surly crew members.

 

[Asta]

My Iowa and Texas sets are on the way.

There's an unboxing of Iowa on BBICN: https://bbs.bbicn.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=399879&extra=page=1

It's no wonder they changed the sculpt! That was my plan too from day one.

Their only words are garbled through translation, so make of them what you will:

See the whole box of Qingcheng again. Compared with the last volunteer, the body of this head sculpt has been improved a lot, especially the body, the joints are tight. Simply put together a casual jacket look...replaced the head sculpt with a plain body~

After the sculpt shocker, it gets better...

 

[hoodonit00]

Did it come with two sculpts or they switched the one out?

 

[Asta]

Did it come with two sculpts or they switched the one out?

It only comes with one head.

 

[hoodonit00]

It only comes with one head.

The non screaming one?

 

[Asta]

The non screaming one?

The screaming one, unfortunately.


Their choice of replacement sent me looking at the history of black regiments in Iowa during the Civil War. Since there was segregation I don't think there could be a black soldier in the 7th Iowa Infantry Regiment.

(There was a 1st Iowa Colored Infantry Regiment, which was redesignated the 60th United States Colored Infantry Regiment in 1864).

 

[JacktheRipper]

Is that an Endwalker/Washington sculpt?

 

[Asta]

Is that an Endwalker/Washington sculpt?

They answered the question:

Book of Avery set from early smc

i.e. Book of Eli. I I don't know what the 's' is in 'smc', but it looks like the Magic Cube version.


Edit:

Just saw in my own list of figures that Magic Cube is also known as SuperMC.

 

[Asta]

The greatcoat cape is wired, which is useful.


And that vile sculpt in all its glory...

As with Texan Vincent van Gogh it does look better in hand. The painting is actually really good, not shiny as it appears under the flash, except for his tongue and upper gum.

Looking closer I think the sculpt is all right. They didn't just carve an open mouth onto a passive head, but narrowed his eyes, added tension furrows and an indentation on his right temple. It would work with the right pose, but it's very specific.

 

[Asta]

The Union kepis are a tighter fit than the Confederate ones. It was almost impossible at first to get it onto the Facepool Stauffenberg Tom Cruise sculpt, but a little easier with the DAM SR-71 Tommy Lee Jones.

There's also no way to keep them crushed. They'd either need gluing down, or stitched from inside if that's possible.

The sack coat has overly long sleeves, even on the stock body, whereas the shell coat is perfect. I'll try the spare one on some different bodies to see if there's a better option.

 

[Asta]

I tried the spare sack coat on an older DID body and it would've suited the sleeve length better, but then I'd have to mess about carving neck pegs to fit any of my preferred sculpts. So I left him on the Qorange body. I did swap the sculpt for a smaller one so the kepi wouldn't have to be forced over Tom Cruise's fat noggin.

I need to change a hand on each of them, but that's no easy task. A peg broke off inside on one of the Texan's hands, and that was after the hand had been dunked in boiling water! Fashioning a new wrist joint wasn't simple either because the peg that goes into the arm is much skinnier than normal.

The hands themselves are also very rigid, meaning it takes a lot of effort to pry the fingers open to grip the rifle at any wider point.

 

[Asta]

I used a dab of glue on the front of the kepis to secure them with crown inclined forwards.

While reposing the Union First Sergeant the nightmare scenario from the Texan occurred. His right elbow joint pulled out of the upper arm socket, and I couldn't reattach it through his uniform.

The gear removes easily, but I had to go through the process of adding a lot of heat to the hand to safely remove it - with a hairdryer this time so as not to make his jacket and shirt wet - then undo all the buttons.

During reassembly, as I was just about to fasten his belt, it happened again.

The same arm pulled out at the elbow, but luckily it was still aligned so I could push it back through the jacket and shirt.

 

[hoodonit00]

Your Civil War figures are great. What a horrible idea it was for a company to release a yelling sculpt like that. Either release two sculpts or a neutral sculpt.

 

[Asta]

Your Civil War figures are great.

Thanks.

They worked out all right .

What a horrible idea it was for a company to release a yelling sculpt like that. Either release two sculpts or a neutral sculpt.

And I have two of them.

DID did it with their Feldgendarme. I bought two of them as well, though the expression wasn't quite as extreme as this one. That one looked okay for shouting orders, or "Alarm!"

I pulled the toque over the face of the second to make him usable:

I tested putting a scarf around Qorange's sculpt and it does the trick, so they may not go to waste.

 

[hoodonit00]

G

Thanks.

They worked out all right .



And I have two of them.

DID did it with their Feldgendarme. I bought two of them as well, though the expression wasn't quite as extreme as this one. That one looked okay for shouting orders, or "Alarm!"

View attachment 685682

I pulled the toque over the face of the second to make him usable:

View attachment 685683


I tested putting a scarf around Qorange's sculpt and it does the trick, so they may not go to waste.

The yelling sculpt is fitting for the German though.

 

[Asta]

With DID starting their own line I've been looking again at my QOrange figures.

The idea of the Indian Wars during the Civil War and after is more appealing to me than the Civil War itself.

DID's upcoming Lt. Dunbar is cavalry, and it's the cavalry who get the fame and the movies concerning the frontier wars. QOrange's figure is infantry.

Osprey's US Infantry in the Indian Wars 1865-91 begins by recounting Crazy Horse calling the US infantry, "Walk-a-Heaps", because they marched into battle carrying everything they needed on campaign. While the Native Americans hated the US cavalry in the wars of 1865-1891, they learned to respect the infantry.


I've never been completely happy with the QOrange Union pair, due to the overly long sack coat sleeves, difficulties associated with posing such a long rifle, and the quality of the bodies themselves.

The bicep plates aren't all securely glued and have a tendency to come apart, which then releases the elbow joint. Remedying that means unbuttoning the coat, pulling the braces down and taking the head and shirt off. I've had to do it several times.

The elbows can also simply pull out of the biceps while the latter is still intact, and are hard to impossible to push back in without having to go through the whole procedure of undressing the figure.

Yesterday I decided to swap the body for the one wearing the sack coat to one with longer arms (Ujindou UD9028 Wiking). I also changed the sculpt to DID's Reznov, which had a shorter neck:

One of the bodies I looked at using was from Alert Line, and as I compared it to QOrange's I realized it was identical. So either QOrange is Alert Line; they use the same third party body, or they recast Alert Line's. The latter seems likely considering I've never had an Alert Line repeatedly fall apart on me.


I kept the First Sergeant on the original body, but took the precaution of wrapping the biceps with electrical tape to dissuade them from coming apart. There's still the danger of the elbows pulling out, so posing is a delicate matter. I went with a fairly safe action pose - the act of loading.

 

[Remembermyname]

Hate the head sculpt, love the uniform and gear.
I mean it's expressive, but those horse teeth!?

Bite me.

Yes that expression could become teething.