Building your MARINES - CORRECTLY

[Spartan Rex]

Great work on the Bishop!
I wished HT had done one with a face hugger in a container

 

[JediMike71]

I'm not sure what head Les used for his Newt, but it looks great. Especially with the rooted hair. I'm all in for starting a thread for a commission for a better likeness of Carrie Henn as Newt in a 1/6 scale head. I could then just replace the head I have now (Anakin) with that better one. Maybe Les, or Josh would be up for making the Newt head...someday? I know from reading Les's thread recently he's VERY busy as usual...and now really sick. But I'd advise posting that Newt question in his thread about what head he used. Or maybe e-mailing him or sending him a PM about it. I'd like to know myself.

 

[Stendec]

"For what its worth" . . . here's Hicks, my first finished sixthscale project.



List of mods, hope its useful to someone.

Headswap: Spikey Haired Hicks by FML's . .amazing piece of work.

Headset: Scratchbuilt with plastic, wire, metal strips and modeling putty.

BDUs: Washed them numerous times then stained with thinned light grey paint to fade. Cut the arms above the elbow and rolled up the sleeves to the shoulders.

Armor weathering: Applied black washes with brush then dabbed down with a sponge. Then I painted silver scratches with a fine tipped brushes for contrast.

Body Armor: Drilled out "Born Again" hole. Painted kanji love symbol and "LIFER" on the back.

Groin Armor: Removed sardine key, filled in holes with milliput then painted/weathered over it.

Leg Armor: Swapped leg armor over so closure clips are on the outside. Inserted a black rubber material between the armor pieces on the outside.

Grenades: Flattened the rounded tip and painted it red. Added a thin strip of white electrical tape.

Knife: Cut the length of a black gerber knife, glued it to a sheath shaped piece of plastic and wrapped in electrical tape. Attached to left bandolier with a dabb of glue.

Lighter pouch: Made by wrapping a pattern cut from black material around a small rectangle of plastic. Keychain clasp made by bending paperclip wire.

Belt and Bandolier: Painted a Drake/Vas belt tool in Brown Bess and attached to the right hand side of the buckle.

Removed the uppermost grenade loop on both sides.

Attach only one utility pouch and removed pistol holster.

Welder hanging from left hip.

Arms: Replaced writsband with a strip of faded cotton material. Left arm needs tattoo ( the arms are being sent out to Les for repainting so not done yet)

Pulse Rifle: Removed sling padding. Painted ammo counter black, need to add red digits.

Heres some closeups of the details.



There are still some little details I need to finish, the helmet in particular but he is pretty much done now. Im really pleased with how he turned out, especially since its my first finshed sixthscale figure. However, without becoming a member here I probably wouldnt have even attempted this and Im really thankful for the encouragement and all the information and advice you guys have shared, particularly in this great thread . Big thanks to Les in particular for his spectacular headsculpt.

 

[tigerfeet]

great breakdown of stuff there stendec, I have just recieved my first batch of Marines to build and like you will probably do some customisation of them to get them true to the film.

The knowledge on these forums is fantastic and really motivates me to do what I can, can't wait till they are all done some I can post pics.

 

[icruise]

Very very impressive Hicks there, Stendec!

 

[JediMike71]

WOW Stendec! I'm VERY impressed! Your Hicks has to be one of the very best custom ones I've ever seen! I'd love to get one of Les Walker's incredible "spikey haired" Hicks heads someday! My "Stoner" head works for me...okay...but is nothing even close to the excellent head Les has done!

I love all of the detailing, and the wear on the armor. That graphic on the back is great too. I gotta work on my "LIFER" word on the back of my Hicks's armor.

Keep up the outstanding work Stendec! I'm working hard down here to eventually have the entire group of marines done someday.

 

[pjam]

Amazing, Stendec.. that has to be the Ultimate Hicks. Congrats Bro.

 

[Jamal]

In my opinion, thats the ULTIMATE Hicks dude

 

[Stendec]

Thanks for the kind words guys, I really appreciate your feedback P . .wow, thanks bro, that means alot coming from the guy with the best Aliens collection out there. It was seeing your awesome customised figures that inspired me to do the same. Wor-Gar, JediMike and Mudshark have all been a huge help too, thanks guys.

 

[Mudshark]

Now that's what I'm talking about! Way to go, Stendec! That's got to be just about the best Hicks ever!!! You've definitely set the bar extremely high for the rest of us now... it's gonna be tough even to match the job you've done, man! All those little details really make the figure undeniably Hicks. Excellent job fitting "LIFER" in between the brackets...I knew you could do it! Btw, what did you end up doing to solve the problems with the headset?

Congrats on completing your first sixth scale project with flying colors!!! Go ahead and post all the pics you want, I don't think anyone here minds at all!

 

[Jamal]

Thanks for the kind words guys, I really appreciate your feedback P . .wow, thanks bro, that means alot coming from the guy with the best Aliens collection out there. It was seeing your awesome customised figures that inspired me to do the same. Wor-Gar, JediMike and Mudshark have all been a huge help too, thanks guys.

Ok, heres one last pic. I wont post anymore I promise Im just stoked by this figure

<a href="https://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="https://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s217/eifion_evans/hicks_gorau.jpg" border="0" alt="Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket"></a>

DUDE post AS MANY as you WANT. Whoever gets tired of seeing that LEET armor detail has problems lol, hiding those joints somehow would awesome

 

[Stendec]

Thanks Jamal. I made this image in photoshop a while back long before I finished modifying the figure so I'l do another sometime now that its finshed, hopefully with an Aliens Warrior in shot too.

About the arms, yeah I totally agree. I have been thinking it would be cool to get a rubber body with concealed joints. There is one made by Dragon which is a suitable build for Hicks but they are scarce. I saw one on ebay months ago but it went for way too much in the end.

 

[Mudshark]

Would that have been the USMC M60 machine gunner "Russell" (with Russell Crowe head sculpt) from their Vietnam series by any chance? I remember that one had the rubber arms (not arm sleeves). They went pretty quick way back when, so it's not hard to imagine they'd be pricey now. I really hope HT makes a new muscular figure body with much improved articulation before long so we can upgrade the ones we already have. There are other options out there, though.

 

[Stendec]

I've forgotten the name of the body but yeah I do think it had a Crowe-esque headsculpt with it. The build in the arms looked perfect for Hicks. The current HT muscular body (like Drakes) is too ripped to look right on Hicks.

 

[Mudshark]

I think "Russell" probably is the one. Dragon did experiment with some small variations on their regular bodies for a couple of figures, Russell was one of those. He was wearing a flak jacket (ala Drake) so they gave him the rubber arms to make him look more natural. I believe they were less beefy-looking than the Hot Toys body, and would probably work well for all of the marines who were sleeveless... even Vasquez! I don't recall how good the articulation was, but it don't think it was any better or worse than HT's body.

 

[Jamal]

I wish HT would do a better job on concealing joints in the future, you cant really notice much with the predators but they stick out like sore thumbs on human toys

 

[Mudshark]

If collectors like us keep letting them know what we want, they're bound to do something about it sooner or later... hopefully sooner. Much sooner.

 

[Stendec]

Im going to try sourcing a RUSSELL body for Hicks and see how it looks. What I love about sixthscale customising is how easy it is to add and change things without them being irreversable.

It would be great to see some new bodied developed by Hot Toys, though the exposed joints arent an issue with the majority of human fgures since they are hidden beneath clothing anyway.

 

[icruise]

Here are a few shots of my work-in-progress Bishop. It's just a Sideshow Frank Black figure repainted and with resculpted hair. I don't really have any accessories at the moment, and of course his boots are all wrong. They're just placeholders while I look for something better. It's a little tricky to capture the skin tone I used in pictures -- it either looks too pale or too pink, but in person the likeness is very good.

 

[tigerfeet]

working on my Bishop at the moment, boots are the hardest to source...ideally cut off ripley boots but ho hum still waiting for the day for some to go up for sale.

I have a few projects on the drawing board at the moment, first attempt at customising so will start off with smaller characters then onto the big boys !