Building your MARINES - CORRECTLY

[Rob]

S
Is that a Dragon with the 'rubber' arms or a complete muscular body like those Desert Ops guys?

It's a Dragon body with rubber arms . I think it came with their 'Russel' figure.

I wonder if the arm articulation is restricted because of the rubber...

 

[Jamal]

Thanks MML, yeah I did alot of modifications on this figure. The details are in this thread on page 49

https://sideshowcollectors.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21974&page=49

I've since swapped the stock body for an old Dragon muscle body with concealed joints. Looks nicer on this figure because he had his sleeves rolled up so high.

Dude.. i could swear Hicks is standing there, that is the DEFINITIVE HICKS

 

[Stendec]

Stendec, you da man! That body swap looks fantastic! Always improving on the seemingly unimprovable!

Is that a Dragon with the 'rubber' arms or a complete muscular body like those Desert Ops guys?

Thanks guys. I really need to move on from this figure though. This nude comes from a Dragon Russell figure and the rubber only conceals the arms, the rest of the body is just plastic.

Articulation in the arms is slighlty more restricted but I can still pose him in any action/gun firing pose I want so its cool. Also, because I used a new body and put cloth/leather boots on him, now I can articulate the ankle joint so I have him leaning to one side, crouched down in a cool action poise. With those solid plastic boots that come stock with the figure I wasnt able to pose him that way.

 

[JediMike71]

Great job Stendec! Where did you find a Dragon Russell body? Did you get it on eBay, or some other online retailer? I'm interested in getting one for my Hicks for those great looking "rubber" muscular arms. I am using a Hot Toys Kyle Reese body for my custom Hicks now. Please let me know where to find that Russell figure. Thanks!

 

[Stendec]

hey Mike, I bought the Dragon Russell figure off ebay back in December, do a search there.

I initially bidded on a loose nude but got into a bidding war with someone, then I found another auction which had the complete figure on a BIN price of $80, which is about $50 less than what the nude ended up going for The figure has lots of other stuff I can keep for other customs and gear I can sell on loose so it worked out great.

 

[Jamal]

If you threw that hicks up on ebay i swear youd get a ****LOAD

 

[drunk_leprechaun]

my mark drakes wrist joint broke off. cant seem to get it to stick back with glue either. so i took all his gear and put it on a bbi perfect female body lol.. oh well at least its a colonial marine..

any suggestions on how to get the broken piece of the wrist joint out of the muscle body? i cant get any grip on it to pull it out.. a i gonna have to drill it out? ( im as bad as a person can get wit a dremel tool)

 

[S-Ramos]

Yeah the best way to deal with that is to drill into the peg and pull it out. Also Im not sure if this has been mentioned but the DML fig Cheong comes with "skin sleeves" that cover the sholder down to the wrist.

 

[Mudshark]

Yeah the best way to deal with that is to drill into the peg and pull it out. Also Im not sure if this has been mentioned but the DML fig Cheong comes with "skin sleeves" that cover the sholder down to the wrist.

If you were to dig back through several thousands of posts, you would find the Cheong "arm sleeves" mentioned quite a few times. The thing is, most of us have used 'em for Vasquez! Hot Toys gave poor Vas some mighty skinny arms, so we decided to try to beef her up a bit, and Cheong's arm sleeves did the job quite nicely!

 

[PROWL]

hey guys, I think I've ID'd the eagle pin (?) that Hudson has on his baderlo (selling?).

It seems to be a modified WW2 era Luftwaffe badge with the swastca removed, wich is good news, with all the WW2 German figuers Dragon makes it shouldn't be to hard to find one.


heres a link to the Insignia page at Cotswold Collectibles:
https://www.gijoeelite.com/f_display.asp?strDisplayName=InsigniaBadges

 

[JediMike71]

If you were to dig back through several thousands of posts, you would find the Cheong "arm sleeves" mentioned quite a few times. The thing is, most of us have used 'em for Vasquez! Hot Toys gave poor Vas some mighty skinny arms, so we decided to try to beef her up a bit, and Cheong's arm sleeves did the job quite nicely!

Yep, I did that too! I have those Cheong arm sleeves on my Vasquez to "beef her up"! They work great!

Here she is with my Ripley, custom Bishop, Drake and Apone...

 

[drunk_leprechaun]

i came across some tiny bulbs a few days ago.. the kind in those 25 cent disposable lighters. had a brain fart to attempt to make a working shoulder lamp for my bash up uscm. and im surprised to say i did it.. now its nowhere near accurate as hurricanes. but ive managed to get it all done with out damaging the lamp and the only problem seems to be the wires are too thick.
right, enough babling here are the pics what do you think, **** or ..not bad?:

P.s ive sup[erglued the part with the bulb shut, but the main pack is still open.. just held close with some tape at the moment.. will see what else i can add tomorrow morning maybe.

 

[uscmhicks]

hey guys I'm new to this thread , and I have just ordered one of fm Les's awesome Hicks heads , I currently don't own a single marine!!!.
I can get one , its just I want to sort out Hicks first without paying a crazy amount for him. There is one on ebay at the minute but if it goes too high im dropping out and I'm gonna customize my own. I was wondering if one of you guys could do me a big favour and take some close ups of hicks armor and maybe just some of him , behind and front shots , it would really help in my custom as im thinking of buying a hudson and painting his armor over.
I would rather have my own custom Hicks really as I feel more attached to my figures if I have done something with them. Any help would be nice guys , thanks alot , Tay.

 

[Mudshark]

Welcome to the thread! I've got an unbuilt Hicks still in the box if you're looking for stock pics of his armour. I'm guessing you want an unweathered example for reference, right? I can try to get those up for you tomorrow or the next day. The HT figure only has the graffiti Hicks had on the front of his armour, (in the movie he had stuff on the back as well), but it should be enough to get you started.

Btw, the camo pattern is exactly the same on every marine's armour, so you could probably save yourself an awful lot of work by just carefully removing the graffiti from Hudson's armour and repainting it with Hicks'. There are a few people here who have already converted Hudson to Hicks, like JediMike71, who would have some good advice and tips for you, too.

If you're looking for a finished example, Stendec has an extremely screen-accurate version of Hicks that you may find some pics of if you sift back in the thread a ways. You definitely wouldn't go wrong using those as a guide.

 

[uscmhicks]

Cheers bud , those pics would really help me out. I found a few last night that have become helpful. How do the other guys manage to get the unique armor patterns off without taking some of the camo pattern off. If I use sand paper it will take all the paint off right ?. And then if I paint over it will look odd because its unlikely im gonna get the paint the exact same color therefore making me have to paint the whole thing again!.
Basically I'm wondering how I would go about taking the skull and writing off of Hudson's armor without taking any of the camo pattern off . Is it possible ?.
Thanks , Tay.
BTW sorry for all the questions!.

 

[Les Walker]

Hey, Tay, if you carefully go back through this thread, and that is very daunting, but if you do, there be treasures of info here!
Trust me! And reference pics galore! ALL HERE!
Take the time and go see.

 

[uscmhicks]

yep all day I have been flicking through this thread and I have found a lot of valuable stuff , thanks Les and mudshark for the replies , appreciated !.

 

[darkfaerytales]

hello, i did want to know a thing
surely someone before me has allready discuss this and complain it
but why HT hasn't made any dog tags for the colonial marines?
what the hell , they are marines! where's the tags?!!

it's shame and lame

where i can find some good tags to add to marines? thanks

 

[FACEBOX]

hello, i did want to know a thing
surely someone before me has allready discuss this and complain it
but why HT hasn't made any dog tags for the colonial marines?
what the hell , they are marines! where's the tags?!!

it's shame and lame

where i can find some good tags to add to marines? thanks

Hot Toys did make tags, just not for all of their figures. If I'm not mistaken...Vaz has them. (Metal)

Furthermore, the tags are supposed to me acrylic in order to be true to the movie.

If you're looking for just regular tags, check out Monkey Depot.
That's where I bought all mine from.

 

[darkfaerytales]

only vas?
1 up to 5
i don't know because i don't have her
for now i have only drake and hudson and apone are on the way
yes in the film the tags aren't made of metal, true
so what the hell do HT? drown in a sea of lazyness?