Building your MARINES - CORRECTLY

[Mudshark]

Thanks very much bro! That's the highest compliment I can get!!

Painting the graffiti was a challenge, but easier than the name- Trying to do that USCM font by hand was a bee-atch! Over and over...painting out slight bulges in the lettering, trying to get straight lines..

I agree, the stock HT camo is nice looking, it's just not accurate. I know what you mean...do I re-do my HT set of Marines with MAA bdu's and repaing alllll the armor?? We'll see how I feel after I do up my own custom squad of 5 Marines!!

I can easily imagine how much of a pain it had to be trying to hand paint those tiny stenciled letters onto the armor with a reasonable degree of accuracy. The compliments were well deserved!

I've been thinking of printing out the 1:6 scaled down stencil font onto frisket paper and cutting out the stenciled letters by hand, but even that could become a lesson in frustration if not done with surgical precision... so it may be more trouble than it's worth.

Another reason I've refrained from repainting any HT armor is the thought of having to repaint all the markings and graffiti... Hudson's armor alone would be a fair amount of work. But if there were some well made SA sets of decals available to make that part of the job easier, I'd sure feel much better about tackling a whole squad of Marines for a mass armor repaint.

I think the water slide decal solution is the only way to go, in fact I hit the rack the other night dreaming about having complete armor decal sets, custom made for each individual Marine. I used to do that kind of photo silkscreen work years ago, so I can see it happening with the right setup and materials for the job. I wish I were still in a position now to do it myself, but maybe there's somebody around here who would be willing to make it happen...?

 

[DutchAzlon]

Back in the day when I picked up some Cool Girls and Cy Girls there was someone making 1/6 decal tattoos that would work for custom armor graffiti.

I remember they were pretty cool look on eBay thats where I saw them for sale.

I can easily imagine how much of a pain it had to be trying to hand paint those tiny stenciled letters onto the armor with a reasonable degree of accuracy. The compliments were well deserved!

I've been thinking of printing out the 1:6 scaled down stencil font onto frisket paper and cutting out the stenciled letters by hand, but even that could become a lesson in frustration if not done with surgical precision... so it may be more trouble than it's worth.

Another reason I've refrained from repainting any HT armor is the thought of having to repaint all the markings and graffiti... Hudson's armor alone would be a fair amount of work. But if there were some well made SA sets of decals available to make that part of the job easier, I'd sure feel much better about tackling a whole squad of Marines for a mass armor repaint.

I think the water slide decal solution is the only way to go, in fact I hit the rack the other night dreaming about having complete armor decal sets, custom made for each individual Marine. I used to do that kind of photo silkscreen work years ago, so I can see it happening with the right setup and materials for the job. I wish I were still in a position now to do it myself, but maybe there's somebody around here who would be willing to make it happen...?

 

[aenima_dead]

these are my customized marines, I also have a drake and ripley but I haven't done anything to them yet.

I repainted Vazquez's smartgun armor because it didn't look right green and if you tried to display her with drake it just looked completely off. At the moment she's using a Sheva body and the boots that came with Hudson.

I'm using Cheong arm sleeves for Hudson since I think Vaz looks fine right now and the headsculpt is just a Tom Hanks+ sharpied goatee,lol.

I'm getting a xenoviper headsculpt and a comedian body for my Hicks so he's almost done

 

[Hollis DZC]

Mudshark, you are tooo right! Repainting all the Marines graffitii would be SUCH a challenge!!

The buddy of mine that's doing the decals for me, he needs stuff to fill up the page, I'll ask him about re-doing alllll the Marines and see what he says.

I'm also trying to figure out what I'm going to do for pouches for the other 3 Marines. Probably try and make some up, they don't look too intricant. Have two loose quilted holsters, so two of the Marines will have sidearms!! Got to figure out what to do for the 3rd guy.

DutchAzlon, I got some from a guy who used to frequent OSW- worked out great for my Francis from Left 4 Dead. That would be perfect if he still was into them!!

aenima_dead, nice job customizing your Marines!

 

[dano669]

Hey Dano, your Bishop looks superb. What head sculpt is it? Do you have any plans to do a severed Bishop?[/QUOTE

Im pretty sure its ada chan.Got it for $30 off ebay with body.I was going to use the frank black but he just looked too old for bishop IMO.
I bought another ripley for the shoes and bag.I didnt cut them down like the movie though,left them high top.I got the jumps suit off ebay for like 2 bucks,customized the collar to make it more accurate.I also picked the sleeve pockets off it as well as there is none in the movie version.I cut the sleeves a little so they look a bit better rolled up and painted them light blue like the movie and added a belt and patch.

View attachment 25141 View attachment 25142

 

[dano669]

I can easily imagine how much of a pain it had to be trying to hand paint those tiny stenciled letters onto the armor with a reasonable degree of accuracy. The compliments were well deserved!

I've been thinking of printing out the 1:6 scaled down stencil font onto frisket paper and cutting out the stenciled letters by hand, but even that could become a lesson in frustration if not done with surgical precision... so it may be more trouble than it's worth.

Another reason I've refrained from repainting any HT armor is the thought of having to repaint all the markings and graffiti... Hudson's armor alone would be a fair amount of work. But if there were some well made SA sets of decals available to make that part of the job easier, I'd sure feel much better about tackling a whole squad of Marines for a mass armor repaint.

I think the water slide decal solution is the only way to go, in fact I hit the rack the other night dreaming about having complete armor decal sets, custom made for each individual Marine. I used to do that kind of photo silkscreen work years ago, so I can see it happening with the right setup and materials for the job. I wish I were still in a position now to do it myself, but maybe there's somebody around here who would be willing to make it happen...?

It can be done........but was very frustrating
View attachment 25143

 

[Mudshark]

Impressive work everybody! It's great to see so much renewed interest in these figures and all the effort everyone's putting into them. Makes me want to get off my duff and get back to work on my own Marines!

I'm still working on a couple of HT Preds at the moment, but as soon as I get those new BDUs from MAA, I guarantee my squad of CMs will be getting some long overdue attention.

Btw, I'm thinking of going through my Aliens data file and making a comprehensive list of the armor markings and personal graffiti for each Marine, as a guide for what sort of decals a complete USCM squad set might include. Could at least serve as a starting point.

And if I miss anything, please feel free to chime in. Afterwards, maybe Wor-Gar will update the original reference list on the first page of the thread for us.

 

[DutchAzlon]

It can be done........but was very frustrating
View attachment 25143

Very nice!

 

[Hollis DZC]

It can be done........but was very frustrating
View attachment 25143

I bet it was!!!!!!!

Mudshark! Awesome idea bro, awesome!!

 

[Dinosoar Daz]

That's a great looking squad, aenima_dead.

Thanks for the Bishop recipe Dano It's inspired me to give it a go. And your Hudson chest plate is awesome.

 

[THE IMMOBILIZER]

Two friends of mine

H2O HUDSON & APONE Painted by Space-jockey
Still need to do some more painting.

 

[THE IMMOBILIZER]

This = a Cool picure

What can i say am far from dun, realy need to take some time to do some more seen on screen camo like the APONE helmet.
Realy like that helmet. could not help myself last weekend and did some midnight painting on hicks, did not like the result, have to get back to using daylight.
Still waiting on the prothotype shoulder lamp from hurricane, gonna leeve those HT BDU,s like they are so i can sell them more easy once i get the BDU,s from MAA.

 

[Hollis DZC]

Now, those are three bad ass Marines!!! Great, great job!!! Can't wait to see how they look with MAA's bdu's!!! What a difference from the factory figures!!

 

[Dinosoar Daz]

"Another glorious day in the Corps" Great work D-Chaos. I have that head sculpt too but no Apone armor

 

[aenima_dead]

nice!! You even have the Hacking tool placed accurately on Hudsons webbing

 

[Mudshark]

Two friends of mine

Hey, that dude on the right looks just like this guy's twin brother, "Meathead Marvin"!

 

[Pass Da Joint]

Is there a website other than eBay the sells Colonial Marine clothes,armor and gear?

 

[Dic07046139]

If you look in the sales part you might be lucky and find some people could be selling Aliens stuff, but other than that ebay seems to be the only other place.
A guy on the board is making 1/6 colonial marine clothing but from what he told me all the spaces were filled.

 

[aenima_dead]

Yeah and on Scifimilitary.com forum (idk if they still do it) there were a few people who made custom uscm parts in bulk and sold them to whoever wanted them. right now the only other websites are this and every once in a while monkeydepot.com has pulse rifles or accurate vietnam boots for sale.

 

[Pass Da Joint]

Cheers guys. I appreciate it.