Making your HT Pred 1 Perfect!

[dedguy]

I second that. According to what he does in the movie to remove the mask, there should even be another one on the other side of the mask too, but there doesn't seem to be any place for it to connect.

Nope just watched it. He only unplugs the three tubs at the temple and the one of the jaw, both on the left. Also noticed in addition to the thongs on his elbows which Hot Toys did do, he also has similar ones on his knees which they didn't I may add those myself.

 

[fawk3s]

Where did you get the third spring to connect the jaw to his shoulder/back, dedguy?

 

[dedguy]

As mentioned in my first post, I used leather cording for all four tubes.

 

[Darth Pikachu]

Thanks for being brave enough to try that mod first, Surfer! That's one mod I might actually attempt.

 

[SilentSurfer]

You're welcome. Had to be done. Wish I had had more patience to do it better, but at least all the improvable parts are hidden anyway.

Nope just watched it. He only unplugs the three tubs at the temple and the one of the jaw, both on the left.

First he undoes the targetting link. Then he undoes the tube that you added. He removes the cannon and medpack mounts and drops them in the water.

So what is it that he does after that with both hands and the back of the mask's jawline on either side that release air pressure just before he take the mask off?

Is he just breaking the air tight seal around his face with his claws before lifiting it off?

 

[fawk3s]

Yep, he just breaks the pressure and then the mask comes off nicely. If you watch AvP or AvP:R, the preds there dont do it, and the pressure breaks when they are actually taking the mask off. He just did it before.
Except, P2 mask didnt have the pressure at all lol.

 

[dedguy]

What fawk3s said.

 

[SilentSurfer]

Well that's just cool then. That's the kind of attention to character detail that made Stan Winston a genious. Glad we cleared that up.

 

[dedguy]

Here's hoping I see some camo pics from you sooner rather than later.

 

[SilentSurfer]

Should be a one night job. Maybe this week I can squeeze it in.

 

[Reinhardt]

good stuff surfer. look forward to seeing it.

 

[dedguy]

So... on the shin/knee armor what do you guys think is going on there? On the Cinemaquette the central dark band and the strap holding the knee pad on look the same. Both dark brown/black textured leather. I don't totally trust the Cinemaquette though as there's some obvious errors on it (like the forarm leather straps being on the bicepts, the pouch being totally wrong, or the spine being completly out of scale).

This is the best pic I could grab from the movie. I know that in actuality both pieces are just part of the foam rubber suit just painted to look like whatever but I think it would be cool to do a leather strap for the kneepad and if the center portion is supposed to look the same an inset piece of leather there as well.

 

[Alice]

Looks sorta like a piece of cloth wrapped around the knee, and then the kneepad put on with the leather strap. Maybe the cloth is there to prevent chafing from the leather strap, and that's what's hanging from his knees.

I always thought there was some sort of leather or some sort of elastic band in the center of the leg armour, and that cap kinda backs that theory. Both the kneepad straps and that area of the leg armour look to both be the same material, so I say go for it.
________
Justin Bieber

 

[SilentSurfer]

My guess is that the straps are there to look like his legs and forarms are wrapped up under the armor so that it isn't obvious that they were sculpted as one piece with the body. Kinda like the netting makes it look like the torso and leg armor is sitting over it. Guess that's another mod to do. Leg straps.

 

[dedguy]

Yeah the wrapping above the knee-pad strap is a leather thong like on the elbows (which I have already added) but I was more talking about the sort of tooled/padded looking area that looks like the strap holding the knee pad on. The HT figure has those black elastic straps.

 

[Alice]

Looks like a sort of cracked leather or some hide similar to what's holding P2's left bicep armour on.
________
Lovely Wendie99

 

[SilentSurfer]

Yeah the wrapping above the knee-pad strap is a leather thong like on the elbows (which I have already added) but I was more talking about the sort of tooled/padded looking area that looks like the strap holding the knee pad on. The HT figure has those black elastic straps.

That's actually what I thought you were talking about, but I thought they were also part of the hanging off stuff. Yeah, that padded looking stuff is also between the upper and lower halves of the lower leg armor around the sides and back. Just seems to be a flexible area of leather or something. The figure doesn't have it, but I wonder how hard it would be to make it.

You can see it in this pic of the maquette:

 

[dedguy]

The figure has a place for it... so I could either cut it out and glue the leather between the two halves or thing down that area and glue the leather over it. Could look really cool I think.

I'm loving the Pred as it's such a detailed character it's pretty great out of the box but there's so many fun little things you can do to make it better. Unlike Hellboy and Abe who are just about perfect and un-changeable (other than putting wires in Hellboy's coat). I love 1/6 because of the customizing aspect of it and the Predator is great for that.

 

[SilentSurfer]

Totally agree with that. It's especially great for me coming from the model kit hobby where I learned and developed all the skills I now use on 1/6 figures. Now, my models are totally posable.

 

[dedguy]

Excuse the poor photo quality. Didn't feel like setting up any lights so just took a few quick pics at my work desk where the Pred is currently hanging out with just the desk light on.

This is what my Pred currently looks like with the newly added leg straps. Still haven't figured out a good way of doing the knee/shin leather bits.

Detail, you can see how heavily weathered I did the straps. The elbow straps are weathered to match but I forgot to take some detailed pics of them. The leg straps are also shorter, as per the movie.

And what takes about a half an hour and most would think is a waste of time? That's right! Carefully masking off all the skin on the hands to dullcoat the gloves to give them a more leathery appearance. Going to do the rest of the hands as I'm very happy with how it turned out. It's a subtle change but one I really dig. Gives more contrast and thus more separation between the hand and the glove and thus more realism (imo).

New left, old right