Latest sculpts - Soldiers pulling maintenance

[JamesOLeary]

Something that has been lacking in the figure market in regards to Vietnam figures are figures pulling maintenance which is a daily activity in mechanized, armor, transportation and any other unit that has vehicles. I will be sculpting several sets of Soldiers conducting maintenance activities over the next year or so and this is my first set. The first figure is of a guy hunched over an engine compartment such as that of a M151 and has a wrench in his hand. This figure is wearing the stateside OG-107 fatigues and can be used for Vietnam, stateside, or anywhere from 1955 or so until the mid 1980s when BDUs replaced this uniform. When I took these photos, I had not yet added the stitching detail to the hot weather cap. There are slight gaps where the arms meet the torso which I had to do in order to make this figure ready for molding and casting. The arms are held on only with copper wire.

 

[JamesOLeary]

The second figure is of a Soldier adjusting the track tension of a M113 with a grease gun. This was a pretty difficult pose for me to pull off, and I hope it is convincing to represent a guy inserting the tip of the grease gun into the grease port on the torsion bar of the idler wheel. He is wearing jungle fatigues so he is pretty much meant for Vietnam. I want to capture the diversity of those who served in Vietnam, so I attempted to make this particular figure look Native American.

I just completed the sleeves this morning, so the putty is still curing. Once it is cured, I have some slight cleanup work to do on the figure and possibly thinning out the bulk of the sleeves before the set is ready to be sent off to be cast.

Hopefully armor modelers will find these figures useful.

Thanks for looking.

Cheers,
James

 

[Piet]

Looking GOOD !!
Dirty rag out of his back pocket ,Its all in the detail

 

[Iron Mike]

Very nice, James!

 

[moon puppy]

So you sculpt these masters whole but you cut them up for molding?

 

[JamesOLeary]

Thanks, Guys.

For production figures, I have to do the sculpting a bit different than I would if it were a one-off figure for one of my personal projects. For my personal projects, I would securely glue the copper wire armature for the arms into the torso blank, apply putty to form the shape of the arm, and then sculpt the sleeves. The transition from the torso to the arms would be more natural and seamless (no pun intended because I would be sculpting in the seam).

With the production figures, I sculpt the torso and insert the copper wire into holes in the torso to shape the arms, mark the spot where the arm enters the torso on the wire, and then separate it from the torso to shape the arm with putty so it doesn't permanently attach to the torso. After the arm has cured, I then place it back onto the torso to sculpt the clothing of the sleeves. Applying the putty is a bit more difficult than it would be with a permanently attached arm as the arm is not seated firmly and moves around a bit. It may be the reason why these sleeves seem a bit bulky because the movement that the arms make causes me to not be able to press down on the putty as I would it it were permanently attached. As the putty of the sleeves is curing, I run the knife blade along the seam to make sure it is not sticking to the torso and I move the arms a bit to ensure that they can still be removed once the putty is cured. I am sure there are ways to be able to sculpt the entire figure and then cut the arms off, but I do not know how to do so yet. The obstacle that I seem to have is the copper wire armature and cutting through that without leaving such a gap between the arm and the torso. If I could find a way to cut the arms from the torso and have it cut through the copper wire, I would much rather do that.

 

[Heavens Eagle]

You might try placing a thin smear of Vaseline on the torso surface where the arm goes. If nothing else the arm won't bond as solid and once set up a bit it should break loose much easier than it would otherwise. Then again your putty might react a bit. Could always use something else as a bond barrier, but you get the idea.

These figures are looking quite awesome James! Keep up the good work!

 

[JamesOLeary]

You might try placing a thin smear of Vaseline on the torso surface where the arm goes. If nothing else the arm won't bond as solid and once set up a bit it should break loose much easier than it would otherwise. Then again your putty might react a bit. Could always use something else as a bond barrier, but you get the idea.

These figures are looking quite awesome James! Keep up the good work!

View attachment 130223

When I got the figure of the guy adjusting track tension back, the arms were missing, so I used Vaseline between the torso surface and the arm like you suggested and it worked well. Thanks for the tip.

 

[JamesOLeary]

When it turned out that my figures were not going to get produced by the original company I had sent them to, I asked for my masters back and all I got back was the body of the guy adjusting track tension. The arms were missing and the person who was going to cast them claimed that he could not find the other mechanic figure. That kind of pisses me off. I resculpted the arms working the grease gun and sent him off to Jose from Custom Dioramics who will be producing this figure for other modelers to use in their armor dioramas. Here is what the casting looks like. I think it turned out pretty good. Soon I will be painting it for the box art.

 

[JamesOLeary]

Here are some photos that may be selected as box art for the figure. I decided to use a model and base that I built a couple of years ago for the background and to demonstrate the intended use of the figure. I think I may actually add this figure and a few others to this older model to create a better diorama with it.

 

[Iron Mike]

Nice!

 

[Piet]

Top !

 

[moon puppy]

The tones across his back are well done.

 

[Brokeneagle]

Very Nice James

 

[Rhino]

Smart mastering of the figure for assembly, like where the grease gun hand attaches to the arm at the watch band!
The details that go into the rest of the figure pay off when your Masters are cast.
It doesn't take a genius to make molds and pour castings. I don't mean to sound like the only Capitalist in the room. I should think your crisp, detailed figure masters should produce a pile of $$ from whomever markets them.
Bravo James!