Tuesday, July 27, 2010

1:6 Stuff for Kitbashing OR just some of my stash :)

According to Wikipedia, kitbashing or model bashing is a practice whereby a new scale model is created by taking pieces out of commercial kits. These pieces may be added to a custom project or to another kit. For the hobbyist, kitbashing saves time that would be spent scratch building an entire model. Hobbyists may kitbash to create a model of a subject (real or imaginary) for which there is not a commercial kit.

I think for many of us 1:6 military figure collectors, we would have kitbashed at least one figure or more because we want to upgrade the figure we have or customize a figure we would like to see but is unavailable in the market. This happens especially when a new collector comes into the market and finds that military figures of a particular era (e.g. Vietnam War figures) have ceased production and the older ones are no longer available. Dragon had released quite a number of SDU figures in the past with Hot Toys following suit but since then, if you want an SDU figure, you might have to resort to kitbashing one yourself from parts available. It's most easy to kitbash PMCs (Private Military Contractors) because they don't have uniforms nor standard gear.


So what do you need for kitbashing?

For a start, you will need a 1:6 nude figure


You might also want to get different heads i.e. 1:6 head sculpts for your bash unless you are building a clone army then they can all look the same. Back in the day, G.I. JOE and Action Man all had the same head sculpt. Then they tried to differentiate them by changing the color of their hair and eyes but they all still had their trademark scar on their faces.


Next on the list, the particular type of uniform or outfit for the 12-inch figure


And when you have amassed as much stuff as I have over the years, one luggage (that's 1:1 scale) won't be enough for all your clothes LOL


If you want the figure to be a military type figure of a particular country or era, besides the outfit or Battle Dress Uniform (BDU), you'll need the right helmet and boots to go along with it


Most importantly, every soldier needs a weapon; the more the merrier although in the real world, each weapon should have its sufficient load of ammunition to go into the ammo pouches, thus adding weight to the already heavy laden soldier so go easy on the poor fellow. Unless it's a video game character then they seem to be able to carry almost every weapon in the arsenal available to them plus an unending supply of ammunition and explosives AND they never tire ;p





Of course one should not forget the gear / loadout every soldier needs. 1:6 props can make for an interesting composition when it fits


18 comments:

Willy's Toys said...

I have that same GI JOE ammo box. =]]

Great post Alex.

Anonymous said...

Kitbashing creates funs for collectors and raises funds ($$$) for sellers of accessories. Sellers buy box sets and sell individual parts at a higher "piece" price for marginal profits. An entire kitbashing project from ideation, sourcing of parts, choice of body, matching of joints (neck), minor alterations (if necessary and practicable) to completion creates much higher satisfaction for the collector. The process is time-consuming but rewarding. It happened that some popular headsculpts like Tom Hanks, Jude Law and Ed Harris (recent releases from DID in box set) are rarely available as parts in the market. Sellers do not sell parts of expensive box sets like those from HT and Enterbay either because they can't make good profits due to the very expensive headsculpts. Anyway, the 1/6 sector is wonderful, be it in the seller side or customer side !

NaM said...

Hi Alex,

Man I have to say you have an impressive collection! And everything is ordered so neat!

I am about to kitbash myself, I just got the Obama truetype! That's my first hot toys figure too. Probably won't be an army kit though.
Anyway, I gotta say, you are the KING!

alex teo said...

thanks jon, the G.I. Joe ammo box / foot locker was one of those things I had to get when I first got into the hobby. I started collecting 1:6 Action Man and G.I.Joe figures before Dragon, 21st century, BBI, 3Zero and Hot Toys even came on the scene, let alone Soldier Story, DiD, Toys City and the rest of the followers :)

@ anon: AGREED ;> thanks for sharing

Hi NaM, after a while, I had to organize all my stuff so that I know where things are and what i have Ha! Ha! easier for bashing when required. thanks for the compliments but i must say that i am NOT the KING, Elvis IS! LOL

Shaun said...

That is one amazing archive/repository/library of parts to use for kitbashing, my Guru. Most inspirational!

alex teo said...

thanks Shaun ;) Wee Loong made me do it Ha! Ha!

ethan said...

Hi Alex,
I just love the amount of arsenals you have there.

Just curios, why don't you build a 1/6 walls and hang up all those weapons (just like in Hollywood movies, where with a flip of a button, a whole wall will turn and reveal the collection of guns..rifle..bazooka..etc).

I'd always wanted to do that, but getting the weapons alone is freaking expensive...getting 4 guns is almost equivalent to a full set of military figure :)

WL said...

Hahaha

@Alex - I was about to assume that I was the one who made the guru share his tips and treasury of his 1/6 depot.. You have more loose parts than most of the shops put together Alex... Will be kitbashing an SAF trooper.. got the number 4 uniform liao.. thinking of how to fabricate the insignia for the rank..

one more thing, I guess when u kitbash, you will have to settle for a less impressive HS? The nice ones will usually cost a bomb as the seller probably has to sacriface one good figure to sell off that HS...


@Ethan

I intend to do that wall thing when i have my own place.. in the meantime i will get a weapons rack..

Kenny said...

That's a lot of spares man!

Covenant said...

There are toy shops in Hong Kong with much less selection than you have in your leftover bins. It's time for you to open your own shop and start selling that stuff!

Why don't you kit-bash a Sonny Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs from Miami Vice and let's see how close you can get!

ethan said...

@WL,
Do you know where to get a good modern weapon racks?

PS: Can see most of those sold are wooden type for WWII weapons.

Little Plastic Man said...

Oh...you make me want to kit bash...

desmond said...

Wow bro!! I believe these are just some of the items you collected for so many years. There are some more, right??

WL said...

Hi Ethan,

unfortunately, almost all the weapon racks I see in the market are the wooden ones. While they may look old, modern weapons still look ok on them...

for these, you can try U-toys at CSC, I saw some on display and will be going over this sunday to enquire..I guess they are from the brand ZY toys

In any case, I dun really have an idea on how a modern weapon rack will look like (say for those we see in the SAF which dun really show the weapon well).

Therefore, I guess we are only left with kitbashing our own weapon racks.. ;)

cheers

WL

alex teo said...

Hi ethan and WL, GREAT minds think alike. I had the idea and even some of the racks (NOT the wooden ones - will share pictures one day) but am also running out of space already LOL

@ WL: U R right regarding HS. The more generic ones nobody wants and the good ones NOT enough to go around. That's why if I can, I usually get the boxed sets just so I can be sure that I'll land the HS I want

@ Kenny, Covenant & Desmond, these were amassed over the years of collecting (a bit at a time adds up to a quite lot!) and what you see is only the tip of the ice-berg ;p there're quite a bit more where these came from Ha! Ha!

@ Covenant, regarding the Sonny Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs from Miami Vice bash - haven't seen any good HS of either Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas (the original) OR Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx (the re-make) - any recommendations?

@ LPM (Adrian) - bash away & don't forget to share pictures :>

THANKS guys for all the comments & sharing your thoughts

"Viva 1:6!"

Covenant said...

As far as Sonny and Rico head-sculpts I have no idea. I thought that since you have zillion heads in a box you could dig something up that looks somewhat similar. As long as Sonny has a white suit and a teal shirt it would at least look the part. I made one of my Ryotsu figures a Sonny suit and he looks awesome.

As far as the Miami Vice Movie (Farell and Foxx) it was an abomination and should be burned from our collective memories.

Anonymous said...

Any plans on selling some of your loose 1/6 items on ebay? I mean, I feel its kinda wasted just being kept in boxes and not fully utilized.

alex teo said...

haha don't worry,it'll be utilized. it's just finding the time to do kitbashes in the midst of all this collecting and blogging CHEERS