1:12 Load Bearing Vest

That guy with the hockey tape and paper towel is back again.

I dipped my toes into the 6" GI Joe line a little, grabbing a couple Cobra Troopers and Flint.
But it just got me wanting to see a more realistic, modern military type figure...so I ditched the Nerf guns and got to work.

I dusted off my paper towel and hockey tape, and got a bit crafty.




As usual, used paper towel lined with tape as my medium. I got some strips and then glued some grosgrain ribbon on to act as the MOLLE straps.
Then I salvaged some buckles from a 1:6 scale vest I had kicking around.

Some of the smaller pouches were just some wooden stir sticks cut down to size, covered in tape, painted and glued on.
If I wanted to get fancy I would've stashed magnets under the belt, and inside the pouches, to allow custom placement.
I didn't. But I could've.

I felt he needed a holster for his .45 as well, so whipped one of those up. The magazine pouches were stir sticks covered in tape, with a little ribbon to act as the pulls.


The holster I used magnets on, so it opens and closes and you can remove the .45 with no trouble.


His Duty Belt is just some grosgrain ribbon with a 1:6 buckle.



Here he is all kitted up.

I swapped his lower legs to legs from the Netflix Punisher figure, which had a more basic military look.
I also filled the holes for the joints before I repainted him in camo.

In this shot he's toting a Marvel Legends M4 which I repainted and made a strap for.

The helmet is from McFarlane Military, when dremelled out they fit 6" heads wonderfully. I made him a liner and popped it on his melon.
I made him some body armor, in black (black hockey tape because of course.)


He's got two helmet options, I kinda like the second pretty good. His M60 is also a McFarlane piece, I repainted it, articulated the carry handle, and made a sling for it.



His camelbak is from McFarlane, too, repainted and with grosgrain straps rigged up.

He's also got an M16A4, again from McFarlane...I also salvaged the hands off those old figures, but I forgot to grab pictures of the M16 and hands, I haven't had a chance to get some proper photos of him yet.

I may have been a little quiet here, but was definitely not idle.

Holy cow, that was awesome. You had me with the load bearing vest. Paper towel, hockey tape (check!), and all. Thanks for sharing it with us.

GubernatorFan wrote:Holy cow, that was awesome. You had me with the load bearing vest. Paper towel, hockey tape (check!), and all. Thanks for sharing it with us.

Thanks for checking it out! Gotta be consistent, eh?

I did, by the way, get myself a few rolls of different kinds of hockey tape. Just haven't done anything much with them yet (trying to make leather-like boots).

Oh cool! Definitely looking forward to seeing what you get up to with it.

For leather I highly recommend using a plain paper towel as a backer. The tape gives nice extra strength, and the paper when painted can give a nice leather like look.

Thank you for the advice. So the paper towel would be on the visible outside, the tape on the inside? (I was going to use tape glued to tape for the parts that were not supposed to stick onto anything.)

Basically, yes! Then you use the lined sheet as your starting sheet and cut out what you'd need, similar to using paper patterns for clothing making.

The holster pocket above is all one part. I cut it out, folded it over, trimmed the excess and glued it down. Then added some of the excess for the strap. When you fold the holster over the belt, it makes its own loop, then you tuck it into the strap and you're set.

For straps, I find 1/8" is a pretty perfect size, and I'd recommend a good straight edge and a good pair of scissors as well. And make them a little longer than you think necessary.

Thank you again, PickleMunkey. I'll see what happens and maybe one day it will be on show here.

Please do! I'd really look forward to seeing it!

This kind of stuff is always very inspiring and I just put some hockey tape into my shopping basket. I think it may be too thick for one of my plans, but it looks perfectly suitable for making boots and bags and the likes and I can't wait to give it a try! Perfect extension to my kinesiology tape experiment.

So thank you very much for documenting and sharing your progress!

Glad to be of service, Diana! It can be really versatile stuff, I think you'll enjoy it. I definitely look forward to seeing what you get up to with it Thanks for checking this out, too!