NEW PRODUCT: ace new product: Playgirl Series – U.S. Vietnam War "Play Company"

Yeah. I see the US vendors now have her. One day after I PO'd on onesixthkit. No biggie. As I shopped around on those sites, it's still cheaper to order from Kit as his price included shipping.

Received my final invoice from OSK on this figure, so she should be mailing soon. Looking forward to being able to put together my post-apocalyptic chick after she gets here (and once I have full use of my left arm -- which could be awhile). I've been gathering bits and pieces to make her for awhile now (my apologies to Reverend Spooky in advance -- I've stolen so many ideas from your great creations -- but never fear, my photography and posing skills suck, and I haven't gotten around to building cool dioramas to rival yours.)

Asta wrote:I was thinking that she could be made into a war photographer, like Catherine Leroy.

You motivated me to look up Ms. Leroy.  I found her life story to be fascinating, and I agree with you.  I think this figure could definitely be the base for a well-deserved tribute to Ms. Leroy.

As far as the shirt is concerned, pictures show her wearing what appear to be oversized OG-107 shirts.  It's possible, depending on the body used, that one of the old Ultimate Soldier shirts could be used with rolled sleeves for the figure.

I would probably buy the figure.

Yeah, I'd really like to get that uniform and gear in female sizes. I hope someone out there parts it out.

Stryker2011 wrote:Received my final invoice from OSK on this figure, so she should be mailing soon. Looking forward to being able to put together my post-apocalyptic chick after she gets here (and once I have full use of my left arm -- which could be awhile). I've been gathering bits and pieces to make her for awhile now (my apologies to Reverend Spooky in advance -- I've stolen so many ideas from your great creations -- but never fear, my photography and posing skills suck, and I haven't gotten around to building cool dioramas to rival yours.)

Steal away! If I do anything that inspires more great 1/6 work, then I'm happy (unless it's a company, who I just want to contact me and say "we want to give you lots of money to make House of Seasons and Radio Kings figures."). I'm even more excited to see your take on the wasteland now that I know you're using this head, which I love. I have no fear and only excitement to see what you're working on.

Received this figure today and I'm pretty impressed how close everything is to the promo shots.

Pleased to say that the sculpt hasn't lost any of its intensity.

I ditched the idea of making an historically correct figure because the mass of gear is just too good not to use on her. Over the years I've been building a collection of combat girls in green - VeryCool shooters, DAM Nachshol girls, SW Ourworld's Rebecca Chambers and even the elderly DML Amy (whom I couldn't bear to give up when I sold most of my Dragon figures).

I envisioned them as an Aliens female Colonial Marine unit, so I think the ACE fighter will fit right into that theme.

Dragon's US National Guard Amy has also served as a useful donor figure. Her long sleeve camouflage shirt went to one of the VeryCool girls to make her more 'decent'. And now her olive green T-shirt has gone to the Ace Playgirl to make her more decent as well!

I've spent hours working on this figure today.

On the face of it she's just a bit of over-sexualized fluff... yet, the equipment is so accurate in it's design, material and function that she's turning out to be one of the fiddliest figures I've ever tried assembling. Far more so than any DAM military or Kaustic Plastik Roman.

All but one of the ALICE belt equipment pouches attach using metal two part clips, as detailed in this assembly guide:

http://inrd.gotdns.com/alice/howto.htm




The suspender and ammo pouch straps are length adjusted by tiny metal clips that open to release the strap, and then snap shut to lock it in place. I was finally at the stage of putting the completed belt and harness onto the figure when one of those clips decided to fall apart.

I then spent an age putting it back together, careful not to drop the parts every time I failed as it was hard to locate the bits again.

I'm taking a breather now before finishing her, but she's looking really good.

Thanks for the info, Asta, this might come useful when I get mine.

Alice clips are fun at that size aren't they. I'm seeing a lot of swearing in my future.

There was much swearing!  

I've got her together, but not entirely as they intended. There are extra straps on the two ammo pouches that seem unnecessary since they're fastened to the belt by the ALICE clips, and secured to the suspenders by another strap. So I just let those extra straps hang down.

Threading the rifle sling correctly looked like a physical impossibility. The sling is supposed to pass through the buckle twice, as seen here:




But there was no way I could do that as the buckle is so tiny compared to the thickness of the sling.

The only thing I don't like about her is the silly cut-off shirt. Nevertheless I wanted to use it over the T-shirt as it covers her elbow joints, and the colour brings the uniform together. I'll eventually conceal the missing area of shirt by posing her rifle across it.













Meant to mention earlier that the ammo pouches are fiddly as they function (I'm guessing) like the real thing. One ring passes through another and the flap is secured by pushing the strap through the lower ring. It's fiddly trying to keep the lower ring upright.

Stryker2011 wrote:Alice clips are fun at that size aren't they. I'm seeing a lot of swearing in my future.

There are a lot of things that are just not that fun at that size. I have been working with some 1/6th scale Brit Pattern 37 webbing equipment by Dragon, and believe me, even though the Dragon stuff hooks up like the original and though I know how every bit of it works, having as I do, full-sized equivalents for my WWII reenacting, I am discovering that these things are much more tricky to rig in 1/6th scale.

It doesn't help that I have arthritis in one hand either.

ThePhotogsBlog wrote:

Stryker2011 wrote:Alice clips are fun at that size aren't they. I'm seeing a lot of swearing in my future.

There are a lot of things that are just not that fun at that size.  I have been working with some 1/6th scale Brit Pattern 37 webbing equipment by Dragon, and believe me, even though the Dragon stuff hooks up like the original and though I know how every bit of it works, having as I do, full-sized equivalents for my WWII reenacting, I am discovering that these things are much more tricky to rig in 1/6th scale.  

It doesn't help that I have arthritis in one hand either.

Im with you. Arthritis is killing my fingers, which is really one of the reasons I never got in to too many military figures. I switched all the real Alice clips I have on my 1:1 gear for carabiners. Much easier to work with.might have to try to find workng 1/6 carabiners.

Asta, she looks like a great addition to an already great collection.

Yes, she does. That’s quite the group of military ladies. Nice job on all of them.

GubernatorFan wrote:Asta, she looks like a great addition to an already great collection.

Agreed. That is an awesome collection.

Thanks, all.

It's the tip of the iceberg since sixth scale is my obsession!

Looking at the 'Play Company' girl this morning with fresh eyes, she's just as impressive. Looks great from head to toe.

Thankfully the next one, 'Peace Company', ought to be a bit easier as she doesn't have the harness to adjust and futz, and the flak jacket is a good start to concealing her partial shirt.

Asta wrote:Thankfully the next one, 'Peace Company', ought to be a bit easier as she doesn't have the harness to adjust and futz...

You say that now. Wait till you get her in-hand.

Stryker2011 wrote:

Asta wrote:Thankfully the next one, 'Peace Company', ought to be a bit easier as she doesn't have the harness to adjust and futz...

You say that now. Wait till you get her in-hand.

No, I really am sure she'll be easier... lol

The harness made everything so much harder on this one. First working out how much to adjust the strap lengths; actually adjusting the straps, during which one of the tiny gripping clips fell apart; struggling to put it back together; then attaching the tiny harness hooks to the belt, and the ammo straps to the harness.

It was one of those jobs where three hands would come in handy as I was trying to support the belt and the attached equipment in case they became unattached. It was a miracle that nothing did fall off, because the pointed ends of the ALICE clips are minute and it seems it wouldn't take much to pull them out.

One note on those metal ALICE clips. A couple of them were slightly rusty so I hope that doesn't cause any issues further down the line.