Visisonor-induced visions

They looks great!

I do love seeing these figures in basics that still show the beautiful craftsmanship of the bodies. ^^
I used my T03 for Tifa and I miss having that body at the ready for reference, even though I never actually pulled her out of the cupboard, as I haven't been drawing. I will today! (No humans though. ^^)

This photo also really shows the value of these different body types. Initially I didn't care much for the T03, but it really serves to create different characters. (Love my T04, too!)

Nice job, and effective way of disguising those joints.

A quest for perfect sniper rifle


M24
As is evident from the epigraph, the idea to equip the VeryCool Catch Me figure with a sniper rifle came to me early on, in part because I didn't like the compact version of HK-416 bundled with her, and partly because my mental image of assassin implies long range assassinations.
So I gave her a noname ~$10 M24 from ebay, which IIRC was sent to me by mistake (I've ordered some other 1/12 scale weapon but decided to keep it). Pretty good accessory actually, which carried on for some time even with her new look new look


However, the M24 presented a problem: its classic rifle grip makes it hard to achieve good aiming poses. Plus it tends to stretch out the gripping hand (even though I've replaced stock VeryCool hands with more flexible TBL ones, it could still be an issue). So I turned my gaze to rifles with pistol grips, and the easiest to find was

SVD

It came from the same seller, and can in fact be from the Platts GUN-2 kit (requires some assembly but not as much as Little Armory).


No problem at all with aiming poses. Could use some paint but SVD can be all black in real life. So it works great as a figure accessory, I don't even mind the lack of removable parts. The only problem: the rifle itself is technically not a sniper rifle despite its name but rather a designated marksman rifle. These tend to be semi-automatic and have shorter effective range, while I envisioned my character to be a highly specialized sniper.
So the "quest" has pretty much started at this point, but more like a background process. I thought of using some version of M24 from Little Armory: more detailed than the noname one but still with rifle grip. I've also learned of Little Armory's take on its successor, XM-2010, but it was expensive and I had other options so I kept looking. The next candidate was more easily available.

Accuracy International AWM

This is a true sniper rifle with manual bolt action and designated range of up to 1.5km (and documented cases of much longer distance hits). In 1/12 scale it is represented by Little Armory model kit with some movable parts, interchangeable bipods and magazines, overally good example of precision engineering associated with their products.



The problem? Its grip is too wide. Even though it's not classic rifle grip, it's still hard to fit the hand around that thumbhole stock.
By that time I've started to regret putting the pursuit of XM-2010 to backburner since it was sold out pretty much everywhere. The closest thing to fit my needs was a more recent release from Little Armory:

Mk 14 Enhanced Battle Rifle

TommyTec visited it twice, first with the base rifle in all black, then with Mod0 version with light-grey parts. The latter is still easy to find so I've got one.


All that I said about SVD applies here as well. In fact I've bought it out of desperation, just in case I'd need something like this later and to have another entry in my growing 1/12 arsenal. But by the time it arrived, I've already found what I was really looking for, but more on that after the interlude.

Fennec Shand's MK sniper rifle

This is an accessory of Black Series Fennec Shand figure. Since it's Star Wars, even blink-and-you-miss it details like this have appropriate names and descriptions in Wookiepedia.



I did not intend to use it permanently (Fennec needs her rifle after all). It is too sci-fi for Kate's setting. But it works scale-wise, and looks good.
Now, back to the winner

M2010 Enhanced Sniper Rifle

This is another modern true sniper rifle, but unlike AWM, it features a pistol grip. I've mentioned several times above that TommyTec made a model kit of it in Little Armory line. But it evaded me for probably a year.  I don't know why it was so hard to find - it's not that old, there are older model kits still available on the market. I've got it of a store in Malaysia (they are out of stock now too). After missing it out several times on ebay and trying to order it from another shop in Singapore where it was listed in stock but was in fact sold out.  



I could have posed the rifle better on the photo, but either way, it fits all my requirements. The quest is now complete.
But Little Armory line deserves more attention, I'll dedicate at least one more post to it later.

Very cool! the cloak is a nice addition.

Yes, the cloak gives her gravitas. Mk14 is my favorite.

Little Armory obsession

My most recent obsession: Little Armory weapons. I've been buying these model kits for three years already. At some point I've got a rack, also from Little Armory, to store them (though there are other guns on that rack - Platz, bundled figure accessories etc):


"You think we have enough guns now?"
Spoiler: they've got more since then.

But now (more like in December) I've started painting them.

This adds some realism as they can look bland unpainted. But on the other hand, this is only noticeable on non-black plastic such as wooden parts of this AK-47:


Or white details of Mk-14 from the post above.


What I was trying to achieve here is actually weathered look, black parts remained untouched. Similarly with XM25 grenade launcher - if it was black, it would probably look like straight out of factory, but in desert color scheme it looked like a toy (whether I succeeded in making it more realistic is debatable, but at least I like this look better):


I've also started experimenting with kits cast entirely in black plastic after seeing what can be done with them in this blog https://kusakusa.wordpress.com/category/model-kits/little-armory/
The idea is to include subtle differences, shades of gray in addition to black. My only result so far is M4 SOPMOD:


And finally, another M4 kit that lends itself particularly well to black wash due to being in desert colors.

It also comes with many extra details left on the runners from older M4 kits, and accessories between different M4 kits are interchangeable so customization possibilities are virtually endless.


So do you think it's worth the effort of painting these tiny plastic weapons?
Either way I really dig this line. For 1/12 scale the details are exceptional. I don't know of anything similar for 1/6 scale (not that I looked...)

they certainly are well equipped!

The tiny guns look beautiful and believable.

Of course it's worth the effort! Certainly when you have beautiful figures that you enjoy presenting them with.

Leliana's "action girl" look

After this "flashback" Leliana takes on a more action-oriented role:


Planned for some time but waited for the right accessories. Leliana is based on Imperial Guardian figure, it felt wrong to keep her as a "civilian"



This is another "Lara Croft" clothes set but with different top, and on TBL body. The pants are somewhat loose on the waist though.

Articulation is barely enough for weapon holding poses (bicep swivel is sorely missed):


I haven't decided where she fits yet, but I am satisfied with her overall look

Really great pics!

BAMComix wrote:Really great pics!

Thanks!

Very cute.

Synthetic sadness

Synthetic sadness, an older photoshoot I decided to show in the wake of recently posted diary chapter 12:

Great positioning!

These synthetics are so expressive and so is your posing. Great combination!

How sweet and touching -- expressed even through toys representing robots. I'd say that's a success!

Thank you all

I do like what you've done with the 1/12 scale figures. I've moved one of my stories (Red Sonja) over to 1/12, as the 1/6 version was taking up too much space. I need to get back to that story at some point.

I was going to get some of those crash dummy characters, but in the end didn't, as I couldn't see how they'd fit into the story. But I do have some of those military figures you have, and I also went to the TBLeague coloured Imperial Guardians that are to make an appearance in Red Sonja at some point. Along with a lot of other 1/12 scale figures.

Your photography looks great too.

For Phicen joints, I just take to photoshop and edit them out.

londonroadhog wrote:I was going to get some of those crash dummy characters

Crash dummies actually have their issues. Both of my figures have cracked wrist joins (not completely broken but the joint itself comes apart too easily) and they feel kind of fragile. But they work for my purposes.

londonroadhog wrote:I've moved one of my stories (Red Sonja) over to 1/12

I remember this story - if it's the one that started with 1/6 figures and then transitioned to 1/12 scale - though I can't find where it was posted (other than several pages on flickr).
Hope you continue it.

Visisonor wrote:

londonroadhog wrote:I've moved one of my stories (Red Sonja) over to 1/12

I remember this story - if it's the one that started with 1/6 figures and then transitioned to 1/12 scale - though I can't find where it was posted (other than several pages on flickr).
Hope you continue it.

I didn’t post the Red Sonja story on here because some of the native tribe members were rather skimpily dressed. Some were topless and others just nude. It made prepping the figures for the story easy. But I know forumotion has strict rules on being child friendly, so it didn’t appear here. Or maybe it did for awhile. But the main story is over on the forum MWD (Men With Dolls). But there’s only two chapters so far, and yes it did start in 1/6 and move to 1/12, mainly because the straw hut I built was going to be too big in 1/6 scale. I have also stories of Spy Training Camp, and Phicen Photo Studio. Both of these are 1/6 scale though. All my stories stopped for awhile during a down time of the hobby. Starting back up now though. There was also a one off series that involved 1/6 and 1/12 which was my Concert Stage, which is on here.

Red Sonja is planned to continue…

Joys of a (Cat)woman

While JoyToy continues announcing new figures in their Frontline Chaos line, I've grabbed a parted-out body (and boots) from an earlier release (Rin).

It picked my interest because I thought it was closer to Mezco scale and proportions (which it actually is). And it is quite good for a jointed body:


Elbows bend all the way in, knees a bit less so but still great, there is an upper arm swivel, but ab crunch is not exceptional. Neck has only one dumbbell join on top, the neck itself is fixed. Still, it has better articulation than any female body from Mezco.

Moreover, it is compatible with Mezco heads and hands. There is some difference in neck joint sizes even between Mezco heads, so some heads may require rubber liners or tac, but they fit.
This is how it looks with unmasked Catwoman head and black bodysuit from eBay (the back still needs to be sewn):







With relation to proportions, it is closer to Mezco than VeryCool:



And maybe leans to more animated look - wider hips, larger boots

With cinematic Harley head:


And this is how she stacks up against TBLeague:


And since I've already tried the T05B head on Mezco bodies, I also did it on this one:

It sits too high again (and skintone does not match), so if I really wanted to use it I'd have to drill the head a little deeper. Maybe I should get a pale head with dark hair though. Hmm...

Finally, some uncensored shots. It has some realistic details but not as much as TBL:

nsfw:

Overall, I quite like this body. Back when I joined, I was looking for a better-articulated Mezco-style body, and finally I have found it.

You managed some very good poses with this body.

Excellent stuff! a great looking team, for sure!

Ready when you are

GubernatorFan wrote:You managed some very good poses with this body.

BAMComix wrote:Excellent stuff! a great looking team, for sure!

Thanks!

Undisclosed mission some time in the past:

- You ready?
- When you are.

Bonus shot:

Here they go!

Beautiful, as usual.

Not the best day for sparring

Inspired by londonroadhog's Spy Training Camp series - a friendly sparring between Vera and Kate.

Chronologically set while Kate is writing her diary, so she is not the best shape.

















- C'mon Kate, I know you can do better!
- Not my day...