Check the bottom of this post for 25A Hawk!



Ok, this'll probably be it from me for a while (too much stuff I gotta do & I've been spending all my time with these guys).


First up is my favorite Joe (can anyone guess why?): Flint

The 25A Flint was just too tall and the head sucked. I had already made my "definitive" Flint several months ago, but he was pretty beat up and his head kept popping off. So I took the 25A Flint Arms & Torso, grafted on some SE legs (to shorten him by a bit), then added some BBI Gloves, my old Flint's head, and a new camo job on his legs and there you go! Oh, and FYI -the Flint/Duke holster swaps out perfectly with SE's knife sheath. GungHo's holster needs a lot of mods to fit (found out the hard way. )



And before you all start telling me "it's just not Flint without the beret", let me tell you something -- as a real-life Warrant Officer who has to wear that damn beret to work every day, I can tell you first hand that Flint would NEVER want to wear that piece of "LASER BLAST". It is the most impractical piece of headgear in the inventory and it has no use in the field or when you're indoors (the 2 places where Flint spends the most time), so he's hatless for now. The first person that [LASER BLAST] about him not having a beret will get a visit from my buddies down at Bragg

Side-by-side with the original you can see how he's a little shorter now:



Then of course, I had to make a Grunt. Especially after Spin Doctor's awesome version (which I subconsciously copied for my Jason Bourne custom.) Plus, Grunt has always been one of my favorites.



This next guy just happened when I was messing around with head swaps. I figured he looked kinda like Eric Bana in BlackHawk Down (who played one of the only "fictional" characters in the flick - "Hoot" was based on several different Delta Operators, and I loved the character.) So he's gonna be "Hoot" or somebody based on that character.



And the whole gang (and yeah, I know Stalker's got a beret - I'll fix that when I can sculpt a decent head for him....)




And finally, I've been working on this for a few days. It's still a WIP, because I'm not happy at all with the paint job on the uniform or the face (I still can't paint eyes worth a "LASER BLAST".) For some reason, this was always my favorite look for Storm Shadow (although the "action attack" figure pissed me off.) I used the GTG Stormy head because the 25A v2 one was so tiny. He's still got a ways to go, but I wanted to share:




Enjoy!

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EDIT: -- ok, realy quick - lemme show off my 25A version of Hawk. Normally, I like a younger-looking Hawk (since he's still a light-Colonel in my 'verse.) But I got this BBI head a year or so ago and was going to use it for Hawk, but scrapped it. Now it's time to let him out. This head gives Hawk a rugged, mature, but not haggard look, IMO. I went with this uniform scheme because I figure he's moved beyond the basic look (and I'm running out of SEs ), and he wore stuff like this back in the comics before pinning on his star.

Recipe is identical to my Flint - I tried to make a better chest-holster so it wouldn't look so much like a painted Duke, but my attempts failed, so this is what I'm settling on. You'll notice I haven't made a 25A Duke custom. It's not because I think that Duke is perfect right outta the box, it's just that so far, I'm only making 25A customs of my favorite characters. Duke's already got a new-sculpt custom that's working just fine.



This Hawk won't wear a leather jacket because he's the kind of guy that thinks only pretentious Patton-wannabes would wear crap like that. He's a soldier, not a peacock.


Next to my original Hawk:

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I like 'em boss. Flint looks good and I think if you decided to add a removable beret he'd still look good. Grunt is a total gimme so its hard to screw that one up. And the last guy fits with the rest of your team perfectly. I really don't see a resemblance to Bana but I get where you are coming from with the character (who I liked a lot as well) And Stalker with the beret looks pretty cool. Yeah its not very realistic but it still looks neat. And Storm Shadow is off to a great start. I don't care for that color scheme myself but you're pulling it off nicely. And the GtG head is a much better fit than the factory one. Can't wait to see him finished up.

All these cool customs with the SE body make me want to find a few more and do some myself. Very cool.

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I can see the resemblance to Bana and I think the figure is cool, keep the Hoot name. Flint is way better than the 25th and Grunt is hard to mess up.
Stormy will be f'ing cool when your finally done, I think your pretty damn close.

Very nice. Who's head is that on Flint. I really like the look of him. The head is definitely the weakest part of that figure.

The rest look cool too. I can't wait to get a few more 25A figs, these customs seem fun to do.

So, where's Flint's beret

It's a Spy Troops/JvC Dusty head with sculpted hair.

Jackass.

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Chief, those look outstanding. I've been contemplating making the same SS, that is when the singles become available in abundance for me to get an extra. I've been a little apprehensive about attempting to customize a 25th fig, but seeing yours, Spin's and the others, I think I jet might try. Thanks to all for the inspiration.

T

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Thanks Brad - these were pretty fun to make.

Here's another one I forgot was on my "to-do" list. He's another WIP, but I wanted to get him out there.

I actually cracked open some torsos to get this one to work - I wanted R&R to be around 6', not 6'8" like RB, so I used RB's upper torso & arms with SE's lower torso and Flint's legs. I think he turned out ok so far. He's obviously a partial ripoff of Mysterious Stranger's R&R, but I was trying to figure out what kind of shirt to give him - Spin's idea of the arm-bands looking like pushed-up sleeves made me think "he's a weightlifter, why not a Hans&Franz sweatshirt?".

So here you go:



Size comparison:



He's on the borderline of having freakish proportions - but if I keep his arms posed, it doesn't look so bad.

So as far as the "whack it with a hammer" method of customizing - I don't recommend it. I used a tiny screwdriver and a hammer to bust the torsos apart, and it worked ok, but the little piece of plastic holding the two pieces together looks pretty fragile, so there's a chance of snapping that in the process.

I'm thinking that I'm going to have to limit myself to only customizing figures that are "must haves", like most of the original 13, etc. These end up being too much work when you can't bust apart individual parts as easy as the o-ring Joes we're all used to. And I'm sure that when the new "thighscrew-less" waves come out, it'll be an even bigger challenge. And in case you haven't noticed yet, I kinda like my customs to be easy and quick (and really half-assed) .

Cheers!

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HOLEE CRAP! I love that flint but SS is just bad ZZ bro!
gotta know what the parts are other than the head.

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For StormShadow? It was just a single-pack SS with Green stuff on the shoulders.

Thanks man!

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Freakin phenominal!

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WOW Chief those are all pretty rockin! Rock N Roll and Storm Shadow (Which I hope we eventually get EXACTLY like this from Hasbro) are my favorites though. And I wish I had that head for my Flint.

Phenominal work all around. I'm loving your 25th customs!

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That Obi-Wan head really works well as Rock 'n' Roll. I think Mysterious Stranger stumbled onto a definitive custom piece with that.

Alright, damnit - you forced my hand:



(I actually already had this head made, just had to mod it for the neckball & touch up the paint.)

Notes on berets: Flint would be wearing a Green one, not a Black one (he's a Special Forces grad, after all). Also, he wouldn't have the SF insignia on the beret's flash (like it shows in every piece of artwork) - only enlisted soldiers wear the SF insignia on their berets - officers & warrant officers wear their rank insignia.

I updated Stalker's beret as well (what the hell, let EVERYone have berets....) he's now an SF guy too (he always should have been, since he always wore a green beret, but as a "Ranger" it should have been black back in '82 and then tan in '02.) But he's got a mini SF insignia & flash now

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excellent Chief,

they all are freaking awesome, i agree with you on SS, that version of him is soooo badd a$$, fantastic choice for a custom.

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all of them look great. the flint with and without beret is very cool. I need to find another flint so i can make my custom of him. I am gonna use the dtc mutt head for mine.BTW what ever happened to superhero customs from ya???Are ya burned out or just into the 25th guys at the moment?
Tim