Painting Selenites

In the movie there is a Selenite called the Grand Lunar who is in charge.  He has a bigger head.  So I decided to cut the head off of a praying mantis and another one from a larger cricket and use them as the basis for a Grand Lunar and a Lessor Lunar.

I wanted a sticker glue so I got some of this E6000 premium.

It seemed to work better in a big glop on the soft plastic figures and based.

Here everyone is on their base ready for painting.

I did not prime them because I am using spray lacquer and it seems better without it. 

I paint one side.

Then flip them and do the other side.

In this case standing up.  Note the Grand Lunar with the big antennas and the impressive staff.  And the Lessor Lunar with the thick antennas and almost as nice staff.  Red figure has the praying mantis head and the black has the other bigger cricket head.
 

Batman 66 Villains and Henchmen

The Joker from Batman 66 has a lot of different henchmen in the many different times he appears on the Batman TV show and movie.  I decided to do at least six of three different types.  I am using this chart so that each figure will have a different combination of colors for his shirt, vest, hat, and pants.  

I am also making henchmen for Catwoman, and the Riddler.  My plan is that each major Villain will get at least 6 henchmen and usually a moll.  The Riddler had henchmen wearing gas masks in one episode so I am doing a team of them with gasmasks from Fujimi WWII German figures.  Riddler wore a gas mask shaped like an elephant head, you can see him in the upper left of this photo.

I am doing models of all three Catwomen.  Why are there three Catwomen? An in-universe explanation. The Catwoman is a title, not a person. When the Kitty Katt Gang chooses a leader it is always a woman. If the leader dies, or is in prison, or is otherwise unavailable, a new leader is put into place. I submit that there are three factions of the Kitty Katt Gang. The Tuxedo Cats, the Black Cats, and the Tiger Cats factions. Each of these three control one faction, but will take over another faction or all three if there is a vacancy. Julie gets the Tiger Cats, Eartha gets the Black Cats, and Lee the Tuxedo Cats. That's my idea.

Catwoman Lee, Riddler #1, Penguin, and MR Freeze.  I signify each Catwoman by title and first name.  The two Riddlers are designated #1 for Gorshin and #2 for Astin.

Catwoman Ertha in front, and Catwoman Julie in the background.  The lighting and focus are not optimal so both look a bit off.

Catwoman Julie receives her ears.  I cut a slice across her head, then insert a plastic tab with a little super glue gel.  Then I cut the ears down to fit, and paint the ears.  Much easier and stronger than putting them in one at a time.

Catwoman Lee.

Three Catwoman in a row, with their henchmen.  Tuxedo, Black, and Tiger Cats.

Project as I work on it, lower left, Pinky Pinkston and Apricot her dog.  Penguin henchmen in black.  Joker Henchmen in three rows of six each and Joker in toffee color with white head.  Joker moll with yellow paper in front.  Colorful Joker henchmen in three rows.  The three Catwoman figures with their 6 each cats.  The TV show used the Tiger motif, but I added the other two factions so I could use all three Catwoman characters together at the same time, each with a unique set of henchmen.  

First row is Egghead, with his 6 henchmen, I think he only had two in the show.  And four Riddler figures, Riddler #1 in elephant gas mask; in suit, in plaid suit, and as Riddler #2 with cane.  Various Molls in progress, and King Tut in the back in blue.  Dark Alliance Vampire figures in the upper left corner.
 

Figure Conversions

These are figures that I am working on in 1/72nd scale.

They are henchmen and molls and villains for Batman 66. 

The hexagon bases are for major named characters.  The triangle bases are for usually unnamed henchmen.

I gather figures from all over the collection to modify to create these heroes and villains.

They get headswaps, new arms, sometimes it even takes four or five figures combined to create one.  Frankenstyrene and his monster.

Other figures, like this black and white figure, will just be repainted.

Most of these are from generic plastic figures, often with head swaps.

This Dapol figure has had a Fujimi WWII German head with gas mask replace his original head.

All of these figures are 1/76 to 1/72nd scale.

This is a three way head swap.  Each figure here will lose a head and gain a new head.  Most of the British Commandos will get an M1 helmet.  The white figures will get the Commando watch cap.  The remaining Matchbox and Airfix figures will get either heads from the white plastic guys, or other heads from the spares box.  I am creating MR Freeze henchmen, top row, US Navy landing party, bottom row, and the middle row will be US civilian police or US Air Force and Army Air Corps soldiers.
 

Man of Steel

When doing a figure conversion I try and print out a nice photo of the subject.

Then I try and find a figure that is in a pose and clothing similar to the photo, or at least to the character.

This white plastic figure is a generic civilian in swimming trunks.  I added a Heroclicx Superman cape.  The black plastic hexagon I made out of Evergreen sheet plastic and I use it to base my role playing figures in 1/72nd scale.

I had to trim it down a bit to fit.  My plan is to create decals for the chest and back of the cap for the logo.  I has suspended work at this point until I get into decal printing mode.  Could be a week or more.
 

Airfix and Matchbox Figure Conversions

Airfix WWI British Infantry.  They are donating their heads to be used to make US police officers for the 1918 to 1958 period.

This Matchbox WWII US Army soldier, center, is next to receive a new head like his other two comrades have received.

These Airfix WWII US Army Air Forces figures donated their heads and in turn received the Airfix WWI British Army heads to become Interwar US Army Air Corps men.

These Matchbox WWII US Army troops have been converted to police.  They lost their grenades and helmets.  They got police batons, billy clubs, in return and a Airfix WWI British Army hat.

The Matchbox figure as a police officer, and two with baseball caps as USAAF troops for WWII.

Some of the Airfix WWII USAAF have donated heads to the Matchbox WWII US Infantry so they can now be used as USAAF ground crews doing ground combat.  While uncommon, it was done a few times.  They are also usable for Korea or  Vietnam.

 This venerable Airfix WWII US Army troops have had new heads put on that were taken from the generic civilian figures.  Generally when I do head swaps and figure conversions I try to make use of all the pieces.  I always keep the parts and check there first for usable parts before I cut any new figures.

DB5 by Aston Martin

James Bond and the DB5 car he is known for.  This model is by Hot Wheels and the figure is a generic figure in 1/75th scale and it just under an inch tall.

This car is made in Japan and is 1/87 HO scale with the same figure.

This is one of my James Bond figures for my 1/72nd scale collection.

The HO scale car and Hot Wheels 1/64th scale car look very different in size.  The figure looks plausible with both but seems to look better with the larger car, I think.
 

Kiss Kiss Club is Finished

Kiss Kiss Club, Nassau, Bahamas.

A wonderful place to stop, have a drink, dance, and enjoy the band.

King Erison Combo is the featured band.  Here is a photo of the bar in the distance.

The restrooms, in pink, and the entrance, near the beach ball.

Covered seated in the background.

Kiss Kiss Club staff in their red over black uniforms.

Largo's yacht Disco Volante, crewmen after James Bond.  Note each has a pistol in his hand.

Restrooms heavily modified from Dollar Tree building, and so is the ticket booth and the bar.  The bandstand is scratch built, the figures are all conversions from cheap styrene figures from Amazon, and a few random figures from other sources.  The firearms are bits of plastic added to civilian figures to simulate guns.  The base is PVA plastic sheeting 1/4 inch thick, very rigid, very expensive.  I got it used, for free, about 25 years ago in a large quantity and I am still using it up.  Trees are swizzle sticks from Dollar Tree.  Chairs are wire and plastic scratch builds.  Dance floor is sheet plastic with contact paper border.  Posters were digitally created by my daughter.  Billboards from Target stores.  Concrete color bases are removable or reposition-able for different scenarios, as are all the buildings and trees.  So the whole thing is very modular.  The whole base is 20 x 16 inches.  I worked on it off and on for a couple years.
 

More Police Figures

Roco Minitanks US tank commanders and cheap plastic figures.

Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department required mandatory helmet wearing for several years in the 1980s and it looks a lot like the tanker helmet.  So I am doing head swaps for these guys.  You can also see a Cold M1919 machine gun with a white barrel.  It is a replacement barrel for an air cooled machine gun barrel that had broken off.

I am working on making bases for my police figures.

This is my standard figure basing plastic for basing figures.

The plastic is trimmed into pieces with 2 x 3 squares making a small rectangle.

Sometimes I leave them with sharp corners or smooth the corners down.

This is the bottom half of a WWII German figure by Odemars.  

Uniforms like this were very common in the US for polices, particularly those who rode on motorcycles.

So I switched his head with the head of an Airfix WWI British soldier.

The original arm position is at a low ready, but I moved the arm to more of a shooting pose.

These will become motorcycle police.  From 1910 to after WWII motorcycle police were very common because motorcycles were less expensive than automobiles and some cities fielded large fleets of them.