My 1/6th scale WWII figure obsession

[uss frolick]

British and Canadian, mostly. Christmas, 1965, got me hooked. Some boys never grow up.

 

0-2 by Stephen Duffy, on Flickr

 

0-1 by Stephen Duffy, on Flickr

 

0-8 by Stephen Duffy, on Flickr

 

0-2 by Stephen Duffy, on Flickr

 

0-3 by Stephen Duffy, on Flickr

 

0-4 by Stephen Duffy, on Flickr

 

0-6 by Stephen Duffy, on Flickr

 

0-2 by Stephen Duffy, on Flickr

 

0-8 by Stephen Duffy, on Flickr

 

0-14 by Stephen Duffy, on Flickr

 

0 by Stephen Duffy, on Flickr

 

0 by Stephen Duffy, on Flickr

 

0-5 by Stephen Duffy, on Flickr

 

0-3 by Stephen Duffy, on Flickr

 

0-9 by Stephen Duffy, on Flickr

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Tigerdvr]

Very nice collection. I sympathize with your obsession. I accumulated a healthy group of troops before I came back to ship building. They are carefully stored away for now. Some get to come out and visit on special days like 6 June.

Enjoy your brigade.

 

Harley

 

[popeye the sailor]

they look really cool........much like the GI Joe craze back in my childhood days.   did you purchase them like this........you'll have to give us some background here.  did you enhance them....how?

[Old Collingwood]

Mine was Action Men  when I was a kid.

 

OC.

[uss frolick]

I purchased most of the components and placed them together. I made the insignia, re-dyed the uniforms more to my liking, and painted all the equipment. Much of the field gear I scratch built.

 

You may recognize celebrity head sculpts - Sean Connery, Matt Damon, Lee Marvin, Vic Morrow. I touched up the paint on a couple of these, namely the Brad Pitt sergeant. 

 

Here's an airborne medic that I recently made. All his gear is hand made and painted.

 

0-4 by Stephen Duffy, on Flickr

 

This guy's equipment was painted by hand, using a small brush. I like using different photo backgrounds, mainly still shots from , in this case, A Bridge Too Far, or actual battlefields:

 

0-13 by Stephen Duffy, on Flickr

 

0-12 by Stephen Duffy, on Flickr

 

0-11 by Stephen Duffy, on Flickr

 

0-6 by Stephen Duffy, on Flickr

 

0-5 by Stephen Duffy, on Flickr

 

0-8 by Stephen Duffy, on Flickr

 

 

Black and white looks really cool:

 

0-18 by Stephen Duffy, on Flickr

 

 

 

[popeye the sailor]

Vic Morrow....I enjoyed watching the Rat Patrol back in the day.  very well done!

really nice job with Matt Damon too

this face is familiar too.........can't think of his name.  this is definitely worthy of a log..........facial highlights and other techniques might be very interesting to some.  do you have one in progress at the moment?

[uss frolick]

Most of my head-sculpt paintings are minor repaints and touch-ups. Often the commercial heads are factory painted, but the skin is glossy, and, for example, blonde hair is school-bus yellow. My most elaborate repaint was the Brad Pitt character, shown here in the sixth pic, first post, as a sergeant with the French Canadian Regiment du Chaudiere. But even he wasn't a total repaint. But he came out rather well, for an amateur non-artist-type.

 

0 by Stephen Duffy, on Flickr

 

The main focus of my work is equipment and customizing uniform pieces. Here's Major Freddy Gough, the relatively unknown commander of the First Airborne Recce Squadron, at Arnhem, Holland, September, 1944. His sculpt was is factory painted, and untouched by me, for now, as the real fellow had grey hair. He was one of the few Recce men who made it to the Arnhem Bridge. When the German armored column initially attacked, Major Freddy pulled his Vickers machine gun off his jeeps mount, and used it to help shoot up the enemy vehicles:

 

0-17 by Stephen Duffy, on Flickr

 

0-21 by Stephen Duffy, on Flickr

 

0-6 by Stephen Duffy, on Flickr

 

0 by Stephen Duffy, on Flickr

 

0-9 by Stephen Duffy, on Flickr

 

0-4 by Stephen Duffy, on Flickr

 

0-11 by Stephen Duffy, on Flickr

 

He doesn't look a lot like Gough, but with additional work, he might get closer, but this was the closest I could find. Here's an illustration from Osprey Books' volume on the Recce Corps:

 

0-9 by Stephen Duffy, on Flickr

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[GrandpaPhil]

Excellent work!

[popeye the sailor]

well this is some really nice work.   where do you get the fire arms and equipment.  do you buy sets or modify pieces to fit the bill.......the vickers looks very good,  and I notice that he has other clips in his bag.

[uss frolick]

The weapons and equipment you can buy, or could buy, as the market tightened considerably starting at the crash of 2009. But there are basic 1/6th scale weapons kits, and a small community of mom-and pop customizers. German gear is still out there, but British Commonwealth figures, sets and gear is now sadly rare. This hobby was an expensive addiction, so don't get started.

 

The Vickers K Gun and the extra drums were scavenged from a 1/6th scale SAS desert raider jeep kit. I am converting it into a Recce airborne jeep, of the type that attacked the Arnhem bridge.

 

For example, I just bought a 1/6th scale, Type 19 British vehicle wireless set for it from a master craftsman in Holland. Assembled and painted, it is a work of art. Here are his photos

 

 

Edited July 11, 2019 by uss frolick

[uss frolick]

Here's a starting point: a basic, finished, out of the box British WWII figure, "Melvin", currently on eBay. I would rework and repaint almost everything, especially his gear, getting rid of plastic belts and elastic slings, and of course making up appropriate insignia for him. Uniforms often are re-dyed and re-tailored for a better fit. His weapons are little gems, and would need little, if any alterations. I love changing everything ...

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dragon-1-6-WW2-British-Commonwealth-Troop-Melvin/293145849775?hash=item4440daafaf:g:T68AAOSwogNdI2Vf

[mtaylor]

Wow.. those are great, Frolick.   I didn't see a John Wayne?   

[popeye the sailor]

he'd need naval garb    great looking radio!