[swampmojo]

Dude those are ALL sick! I mean seriously, awesome work!

[ARBCO Avenue]

Quote:

Originally Posted by HissHissFangFan

Working on another pass at Scarlett, to help manage my grief over Hasbro's new Wal-Mart Retro figure. Deflated that they couldn't manage budget tooling for a POC/30th/BFS tier new body sculpt.

You can make as many Scarlett figures as you like and I'll gladly check out your work. I'm certain that if you get your hands on that Retro Scarlett you'll fix her up!

[CADPAT]

Quote:

Originally Posted by HissHissFangFan

This SE is a part of a work in progress reimagining of the o13 in today's real world US army elite, including team assembly.

Even so, "rifleman" is a pretty incongruous-seeming position for the spooky masked guy who goes into the field with a literal katana strapped to his back.

[HissHissFangFan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by CADPAT

Even so, "rifleman" is a pretty incongruous-seeming position for the spooky masked guy who goes into the field with a literal katana strapped to his back.

Yes it is...

[HissHissFangFan]

WAL-MART RETRO SCARLETT


2020-10-18_08-51-19 by HissHissFangFang, on Flickr

Well, I got my Walmart Retro Scarlett last weekend--so this post comes a few months earlier than I expected--but I need to get this out of my system. When first revealed a few weeks back, I had very strong negative feelings about the figure, but I worked through those feelings prior to getting the figure in hand, and I’m also happy to have found it much earlier than what the preorders were telling us.

A few days after the reveal at HasCon, I felt I need to get a better idea of the build we were getting in hand, so I temporarily kitbashed my Shooter and Stiletto figures, along with a Renegades Scarlett head from a previous Scarlett custom. The resulting kitbashed is actually kind of a neat LBC Scarlett that I’m thinking about keeping around and doing a little more work with.


2020-10-03_01-46-36 by HissHissFangFang, on Flickr

2020-10-03_01-46-24 by HissHissFangFang, on Flickr

The legs are an excellent choice, and I also used them on my previous Scarlett custom. It’s the torso that is the most problematic in its sculpting and form. Rather than critique it to death, I thought I’d tried to do some simple things to help make it more tolerable. The work was done on the kitbash for testing, then transferred to the actual Retro Scarlett.

First thing was to try and “resculpt” the upper torso. The sides were cut and sanded to get rid of the weird side boob look seen from various angles. I wasn’t sure if I’d be cutting out necessary tabs or what not that connect the front and back pieces (thinking maybe the side boob was a construction necessity), but it worked out fine. I worked the full sides and a little return on the back so that it looked better at all angles.


2020-10-18_02-17-18 by HissHissFangFang, on Flickr

Second thing was to a real slight reshape of the lower torso sides. Halfway down the lower torso side, I sanded in a new curve point, starting with a round steel file then working in with various grits and sandpaper. This was done to reduce that single bell shape (actually double bell with upper and lower torso stacked). I think more shaping can be done in the future to get an even better front facing profile. I’d like to see what others do before going further with mine.


2020-10-18_12-20-59 by HissHissFangFang, on Flickr
[Right above has unpainted hair, WIP eyebrows and lower torso sides]

Last reshaping task was to sand down the shoulders on the arm pieces. For some reason (maybe internal molding a joinery), the shoulder joints are spaced kinda far off the torso, and bit high. This gives the figure a real stiff and tensed up look even in neutral relaxed poses, as well as real wide shoulders. I think sanding down the arms at the shoulders helped to minimize this. If I every fine extras of this figure, I’d like to crack open the torso to see if anything can be done to bring the arms in closer at the shoulders.


20201017_224608~3 by HissHissFangFang, on Flickr

On the head, I repainted the orange molded hair, as it came out a little too neon bright as released for my tastes (okay for Classified, not so much for Retro). I also narrowed the thickness of the eyebrows and tried to leave more gap between the two. The eyebrow work was much more difficult than I expected before getting the figure. The issue is that the eyebrows are actually sculpted onto the head mold.

A molded eyebrow can be good for keeping the location of the eyebrow correct so it’s not painted on too high or too low. This was a big problem with the Resolute Scarlett head (other than being oversized). The problem is that it will likely get applied too thick for the 3.75” scale. To thin out the eyebrow, I lightly (then moderate) scraped the top and bottom edges with a nice sharp exacto knife. More work was needed to get in the low crevices of the eyebrow sculpts show that they wouldn’t show up in photos. If I every get extras, I may try sanding down the eyebrows for a cleaner look.


PhotoGrid_1602995295074 by HissHissFangFang, on Flickr

In taking pictures with some of my other Scarletts, I noticed that the Retro Scarlett is actually quite a tall figure. Not as tall as Resolute-which actually has much taller leg builds—but pretty close. Looking the builds neck down, the Retro torso might actually be taller than Resolute’s. I would take pics with heads swapped, but I don’t want to deal with drilling/filling in these heads for correct placement on the swapped bodies. So it’s a relatively tall female figure, but at least not taller than POC Snake Eyes.


20201017_233805~3 by HissHissFangFang, on Flickr

In the end, having the figure in hand and being able to tweak it a bit, I think the Retro Scarlett is all that bad and much better than what the preview pictures presented it to be. The work I’ve done to mine is probably all I will do to it for the foreseeable future.

My main disappointment is that a new torso wasn’t designed and used, truly dedicated for vintage Scarlett and on par with the updates of Snake Eyes, Storm Shadow, Firefly, CC, Destro, Gung-Ho and others post 2010. Part of me was thinking that there was one designed by BFS somewhere, never revealed in concept cases or other leaked pics.

Another part of me wishes that better management of new vs old parts could have been done across all figures to get a new Scarlett torso. I myself had a whole plan worked out for this—I never posted my full outline, but I posted the general concept here with bits of the outline revealed as the thread progressed. I may post that full outline in the near future so that I can put the whole thing to rest in my mind: One More New Figure: Last Request for Hasbro


GiJoe_25th_BattlePack1-40thRedux_2019-0707ab by HissHissFangFang, on Flickr

I’m happy to have this figure, and I’d like to get more for parts and more experimentation. I would like an ultimate classic Scarlett, improved from the first 25th build, shorter and more classic styled than the Resolute build, and more vintage inspired than my previous build. Wal-Mart Retro Scarlett, even with tweaks, just doesn’t fully do it for more (and not good enough to fill the spot in my 25th box redux). So I’ve been working in a different direction…
[to be continued]


2020-10-18_12-50-26 by HissHissFangFang, on Flickr


2020-10-18_12-25-18 by HissHissFangFang, on Flickr

[46 Zone]

Nice eval!!! I like your mods to her eyebrows. I had to go back and fix something on my version of her. I'll post it later.

[ARBCO Avenue]

Great solutions there! Here I was thinking I’d have to raise her head a bit, but sanding down the shoulders works wonders to resolve the tense, hunched up look you mentioned (which looks better when aiming the crossbow than when standing straight). Great eye for making the torso look more natural. I think you saved her overall. Those “little” improvements go a LONG way.

[jlw515]

Quote:

Originally Posted by HissHissFangFan

2020-10-18_12-25-18 by HissHissFangFang, on Flickr

Awesome review and upgrade. I really like the custom 25th/Retro Scarlett in the middle, except for the hair. I think that if you either swap (A) the entire head sculpt with the "Retro" head or (B) swap the hair from the "Retro" head, then you would have a perfect Scarlett to fill your box set.

Jason

[firmpulse]

Seriously, dude. That Scarlett is ACES. Without a doubt, it's my favorite ME Scarlett that I've seen. Wonderful job.

[HissHissFangFan]

SCARLETT [2020 RETRO REBUILD]


2020-10-25_05-12-50 by HissHissFangFang, on Flickr

BUILD:
• Upper & lower legs: 2009 ROC Agent Helix V1
• Head: 2016 50th Cobra Officer (CO) V11
• Hair: 2010 Resolute Scarlett V13
• Feet, arms, torso (modded): 2007 25th Scarlett V8

PAINTS: Testors Wood, Testor Dark Grey, Testor Leather; Hair: mix of Testors Burnt Sienna + Testors Int'l Orange

NOTES:

As noted earlier, I was extremely disappointed with the reveal for the Wal-Mart Retro build at the end of September. I though Scarlett deserved a newly tooled torso, leaving her as maybe the only figure of the 10 original 25th figures not to have gotten a proper re-sculpt (assuming for Duke that there are plenty updated torsos that would work).

Forum discussions favored either using the Resolute torso or accepting the CO torso as really the two best options for reuse. And at the time, I privately rejected both and favored the original 2007 torso—thinking it was probably the easiest to fix or mod. Rather than argue or defend that notion in words, I decided to just do the work and take pictures. Along the way, a new head+hair combo came to mind. After a month’s worth of fixing, painting, photographing, retweaking and repainting, I think she’s 95% done and ready to fully present as a first pass for presentation.


2020-10-25_12-46-48 by HissHissFangFang, on Flickr

Torso:
I feel the 2007 torso was best to work off from—mostly due to having all the correctly sculpted bits (collar, right pad, best, leotard collar, grenade). If I used the other torso, those bits I would have to sculpt, and likely it would look like I hand sculpted them (=badly). So the path would be to use the 2007, and try to fix the problems with it.


2020-10-25_02-10-23 by HissHissFangFang, on Flickr

The lower torso is way too skinny, so I did add some Aves Apoxie Sculpt to get it better in line with the other torsos. The figure had permanent hunched forward pose, due to the slot in the lower torso not allowing enough backward extension. This was fixed by cutting the slot longer in the back, which can be done with Dremel or exacto knife and without splitting the upper torso (can be seen in pic above). Eliminating the hunched-over look was also relieved by redrilling the head’s socket closer to the front face, and filling the backside with filler clay (this is a problem and fix for the 30th/POC Cobra Trooper, and maybe new HISS Driver).


2020-10-25_02-54-11 by HissHissFangFang, on Flickr

[Note: above taken end of Sep as progress, before final fixes to head and gloves]

The most difficult fix was dealing with the figure lurching over to her left. While later figures would have a slot in the upper torso allowing the upper torso to rock left and right, this was not the case with this earlier figure build. So the upper torso was cracked painfully cut open, and a slot was cut into it so that the figure could be straightened out when needed.

The hip holes needed some modding to get the updated legs to fit—though I overcut the right hip and had to fill back in to close the gap between joints. Some sanding or whittling is also required to minimize paint rub on the legs.


2020-10-25_12-48-25 by HissHissFangFang, on Flickr

While waiting for glue or paint to dry on this figure during one session, and failing to get a good repaint on the 25th Scarlett head, I was looking at the loose Resolute Scarlett hairpiece in my Scarlett fodder, and had the idea of using the 50th Cobra officer head with it. All that was needed was cutting out the hairpiece’s notch and cutting off the CO’s ponytail.

Sanding down the CO’s top hair not even required, and no gluing needed if you like the results (keeping unglued lets you reposition it as required—which I seem to be doing daily trying it get it perfect in my eyes). The head is on the small side, but better than being oversized and is likely attributing to this figure’s body looking less thin and more athletic.


2020-10-25_12-46-09 by HissHissFangFang, on Flickr

Final mods done in the last week: I sanded down the edges back around the ears (she has ears!) for a more rounded profile; repainted the red Resolute hair for a more orange look closer to all the others; painted the lips (on both figures—Hasbro: ease up on the ruby red lipstick); reworked the irises and eyelashes to minimize the crazy mean stare of the CO figure. Honestly, I think I could do better work with the eyes (or start over from a cast mold) but 90%-95% there, and I’ll need a bigger magnifying glass apparatus to do better.


2020-10-25_12-48-50 by HissHissFangFang, on Flickr

Wrist articulation:
Ugh. Would have come in real handy for the shot above, but not in the cards this year…

What follows are various test photos and composites taken over the last few weekends, mostly for comparison to the figures and reviewing for additional corrections and fixes. In my mind, I needed to sell this torso and build as being the penultimate Scarlett (Ultimate being reserved for a new digital profession sculpt). Apologies if shots gets repetitive. I'll get more creative later down the road, for pics with Snake Eyes, Stalker and Hawk.



Left: early test of build silohouettes 9/29/20 from last month’s tease; right: corresponding final display figures:

2020-10-25_01-00-03 by HissHissFangFang, on Flickr

Early test shot mockup (or a peek into an alternate reality’s Hasbro’s promo pic?). Alternate hands from Resolute, alternate right pistol holster from Firefly. Decided not to retake this with my final b/c I hate white backgrounds (haven't used since 2015, strains the eyes, dulls the colors):


2020-10-25_12-51-16 by HissHissFangFang, on Flickr

Partial Mods to Walmart Retro Scarlett from last week with my almost-finished Scarlett build from last week (before sanding down hair edges and repainting hair, reworking the eyes a bit):


2020-10-26_08-57-56 by HissHissFangFang, on Flickr

Completed mods to Retro (including hair repaint, shoulders, torso, eyes still wonky), and completed tweaks to my build (sanded down and repainted hair, more work on the eyes):

2020-10-25_12-46-35 by HissHissFangFang, on Flickr

Early compare/contrast composite of my primary display shelf Scarletts, flanked by Hasbro’s:

2020-10-25_12-50-58 by HissHissFangFang, on Flickr

Near-final group shot of above, with Retro in hand early than expected, for height and color compare (from last week's post):

2020-10-18_12-25-18 by HissHissFangFang, on Flickr

Test shot with OG-13’s used for current ongoing photos of 1983 and beyond figures (figures from my beloved classic 25th collection that kicked this thread off are just too small when used outside that set):

2020-10-25_01-08-24 by HissHissFangFang, on Flickr

My 25th Classic Set Scarlett, the two Scarlett customs I did real early this year (before news of the Walmart Retro Collection), and my latest Scarlett, made to be more true to the vintage. The third figure was converted to the fourth:

2020-10-25_03-21-17 by HissHissFangFang, on Flickr

Resolute, HHFF, Walmart Retro, for true side-by-side comparison (from last week's post):

2020-10-18_12-50-26 by HissHissFangFang, on Flickr

Top: 50% finished turnarounds, Bot: 95% finished turnarounds:

PhotoGrid_1603648754193 by HissHissFangFang, on Flickr


If I ever luck out on finding another spare Walmart Retro (not likely, I’m done with the aggressive hunting for these), I’ll make another of this build in the darker green and lighter tan as well as play with using the new head sculpt. I also wanting to get bolder with the Retro’s torso mods to see if it can be significantly improved. But for now, this is my ideal Retro Scarlett--which doesn’t use the Resolute or Walmart torso—and I thank Hasbro for this indirectly for the motivation and spark they provided.


2020-10-25_12-46-09 by HissHissFangFang, on Flickr


2020-10-25_12-48-35 by HissHissFangFang, on Flickr