[nighthawk]

That Blowtorch is amazing. I really like the goggles. I did that before on a Blowtorch and it really does make a difference mine had black goggles like in the cartoon.

I completely forgot his legs wer not the same length until yoh mentioned it. His feet are really hard to remove. It was much harder than most figures I swapped feet with.

Great job on him!

[ARBCO Avenue]

The gold with the muted red really works! The goggles, lower arm change, equal leg length, holding his namesake with two hands... all lead to a big win!

[shakka85]

Your '84 Joes are off to a great start, including the Duke, Roadblock, and Spirit that you previously posted! Blowtorch looks fantastic in gold and the darker red! A few small changes to the build and you made a so-so figure into a go-to figure for the line up! Brilliant, as usual, bro!

-Todd
Shakka85

[jlw515]

HHFF,
The Hasbro Blowtorch is an example of one of the stock figures that just about matches the ARAH source material, but seriously lacks in articulation. You did a great job with using those Low Light lower arms! Also, I love the way you were able to tone down the yellow and yet keep the same basic color scheme with the gold. To me, it almost has a "smoky yellow" look like his uniform has been through some soot or something.

The goggles are a great quick fix to the stock mask. Did you keep the Blowtorch head or swap it out?

Can't wait to see the rest of the Class.

Jason

[swampmojo]

Holy crap those are ALL Soo good

[HissHissFangFan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by swampmojo

Holy crap those are ALL Soo good

Thanks! I'm pretty sure your stuff had a major influence on many of my figures here or in my other threads. But all your initial threads tarter attachments are gone! That's ok, it's great to see you active again. I'm inspired to comb your stuff again this weekend, and let you know what stuff I've purposely taken from you. Cheers!

[HissHissFangFan]

RIPCORD

20200905_235508 by HissHissFangFang, on Flickr

Build:
• Torso, arms, lower legs, feet: 2013 Retaliation Sgt. Airborne (V4)
• Upper legs: 2013 Retaliation Agent Mouse (V1)
• Head (no helmet): Dollar General Duke
• Head (with helmet): 2008 Beachhead unmasked
• Helmet, Backpack: 2011 Renegades Ripcord (V6)
• Webgear: 2013 Retaliation Flint (V1)

Paints:
• Light Green: AK Real Colors RC028 Interior Green (mixed w/ AK Real Colors ?? Green),
• Dark Green: Tamiya XF-26 Dark Green
• Webgear: Tamiya XF-73 Dark Green

Ripcord is the second 1984 I started and finished after having completed my 1983 upgrades. The 2009 Spc Altitude figure held its shelf spot on my main Joe display for many years unchanged. In 2013 I did update his helmet to the Renegades Ripcord one, painted black, and used the mask modified for my FANG Pilot for my Cobra 1983 Collection. I didn’t mind this figure—no real big cringeworthy flaws except for the helmet—and faithful to the original figure.


2020-09-23_12-01-39 by HissHissFangFang, on Flickr

I jumped into the idea of an update with 2 fixes in mind. If those 2 fixes didn’t work, or the update didn’t retain the same amount of faithfulness to the original, I’d scrap the whole thing. Fortunately, I liked the results more than I expected, and so here we are.

The first fix, which I didn’t expect to work well, was the improving the helmet/mask of the 2009. The 2009 helmet/mask works decently for Blowtorch, but not so much for Ripcord—mostly due to far end of hose floating out in the air uselessly and distracting. The excellent Renegades Ripcord helmet seemed an obvious replacement (used my many others for customs), but I didn’t like the modern oblong shape of it for a classic Ripcord. And it needing to be all black in contrast to all green used for the figure really made the shape stand out.


2020-09-23_12-02-06 by HissHissFangFang, on Flickr

So the “simple” fix idea was to sand the helmet shape down to something more round. Luckily, there was plenty of thickness in the mold to take the heavy sanding down. It took a few days to get it to a decent shape and finish, not knowing how far to go with it to look right before grinding a hole into it. I also found that the unmasked Beachhead provided the best fill of the helmet, including how the eyes line up through the semitransparent goggles. But facial hair doesn’t fit my vision of Ripcord, so I just swap the whole head when unmasked (Hollywood cheat!).


2020-09-26_12-14-23 by HissHissFangFang, on Flickr

The second fix was just to get more bulk and bagginess to the figure, mostly with the legs. The shape and part sculpt of the 2009 figure felt a bit off compared to new parts available. Looking at previous builds from other customizers here (most notably Odinson’s outstanding variants and Oreobuilder’s 2018 version), the Retaliation Airborne works out well, particularly the lower legs and its big pockets to help balance out the bigger webgear. The upper legs of the Retaliation Airborne were replaced because they made the legs too long overall, while the Retaliation Flint uppers had better length and width (and were still available in my fodder box).


2020-09-23_12-01-53 by HissHissFangFang, on Flickr

The final and unplanned update was the harness. The 2009 mold was accurate enough, but kinda look undersized. The Retaliation Flint harness felt better sized and had most of the same detailing and structure as the 2009 mold. Also, I was so tempted to paint this harness black which would help balance the colors on the figure build overall—I think the original being green was a bad choice considering so green already on the figure. In the end I stopped myself from retconning this, but I did compromise by going to a different and darker green.


2020-09-23_12-02-15 by HissHissFangFang, on Flickr

[Note: updated Blowtorch’s goggles, and cut out the mask goggles underneath]

At this point of the post, I was going to have Ripcord photos in cool aerial shots. But I really couldn’t get the compositions envisioned in my head or couldn’t conceive how set them up. Mostly, the issue is that the figure, though nicely articulated (super-articulated as those Star Wars collectors like to say), didn’t have the enough articulation to get the poses I’d like. Mostly with the neck and head. So I went back to the comics to review my most memorable images, preferably group shots now possible with Ripcord being finished.

“…FOUR OF US…”


2020-09-23_12-03-54 by HissHissFangFang, on Flickr

Finally found an opportunity to incorporate the mostly useless "Light Flare" filter on my Samsung Photo Editor...


2020-09-23_12-04-05 by HissHissFangFang, on Flickr

GOLDEN YEAR, BOOK COVER


2020-09-23_12-04-45 by HissHissFangFang, on Flickr

Source to raw shot:

PhotoGrid_1600869806478 by HissHissFangFang, on Flickr
Normal editiing line, then complete filter overload:

PhotoGrid_1600869859394 by HissHissFangFang, on Flickr

Ready for print:

2020-09-23_12-05-49 by HissHissFangFang, on Flickr

[sbartek1974]

Damn that looks beautiful!

[AF80sFAN]

Wow, that is an impressive looking Ripcord. I used the same body for my Ripcord but only added a subtle camo pattern rather than painting him green, wish I had now after seeing yours.

Also (I know it has been around for a while but I have to bring it up as it is so timely), your Roadblock in the pictures looks so much better than the Retro one they have just shown!

[swampmojo]

I'll say it again, these are works of ART bro