[Joeness]

Whether it be temperate forests or parched deserts, Leatherneck always brings his favorite hunting vest. Many a junior officer has made the mistake of telling him he can't.

[Joeness]

It's a little-known fact that Dusty spent some time on exchange with the French Foreign Legion. There he gained a healthy respect for their weapons and gear, a taste for escargot and a penchant for hairy armpits.

[Jymree]

This is a super cool project Joeness. Looking forward to more!

[Joeness]

Beach head: I have this thing against the more obscure or outright sci-fi guns that turned up on eighties figures. i wanted to see more real world weapons as I was into those as well, though I'm sure the molding process affected accuracy and detail. I've replaced them with other models of the vintage or what-ifs based on those models, that were more likely to be used in the field: in this case the iron grenadier's Uzi.

In terms of camo he was always halfway tiger stripe anyway so I just ran with that. Turned out well using the base colors as the brown and beige.

For info on Beach head's gun:

For Beach head reimagined, see below:

[Joeness]

Beachhead knows the value of deniability when on covert ops: he wields an Israeli submachine gun, wears southeast asian tiger stripe pants, carries his magazines in a British SAS flak jacket, and covers his head in a balaclava lovingly knitted by his Grandma.

[Itchweed]

Leatherneck, Dusty and Beachhead are looking good!!!

[Joeness]

General Hawk took one look at Dial Tone one morning and said "Son, get yourself some regulation battledress and ditch the goddamn NERF gun asap!" As soon as he'd got done ironing his commander's pants he did just that. He kept the sweater vest for church on Sundays.

[Joeness]

Night Raven - another beloved toy of my pre-adolescence. The Night Raven was already a large toy, but to make it more "realistic" it has to be even bigger in scale compared to the pilots. Real jets are big, and the GI Joe ones are very small.

- Ditched the lame drone and the red canopy glass
- Ditched the red/orange external parts for grey instead
- Ditched the impractical drop-down cockpit seating
- I stretched it in Photoshop about 20%, duplicated a section of the fuselage just behind the forward landing gear for another 5%
- Next, raised the height of the tailfins to compensate
- Gave the nose a slight shark-like droop similar to the SU-27 series to look more menacing.
- I kept the back-seater facing aft as I thought that was an interesting design choice for the universe
- Dulled the uniform colors with desaturation
- Shrunk the figures by about 20% for further scale

Now I have plans to do a Conquest X-30 and Cobra Rattler - both of which I owned in the eighties. For the Rattler, because the landing gear is so low and side profile pics are scarce I might have to use an A-10 for a base and cut and paste bits on.

(For a Skytriker, I imagine someone's done an F-14 model in Joe colors and posted it out there somewhere anyway).

In the meantime though, my passion project remains the figures and their camouflage, so I'll get back to work on those.

[Joeness]

Falcon worshipped his father, a first-generation Green Beret among the original advisors in Southeast Asia. He always dreamed of wearing his dad's tiger stripe and proudly serving his country when he grew up.

Sadly the old man disappeared one day on leave: he ran away with a traveling circus, seduced by the bearded lady. This did not put an end to Falcon's ambition and once he joined the Joes and was allowed to choose his own kit, he dusted off his dad's old cammies and finally realized his dream.

To this day though, Falcon insists on shaving religiously every morning and evening.

[Joeness]

The Conquest X-30. Stretched it, dulled the colors, gave it a paint scheme like the F-16 and shrunk the pilot. I always imagined it being about the size of an F-16 anyway.