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 Author  Topic: Late weigh in on possible South Pacific figures kit.
Blake

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of Blake   Send Email To Blake Posted on: May 8, 2009 - 9:25am
Before I begin my novel...
Another WWII Veteran has passed into eternity. I'm sorry to have missed the original posting about the possibility of a South Pacific crew figure set, but my father in law passed away & we were out of town for his funeral. He was a plane captain, maint. chief on that beautiful bent wing Navy bird the Corsair! he was 82 (he lied about his age & enlisted at 15) he was a great guy!
Just the thought of a kit like this even being a possibility makes me have to weigh in on the discussion. While building my diorama & 488 boat(Italeri) I've been casually watching for items to create casual S. Pacific figures for my project. I tend to over engineer things & even with that bent I'm not finding much, or looking forward to having to create figures.
Personally I'd love to see a casual South Pacific set. Helmets can be had in a lot of Tamiya 1/35 sets , so aren't that hard to add & although I haven't done it, I don't think life jackets would be that hard to make either.
HOWEVER...
removing those things from figures is a royal pain in the backside! Helmeted heads are pretty much a lost cause & need replaced & my result from trying to remove a life jacket has been a pudgy ill defined torso, not the lean(read starved looking) appearance that has been discussed here so many times. That said I'm all for a casual half dressed crew set. Going through my uncle's pictures, what I see is very common with all the pics that have already been posted with this thread. Really the only things I would add are:
1. When guys were wearing button up shirts, they seemed to always be un-buttoned down to about the last 2 buttons & the sleeves are either short, rolled up to mid-bicep, or missing altogether!
2. Shorts were worn a lot higher on the waist than we see today covering up the belly button in most cases, & sometimes showing the pocket material hanging down longer than the hem area of the leg.
3. Boots, or the boondockers seemed to be the order of the day.
4. The flimsy olive drab caps with bills turned up & worn skewed were everywhere!
Poses are a whole different subject & I'm sure would differ from person to person. Just some ideas I've had for my boat are:
Figures kneeling & performing maint. on say a torpedo rack, or smoke generator etc. Also gun maint. would be useful too, since that's really what these boats were all about! Figures sitting, visiting, reading the mail, maybe one leg crossed over the other. or one foot rested on the other knee. A guy or 2 holding & looking at his/their dinner plate(s) trying to figure out how to get through this latest serving of fried Spam & powdered eggs drowned in syrup! I'm also on the lookout for a figure to possibly use as sitting & fishing off the back of the boat with a bamboo pole. Figures entering & exiting hatches is something else I'd like to see since Italeri was kind enough to provide separate hatch covers. Like I said the possibilities are endless & these are just some ideas I've had while planning my boat & diorama.
Sorry for such a long post, but it's been a few weeks since I've posted, so I have to make up for lost time!
Blake

Total Posts: 61 | Joined: Apr 18, 2008 - 2:44pm | IP Logged

  FRANK

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of FRANK  Posted on: May 8, 2009 - 11:41am
Hiya Blake-

Yes SIR- I like your style for those figures! I like going the frugal route and I convert my own, BUT I'm always out there looking for some very nice detailed figures.
Tropicalized figures are nil! It's about time these model companies start making something for the South Pacific!
I love the idea of a crewman looking at his plate of food and wondering what the heck cookie made this time 'round.

Frank Ryczek, Jr.
Modeler/Friend RON-10 PT-169 " ZEBRA SNAFU "


HIGH TIDES ALWAYS!

YOUR FRIEND THROUGH SCALE SHIP MODELING AND PT BOAT HISTORY!

Total Posts: 349 | Joined: Oct 7, 2007 - 2:09pm | IP Logged


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