Subject:
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A familiar uniform on a minifig MOC
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lugnet.announce.moc, lugnet.build.minifigs, lugnet.loc.ca, lugnet.parts.custom, lugnet.parts.mod, lugnet.town
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lugnet.build.minifigs, lugnet.loc.ca, lugnet.parts.custom, lugnet.parts.mod, lugnet.town
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Date:
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Wed, 7 Sep 2005 20:36:33 GMT
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A familiar uniform on a minifig MOC
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Hi everyone.
I thought that some of you might be interested in a recently
completed custom minifig of mine - a member of the Royal Canadian
Mounted Police in dismounted full dress scarlet. Thanks to
images taken at our last meeting by fellow ParLUGment member Paul
Donis, the figure can be seen here:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=140469
As always with my work, all decoration uses acrylic paint, not
computer-generated stickers or transfers. The custom work was
given a protective topcoat of acrylic polyurethane varnish.
Beyond the figure itself, there are a couple of things that might
be of more general interest. First, as usual, I've painted on
all the sides of the pieces, not just the fronts. With the RCMP
uniform, this is especially important to get the characteristic
yellow "cavalry-style" stripes worn by the force. Oddly enough,
I still avoid painting the sides/back of any Lego head intended
to wear a hat. It just doesn't seem "Lego-like" to me, somehow.
[1] Other people may have different ideas, of course!
Mention of hats leads me to the other significant item - the
custom hat my Mountie wears. It's best shown (along with the
standard Lego element, the adventurer's hat) in Paul's third
image. The flat brim was built up with epoxy putty over a paper
and wire skeleton, using the techniques described in my earlier
Lugnet posting on making custom elements.
For this MOC, the adventurer's hat had to have the upturned part
of its brim cut away (along with the adjacent socket for a Lego
plume). The remaining (flat) part of the brim was sanded away
from _below_ until it was only about a third of its original
thickness.[2] A doughnut-shaped piece of thin paper was then
glued on (once again, from _below_) with epoxy glue to form a
skeleton for the new flat brim. The interior hole in the paper
skeleton was made the same size as a Lego head, and lined up with
the hole in the underside of the original Lego hat.
Once the glue had cured, two short lengths of wire reinforcement
were epoxied to the bottom of the paper skeleton. They were
placed so that they projected from below the remaining part of
the original brim out into the area where the paper skeleton was
unsupported from above. Soft, fine-gauge iron wire taken from
the centre of a twist-tie was used to make these reinforcements.
Once the glue holding the wire to the paper was cured, a final
thin layer of epoxy glue was spread over all visible faces of the
paper skeleton. This soaked in to the paper, making it stronger
and easier to sand.
Once again there was a wait for curing to take place. After
this, some epoxy _putty_ was mixed up. This was then used to
build up the thickness of the new hat brim. For the most part,
the putty was only added below the paper skeleton, but in the
part of the hat where the original upturned Lego brim had been
cut away, putty was added above the skeleton as well.
After (no surprise...) waiting for the epoxy putty to cure, work
with wet and dry sandpaper (used wet - epoxy dust is Highly
Toxic, so never dry-sand any epoxy resin, glue or putty) soon put
a smooth and level finish on the new brim. You have to look
quite carefully on my custom hat to see where the old (plastic)
brim ends and the new (composite) one begins.
A final bit of putty work was needed to fill in the partial
remains of the plume socket on the hat's crown, along with some
creation/restoration work to make sure the hatband went smoothly
all the way around the crown of the custom hat. A bit of work
with sandpaper was needed here too in order to get a smooth Lego-
like finish.
At this stage, I had a custom hat that looked pretty odd - it was
two-tone! Not at all the thing to wear while Getting Your Man in
the wilds of the Yukon (or a Hollywood back lot). To best match
the colour of the real-life RCMP stetsons, I repainted the whole
of my custom hat in an approximation of Lego's new dark tan
shade.[3] A bit more work with a brush made the hatband a dark
brown.
Well, there you have them - the secrets (such as they are) behind
my Lego version of the RCMP. Feel free to make your own version
and re-enact the adventures of Constable Fraser in the badlands
"due south" of the Dominion[4], or add a sergeant's stripes and
your version of Sergeant Renfrew of the Mounted can regain
consciousness (in his lonely log cabin[5]). And don't forget
that lots of other uniformed personnel wear a flat-brimmed
stetson - park rangers from Jellystone National Park, troopers
from various State highway patrols, the Ontario Provincial Police
and the drill instructors of U.S. Marine Corps all spring to mind
as possible candidates to wear such customs.
I'd be delighted to hear of anyone who creates figures of their
own inspired by my version.[6] After all, it was seeing Janey
Redbrick's ABS version of the Musical Ride last year that
eventually motivated me to create my own Really Condensed Minifig
Policeman. I hope someone out there is similarly affected.
Regards,
Norbert Black
[1] This hat+painted hair taboo is just about the only one I
have left from the standard Lego minifigure aesthetic.
I've painted all over hatless heads (as seen, for
instance, on the Spiderman figure displayed in my
nhblack Brickshelf account), and torsos, legs, hips,
etc. are all fair game on every surface.
[2] The thickness was reduced so that the eventual built up
sandwich of (from top to bottom) thinned Lego brim +
paper skeleton + epoxy putty was no thicker than the
original Lego brim.
[3] I say approximation since I still don't own any pieces in
this colour. One day, though, one day... :)
[4] Now that Lego makes a wolf element, you can even have a
pretty good representation of his dog Diefenbaker!
[5] On the 28th floor of Mountie Headquarters, natch. Bless the
Royal Canadian Airfarce for years of radio listening
enjoyment!
[6] And yes, I _am_ mercenary enough to make you a version too
if asked... ;)
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