The French Foreign Legion

K

Kambei

Enlisted
Nov 28, 2012
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I was researching pulp characters from the 1920/30/40s looking for unique and distinctive characters to turn into customs. I came across Thibaut Corday of the French Foreign Legion. He appeared 21 times in Argosy Magazine in the 1930s in stories by noted pulp writer Theodore Roscoe. I bought an omnibus edition of the first five tales and set out to make a figure immediately.
Not easy to find pictures of the uniform from this period, so I got out my Action Man books and used the pictures of the Foreign Legion outfit as my visual reference. So this custom now fills three niches in my collection: Action Man, Military and Pulp Characters.

This figure went through several running changes as I made him. I was originally going to sculpt the hat from scratch, but then I found a spare Raiders German soldier head with cap peak that was the perfect size for the kepi and sculpted white milliput over the top. The bottom of the coat was more of a problem. In the end, I pulled apart a RoC Storm Shadow figure and used the coat from that. The sash around the middle covers a multitude of sins. I could not find a Lebel rifle in 1:18, so I went with a BBi rifle I got with some accessories. Posing him with the Cairo thugs from Raiders was a no-brainer.







 
K

klausbrazil

klausbrazil
Jun 22, 2011
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São Paulo
That figure is awesome. You should try to find a company to produce it because it would combine perfectly with Idiana Jones figures. As there does not exist any figure of a classic foreign legion soldier I think you would sell a lot of them. Even in case the number of articulations would be reduced in order to reduce production cost.
 
K

Kambei

Enlisted
Nov 28, 2012
53
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0
Thanks guys. Did this slowly over about three weeks, tweaking it as I went along.

Monkeywrench said:
Do you have plans for more?
Click to expand...

Actually, yes, but not Foreign Legion. I have a couple of books about Action Man, where I eventually got the final design for the Legionnaire from. While I was browsing the, I really began regretting getting rid of all of my Action Man figures when I was a teenager. I wish I had kept a few. I started looking at the outfits that were peculiar to AM and not GI Joe. Almost finished two that will be going up this weekend, with a couple of tweaks. I also have some ideas that never made it to actual outfits but I feel should have.
 
G.I.*EDDIE

G.I.*EDDIE

gobbles a LOT of cock
Founder
Mar 14, 2011
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S.E. Mich :(
That looks fantastic!...really like how, even though he has mutable belts and such, that they all lay very nicely against his torso...not too bulky like you might typically see...

Only issue I have is the color variance between his hands and head...though I realize photography can sometimes exaggate that...


Over all, really nice job...
 
K

Kambei

Enlisted
Nov 28, 2012
53
0
0
G.I.*EDDIE said:
That looks fantastic!...really like how, even though he has mutable belts and such, that they all lay very nicely against his torso...not too bulky like you might typically see...

Only issue I have is the color variance between his hands and head...though I realize photography can sometimes exaggate that...


Over all, really nice job...
Click to expand...

I used a couple of layers of vinyl trimline for the straps. Keeps them nice and flat to the body, with bits of model railway ladder for buckles.

Definitely the light with the hands and head. Both painted with the same colour: Vallejo Basic Skintone.
 
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