Customising the Sideshow 12" Indiana Jones figure - part 3

...continued. (as always click the pictures for larger versions)

After a test fit, I realised that because of the extra thickness of the primer, paint and varnish... the bottom of the neck was rubbing against the inside of the neck socket, causing this to happen....





...so I took the head off again, and dremelled out the inside of the socket a bit, allowing some more space for poses. (but I still have to be careful aboutt he neck hitting the sharp edges of the body, this will peel the paint off if I'm not careful)



Because of the added thickness to the waist, the belt prong/hole no longer works, so I cut off the prong, and shaved down the thickness of the buckle, and glued it firm to the belt, creating a flatter, more scale-correct look.





This was mostly it for the clothes, I snipped off some loose threads on the shirt, and after some clothes adjusting it looks quite good and in scale. (even if I do think the head is *slightly* too large for this body. (or the body is too small for the head - however I still think that the Hot Toys body is far too wide in the shoulders, this sits much more naturally... so I can overlook it easily!)

Finally (until I add some dust/sand, and glue down the fabric to the body to have it hang better... but this is just a small touch that nobody else would notice anyway) .....I realised that the jacket collars were far too long and pointy, so I cut them to the right length and shape, and (because there were now two loose edges of fabric showing) I glued them together.





I wanted to be able to 'pose' the leather collars, so I had the idea or adding wire somehow... so I took these small twisty tie things that you get with sandwich bags



I cut a piece to the right length, and glued it under the collar, using a glue that stays flexible and rubber-like when it's set.



Annoyingly this didn't work as the glue wouldnt stick to the jacket. It just kept peeling off. So i wanted to figure out a way to get wire into the collar... but didn't think i'd be able to as I'd already glued my collar closed along the edges where i'd cut and reshaped it.

Then I figured somewhere it might work, if only the wire would be able to be fed in. So I stripped a piece of the thin wire out of the plastic of the twisty tie, and woohoo... it could (just about!) be fed into the very leading edge of the collar, behind the stitching.

This lets me pose the collar in any shape I like. (a small detail I know, but for me it's the kind of thing that lets me get closer to how something looks on screen)





Then I glued the collar down to the jacket, giving the shape I wanted.



I cut the corner off part of the shirt near the collars that was too big and square (it's in fact completely the wrong shape, the same with the collar on the jacket... but doing this would give the impression that it was a bit closer to the right shape and size) and glued the edge to stop it from fraying





The shirt was glued to the shoulders, in order to stop the shirt riding up too high on the neck, which makes his shoulders look more slope-y and slim than they already are

Also this would mean I wouldn't have to faff around with the shirt so much getting it to look right.



Finally I put it all together. (I havent weathered the jacket yet... I'll get around to that when I have some time, but at least the figure is in one piece again, and I can weather and dust up the jacket while it's on him anyway)









...so there you have it. My completed (apart from when I weather and dust up the jacket) Sideshow Indiana Jones custom.

Darren