Soldiers of the Underworld

These are some 12" GI Joe customizations... Most were in pretty bad shape, so I said "what the heck!" It began as an attempt to recreate my long-lost childhood collection, and since I couldn't afford to pay $250 for a stock Hasbro German soldier, I decided to try making my own... At first, I tried to adapt the existing uniforms that I had, and eventually I had to bite the bullet and (gulp) learn to sew. As part of this effort, I got my first experience in sculpting, using FIMO to do the medals and a few accessories. While it was fun doing the research for these guys, I ended up taking a "Comics/Hollywood" approach, simply because it was fun (and easier)... Hmmmmm... I only had two Joes when I was a kid-- where did all these other guys come from???

Soldiers of the Underworld: Failure at Nuremburg, "Da Debbil Made Me Do It..."
Ok, Debbil-woman started life as a kind of "Ilsa, She-Wolf of the SS", (below) and eventually grew (flapping-action!) wings, a pair of horns and a tail. She looked pretty cool in a uniform too, back when she actually had eyeballs...

An ooooold picture... Debbil-woman's first uniform. Later, she got a more realistic leather cap & Greatcoat over a more traditional style uniform. Many headswaps later, "Patch" became the fraulein shown below (with a wig, without the moustache, body reconstruction & a total repaint!)

Soldiers of Hollywood: The medals, belt buckles, canteen & ammo pouches are made of FIMO, a very stiff polymer clay. Some "embroidered" decorations were created on computer, reduced, laserprinted & touched up with acrylic paint. The straps for the belts & harnesses were made of scrap vinyl, using bent guitar wire to form the D-clips and buckles. The potato mashers were made from the rollers in audio cassettes with wooden handles whittled from the dowels that they give you with those pre-fabricated bookshelves. (Sorry, the end-caps do not screw on.)

More Soldiers of Hollywood: Most of the heads were taken from the recent "Hall of Fame" line, and only needed a little bit of "weathering". This means giving them "five o'clock shadows" by brushing on shaved pastel chalk powder. I noticed that "Grunt" made a very good "Vic Morrow", and the guy behind him is a "Luke Perry" from "Beverly Hills 90210". A few other heads were sanded down & puttied up a bit and painted with acrylic. Obviously, the female figures needed the most work, and their bodies were extensively shaved & puttied to redistribute "the good stuff" (heh, heh).

Fun with Forced Perspective: Okay, this isn't entirely convincing because of the shadows and the fact that I've got the 1:35 scale Tiger sitting on top of an n-scale building. It would be great to build an in-scale tank, but I've never had the real estate to devote to such an endeavor. In fact, I'm kind of limited in my photography options here-- I don't have very many wide open spaces as it is!

I actually found a reasonably priced Hasbro Nihongo-Jo outfit, and all I had to do was make his belt, gun, and a few other things. It sort of looks like what it should look like... In my opinion, the Hollywood Germans had the snazziest outfits though...

Soldiers of the Underworld

An ooooold picture... Debbil-woman's first uniform. Later, she got a more realistic leather cap & Greatcoat over a more traditional style uniform. Many headswaps later, "Patch" became the fraulein shown below (with a wig, without the moustache, body reconstruction & a total repaint!)

I actually found a reasonably priced Hasbro Nihongo-Jo outfit, and all I had to do was make his belt, gun, and a few other things. It sort of looks like what it should look like... In my opinion, the Hollywood Germans had the snazziest outfits though...

Last modified: Saturday, January 6, 2001 6:20 PM