I posted a similair thing in diorama talk, but maybe you guys in here can help ? I plan to make a scene from Blackhawk Down and need civillians (the skinnies as their called in the film) to fire down on the convoy but have no idea how to do it, any ideas guys?
Kenny.

This article should help you.

http://home.planet.nl/~klink244/mcr.htm

You could use hands and feet from spare figures.
Hornet, Verlinden and Warriors all have hand sets.
Hornet has bare African Heads.
Tamiya, Dragon and others have weapons sets.
These products can be viewed at this site.

http://www.greatmodels.com/

Good luck. It sounds like a great dio you have planned

Hi Charles,
thanx for the link, but boy does he make it look easy. I'll give it a try and see how I get on. I cant wait to get started to this diorama. I'm sure it'll take some doing scratchbuilding a roof full of civillians raining fire down on the convoy. My friend has a digital camera so I plan to keep detail of all the work involved.
Regards, Kenny.

I wish I could be half as good as he is

I know. Me to #:-)

Stormin - don't let the fact that you haven't done a technique stop you from trying it.
In the winter campaign there were so many firsts they are hard to count. 1st snow, 1st pouring of plaster for urban settings, 1st scatch built ____ (fill in the black). 1st contest.

My recommendation - Just try it, your skill will be better for it.

Get some railroad people, and paint them dark brown or black to represent the somalian people. Its just an idea.

~Chip

Excuse my sad, sad sense of humour but why not get some military figures and court martial them?

Seriously though, slodder is right on. If you dont try a new technique you will never become expert at it. I have never tried figures but surely the only difference between a military figure and a civilian is the clothing and that can be changed with a knife, abrasives and putty.

Give it a go, you never know till you try..

Regards Dave :-)

First there a plenty of "civilians" available from Custom Dio, ADV, SOL, and other vendors... but most are in re$in... to save money, I often take the plastic figures cheaply availalbe from the like of Tamiya and DML and convert them. I "shave off" military distinctions like epualets, field pockets, rank insignia, etc., then use tin-foil, cloth, or most often, milliput to resculpt features desired. I once took a soldier standing at attention and turned him into a female bystander wearing a dress and sun hat! (I hear in San Francisco, this is actually quite common - and requires no milliput!).

Give it a try! Expand your reach... figures are CHEAP and if you make a mistake or two - so what?! Have fun and learn more with each attempt!

With enough patience, practice and a bit of Milliputt, just about anything is possible.

I once knew a guy up in Alaska who did a "Conan the Barbarian" type fantasy diorama, complete with muscle-bound hero, several attacking (and dead) evil clerics, and a scantily-clad buxom damsel in distress. When we quizzed him about where he got the figures, he revealed that they had all started out as figures from the old Tamiya Desert Rats and 25-pounder gun crew sets! He had carved them, puttied them, sanded and shaped them until he got the figures he wanted.

He apparently enjoyed changing the sex of figures so much that a few months later he came in with a Vietnam USO tour dio -- complete with several leggy and busty dancers and singers. Truly amazing.

Hi Guys,
many, many thanx for all the input I will try out these ideas, though not all at one time. I knew people here could answer my questions.
Kenny.
#:-)

Ok - I was forced to convert and create a civilian for SPLASH.

I did exactally what Keith mentioned
Before


After (guy on the left)


You cant see the sandles - but I shaved and scuplted the boots into sandles right down to toes. The guy is a Cheap Testors figure, cost me like 30 cents or something.

Hello!

Is that an Afrika Korps infantryman figure? (first picture) Just wondering... It's wearing a beret... I guess not...

Anyway, good luck with your "Black Hawk Down" scene!

And most likely, those "skinnies" would be armed with an AK-47, or a Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG)....If you have that German Rifle (I forgot what it's name...) that has a big resemblance to an AK-47, you could just modify it a little...

Or you could scratch build the rifles using other surplus parts...

Good Luck again!

Hope you finish it real soon!