HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Happy New Year Everybody!



The past year has been a time of change for me in many ways... being positive I am going to say that all but a few were good, some bittersweet, and maybe only one or two bad. These events have given me a new outlook on things and truly made me understand "Carpe diem" for all aspects of my life. Since this blog only covers one of those aspects, I shall espouse what applies to it.

At any one time I generally have 1000 ideas running through my head of projects I would like to do in 1/6, however many of them tend to not leave the notepad of my mind and that is something I want to change. In general I have found that I have befallen the usual cop out of "life getting in the way" but when you actually pay attention to what is going on around you, you find that it is just a cop out in many cases. We all have many things going on in our lives, but I have seen plenty of people who if they want to do something, they do it, they make time, etc... And I strive to be one of those people. So this year I have several projects that I really want to get done.

Upgrade and completion of Gillian's apartment & work on other set pieces - While making Gillian's apartment I learned a few things that needed to be improved. I will be chronicling those upgrades and how I will use them for future sets here on the blog as well as via some Youtube videos.

Restoring the POSSE - Pennsylvania Organization of Sixth Scale Enthusiasts - A local group of hobbyists based generally out of the Philadelphia area that I have run in the past. I have let the group rather languish over the past several years, but sometime around November I popped back into the group and started up some activity again and I am hoping that the interest continues and I can get this group back to active local participation as well as participation from members from all over through a variety of means in conjunction with my blog and other social media plans throughout this year. You can check out more about POSSE here.

Youtube - CSG Tutorials - As I mentioned, one of the ways I would like to bolster participation and sharing of the hobby through social media is via Youtube. I do tutorials here on my blog, but after seeing the huge community for miniature wargaming (that I used to very big into prior to 1/6) and model building in general, I felt it would be good to use that for my tutorials and just following projects in general. I have started with less than amazing tutorial on Youtube about 3 months ago in which I recorded myself working on a repaint of a Monster High doll custom for a friend. I didn't particularly share it here as yet because it was Monster High for one, which isn't really a main focus of my works (despite the more I see the creativity in their character designs, I keep getting ideas of my own to try just for the heck of it)... but moving on... those videos in the space of a couple months via Youtube have garnered many subscribers and views. If anyone is interested in checking out the videos you can go here. So as the months progress I am going to work on better tutorials and other things on Youtube (once I get my new camera) so I'll keep everyone posted on those.

Scratchbuilt Mecha - As I have mentioned in previous posts that for a while now I have wanted to build some sort of piloted mecha in 1/6. I am rather partial to Ashley Wood's WWR robot stylings as well as other influences such as my love for the Metal Slug series of video games, so I would like to take from a few inspirational sources and build something and the accompanying pilot for it. The mecha most likely won't be much larger than around 36" tall as I'd like to keep it reasonably for space considerations. I already have my ideas for pilot though. The base of the pilot is going to be a Hot Toys Resident Evil Sheva Alomar headsculpt on an ethnic skin tone Cy Girl clone body.

With these mentioned items being my primary goals in 1/6 for this year, I will of course update the progress of these projects as well as add new ones as others get completed.

So I want to thank everyone who has followed my blog since it's start and I look forward to your continued support and following in the future and hope to keep offering you all something of interest.

SG

TOP TEN OF 2011

Hey Everybody,

It's time to recap what I think are the best things in 1/6 that I have gotten over the past year. I had mentioned before that this year I haven't bought many complete boxed items so this list is primarily a listing of loose items purchased throughout the year.

#10 - The Return of OJI Part I. - This listing is sort of a double listing. A few months back Old Joe Infirmary returned to the 1/6 scene and started selling loose parts once more. The Best part of this for me being that they had items from their "Fembasix" apparel line. For those who don't know, the Fembasix line was a small assortment of high quality and extremely reasonable priced lycra / spandex clothing items and some molded items. So for part I of this double listing, I am covering the lycra / spandex items.

They offer a couple different items, Their solid color pantyhose / tights, sleeveless bodysuit, and long sleeve leotard. These items come in a variety of colors, are great quality, and the $4 pricetag can't be beat. They make fantastic items for either super hero customs or in general just for wear individually or under other items to compliment... as seen in these pictures below of Gillian's spy girl "Noire" ensemble using a gunmetal grey sleeveless bodysuit under her Dollsfigure outfit (my #10 item from last year.)

Here is Gillian showing off a pair of the pantyhose / tights for just lounging around in.



These tights also look amazing if you take Takara CG style bootfeet and place them together over the pantyhose making like stocking boots.



#9 - The Return of OJI Part II. - This second half of my OJI listing is the molded items. Primarily their previously unreleased Goth / Bike boots. These are basic molded rubber boots. They have amazing detail and by far blow Triad's biker style boots out of the water. The tread  and buckle detailing is fantastic and just makes for an overall fantastic sculpt. As you can see, I paired these up as well with Gillian's "Noire" ensemble and they look quite nice IMHO.





I hope that OJI brings back more of their Fembasix molded items such as the bare feet they used to offer which were simply amazing sculpts.

#8- ACI Military Shirt and Cargo Pants sets. - These were an item I was very happy to have gotten. They were high quality 5.11 styled clothing items in a variety of colors. Certainly expanded my mini me's wardrobe... making it match my 1:1 wardrobe.



You can check out more regarding these sets from my post earlier this year here.

#7- Sideshow Toys G.I.JOE: RAH Beachhead Crossbow. - This was another piece from one of Sideshow's G.I.JOE line. It is a modernized tactical crossbow. It comes with a removable bow section and a MOLLE mountable quiver with 5 removable bolts.



Now I personally recommend that if you have one available or that you pick one up off Ebay, that you add a ZC Girl / World scope to the weapon. I used a spare ZC Girl Desert Eagle scope and it's rail mount fits the crossbow perfectly and really accents it nicely.



#6- Sideshow Toys G.I. JOE: RAH Stalker Khukri knife. - This is a really nice piece that came with the RAH Stalker figure. I nice modern styled Khukri knife in a kydex sheath.



I picked up a couple of these, a pair of them went to use on my one custom version of Gillian for her post apocalypse styled ensemble and were laced onto her harness.



#5- TTL SS Girl V 2.0 Long Hair Headsculpt. - Repainted by myself for a sci fi WIP character "Erin".





#4- TTL Short Hair Female Headsculpt. - Repainted by myself for another sci fi WIP character: "Thessica".







#3 - Sideshow Toys G.I. JOE: RAH "Nalgene" style water bottle. - These miniature water bottles are quite the work of art. Expecting to have just gotten a bottle with a pop off lid, I was happy to find that it does actually screw on, and on top of that has the sipping insert in the neck of the bottle.



Since canteens are very old school now and the majority of hydration for sports and military today is either via hydration packs or these style of bottle, I definitely wanted to get myself some.

#2 - Hot Toys Spiderman New Goblin Sword Set. - Whilst I am not a huge fan of licensed figures, I often choose to get loose items from certain figures due to a style or design that I like. This was the case with the Hot Toys New Goblin. The swords the figure comes with (3) are all the same style handle, but the blades are varying lengths... which made them perfect for using as a sci fi / fantasy blade that starts out short and can change it's shape into a full length katana... so I picked up two sets of the blades so that one of Gillian's characters could have such a pair of magical / mystical blades.



Small


Medium


Large


#1- Custom Silk Couch by Corsetkitten - Gillian's apartment living room just recently got furnished with a fantastic silk upholstered couch that I received from Corsetkitten :) This piece really has helped a lot in giving me more than one set using my setup and was a great housewarming gift for Gillian ;)





So that is my top ten for 2011. Again, whilst I cut back this year, I found myself doing more with what I did have and limiting myself to items that I knew were going to be put to use rather than just sit in bins like so much other of my 1/6th.

Thanks for following.