This week's project before starting work: making a 1:6 scale medic action figure/doll from Team Fortress 2. There's surprisingly some interest in having fully articulated Team Fortress 2 figures or whatnot, and Valve says for the same money used to make figures, they could make a new game. So why not try my hand at making one?
I already had the medigun made, along with other random weapons from TF2. As a base, I used the $8
Soldiers of the World figure I bought at KB Toys. Stitched new black pants (The real color's a bit red, but I didn't have that. Black will suffice), made a coat, shirt and tie.
The next stage was to make the backpack, otherwise the figure looks like a generic doctor/flasher with a giant pipe. As usual, Magic: The Gathering cards were sacrificed for my cause. Farewell Ronom Hulk and Rimewind Trademaster, you served me well for the backpack frame. The other round elements are completely cardstock rolls. The giant canister on the left is mostly hollow, capped by two cone fustrums.
(Edit: man, that looks really horrible in retrospect)
The red consists of one part Napthol Crimson with about 2-3 parts white. A sticker handles the medic cross, coated by a layer of packaging tape. Each stripe on the electrical coils are edges of a Magic: The Gathering card, cut half the thickness then curled around. Parts were painted then assembled.
The finished backpack and existing medigun.
The head sculpt required some planning and work. I chose regular Sculpey than Super Sculpey, since it was cheaper. The head sculpt took 2.5 hours to make, and I'll admit, it's 110% as large as I'd like. Should've checked before baking, but it's done now.
Here's some handy info regarding sculpey hardening. On a related note, it does not give off toxic fumes (as far as I know) when baking. Paint coating consists of 2 parts portrait tone Tri Art Acrylic, about 5-6 parts white, and 1 part burnt sienna. Random combination, but I do all my paint mixing arbitrarily. Worked so far.
This is the preliminary prototype for the Medic.
Glasses were made by drawing them out on a layer of clamshell packaging with a regular sharpie. Leave enough thickness to allow for cutting and bending errors so they don't snap in half or tear. I'll get working on the finer details later, with a hopeful finish date within next week.