The Art of War

Time to Meet the Soldier.

"If fighting will bring you victory, then you must fight!"

"Sun Tsu said that, and I think he knows a little bit more about fighting than you do pal, because he invented it! And then he perfected it, so no man could best him in the ring of honor."

"Then he took his fight money and bought two of every animal. Then he herded them onto a boat."

"And then he beat the crap out of every one of them!"

"That's why whenever animals are gathered together, it's called a zoo!"

"Unless it's a farm!"

"MAGGOTS!"

The helmet needs primer. Acrylic hates bare plastic. Once I get more stuff to paint, I'll finish the rocket launcher and grenades.

More Team Fortress 2 Medic Figure Updates

Well, here it is. The Blutsauger. I've only had the medigun made so far for the Medic, and a scaled ubersaw for Hotaru to mess with. With a new ubersaw and the blutsauger scaled for the Medic figure, I now have the weapons I preferentially am using for the primary/secondary/melee slots. The default syringe gun is actually more annoying, with the clear canister and needles inside, so the blutsauger made for an easier build. The top cylinder is one single revolved object, and the bottom is made of several layers of MtG laminates with a bamboo skewer frame. Think of it like a canvas, with wood holding up a cloth. This added to the structural integrity of the bottom, allowing for a less flaccid frame. (Man, it's fun to use "flaccid" to describe things)

HAHAHA! Oktoberfest!

To ensure a good fit, I scaled the Team Fortress 2 wiki's blutsauger image by about 70% so the handle width was 6mm. From there, schematics were easy to draft. Painting consisted of acrylics (as usual), with varying shades of black/grey for the individual elements. The little green elements required a mix of black+white+green in a ratio of about 1:7:1. The red is unaltered from stock.

This is the properly scaled ubersaw. It's quite large. This one was made with MtG laminates with a rolled 100lb cardstock cylinder surrounding the needle for a home inkjet replacement kit. It makes for a better appearance than a wire. This time, I used red paint mixed with brown to get a dried blood color.

Vould you like a zecond oopinion? Yes, I ended up making both saws. Now time for some fun with the saws.

Za healing is not as wewarding as za hurting.

Did zat sting? Sowry!

Due to the limited poseability of the Medic's rubber fingers, the handle holes are larger than normal to fit all four fingers than just three. However, this lets other 1:6 scale dolls and figures use the saws.

Team Fortress 2 Medic action figure! (more like a doll, but hey, it's a MANLY doll!)

Rubber needs special paint with plastics in it to stick. Well, I don't have that, so painting on acrylic then coating it with a layer of glue as a "varnish" works just as well. The gloves were extended using a piece of painted 110lb cardstock. Cheaply done, but it's removable so I can repair anything that may go wrong during the Medic's short, short expected lifespan. The armbands are laminated pieces of paper, glued onto the sleeves. Nothing special there.

I made the bonesaw larger than it should be to accommodate for the lack of figure glove dexterity. All four fingers fit in the handle, whereas only 3 should fit in the lower, larger hole. It however makes for a menacing saw. The game model seems to have a rather long and large bonesaw anyways.
Other things worth mentioning is the addition of semi funcitonal belt pouches. They have crudely made flaps that tuck in and can hold some magazines, spare needles, spare limbs, and whatever else a medic finds on a battlefield. More pics at the photobucket.

EDIT:
I've since redone the Medic head so it looks less "Fugly". The older head has been mailed to Canada for safekeeping/disposal.

I am ze Ubermensch!

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.

I am ze uberfraulein!

Oh, look at mein new weapon, ze uberzaw. Here, eet izn't properly painted wit ze correct colors. I made eet wit ze Magic cards.
Here I am wit ze uberzaw zat eez properly painted. Ze blut on ze blade does not zhow up as much as I want eet to. Mein master did not buy ze proper red paint for ze blood. Zere is only von vay to get blut on mein uberzaw.

UND ZAT IS BY STABBING!

SCHNELL! COME GET IT!