Golgo 13 Suits Up

Rather than sew a terrible suit, I went the easy route and bought a grey suit off toysity. Suit cost me $15 with $15 shipping, adding another $30 to the overall cost of Golgo 13. I'm starting to understand why the Hot Toys Golgo 13 cost $220+. The suit Hot Toys has is pretty obscenely detailed and well done compared to anything else out there.

 The suit set comes with a black shirt, red tie and some very forgiving and flexible shoes. I wanted to get a white suit/black shirt/white tie, but they didn't have plain white suits that looked good. Or white suits in general.

 The suit offers a good range of freedom, combined with the joints of the Dragon Neo 3 Body. However, it should be noted that either the body has rather beefy arms or the suit's really designed for our elbow-challenged non-combatant, Ken. The arms are a rather tight fit.

The pants have pockets and belt loops, which was nice. No belt though, but not complaining. The pants were a tight fit at the waist, with or without the shirt tucked in. May be a bit of a problem if I decide to give Golgo 13 underwear too. The shirt, coat and pants fasten with plastic clasps; no Velcro here. That makes for a clean look, but a very unforgiving fit. Unfortunately, I can't fully put his hand into the pants pocket for his casual pose.

 I can however, hide the fact that I can't by covering his hand with the suit.

 I finally bothered painting the case. Mechanically, I'm happy with it, but it's still large and not a discrete means of transporting an M16. I may try making another variant with the parts angled about for minimum volume and surface area.

 Overall, I'm happy with the suit, despite it not being lined on the inside. For $14, it's ok, but for $30, I'd at least want some extra slack on the waist and a belt. I could have gone the crazy route and bought a $60 suit from Saturday Toys, but I was going for cheap Golgo, not "same price for an inferior product". Right now, we're at $104 for "Golgo 13 for Under $130". The Saturday Toys suit would have made that goal a fail, at $134. And that's without a trench coat too.

 I'm also missing a .38 revolver. Duke Togo will have to make do with a .55+ caliber Ambassador! Not quite an easily concealed revolver, but it'll have to do. I'll have to build a proper revolver, knife and sheath/holster later.Until then, we can now make Duke Togo do completely un-canon acts for our own amusement.

 Hooray for the terrible idea of using my monitor as a backdrop! Duke is not impressed.

What if we had Golgo 13 snipe people with bunny ears?

Golgo 13 does not approve. I wonder if that could be imposed as a job requirement if you hire him.

 

Fortunately, where Hotaru fails, the mighty hand of J.Norad can force Golgo to do anything.

This Week's Project: Golgo 13's Rifle Case

I've actually had this project completed last week. I've just been apathetic to finish up the M16A2 first.

Anyways, each Golgo 13 figure has had the M16 rifle stored in a case. I opted to replicate the Hot Toys version since it best fit the layout for the M16A2. Skynet's version is smaller, but I didn't like how the inside was arranged.

Figure 1: Hot Toys' case (top), Skynet's case (bottom)

I like my cases laid out orderly, with none of this "diagonal part orientation" business. 

There's no point posting the sketches I used to build this case, since they're useless and indecipherable to you; not to mention you're totally not going to build this out of Magic: the Gathering cards.

First, we need to construct the two halves of the case. I did my best to size up the Hot Toys' case to my rifle dimensions, and ended up with a 100mmx50mm case interior with an interior depth of about 22mm. I made the bottom half 13mm deep and the top 9mm deep. Since the footpath of the case is larger than the face of one Magic card, I had to make some extended sheets, featured on the left. This does leave a crease in the face where the two cards join, so we'll need to fix that later. For now, I made both sides 4 cards thick.

To make the walls, I did the same technique as I did with the guitar. I laminated strips around the case backs and taped them down as the glue dried. Since there's a lip where the two case halves meet (it's there to help hold the case together when closed), I made the interior wall 2 cards thick and 1mm off from the remaining 2 outer layers. This gave me a 12mm interior wall height and a 13mm outer wall height for the lower case, and a 10mm inner/9mm outer for the top. After these dried, I glued them to the case backs. I added another sheet to the case backs to overlap the wall edges to help hold the two sides together and to hide the edges.

I did a layout check with the parts to see how they'd look inside. I had determined the layout before drafting the case dimensions, because the reverse order is just a bad idea.

For hinges, I used some Loc-Tite bonded printer paper rolls, made around a paper clip. Each half would be glued to the flat sloped pieces, forming the hinge attachment points. The hinges aren't very strong, but with enough Loc-Tite, they can become stronger. I had some issues getting them to stay on securely, even with notching a groove into the cylinders to better mate with the hinge plates.

For the handle, I stacked 12 cards together and hacked away until they formed a decent looking handle. I used more Loc-Tite to roll up the hinge parts (if you use Elmer's or anything that doesn't form a more solid, plastic bond, the hinges will slowly decay over use). The attachment points were some small wedges of 12 Magic cards with a slight groove cut into them to better stick with the hinge parts.

To handle the seams that resulted from gluing two cards together to make one larger surface, I covered the entire case with a single sheet of 110lb cardstock. I tried printer paper, but I had quality problems with the glue not spreading evenly, resulting in air pockets. 110lb cardstock was more forgiving in spreading the glue without tearing. I cut out sections in the side sheets to allow the hinges to be glued directly onto the case walls without fear of the lower strength paper cover tearing off first.

For the feet, I just cut some 3.175mm diameter (1/8") bamboo sticks about 3mm tall.

Naturally, the rifle case has latches or something to hold it together. Since I'm not happy unless there's some absurd detail added to my stuff, I opted for working latches. Bit of a problem due to the small design space. I made some 2mm diameter hinges around a paper clip, attached to a plate made of two Magic cards bonded with Loc-Tite. This is important, since it'll deform and bend quicker if any other glue was used. Practically makes the hinge plastic.

The hinges swing open enough to clear the pin holes I made to secure the latches together. To lock the latches in, I drilled a 1/16" diameter hole into the latch and the latch plate, and glued a 2mm long paper clip into the latch. The paper clip fits securely into the bottom case plate, and doesn't move easily. It only needs to hold the case shut, not support a massive load, so this solution worked fine.

Here's a better view of the latch. I used a Dremel to sand down the paper clip tip to make it flush with the latch.

To fit all the parts into the rifle case, I needed some foam. I bought a sheet from a craft store for $0.99, which was enough to line about 5 cases. I chose black instead of red since I liked a black lining better. The deep red from the Hot Toys case wasn't a color I could easily get at the craft store anyways. I can use the black foam for other things too. I traced out each part onto the foam, and cut them away with an X-Acto knife. There was a few rough edges after cutting, but they're only noticeable with all the parts extracted. I did my best to smoothen it out by trimming. Didn't work that well, but it was acceptable.

For the M16A2, I finally painted the rifle and all the components. I also finished up the two magazines and added a bullet to the top of each mag. The bullets were made by carving a bamboo stick until it somewhat resembled a 5.56 round. I replicated the 20 round mags from the Skynet rifle, since that was the only one I had a decent photo of for a size comparison. The magazine grip grooves were done by cutting V shaped grooves with a knife, and run about 75% of a Magic card's thickness deep.

Instead of choosing to do what Hot Toys did and make Golgo 13 have the option of assembling the rounder triangular M16A1 grip along with the M16A2 grip, I went for a silencer/suppressor. The second grip option made no sense to me since it would just be a M16A2 receiver with a different hand guard. I'd still know that it wasn't truly what it was supposed to look like and it would annoy me. I also found it odd how neither set gave him a suppressor, even though I would assume he'd have one for the more covert jobs. He clearly used them in numerous occasions, so there should have been one in his case. I reworked the integrated flash suppressor to have slots all around instead of just 2 like the ones the Furuta/Soldiers of the World rifles had. This gave me the opportunity to clean up the dimensions to allow the suppressor to be universal with the Soldiers of the World M4 that I used as a reference. Hooray for interchangeability!

Added costs to the "Golgo 13 for Under $130" project: ~$3 (Matte Black paint and foam sheet)
Total costs so far: $66 (body) + $2 sculpey III head + $3 (XM-177 rifle) + $3 (paint and foam) = $74

J.Norad Transmutes a Furuta 1:6 Scale XM-177 to an M16A2

This week's project was to determine whether a Furuta 1:6 scale XM-177 could be converted to Golgo 13's custom M16A2. I could have bought an M16A2 model and just used that, but that would be too easy. And it wouldn't be as great as it would be a static model. The goal was to overhaul the Furuta model so I could strip down the M16A2 and store it in a briefcase like the other Golgo 13 figures. Never mind that I don't have a briefcase fabricated yet, but we'd need the gun first anyways to determine how to fit the pieces in.

I purchased this XM-177 as part of two Furuta Metal Gun Mania sets, one of which had the G11 rifle. Average cost for each gun is about $3, with shipping (14 guns for about $30). I unfortunately don't have a photo of the gun intact, as I started dismantling the heat guard and ended up at this state. Oddly, the barrel and front sight are made of metal, which ruined my plans. Difficult to glue metal to things, especially by a small point of contact.

 First act of business was to separate the gun into the usable components. Here, I've cut the barrel ring from the heat guard halves and glued them together. The stud holding the heat guard to the frame snapped off after trying to pry off the lightly glued parts. Likewise, the stock came off quick, needing only a 0.5mm deep starting cut around the separation point, and snapping it off by hand. The plastic used for Furuta's guns are quite soft. Good for carving up.

I drilled 1/8" diameter holes in the frame and stock to accept some bamboo sticks to allow the gun to be recombined later. I learned that I could manually twist a drill bit into the plastic than use the Dremel, as the Dremel tended to overbore the holes. The plastic was compliant enough to allow for me to bore a hole by hand. Great, I guess?

Since I couldn't feasibly use the metal front sight, I decided to rebuild everything from the frame outwards by hand. Nothing was usable except for the barrel ring I salvaged from the heatguards. I used a bamboo stick, carved a groove, then put a thick paperclip in the groove to act as the gas return line. This piece will also serve as a structural component to prevent the barrel from rotating, by using the paper clip to act as a key for a keyway system. I used some 110lb cardstock and fabricated two cylinders: one 3.175mm ID, 5mm OD with a 1.5mm wide keyway carved out; and one 5mm ID, 7.49mm OD heat guard cover. The keyway is important, otherwise the heatguard will rotate freely.

 The front sight was nothing special. Chaff cut up Mountains from a previous job, glued with plenty of Loc-Tite glue.

To get the front sight rabbit ears, I used 2 layers of Magic card and glued the V shaped sections over the sight assembly. Perhaps the easiest part of the job.

 The next part was to complete the handguard. The M16A2 has a recessed row of heat dissipating holes with light ribbing around the diameter for gripping. If I was building the M16A1, it'd be a much easier triangular cross section grip with a smooth outer surface. I added a taper to the guard from 7.49mm to 9mm, then carved 2.4mm of material along the top and bottom. To get the heat dissipation details, I poked a set of holes along a strip of 1 Magic card, then lightly drilled the face with a Dremel so that the material wasn't completely drilled out. I did this for both sides to widen the holes better.

Having glued those, I needed the separation line for the two halves of the heatguard. Two layers of Magic cards 1mm thick was used. I cut a groove to help align the piece to the heatguard.

 The XM-177 differs from the M16A2 in several spots. It essentially has the same body as the M16A1. As a comparison, I used my Soldiers of the World M4, which has the same frame/body as the M16A2.

I started off by shaving off all the details on the upper part, namely the sight adjustment screws. 

 The XM-177 has less material on the upper receiver. I fleshed it out by gluing Magic cards to it. I also added the brass deflector that was added on the M16A2, but absent on the M16A1.

Magic: the Gathering cards are like Bondo for model making. Great for filling in small gaps, then you just sand the excess away. Here, I've filled in the spots that are solid on the M16A2 and narrowed the receiver region.

 Here's the M16A2 with all the pain in the ass parts completed. I've added the details to the heat guard by gluing 110lb cardstock in 0.5mm wide strips to the guard, spaced 2mm wide. I've also completed the remodeling of the upper receiver by adding a layer of printer paper to cover all the Magic cards I added as thickener, then added some simple details.

 The scope was a standard tube and cone build. I opted to use a heavy card protector to create the lenses. Not too visible here, but they'll be there! The scope was copied off the DVD cover. I didn't feel like tracking down the exact design it was based off of and replicating it. The scope fits in the groove on the upper receiver like the actual scope, but I have not added a mounting/clamping screw nor made provisions to allow the rear sight to still be used with a hollow sight mount base.

 Current state of the M16A2, all parts attached. I'll need to redo the magazine to make it a straight 20 round magazine. I'll need to build two magazines anyways.

 The M16A2 can be disassembled somewhat. I didn't want to scratchbuild the receiver this time to get the level of detail from the Skynet Golgo 13 doll, where the upper and lower receiver could be dismantled. What I had now was good enough for me. I haven't gone into the painting phase yet, with hopes that I can strip the existing grey paint off the receiver first. Paint thinner doesn't seem to be cutting it yet. If anything, I'll just sand it down and paint it with an unnaturally shiny smooth black finish.

So, if you are really bored, you can in fact, convert a crappy Furuta  XM-177 to a strippable M16A2 rifle. Is it worth it? Only if you don't want to spend $300 to buy a Duke Togo just for the rifle.

Total added cost to the "Golgo 13 for Under $130" Project: $3 (XM-177 rifle).