How about a Mystery of the Blues Indy with full beard? Should be easy enough to make.

Just don't forget the walkie-talkie.;)

Why is the Kairo Schwartzmann so black? Isn't he Arabian, or is he really African?

He's really an English stuntman. :gun:

Ok, so I got a second RPG Indy today, swapped out the body with the Deluxe Ark Indy's body, and used the same method as before (Liquitex clear coat) and gave him the Temple Trap Indy's head. I don't quite like this head as much as the Pitfall head, but I still think it looks pretty good overall:

Great work with that Cairo Indy! Looks fantastic. I can't wait to get more deluxe Indys so I can make a custom Cairo Indy figure.

Not really a custom figure, but:









A guy called "soloboy5" posted a link with instructions and downloadable images to make the crate over on the Cool Toy Review forums. His looks a lot better than mine, I still need to do a little touch up work on it.

Wow! That crate is frigging AWESOME!!!

very nice.....


I have thought about using the Marvel Figure Factory crates that came out a couple of years ago but I have lost all mine.


I am going to try this this weekend.

Does swapping the Cairo Indy head onto the Idol body fix the no neck problem?

I bought a single German soldier and 2 2-packs. To mix it up, I switched the heads from the figures from one of the 2-packs. Looking at them i wonder if they can be switched at the waist. I picked up a KOTCS hatless Indy to do a custom Cairo Indy and will do the same with the removeable hat version.

I think the cargo truck could be customized to look like the truck that Indy thought Marion was in when it exploded in Cairo. Remove the rack above the cab, the spare tires on the sides, fill some holes, repaint "primer red" and I think it would like very similar.

I noticed that the Pirates of the Carribean line looks compatible. Get a few of the cannibal chief for a dio, or even some of the Chinese pirates. Good call on the 21C 1/18 lines, though it is more for 4" figures. The original pilots and drivers are closer to 3 3/4".

Thanks, I'm not finished with it though. I still need to add the support pieces across the top and bottom of the sides and I think I am going to do the inside as well because the bare cardboard looks kind of tacky but I ran out of "wood" and have to print out some more. It fits perfectly in the back of the truck too. Hopefully I will get to work on it some more today. More pics when I am finished.


Not completely, but it is a slight improvement. I posted pics a few posts back, I'll try to take some more straight on pics today.

Just had an idea. You could also print out the crate on paper and glue it onto some balsa wood.

I swapped the jacket off the Pitfall Indy onto the regular Idol Indy. The color matches up perfectly. I had to remove the bag attached to the Pitfall jacket. For those who plan on doing this, be careful not to rip the jacket, mine ripped a little. It's still an improvement though, the plastic is softer, there is more detail, and it has the dusty paint. I put the Pitfall head on the deluxe horse Indy, and the Horse Indy head on the jacketless KOTCS Indy. I'm very tempted to buy another KOTCS Indy w/jacket and another Pitfall Indy to make a perfect Indy figure, but I'm a little uneasy about spending more money than I need to, especially after I already have 3 jacketed Indy figs.

Why didn't you put the Pitfall head and jacket on the KOTCS body in the first place? It seems to me that the "perfect Indy figure" is the first customization I'd want to make.

Here's a site that specializes in diecast:

http://www.diecastdirect.com/types/cars.htm

You can sort by decade (i.e. '30s) or scale (i.e. 1:18). If you sort by the former, make sure as you scan through the cars that you are looking for 1:18 scale. If you are sorting by the latter, look for cars from the '30s. I notice Maisto has a few in 1:18, from the '30s; that are reasonable: $29.99ish.

Can anyone identify some of the vehicles from the films; like Dietrich/Belloq's car in the truck/ark chase, the car Shortround was driving in TOD or any of the (several) vehicles from TLC?

I know this sounds kinda crazy, but has anyone tried cutting off the gunbelt on one figure and gluing it back together on another fig? I really like my Deluxe Horse Indy with the Pitfall head (perfect fit by the way, no tape), except for his lousy gunbelt. (It's really flimsy, soft plastic and the holster is almost all the way behind Indy.)

Funny you should mention that. My two German soldiers are being displayed on the same shelf as my Pirates figures. They're flanking Norrington and Beckett. :D

The Hasbro figures are a liiiiittle bigger than the Zizzle ones, though.

Does anyone have any suggestions for doing paint touch-ups? Like what kind of paint to use (I assume it's acrylic but I don't want to be wrong on that), how to remove paint from the figures, color suggestions, etc? I'd really appreciate it if you guys could make some suggestions, since you seem to be the experts when it comes to customs. I haven't done any modifications like this before, but I have an art background and could easily handle some paint touch-ups. Any help would be greatly appreciated! :)

Yes, acrylic water-based paint is what you want to use.

Cool, that's what I thought. Any suggestions for removing already-applied paint?

I've found straight acetone to be the best way of easily removing factory paint on figures...just be very careful with it. I have used this to completely strip paint from Hasbro's 12" figure's heads.

You might get by with a little nail polish remover (which contains acetone) if you are just trying to remove a small area of paint, though it may require some extra elbow grease.

Where can I buy this "elbow grease"?

:p

Why do you want to remove the paint? Acrylic can be painted directly over it and it's much easier.

I want to make sure detail painting like the eyes and things are staying within the lines of the sculpt. The factory paint apps are really bad about being misaligned, and I figure a strip and repaint would be the best way to go. Also, I've seen one or two figures (which I passed over without buying) that have decent paint jobs except for one or two random splotches and smears on the base plastic. I dunno, I just figured it'd be good to know how to do it to expand my options for touch-ups. :hat: