Vitruvian HACKs Warrior Skeleton by Boss Fight Studio

Boss Fight Studio is now up to Wave 7 of their Series 1 Vitruvian HACKS (Greek mythology) action figures.

I held off on buying the "Cursed Skeleton" from Wave 5, because I didn't really like the color combo (looked too much like something out of Scooby Doo cartoons), and the way that the skeleton looked kind of clunky wearing ill-fitted armor. The armor would look fine on a BFS human male figure, but it didn't look good on a skeleton.

"Cursed Skeleton" by Boss Fight Studio

 Luckily, the latest wave has a "Warrior Skeleton" (not Skeleton Warriors) wearing armor that fits correctly, and even better- a paint wash for that fresh-out-of-the-grave look. BFS solved the clunky armor issue in the simplest, most efficient way possible- by using the female armor instead of the male armor. The color combo of brass and dark grey looks good with the paint-washed skeleton. It's a considerable improvement over the "Cursed Skeleton".

"Warrior Skeleton" by Boss Fight Studio

The skeleton comes with a helmet, shoulder and arm armor (right side only), armor skirt, greaves and a shield. Weapons included are one sword and one spear. For some reason, I received TWO bases with some transparent armor spacers.

The paint wash can be heavily applied in some places. I found that the wash made several of the joints very stiff, and I was unable to get much rocker ankle action. The armor was already placed on the skeleton at the factory, which is a good thing, because it is not very easy to remove any of the body armor. Any attempt to do so requires a soak in hot water and the removal of limbs before removing the armor. 

Considering that this deluxe Warrior Skeleton cost me only $5.00 more than the standard, unpainted, unaccessorized standard skeleton blank, I'd consider it to be a good deal. BFS is, at this point, re-using figures and parts repaints and recombining them into new characters, but they are doing it with considerable thoughtfulness and design savvy. The end results can be spectacular. Recommended.

Armor that fits properly makes a big difference

Note: Since the Warrior Skeleton is a fully painted and packaged figure, and is part of a proper Series 1 Vitruvian HACKS wave, the availability of the figure is limited. Boss Fight Studios has already sold out of half the figures in Waves 1-4. If you like skeletons, or think you like skeletons, or you want to stage your own Jason and the Argonauts movie in miniature, get one now. You won't regret it, and even if you do, you are practically guaranteed to recover 100% of your costs by selling it on ebay in a year or so.

RELATED PAGES: 

Greek Mythology Vitruvian H.A.C.K.S. action figures
A Collection of Toy Skeletons

Titan Quest Weapons Cart project (continued)

Some photos of the wagon in-progress. Serious hobbyists who build high-end wagon kits will recognize the proper, functional running gear, which was not originally included in the $2 kit. I carved it from 1/4" square wood dowels and disposable wooden chopsticks.

More realistic blueprints downloaded from the Internet :

Further along in the build, the little Rement Pose Skeleton tries out the driver's seat for size. You'll notice the compound lever for the brake. Since the simple brake lever is in the middle of the wagon, there had to be a logical way for the cart driver to pull it from the front seat. I'm not a mechanical engineer, I had to think very hard about this and built a mock up first to make sure it worked.

And, here's the Skeleton Warriors weapons cart at completion:

I did a few modifications and replacements. Instead of a canvas cover, I used a sheet of suede, intentionally cut roughly around the edges. The wagon had gained a lantern, because it doesn't make sense to be driving around in the dark. The lantern lights up, courtesy of the CR-2032 battery and round battery casing hidden underneath the wooden tub in the front of the wagon.

It's not an exact replica of the Titan Quest cart, but one can easily see the heavy influence that the game had on the final version of the $1.99 model.


RELATED PAGES:
A Collection of Toy Skeletons

Titan Quest Weapons Cart project

I have to admit it, I'm addicted to the videogame, Titan Quest. I found it at the Goodwill, where PC games are $1.99 (with no tax). I let it sit for several months on the shelf. But once I installed it on my PC, I was hooked.

It's a very long game. I loved the scenery, and thought about tying Titan Quest to Skeleton Warriors. The Skeletons are planning an invasion anyway, so they'd need to haul supplies, and the merchant weapons carts in the game gave me an inspiration.

Weapons merchant in Greece:

Weapons merchant in Egypt:

If you'll notice, the merchant in Greece inexplicably has an awful lot of fresh produce for sale, but no spears. The merchant in Egypt sensibly has spears, but has everything loaded on a less-stable 2 wheel cart.

These days, wooden wagon kits are hard to come by. It's not like the 70's, where one could get 1:16 scale kits by Allwood and Craft Master. I remember those kits.

On the low, low end of modern wagon kits is the Covered Wagon kit by Darice, which can be bought for only $1.99 (in 2015 dollars, not 1971 dollars). It's not a great kit, or even a good kit, but for the price of 2 candy bars, it at least provides a few useful parts and a framework to start. I knew I'd be making a lot of modifications, and wanted to do this old-school style, with as many functional components as possible. I had a book on Conestoga Wagons transferred from the San Carlos library so I could better understand the steering and undercarriage components.

Here's what you get in the bag. The wagon bed itself is about 6" long, but too narrow to be truly useful, so I cut my own wagon bed from plywood. The wheels could be used, but they needed hubs. The original axles were useless... fixed rectangular blocks of wood (with no steering) where you were expected to attach the wheels using a metal nail. Just... no.

Luckily, craft stores sell bags of wooden discs, so I bought a bag. It's much easier to use pre-punched discs than to cut and sand them by hand. And, I ended up using a lot of these wooden discs for this project.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Instamorph Moldable Plastic

I recently bought a bag of InstaMorph Moldable Plastic, and spent some time with it.

You dunk the stuff in hot water and pull it out and mold it with your hands. It hardens after 2-3 minutes at room temperature. If you still need to work on it some more, dunk it in hot water again.

I decided that wanted to make some Spartan spears for some skeletons, in their size. The shafts are made from wood, with real leather wrapped around it. For the spear heads, I used InstaMorph.

It doesn't hold detail as well as Sculpey, but it has a HUGE advantage over wood, styrene, ABS plastic, putty, Sculpey, etc... it's almost unbreakable. The fragile part of a spear head where the spear head meets the socket is actually very strong and isn't going to snap off. The sockets can be made hollow to slip over the wooden spear shafts (like real life). Bows can be made completely functional, and can shoot arrows a few feet. There is a slight flex to InstaMorph, which can be tapped as an advantage. The texture of the weaponry is a little rough. Don't expect the elegance of Valyrian steel swords for the Lannisters using InstaMorph. The results are more akin to the rough ironwork made by a field blacksmith.

Examples of weaponry made with InstaMorph:

Functional bow and arrows made from InstaMorph:

To dye the stuff, I used chalk pastels. Basically, I shave off some powder from a chalk pastel stick and knead it into the plastic while it's warm. The color possibilities are endless, since a huge set of chalk pastels (36 colors) can be bought at Michael's for $4.99. Since the colors become part of the plastic, there is no paint rubbing off. The colors are permanent.

The moldability of InstaMorph varies based on the water temperature you use. If the water is at a rolling boil, then InstaMorph becomes VERY moldable... my preferred temperature to knead in colored pastel powders. At the "barely boiling" water temperature, you can put a bend on an already-molded piece, or flatten a tip. I'd say that the greatest risk for burns is from the boiling water, not the InstaMorph itself. I use tongs to pull it out of the hot water, then pat-dry it and it's reasonably safe to mold by hand. I wouldn't recommend it for children under 12.

It gets better... InstaMorph BINDS TO PVC! So, whatever soft PVC heads you have... you can add hair, moustaches, beards, horns, etc. and the stuff will bind itself to the heads, or hands or boots, etc. It could possibly be used to repair body and joint cracks.It doesn't stick to all types of plastic, so you'd need to experiment and find out what it does/does not bind to.

In the hands of skilled sculptor, an endless array of plastic action figure accessories can be made. It's not quite like having your own home plastic injection molding machine or vacuform kit, but it succeeds in placing some awesome plastic molding capabilities in the hands of your average kitchen hobbyist.