Not quite what you may be expecting...

[Soapy]

Wocha,

First off a bit of an introduction. I'm not an action figure collector, I'm even nerdier, I'm a wargamer. Years and years off consulting rulebooks and rolling dice have completely robbed me of the ability to play imaginatively and have figures sitting on a shelf just to enjoy looking at. It's a curse. Anyway, be that as it may I have loved my Action Force since way back in the day and like many people wonder what happened to my childhood collection (I know I never threw anything away but I definitely don't own any anymore....odd).

Desperate to regain my lost love but unable to completely reconcile myself to action figures these days I have decided to recreate my collection in wargames miniatures allowing me to enjoy all the characters whilst being able to use them as part of my current and all consuming hobby, wargaming.

So here are a couple of shots of some of my 28mm scale Action Force collection. I will be assembling the forces throughout 2008 as my 25th anniversary gaming project which you can follow (if you like) at : http://actionforcevsredshadows.blogspot.com/

Here for your delight and delectation I present Blades and his beloved Hawk
First of some WIP shots to show the piece during the construction phase



And after paint and assembly:





Now I know what you are thinking and yes, I am aware that the paint job and some of the details (like the tail rotor) are a bit off but seeing as it's all at a third of the size of the originals and the overall effect is about right I'm afraid you'll have to excuse my creative laziness!

I'll sign off now with a quick Muton shot.


Cheers,
Soaps.

[jamarmiller]

First Welcome to the boards! its good to have you here. its an exciting time for Action Force Fans!

not only did we just get an appearance by ACTION FORCE in GI JOE AMERICAS Elite #30 by Devils Due ( please buy this issue and support the Action Force Revival if you havent already we need everyone to buy this issue to show what we AF fans can and will contribute if we get more)
but we also got the classic comic coloring project going on, Weve released about 30 issues in color for the first time ever !

We also got the NEW comic RED DAWN coming in 2008 and hopefully it will be bi-monthly

check out the cover gallery here:

http://www.bloodforthebaron.com/red%20d ... 0dawn.html


Second: thats awesome man! looks like a lot of fun! I love seeing Action Force in other mediums besides the figures so this is really cool to see.

Please continue to show them to us! I bet an ACTION FORCE game using these guys will be really cool, I have never gotten into the role games genre but I would be sorely tempted to with these guys.

Great job and Merry Christmas, its great to have you here!

Third: A question (not related to your customs though LOL )

how did you find us? Im always curious,

as you grew up with action force and I being a new fan (in general) it will be very interesting for me to hear from you about all the stuff we got going on the boards!!

there is a good mix of old and new fans here so make yourself at home

[Soapy]

Cheers for the comments.

I found the boards whilst browsing the web to find reference pictures to make my minis. I knew about YoJoe and thought it was going to be the best picture reference on the web, how wrong was I?!

I've had a read of all the Battle Action Force comics here on the site and have to say it really took me back to my childhood. I remember during my first year at secondary school (86ish) the art class had a load of old newspapers and stuff for covering the desks whilst we did our clay sculptures and in amongst them was a pile of BAF comics which the teacher allowed me to take home. It was by no means a complete set and its something of a relief to finally get to read the whole of Assault on Atoll Z and Operation Claymore. Growing up I used to get Action Force comic every week and my next nostalgia trip will be a good read of all those stories.

A few years ago, before I took up the miniature sculpting as a profession, I worked in a comic shop in Richmond, Surrey and was over the moon to see the return of the Red Shadows in the DD comics. I'm looking forward further appearances by other classic characters and teams.

Back to the miniatures and I have to say that seeing all the cracking stuff you guys have come up with I have been more than inspired to get going with my project which I have had in mind for some time now. The original idea was to produce a range for commercial release but I get the feeling they would be of fairly limited appeal so I'm just going to convert and occasionally scratch build the forces for my own amusement.

Merry Christmas to you all.

Cheers,
Soaps.

[jamarmiller]

awesome! please keep us up to date on it. It looks like a lot of fun

[The Baron]

These are superb. I can't wait to see more.

Would you mind putting up a size comparison pic at some point, please?

Welcome to the gang!

[BLACKMAJOR666]

Love your work

[Quickfire]

Full on all 9-milly expended righteous eisen-kool stuff!

Very interesting, Eisenblut and Scout especially special. Muton is pure BAF animate.

Nicht vergessen linken am meine altes blog auch!

Tschus.

[Lady Jaye]

First of all, welcome to the boards.

One word for your work: excellento! I really love the way you have molded these figures: comic style figures, but personalities with an attitude. Really stunning craftmanship. Thumbs up! I hope you will stay around for a while, as I really love what you are doing with our heroes from the eighties!

[Soapy]

Thanks for the kind words folks.

I have already selected the miniatures I am going to use for almost all of the characters and troops that I want to assemble for my forces and have decided which commercial kits to cannibalize for most of the vehicles. The hardest part is reigning myself in so that I can spread the fun stuff over the year. For a lot of the conversions I will be doing exactly what the original designers did and changing paint jobs on existing figures. My are all based on WWII german figures with a new face sculpt and most of my and are going to be based on a range of figures that I was lucky enough to be able to sculpt a few years back to coincide with the Falklands War anniversary.

The blog will eventually include stats for all of the troops in a number of wargames systems and battle reports once I manage to get the figures on the table. I'm even on the look out for a nice set of Jacobite rebellion miniatures to paint up for my planned Operation Claymore game. I think the hardest part about this whole project is going to be finding some other wargamers to play against.

Stay lucky,
Soaps.