Beret Project, by Peter_Nix

[Peter_Nix]

Topic: My first Sculpey attempt; a Special Forces 'Blood [Red] Beret' placed on top of Legonian Special Forces soldier "Alpha" (a two-fer since someone might have seen Alpha at MCN).

Description: White sculpey painted red with black trim and blue/yellow patch design. (My other option would've been desert camouflage like the suit but one of my browns dried up - someday I have to go get more)

I figured that posting this at DC would be a good idea since I posted at least one question (thank you Lamanda and Kramer for your answers) to the forum at this site on this topic.

Please let me know what you think. Thanks.

-Alan

[Kramer29]

That looks perfect Peter! That is the best sculpey piece I have seen (other than Redbean's stuff), it looks great. The only thing I can see that is a little off is where it starts curving down. In the front part of that curve it kinda bulges out a tiny bit, but it is still fantastic! Keep up the good work!

<<K29>>

[Peter_Nix]

I was going to refrain from posting a "thank you" but since I'd like to reply to you're comments let me start by saying, thank you, especially for mentioning my work in the same sentence as Redbean (high honors I presume).

I'm not sure if I'm understanding your criticism correctly but I think it's fine. General notes: it's meant to be tilted so that it's higher than the left eye (like it's falling off the head). (even if that's not what you were referring to I figured I'd just add that in) The bulge by the curve, while perhaps a bit overexaggerated according to a real beret (maybe I'm wrong- I have seen some soldiers wearing their berets very flat ("pancaked") to their heads) is supposed to simulate the beret being folded over. I'll look into it further, but I doubt I'll toss this one and start new- the way I created it is almost like the way I draw them. Since different people wear their hats different ways perhaps another one that I'll create will be of the "pancake" variety.

Thanks again.
-Alan

[Lamanda2]

Wow Alan,
This turned out very good,I am glad you went with red as the color(though,what other choice did you have?)
It just seems like the red stands better and makes the piece look very professional,although,I would still like to see one in camo especially for the fact that you can paint camo extremily well.

This is truly an amazing first sculpey attempt,it looks as though I (and Redbean) are going to have a little competition ; )

I cannot wait to see more Alan,and if you need more help just Email me,PM me,or of coarse,post it in my thread here

[Peter_Nix]

Thanks Amanda, glad you like it. Other color choices (everyone can go to sleep for now, just listing options and possible other projects), like the IDF, I've decided on an array of colors for different branches of the army. However, Alpha is "trained" as Special Forces, which by default means a red beret. Unlike the IDF (I think), I've decided that soldiers of this army can use various berets especially when attached to units from other branches. As such for Alpha and his team, I might be able to give them (or other soldiers that I have created or will hopefully create) light green for General Army, a shade of brown depending on the infantry unit, beret green (that's the name of the paint) for Army Reconnaisance Commandoes or black (which would normally go with a night uniform (everyone can wake up now ) and of course, once I buy that brown that died up: desert camouflage. But camo is defininatly on deck.

-Alan

[Kramer29]

Alan,
Is this for a Lego army you are puting together? I mean is it like your own original army or is it the British army or some other real one? Anyway, it looks great and I look forward to seeing more of your stuff. If you wanted to, you probably could sell your stuff like Redbean, and make a profit!

<<K29>>

[Peter_Nix]

Hi Kramer,

Let me answer that this way; yes and no to all of that post. The soldiers are based on my own Romitian Military, a game that my friend and I have been playing with since we were in First or Second Grade centuries ago. It was sort of like a role playing game before we ever even heard of "Dungeons & Dragons" without any rules, just imagination. He stopped the game around 8th gr., but I continued it and once I bought GURPS I tried translating it to that game, working more on the military part. I also draw somewhat so I began designing uniforms. I'm from the USA so even though Romitia is a futuristic type of settings (starships etc...) I'm still rooted in the present day and based the soldiers on the US Military. The first time I ever went to Israel I thought it was interesting the way they color-coded their soldiers (Red beret= Central Infantry/Paratroopers, Purple beret= Southern Infantry (Givati), Gray beret= Combat Engineers etc...) so when designing my Romitian troop uniforms, I incorporated that into the uniform but gave them a wider range of colors (which may or may not work well) for the diferent branches in the military. Now with the LEGO, I always wanted soldiers, I found MB Command Ops and started collecting them (I have upto approx a platoon of them) then I decided (at this point I created two soldiers already- an Urban Commando and one wearing all green with a Commando Sweater) to suppliment my MB platoon with LEGO soldiers. But since I'm running low on minifigs to customize I've decided to create a "Romitian trained" LEGO Special Missions Forces unit of just about 6 soldiers and maybe some support troops. Being "Romitian trained" these LEGO troops wear the patches of the Romitian units as well as their uniforms and colors. So, having said that, they are somewhat my own creation (not US, not UK, not Israeli or any other country on this planet or in this galaxy), but do to minifig numbers, I'm not creating an entire military (though that would be a very fun idea) just sticking to a squad or few.
As for selling on eBay or where ever, after hearing about my friend's good fortunee, I was definatly leaning towards looking into that as well. I just don't know who would want mercenaries (I don't like gambling unless I know I'd win) besides, I don't think I'd be able to equip them weaponwise- but it definatly would be an idea to raise more money for the empire so I'm not against the idea (I was just thinking that most people would rather buy known characters (i.e. Cyclops of the X-Men) rather than an unnamed military or character I thought up- which leads me to another question I have to post somewhere...).
Sorry for the long answer, hopefully it answered the question though about the background.

[Lamanda2]

I cannot wait to see any new colors you may come up with in the future Alan,
and yes,eBay is a great way to earn a bit of extra money to fund this wonderful hobby.
I think in total now I have made a little over 200$ from my figures in the past 4 months,so that just paid off all of my resin supplies and decal paper,plus I got about 30 or 40 dollars for myself..although I used it to buy some more parts to Brasso,and weapons to arm my collection of knights

[vidgamer838]

I wish I had the heart to sell my finished minifigures. If only life had a 'copy and paste' function. *Sigh*
Great work Peter, I tried some sculpey today and it did not want to cooperate with me.

[Peter_Nix]

Hi Vidgamer, thanks and yeah, that's one of my problems as well. I never plan to sell Alpha (shown above) or his teammates (as they're created, so far I only have one other SF soldier), however, I am leaning towards creating a few mercenaries to place for sale perhaps. But even then I'd miss them.

As for your sculpey problem, non-idle threats, brass knuckles and of course asking others if they have some ideas would work great (sorry for stating the obvious, I know you've been around here for a while). So far I think I've been the only one asking questions in the sculpey help board.

-Alan

[Kramer29]

Alan,
Actually, this part of life does have a "copy + paste button. If you want, I could PM you the tutorial for how to make a mold using sculpey to reproduce your Sculpey stuff. It's not exct, but it works, and it's cheap.

K

[Peter_Nix]

Hi Kramer, I think I know the idea that you're thinking of but if it wouldn't be too much trouble, I'd like to hear it anyway. Please, definatly send the PM, I may not end up using it in the long run [but I may be able to adapt the info, especially if I ever get resin- "You will be assimilated... Resistance is futile" ] (I have very little Sculpey at this time and there is a product for doing one sided molds- but it's too expensive) but I would love to see what options there are around. I've already created a few more berets (one jungle camouflage which is finished save for the armour-coat, and desert camo which is up to the brown layer that dried up, and another one that's unpainted- maybe a red beret to possibly sell on eBay, the other two or three are damaged and unpainted). Sorry for not responding when I read this- reading is alot quicker for me than typing and I was a bit busy. Thanks in advance for the info.

-Alan

Totally off topic, but after posting this I noticed the adds on the bottom of the page were offering "Wool Berets", The Ballad of the Green Berets"- I take it Big Brother really does watch us?