Head: ROC Neo-Viper w/ARAH Crankcase helmet
Torso, arms: Indiana Jones- Indiana Jones
Shirt skirt: ROC Footloose and ???
Waist, legs: Star Wars- Han Solo
Straps: cut from Indiana Jones- Indiana Jones satchel and Indiana Jones gunboat
Push molds on web gear and thigh: Resolute Duke
Backpacks: one 25A Snow Serpent??? and one 25A Outback???


Design:

The head of the Palitoy figure is iconic. It's fairly well replicated by topping the snouted Neo-Viper head with a Crankcase helmet. The 80's Kevlar helmet is close enough to the German Soldier helmet to work.

I wanted some Red Shadows in a newer format, and with more than five points-of-articulation. Not that I added many more poa's, though. The custom has ten poi's instead of Palitoy's five. As far as the body, Indiana Jones German Soldier is the obvious non-ARAH format choice. But I didn't have any of those parts, so I improvised. Plus that recipe been perfectly done by many customizers, and I can't really add anything to it. The Indiana Jones upper body isn't quite as good, but it's passable with some webgear and the Han Solo legs/jackboots added.

The biggest design change is that these parts give the Red Shadows long gloves, which look just fine- maybe even more badass than regular sleeves.

The Han Solo legs only have hip articulation, but they work well for the design. The figures can't be posed much differently from each other because of the static-but-dynamically-posed legs. To offset this just a bit, as well as the large helmets, two different large backpacks were used. This gives them a bit of visual difference. The pouches on the webgear are also slightly different.

I did another round of Red Shadows Troopers in New Sculpt format back in 2009. I made the mistake of stepping outside of the normal Red Shadows color set by using a much darker red. I also tried to blend the Devil's Due ski mask concept with the Palitoy helmet concept, which was also a mistake. With bad proportions, those figures didn't age well. These new customs were a chance for me to create better versions. At some point I'll go back and do a purer Devil's Due version.

Colors & Paint:

Based on the Palitoy figure, plus metallic grey on the sidearms/grenades and a shot of neon green on the radio button. The dark portions on the uniform top are dark slate grey, to allow some contrast with the black webgear. The slate is limited to just the collar, shoulder boards, and upper arms as well.

Sculpting & Modifying:

The helmets have clear coated printout logo glued to the front. The helmets are glued to the heads. The skirts are glued to the torsos. The webgear is a cut apart IJ satchel strap combined with an IJ gunbelt glued on the torso. The pouches on chest and the thigh are made from push molds.

A special thanks to 2DARK2C for providing the Snow Serpent backpack.

Thanks for looking.

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