Converting plastic 'Army Men' Into Fantasy And Science Fiction

 I really enjoy taking really cheap 'junk figures' and sprucing them up into something different.

First up is this odd figure. I think he is meant to have a bazooka. I'm not an expert on firing one but I suspect one does not have one's face directly behind it or turn away so one can't see what one is aiming at. On the other hand, he could just be balancing it and not firing it. I repositioned his head by slicing it off and drilling (with a modeler's hand drill) the neck and head. A short piece of florist wire and some Super Glue finished the job.

  I have decided to consider the weapon is a laser or anti drone weapon.

As for paint schemes there is camo in nature so why not base it on an animal? So here, ladies and gentlemen, is the first of my contemporary or near future, parallel universe, Beersteiner, elite Tiger Commandos. The helmet is kind of diminutive, so I have interpreted it as a leather helmet. For good measure, I made his equipment also brown leather.

  The figure looks a bit dark so I might add some lighter highlights.

 
 Next, I went in a different, backwards/sideways direction. These are Gillikins for my land of Ozzz. They are derived from more cheapo Chinese figures, in this case copies of Airfix Afrika Corps but with helmets. I love finding such figures that are variations on the originals.

   I already have a couple of units derived from 45mm WW2 and modern infantry but with added fur hats. I needed some more figures for one of those units so the two figures at right have different facings and fur hats.

  The Land of Ozzz, derived from the land of Ozz which is derived from the land of Oz, is a horse and musket, Napoleonic kind of military level. Because this is 'extreme' fantasy I thought, 'Why not leave some of the WW2 equipment?' Helmets, in particular, in the 'real world', never went completely out of fashion, but mine will be copper colored. And the green skin demonstrates that we are not in Kansas anymore (or in Aus either).

                            

Here a couple more pics of the larger figures. The original looked to darned skinny so I bulked him up, at the risk of making him into a hunchback, I did it on the back as I wanted to retain equipment on the front. In case, you are wondering, I used plasticene here and also on the OZZZ troopers' backpacks. I coated the finished additions in Super Glue, and, later, PVA. My reasoning was that these are super cheap figures and if I use heaps of Green Stuff that is adding unwanted expense. 

I used to do this decades ago and the additions are still intact on those figures.

   Here you can see the plasticene additions on the Little Guys' backpacks and fur hats.

  By the way, the WW2 troops are Germans and US infantry. The proper shapes of the helmets have been blurred, which can actually be desirable with these fantasy kinds of conversions. However, the backpacks were added to further change the figures and also to differentiate from my other Gillikin units that don't have them.