“Shivers Up My Doobrie!” (Forgotten Heroes)

So I’d shown the three figures I’d decided to try and replicate for this years “Forgotten Heroes”, but now it was time to “put-up” or “shut-up”, and actually start building them (what have I done!).

First day and not a lot to show for it really, I simply measured out two lengths of florists wire, poked them into bottle caps and wrapped them in a thin layer of greenstuff. The third cap had two pieces pushed into it, with one bent at ninety degrees these would form Kremmen’s legs. I then popped a little more putty across the top of these to hold them securely, and with what I had left I added a little above this where his torso will go and a thin sausage about where his shoulders will be.

Today I set to work on Kremmen’s legs I started with his boots, these were blob’s added for his feet, then more putty was added to his legs and smeared around the wire, tiny balls were added and blended in to form his ankle joints and then once it was all smoothed away, I added two more larger blobs to form his groin and bottom areas, looking at him now I think I should have gone a little longer in the leg, and shorter in the groin, but it looks OK, I then added his knee pads, this just meant running a thin sausage of putty around the back of his legs and then flattening a ball of putty over the front of these, another longer sausage was run around his waist, smoothed and another ball of putty was flattened over the centre join to make the belt buckle. Also today I added the basis of Carla’s legs, first a ball of putty was added over the “pole” at about thigh height and smeared down toward the ankle. After much smoothing I was ready to add the second leg, this was a “carrot” shaped length of putty about the same as the length of the first leg. This one was bent in the middle and curved around the first slightly to get the right stance. With the little putty I had left I added a spacer and a sausage of putty to Gitfinger to form the basis for his leg and the spacing between them.

Next day I went to work on Carla’s boots, this involved adding a ring of putty around her knees and forming these into the tops of her boots, then more putty was added at the bottom of her legs and shaped into her feet, she has very thick soles on her boots, but I’ll add these later once I can remove her from the cap and turn her upside down, I might do this on all three to be honest. I also added Gitfinger’s boots, this was just two balls of putty for the feet, and a little run around his legs. Finally today I added the “roll tops” to Kremmen’s boots, again this was two tiny sausages of putty run around just under his knee pads, and smoothed.

I added Kremmen’s upper body today, I started by sticking blob’s of putty on the front and back, and smoothed them down and around his torso, by smoothing downward I was able to add the small rolls in the fabric he appears to have at his waist over his belt, you’ll notice I’ve gone for the “skinny” version of him rather than the version with his “inflated” muscular jacket. I then added a tiny bit of putty at the top that will form his neck (that can only be seen from the back) and then ran another small sausage around the base of this as the collar of his shirt (again only visible from the back). I also added the rough under supports for both Carla, and Giffinger’s bodies, both of these will have to refined and added to before the top layers go on (in Carla’s case a couple of bits need adding too!).

I should have had “Special K” for breakfast (actually I had toast) because it was “K day!”. This rather grandiose introduction just means I was going to add the “K” to Kremmen’s chest. So a small amount of putty was mixed, and taking a tiny sausage, I stuck this to his chest, now at this point I couldn’t help but dwell on the sometimes ridiculousness of this hobby 🙄, as I spent the next hour of my life, trying to write the letter “K” on a man’s chest of about seven millimeters across (making the K about four), in Greenstuff. Anyway eventually I got it about write, and added another even smaller ball, in the top left hand corner and formed this into a triangle before tapping in the lines that form the little wing insignia there. Turning to Carla next, I rolled out two small balls of putty (you can guess where I going with these I bet!), and after sticking them to her chest, blended them in around the sides, now these are just the “support” bumps that her dress will be built over, and while I’m talking about the dress this was also the prefect time to add the zip that runs up the front of it. So a very thin sausage was rolled out and run from her neck to her waist, and horizontal lines were tapped in to form the teeth of the zipper. With the bit of putty I had left I blocked in the shoulders of Gitfinger, and added a second later to his body ready for the details to be added.

Now Kremmen, was basically clothed, but the rest of his crew were not, so today I set about rectifying that, so starting with Gitfinger I rolled out some putty and wrapped it around the “cone” shape of his torso, this was then smoothed before I took a small blade and cut in the overlap at the front of his lab coat and added three small blobs as buttons, a small sausage was then run around the neck to form the collar, and another tiny one was added for his breast pocket. A similar technique was used to build up Carla’s apparel, though sadly this basically obliterated the zip I’d added so I had to “cut-in” a new “line” with a small knife blade 🙄). Now we turn to the “horny” issue of nipples’ (The issue was horny I wasn’t! 😉), now Keith had mentioned them after I’d posted pictures of Carla in my first “FH” post, so did I add them or not in this more PC age? 🤤 Well as you can probably see I did, this is because they were there on the original, and who am I to argue with history? Anyway two tiny balls of putty were rolled and put in place, then blended a little around the edges, enough said I think. Anyway lastly today with the bit of putty I had left I decided to add the first under layer to Kremmen’s head, just a basic shape that I can hopefully build the features over.

So that’s where I’m up to so far, probably about 60% through, though the toughest bits are still to come (heads and hands! 🥺).

So till next time, stay safe and Cheers Roger.