Guys,
As I said earlier, supporting our local modelling club activities in celeberating my country Malaysia Independant's day the "Merdeka Groub Build 2008 show". I'm currently on a single figure conversion project - IJA (Imperial Japanese Army) General Tomoyuki Yamashita (1885 - 1946).
Yamashita (Lt. General then) was the supreme commander of the 25th Army, the invasion force of Malaya (8th Dec 1942). In the campaign, which concluded with the fall of Singapore on 15 February 1942, Yamashita's 30,000 front-line soldiers captured 130,000 British, Indian and Australian troops, the largest surrender of British-led personnel in history. He became known as the "Tiger of Malaya".
Another famous scene was: while on negotiating table, Yamashita fiercely thumped the table with his fist and shouted to Lt general Percival of the British commander: "UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!! YES or NO?!".... the poor Percival was stunt with his clenched hand to his mouth....
Searching the internet, i've found alot of photos of Yamashita, but most of these clear photos were shots of Yamashita at the 1946 post war criminal trial session.... Only a few are those while he's on Malaya campaign...
Notice one thing between the photos below: It's the same person but the picture taken on 1942 while Yamashita was leading the victorious arm fources looked fierce and proud... compare to the other photo taken post war 1946 at Manila when he was charged with war criminal, he looked like a typical pieceful harmless oldman... !!??
Yamashita 1942
Yamashita 1946
Now lets proceed to the conversions:
I've decided to do a figure as Yamashita "proud" side when he was on the Malaya campaign.Looks something like the photo below:
THE HEAD
--------
As all who know me that I'm always the "lazy" type if I found ways to sneak shortcuts hehe...
I've picked one of the head from Dragon 1:16 warrior SS-STRUMBANNfUHRER DIEFENTHAL #1622
Pic A is the original head. Pic B putty added to puff up the face. Pic C shows head after fine sanding and base coated plus painted a pair of tiny eyes.
Take note that the original Rommel kit comes with separate colar, which sculpted with nice detail colar patches.... It's a pity that I've sand off these nice colar patches since I'm gonna convert it to a Japanese style tropical tunic.
Pic D shows the head temporary mounted on the modified colar piece. Pic E is the head edited using Photoshop to add the shades as preview comparison against the original photo Pic F.
UNIFORM
-------
For the main body, I'm using Tamiya 1:16 Rommekit #36305
I've sand off all the buttons and replace them with putty cause the I need to modified the pocket flaps as the Japanese Tropical tunic. See picts below:
THE ARMS
--------
I want to pose Yamshita's both hand in front holding his sword for a more "Samurai general" feel...
I've chosen some part from the Tamiya Rommel kit. For the arms I'm using wire skeleton and added putty for the whole new pair of arms.
FIGURE
------
This is the completed conversion of my "Tiger of Malay - General Tomoyuki Yamashita"... waiting for painting session.
By the way the sword is steal from another Tamiya 1:16 figure "IJN Fighter Pilot" kit #36312....
Comment are welcome
CPTan
As I said earlier, supporting our local modelling club activities in celeberating my country Malaysia Independant's day the "Merdeka Groub Build 2008 show". I'm currently on a single figure conversion project - IJA (Imperial Japanese Army) General Tomoyuki Yamashita (1885 - 1946).
Yamashita (Lt. General then) was the supreme commander of the 25th Army, the invasion force of Malaya (8th Dec 1942). In the campaign, which concluded with the fall of Singapore on 15 February 1942, Yamashita's 30,000 front-line soldiers captured 130,000 British, Indian and Australian troops, the largest surrender of British-led personnel in history. He became known as the "Tiger of Malaya".
Another famous scene was: while on negotiating table, Yamashita fiercely thumped the table with his fist and shouted to Lt general Percival of the British commander: "UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!! YES or NO?!".... the poor Percival was stunt with his clenched hand to his mouth....
Searching the internet, i've found alot of photos of Yamashita, but most of these clear photos were shots of Yamashita at the 1946 post war criminal trial session.... Only a few are those while he's on Malaya campaign...
Notice one thing between the photos below: It's the same person but the picture taken on 1942 while Yamashita was leading the victorious arm fources looked fierce and proud... compare to the other photo taken post war 1946 at Manila when he was charged with war criminal, he looked like a typical pieceful harmless oldman... !!??
Yamashita 1942
Yamashita 1946
Now lets proceed to the conversions:
I've decided to do a figure as Yamashita "proud" side when he was on the Malaya campaign.Looks something like the photo below:
THE HEAD
--------
As all who know me that I'm always the "lazy" type if I found ways to sneak shortcuts hehe...
I've picked one of the head from Dragon 1:16 warrior SS-STRUMBANNfUHRER DIEFENTHAL #1622
Pic A is the original head. Pic B putty added to puff up the face. Pic C shows head after fine sanding and base coated plus painted a pair of tiny eyes.
Take note that the original Rommel kit comes with separate colar, which sculpted with nice detail colar patches.... It's a pity that I've sand off these nice colar patches since I'm gonna convert it to a Japanese style tropical tunic.
Pic D shows the head temporary mounted on the modified colar piece. Pic E is the head edited using Photoshop to add the shades as preview comparison against the original photo Pic F.
UNIFORM
-------
For the main body, I'm using Tamiya 1:16 Rommekit #36305
I've sand off all the buttons and replace them with putty cause the I need to modified the pocket flaps as the Japanese Tropical tunic. See picts below:
THE ARMS
--------
I want to pose Yamshita's both hand in front holding his sword for a more "Samurai general" feel...
I've chosen some part from the Tamiya Rommel kit. For the arms I'm using wire skeleton and added putty for the whole new pair of arms.
FIGURE
------
This is the completed conversion of my "Tiger of Malay - General Tomoyuki Yamashita"... waiting for painting session.
By the way the sword is steal from another Tamiya 1:16 figure "IJN Fighter Pilot" kit #36312....
Comment are welcome
CPTan
