If there is one overarching thing about collecting 1:12 figures that pisses me off and drives me to put in work, it has to be the damn vehicles.
1:12 is an excellent scale to get a little bit of everything. You can cram more detail in than you can at 1:18, but you can have more and larger things than 1:6. And yet, you would swear the way companies carry on these days that 1:12 vehicles are like building the great pyramids. How else can you explain the level of asinine that allows for two 6-inch-scale Batmobiles to be made in the last 15 years?
It’s become so bad that I took my quest overseas to find rides for my figures, and the success might well have saved the hobby for me. But let’s say you aren’t interested or aren’t able to spend more on shipping than you do on the product, but you still wouldn’t mind something bigger than a motorcycle to put with your figures.
In that case, your first stop should be the thrift store. While most 1:12 lines turn up their nose at vehicles and play sets, kid lines, sci-fi lines, radio-controled lines, and even 1:6-scale lines have been making big toys for decades. Some of the more likely finds are things like Ninja Turtles, Rescue Heroes, and various RC cars and trucks. I lucked out over the weekend and found a Power Team Elite Helicopter for about $2.
Power Team Elite, or World Peacekeepers (depending on the chain selling them), has made a handful of vehicles for their 12-inch line, as well as their 3.75-inch line. I’m currently looking for one of their tanks, but this helicopter was too sweet to pass up.
I’m going to turn this into a light observation/attack bird (Loach, as they’re nicknamed) like the AH-6 Little Bird, but after checking my Jane’s and other reference books, I can’t find a helicopter that lines up with this one to my obsessive standards. That means we can wing it, but I’m still going to use a real bird like this BO105 as a loose reference.
The fuse is all here, but we’re missing the doors. That’s not a deal-breaker, though. Smaller observation helicopters like this one often run without their doors to save weight. And that also means if I find another of this vehicle, a doored version would make a good variant.
The cabin is pretty spartan, with a molded seat for a 12-inch figure on the floor. The great thing is, there’s plenty of room to make this thing a two-seater, so that’s what I’ll do. Like the HM Armed Forces vehicles, big scales often use cheats that make a vehicle look silly in the intended scale, but by essentially doubling it, they become more practical. First, I make a simple change to the dash: I don’t need the steering yoke in the middle, so I remove it and use a hand auger to make a hole for it on the left side. Then I fill in the hole with some styrene.
When doing vehicles, I think about them in the same terms as some guys think of movie props. Here’s how I break them down:
- The “hero” vehicle: This is your Batmobiles, your Blue Thunders, the good guy rides that are going to be a focus of any display. That means they get the best you can give in terms of detailing and accuracy.
- The “villain” vehicle: Not quite as important as the hero, these are usually still given some extra effort to bring them in close to your vision. Sometimes what they might lose in detail they can make up for in intimidation.
- The OFPFOR vehicle: OPFOR stands for “Opposing Force” in military-based training. In customs, these are the grunts and army-builders. Quantity will take precedence over quality, as the more you can put in a force, the better it looks.
While this helicopter might make a decent Batcopter were it complete, its stripped down nature and made-up model make it a better fit for OPFOR than for hero or villain. This is nice because I don’t even have to give it a unit insignia or roundels — it can fly for anybody I need it to.
Now that I know the job and the “class” I want this in, I scrounge up some parts. Thanks to the simplistic nature of the body, I can use some parts from a True Heroes Apache I picked up at Toys R Us some time ago. Nice bases might need nicer fodder to match the detail level. I add a center strut down the middle of the canopy to break up all that clear plastic. This helicopter will stay stripped and light, but will need some offensive armament. I give it wing stubs and add some ordinance.
Rocket pods are an easy one to use thanks to their common nature, and the fact they come in many sizes and styles in the real world, making it easier to get away with using them out of their intended scales. I go with two different pairs, one from the Apache and the other from another Power Team Elite vehicle. Being as this is a budget project, I use what I’ve got on hand rather than purchase fodder for it.
Next I need to change the occupancy. Some of you might cringe, but I’ve got tons of these Palisades Swinetrek play set chairs around, and they make for great generic bucket seats. Using a standard-scaled figure like Black Panther, I figure out how high I need to set them and then get a spacer. Anything works for this; in the past I’ve used plastic bottle caps, but I found this plastic crate in my leftovers.
Now’s a good time to paint stuff and set interior details. Again, this is quick, cheap, and dirty, so I’m not going to add much to the inside. If this were a “hero” vehicle, load straps, extinguishers, radios, and all kinds of stuff could be tossed in to the ample space. Still, things like seat straps and a cyclic control don’t take much time or effort.
Exterior paint is an easy one since I don’t have a reference vehicle. A nice satin black will work well to keep it sleek and non-designated. After that, some leftover decals, since even a made-up-copter still needs call sign numbers. I had an extra G.I. Joe sharkmouth that gives it some needed personality.
While it isn’t as impressive as the exotic Apache or one of my more labor-intensive vehicles, it is dirt cheap and took a couple of hours to complete. Now factions of my collection not fancy enough for their own Airborne units can hold their own. It also has a nice retro feel to it, like it would’ve been at home in the Rambo Force of Freedom line or something. And it definitely beats a mini-jet with a canopy that only covers your head.
But even that beats what we’re currently getting. You know, jack s***.