@ru1977 I went back and looked at Scar-Face's arc in the comics and man, he really stuck around for a while, huh? I almost think I'd want to use a mask over a Flint head because he's got the scar over his eye. Or if you wanted to lean in on it maybe even trying to make an MCU Crossbones head work (though I think he, like Scap-Iron, might be too scarred up?). Scar-Face had at least in some appearances a very distinct scar so that it would slash over both yes, really odd look and hard to replicate. I might even try a VERY steady hand to paint the scars onto a basic trooper, but I think he spent more time unmasked than in trooper gear.

I love all the talk about how people envision Cobra Commander and COBRA in general -   in my own head canon I always saw it as a two-faced monster -  a multinational corporate entity plundering the planet for profit on one side AND a terrorist organization plotting to destabilize governments and "take over the world" via military action on the other.     Cobra Commander in my version is not a front facing CEO on the corporate side -  he lets Tomax, Xamot and Baroness handle those duties since they clean up nice,  with other surrogates and corporate stooges running the day to day.   Destro, Major Bludd and some of the other costumed weirdos that would freak out any corporate boardroom are in charge of the para-military side of things.   

In my personal canon this also explains why Tomax, Xamot and Baroness have "Crimson" alternate outfits and their own Crimson Guard -  they use those when they have to dip their toes deeper on the 'paramilitary terrorist' side of the operation.   

This set up is one of the reasons I'm customizing Tomax and Xamot in business suits - and am looking to do something similar with Baroness.   

@panthercult Love the idea of CC not actually being that forward face and kind of masterminding the others to handle the presentable vs. violent sides of Cobra. 

I keep wondering if we'll see Tomax and Xamot in their pinstriped suits. I'd buy them again in their civilian garb pretty easily. 

@docsilence yeah, I may end up finally grabbing a retro trooper to paint scars on and the red bits.

How would one go about putting a mask over Flint's face? I was kinda considering using a Scrap Iron head, since you'd only see the part of his face the Scrap Iron helmet covers, heh.

@ru1977 My first thought (and others may have better ideas) is to use Green Stuff/Kneadatite to mold a mask over a Flint or Scrap Iron head and then paint it the appropriate color, maybe use a scalpel or edge to do any detail work you'd want. I don't know how durable Kneadatite is outside of modeling though (I haven't used it other than as a gap filler). a dab of Blu Tack would hold the mask in place while letting it be removable later. 

If you go the scar painting route, I know a shade of Vallejo paints that I think of as "keloid scar pink" I could recommend - blanking on the exact name but it's like $3 for a bottle you'll never run out of and I use it for a lot when painting minis. 

@docsilence thank you, for all of that. I'll definitely look into those this evening

personally i love using Aves Apoxie Sculpt for those kinds of custom jobs.  if you don't want the Apoxie to stay stuck to the mold (Flint's face) you can apply a thin layer of silicone lube to the face before adding the apoxie.  Just don't let anyone judge you for having a big bottle of Swiss Navy lube on your shelf!

Especially since a lot of my WIP stuff sits on my nightstand, but "swiss navy" sounds exotic and classy so they can't judge much there!

@panthercult I've been slowly building up on the Crimson army builders to support that side of cobra. 

damn reset…

I’ll be brief when I wanted to be long winded.

But forum resets ever few minutes.

I have a few hopes for 2025.

Hope to see IG Destro and Despoiler. One without other will be disappointing. I hope to see Pythona with lots of cool organic weapons especially the face hugger and star fish shurikens. Lastly I hope Joes get an armored vehicle.

Bring on some surprises in 2025. The leaks seem to create a road map. Here’s hoping for some more awesome.

Thwipp!

Posted by: @classifiedcustoms

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@panthercult I've been slowly building up on the Crimson army builders to support that side of cobra. 

Building that Crimson army (with CGs, Crimson variants of Vipers, BATs, Alley Vipers, and the commanders) is actually what made me come around on cutting back my army building. I got most of them for decent prices, but I had no room to display any of them. I’ve even had to downsize my regular troops. That’s when I swore to just one of each specialist.

Posted by: @vicious7171

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Since we're talking about them, here's my custom Night Force Green and Red squad:

I'd army build a squad of six but the bare arms make it tough.  I swapped some Outback arms onto the left trooper and painted the sleeves grey.  So this squad is made up of, from left to right: Outback, Quarrel, Jinx, Falcon.  Guns are Valaverse, scarves are from gpslot on ebay.

Nice! If you're into Xmen, you've basically got a squad of Genoshan soldiers.

On the subject of army building, just the other day I decided it wouldn't hurt to have a squad of four vipers. My shelf cannon is they're the team sent on missions with which ever officer or agent, and it's just these four guys rather than a few on the shelf representing a bunch like with my Stormtroopers. This squad are experienced combat veterans who are tight with each other and enjoy the action and pay cobra offers. For my collection, alot of the officers (fire team, python patrol, etc) are in other countries essentially doing cobra franchises and usually employ local militias or street gangs, but the vipers are specialists sent in when needed.

Just had a GI Joe Saturday while the family was out to lunch.  (Peace and quiet for a few hours?  INCONCEIVABLE!!!)

Anyway.   Read the first 4 issues of the Marvel Joe run from the recent compendium.   Man I don't remember issues 2-4 at all.   God Larry (Hama) was really the right choice for the comic.  He brought enough military experience and knowledge to really give the team a sense of realism while still being a "kids" comic.   KWINN!!!  I need him now as a Classified figure.   I love the range of stories in those first 4 issues.   

1 - Dr. Burkhart which I think we all remember with the "standard" Cobra attacks, Joe saves the day.   Nice little PIT and HAL diagrams along with the "special feature" short story.

2 - Again....KWINN!!  I kind of remembered this issue, but only after reading a couple pages.   C'mon Lenny you are giving us a Snake Eyes with Polar Bear so how about Kwinn?  (Too bad the Joe team didn't have any cold weather specialists yet)

3 - Back to base and dealing with a Trojan Horse of sorts while also trying to keep up appearances with the Chaplains.   

4 - Homegrown "survivalists" / terrorists with infiltration from the Joe team.  (Too bad about the early snafu of calling Stalker "Ranger" but it was early)

So while nothing "groundbreaking" in the way of stories unlike later issues, a nice cross section of different stories.  Hell I would be happy with these issues being the basis for a TV series.

Got to fiddle around with a couple of new pick ups (Retro Stalker...how fitting, Retro Cobra Trooper and IG BAT).  Definitely love the colour scheme on IG BAT and Retro Stalker is almost exactly what I was looking for in an OG-13 Stalker.  I actually like the Retro Cobra Trooper even though I know some people don't like the colour of blue they used.  However I like it and it offers up a good contrast to the standard Classified blue for other troopers.

So all in all a good few hours on a Saturday. 

YO JOE!!  

I've got around 6 Cobra Troopers/officers, and about 8 BATs, but I went to 2 of the Crimson Guard, Crimson Vipers, Crimson BATs, Valkyries, Python Patrol troops, and 2 of the 3 pack Cobra canon fodder set.

On the flip side, I don't have any generic Joe green shirts. Each of my Joes are specialists and in my canon are assigned to missions by the requirements of said mission and any potential variables that might come up.