Morning all, I was just wondering if Hornet or any others might consider making some replacement heads with the VN style baseball caps or Marine soft covers. On most of the bases I was on during my tour the only ones who were authorized to wear boonie caps were troops in the field. Also more figures without field gear would be nice. Anyway, just a suggestion. Wayne

verlinden did some years ago, you might find them on eBay but remember that they are OOP now.

I've made the suggestion to multiple figure sculptors/sources over the years...Taesung Harmms at Alpine, Vlad at Bravo 6, and Roger Saunders at Hornet.....I've always been told its too difficult to mold them....I wanted USMC 8 point covers, from WWII to modern....no joy. The Army baseball caps would also be welcome....but until enough of us try to make our wants and wishes known, I doubt we'll see anything.....

Academy includes the BDU ball cap in it's M113 kit and Dragon had them in their US Ranger set.

They can filed to shape. I've also done it with German WW2 caps which are everywhere.

I'd like to see baseball caps so I can do guys who were devoted baseball fans in WW2 and wore Dodgers or Yankee caps behind the lines.

The USMC cover in the old Verlinden set is somewhat unconvincing but it is all that is out there. Might try sanding a hat flat and then putting a piece of plastic sheet with the corners and putty and file till it looks reasonable.

I agree with Stephen - it is possible to alter say Hornet Heads (eg their German WW2 range) with a bit of filing and plastic card added for the stiff front of the cap; sadly, as discussed within other subjects, Cold War era modellers are pretty short changed so it's up to self-help and judicious figure alterations, admittedly all a bit wearing. I'm not a Ninja in figure sculpting but I have managed to achieve a fairly decent representation of US Army figures of the era, albeit, in my case, concentrating on European-based figures.

The rare Verlinden heads seem to be quite large too - probably more 1:32 than 1:35.

Brian

What about these ?



H.P.

Wow - they would probably have saved me a lot of grief although I seem to recall that the era caps I wished to portray - say 1970s onwards - there seemed to be a sort of stiffened front piece on the cap - which also carried the wearer's rank badge.


I might be wrong and at the time of typing am too idle to check my references (!)

Brian

I agree about the different front piece :





At least they may be a starting point for a conversion....

OOB, they resemble those used by Dutch troops in Afghanistan :



H.P.

Hi Wayne and Everyone Else!

I've sculpted different kinds of headgear in my time by using a combination of sculpting-putty, sheet plastic and believe it or not, PAPER. Don't laugh, just stay tuned:

(Or, you can laugh but stay tuned anyway!)

For the USMC "8-pointer" for example, I cut a pattern for the "8-point" Top of the Cap out of loose-leaf paper, by FIRST pencil-drawing a "pattern" on the paper. It takes some patience, but after a few tries, I found that I came up with a very nice, authentic shape. Then, I CAREFULLY cut the pattern out of the paper. This, I glued to the top of the figure's head, used the old-fashioned TESTORS Tube Plastic Cement. Once this "Top of the Cap" pattern dried, I coated the top of this pattern with some more of the TESTORS tube glue to strengthen the paper. Once this had dried, it was stiff, but still pliable, so some shaping and forming was in order.

After I got the shape I more or less wanted, I got out my sculpting putty, and I CAREFULLY sculpted/fashioned the folds and creases of the cap above the Headband where it meets the "8-point" top of the cap. This needed some care, because I didn't want to mess up the "8-Point" top. Believe it or not, TESTORS Liquid Cement (NOT the Tube glue, this time) is a pretty good aid in helping to fashion folds and creases on any type of re-sculpted and puttied clothing. I use an old TESTORS Nylon Brush for these little chores. It works!

After this had dried, I then applied the squarish Front "Crown", and then cut out and I applied a "Head Band" around the head of the figure. This took some measuring and marking for size. I made sure that the "seam" of the head band was positioned wat the BACK of the head. The front crown and head band once more, were fashioned from loose-leaf paper.

Now the HARD PART- That, is fashioning the "Bill" or "Peak" of the cap, using loose-leaf paper once again. This doesn't sound so hard, but getting the shape of the bill "right" is a bit of a "toughie". It took several tries before I got it right. MAKE SURE that you are able to form a "curve" into the bill. You don't want to have your MARINE looking like some doped-up rapper-wanna-be.

How to keep the bill in place? I ran a VERY thin bead of the tube glue to the base of the front of the cap, and then using tweezers, I attached the bill to the front of the head, butting the bill up against the base of the cap's head band at the bottom. I waited a few minutes and then I brushed a mixture of the tube glue and liquid cement onto the TOP of the bill to give it strength, AND to further join the bill to the headband and head.

(DO NOT coat the bottom of the bill, otherwise you could ruin the join of the bill to the bottom of the head band, or you could accidentally glop the glue-mixture onto the Marine's face, which you DON'T want to do!!!)

The above all has to be done carefully and sparingly. The "mix" is roughly 2 of liquid cement to 1 of the tube glue. Works every time! Once this dries, you can very gently coat the head band with the same mix. What you want to achieve here is smoothness, and strength at the same time. Once this dries properly, you can go ahead and prime, and then start the painting processes.

If you have an old USMC Utility Cap, it's probably smart to keep it on hand for reference and guidance as to it's unique shape and "look". For those of you who may not know it, there is a small, triangular "stiffener" sewn into the front of the cap in the head band, which is covered-up so as not to be uncomfortable for the wearer. This little stiffener is there in order to keep this cap stiff in the front, and also to help preserve that unique USMC "look"...

The US Army VN-Era ball-cap is a bit easier to fashion, as it only has a sort of "rounded-pyramidal" stiffener at the front of the cap attached to and above the bill...

I've used these same techniques in order to fashion my own scale cowboy hats, slouch hats, kepis, derbies/bowlers, fedoras, Napoleonic shakoes, top hats, bicornes, tricornes, you name it. It SOUNDS a LOT more complicated than it actually is. The best tips I can give you regarding "self-made" headgear:

Always cut out patterns and head bands, bills, brims, etc, a bit larger/longer, wider than you actually need to. "Dry-fit"; you can always trim away "excess"...

I hope I may have been of some help to you, and everyone else.

Disclaimer: What I've described above were/are techniques which I came upon by experimenting on my own. Any resemblance to similar techniques are purely coincidental...

The ball cap wearing heads posted were in use during the Nam era. It was not an official ball cap, but was in use.. the issue ball cap, was ditched as soon as possible for the Vilsek style cap..or at least that was where you could get them during assignment to the Combined Arms School. Another source was the Seventh Army NCO Academy when it was at Bad Tolz. A field expedient was to modify the issue ball cap by cutting the upper half of the stiffener out of the cap, it at least made it look a little less goofy. Some of us also wore the field cap when we could get them. But I was an 11Echo in the beginning and several other MOS’s and finally ended as an 11Delta when I was separated due to disability.

The stiff bit at the front of a US green "ball cap" is like the stiff pointed front to the WW2 German field cap.

There's a method to my madness.