8404 Diorama Studios

I’ve been working on figures, Marines and Japanese; when working on figures I have the opportunity to play Dr. Frankenstein – swapping body parts, heads, repositioning arms and legs. Plus of course changing gear, weapons which doesn’t come under the heading of being a mad scientist. Thankfully, the figures I’m working with thus far are from MasterBox which means they tend to be multipose friendly.

On the Marines we find a variety of “deuce” or 782 gear. To a Marine (and by extension their Corpsmen) 782 gear is what you take to the field or war and encompasses load carrying gear, protective gear, etc. On the figures our gear comes from several sources however it is important to remember to keep the same source for the same items of gear in the name of consistency. Believe it or not, some items come from the ICM World War I US Infantry Equipment; some equipment did carry over from World War I, especially where the Marines are concerned. Other items came from the MasterBox sets. Weapons are from several sources, Tamiya, Dragon, ICM, MasterBox, and Tasca.

Our Japanese carry equipment from MasterBox, ICM (those who were manufactured by ICM that is), Fine Molds, Tamiya, and Dragon. Tamiya only supplied the ammunition bags and “knee mortar”; the weapon required a bit of work – hollowing out the spade and drilling out the muzzle of the launcher. I added the neck flaps of a soft cap being worn under the helmet on one figure to match the box art and was pleased with the end result. A couple of the ICM figures received Japanese helmets from the spares box since the instructions would have you depict them all in soft caps.