My previous post showed these clever recycling craft kits (stickers?) from Flying Tiger with ideas for reusing cartons.
This is the day and this is the hour …
My first Milk Carton Creation is a simple Landing Craft for 54mm figures down to 40mm or even 32mm figures.
I sketched out an idea of the shape of the Landing Craft on the side of the carton with a permanent marker Sharpie pen, before cutting with sharp scissors.
Folds and cuts are first secured by staples. Later on I used a hot glue gun to fix flaps and wooden coffee stirrers for rigidity and strength.
Next time I make one of these, I will not lose the thin screw on ring that was attached or sealed to the cap. It might make the cupola tidier to insert and secure.
I used Revell Aquacolour Acrylic (Stone Grey) which binds to the shiny waxy carton both inside and out well enough. I shall give this a further coat or two of Stone Grey paint. A final tough gloss varnish spray should protect some of the paintwork.
The back splash and bullet guard is made of a cut up plastic card iTunes voucher, the flaps or hatches from thin wooden crafting Scrabble squares and cardboard – all secured with a hot glue gun.
I can add more detail such as fenders and life rings and lettering after a few more coats of paint.
Inspiration for the Landing Craft came partly from the Flying Tiger catalogue page and partly from the back and review pages of Toy Soldier and Model Figure or TSMF Magazine this month.
In keeping with my Pound Store Plastic Warriors blog ethos of cheap and cheerful, recycling and reusing scrap and plastic tat, here are some suitably Pound Store Plastic figures to give me an idea how the Landing Craft works.
The plastic figures are mostly unpainted and Pound Store clone or pirate copies of Matchbox, Airfix or BMC US marines.
First off, a Normandy D-Day type Landing with mostly pirate Pound Store copies of Matchbox German infantry and US infantry. Barbed wire, sand bags and beach obstacles from Elite Corps (space marines) playset.
The same scenes in grainy black and white:
Meanwhile somewhere in the Pacific …
Several tubs of what I later discovered were Pound Store copies of BMC Marines also had the odd Japanese lying figures, to bolster the defences of mostly Pound Store Matchbox and Airfix Japanese on this more tropical but strangely familiar shoreline.
Those well-defended tropical beaches in grainy black and white:
I thought I would also try the Landing Craft out with some lead hollowcast figures of US infantry from the family on Fathers Day:
The cupola Navy machine gunner is a copy of a plastic Tim Mee infantry machine gunner.
Finally I tried the Landing craft out with smaller scale 32mm pound Store figures and similar size toy jeep.
Switching figure scales, the machine gunner in the lid appears too large for the smaller scales. This is not always so important with plastic toy soldiers. Just look at the weird scale mix in Pound Store Soldier bags.
In future however on my next Landing Craft (Carton) I shall try keeping the milk carton round lid and cutting down and sticking on the suitable size machine gunner figure, so that with a couple of spare carton lids, I can have an easy swap or switch of figures.
Hopefully I can add some suitably Pound Store type scrap details like fenders and life ring along with some Letraset style letters and numbers.
A few less cartons to landfill if you have no carton recycling nearby. All I need now is dozens more and I can invade (a pound Store version of) France …
Blogposted by Mark ‘Man of TIN’ and Carton, 21 July 2019
Pound Store Plastic Warriors 