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 Yessiree , I got a Hankerin' For CowGirls!
Jane West ain't bad , but when it comes to cowgirls there's just not much available aside from her and Janice . Sure Yamato Toys has their bounty hunters Kelly and Hannah , but c'mon . . . they ain't Cool Girls! I've created a few Cool Girl Cowgirls , The Wild Roses and Buckaroo Betty . My fondness for cowgirls stems partly from my enthusiam for old western movies , Roy Rogers and Dale Evans as well as Clint Eastwood Spaghetti Westerns . One of the primary reasons I like makin' Cool Girl Cowgirls is it gives me more opportunities to purchase the absolutely awesome western style gun rigs that are created by The Toysmith! Copperhead Penny is the latest , and she is actually being created FOR the Toysmith . She also gives me the opportunity to talk about some of the "intangibles " of custom action figure creation , most specifically : how the idea of a particular character comes to mind . So take a seat by the campfire and let me spin ya the particulars . Stevo , The Toysmith , did not have any specific requests for this figure other than she be a redhead . I've spent many moons seeking a redhead and I'll tell you - THERE ARE NOT MANY 1/6 SCALE REDHEAD ACTION FIGURES! At least for stand-in purposes I'm using Blaze as the default cuz she's a redhead and has a great face sculpt . I had a nice pair of light khakis from a Ken clothes set that I wanted to use , mostly because they looked great in conjunction with the boots I'm making for Penny , but as far as that , I really had no concrete idea of how I wanted to dress her .  Penny's duds started with her boots . So it seemed natural to continue her costume design from there . As I had mentioned , I had a great pair of khakis from a Ken clothing set . They looked pretty good stock , but I wanted to show off Penny's boots , which meant I'd need to tuck the pant legs inside the boots . The pants were already boot cut , but for the wrong way , so I needed to alter the seam . It was a pretty straightforward and simple nip and tuck with a bonus . The khakis did not have belt loops , and I wanted Penny to have a belt , so using the fabric left over from the pant leg alteration I fashioned a few belt loops .  Perhaps there is nothing more definitive of a cowpoke than his or her hat ; due more than anything else to cowboys from the movies , like Tom Mix or John Wayne . Now back in the old west , the real one , not the cinematic version , cowboy hats needed to fulfill a function moreso than make a fashion statement , but as far as Penny is concerned I wanted to create a " character " rather than a " person " .  If you like to make western figures , one thing you can never have too many of are hats . Problem is , when it comes to cowboy hats there's not a great deal of variety outside of the traditional cattleman's hat . So I decided to make a couple of hats to try on Penny . I already had the standard frontiersman , but I wanted to see how she'd look with something along the lines of a flat top as well as a telescope . I also wanted to make one from leather , for the plain fact that I like the look of leather , and picked up some felt as well to try my hand a making a felt flat top/quake hat like Wyatt Earp's . I began with a combination form of my three favorite hat styles made from leather . This was a hoot to make . First I cut out a 3 1/2 inch square of leather , soaked it real good with water and began to shape it , over ( of all things ) a turned over shot glass . I pulled it tight , smoothed out the creases , wet it some more , and repeated the pulling and smoothing . Once I got the proper depth for the crown , I took a plastic pill bottle that was of the appropriate circumference , and tapped it over the leather draped shot glass until I had removed any left over creases . I allowed this to dry for about an hour and a half . Next I removed the hat from its shot glass form , and placed a plastic soda bottle cap inside it . Using a seam cutter , I then began impressing the rim of the crown and then , lifting the hat off the bottle cap , carefully began pushing up the telescope crown with my finger . After the crown was formed , I went back and deepened the rim crease . Next came the brim , I cut out a circle of leather and using the outside rim of the mouth of the shot glass as a template , cut the center hole from the brim ; which is then slipped over the crown of the hat . I will then wet the brim and impress a thin rim around the outer edge of the brim . Blaze has a LOT of hair , quite possibly the most hair of any CG , and its crimped styling works quite well for a western themed figure . In addition to this , hairstyle can do much to establish a character and bring out a personality . To this end I started thinking about giving Penny braids , so I gathered up several batches of hair and tied them off with twist ties in preparation . After I had given her a test fit of her second hat , I noticed that the twist ties had the appearance of feathers , so now I'm thinking about giving Penny feather decorations on her braids rather than just leaving them with simple bands at the end of the braid .  Like I said , you can never have too many cowboy hats ; then again it is quite possible to have too many choices . I wanted to create a felt hat for Penny , and so I did . I had not realized how much I would like the way this hat looked on her though which left me in the unenviable position of trying to decide between her two hats . Both have their plus sides , I like the low silhouette and slickness of the leather hat , the color as well is really sharp and it does possess a " copperhead snakiness " to it . On the opposite hand , the classic look of the felt open plain hat just screams " I'm a Cow Puncher! " and I'm imagining it with a snakeskin hat band which would make it just super spiffy . The texture of the felt also adds nicely to the overall look . These are the hard decisions when creating a custom , and don't necessarily fall into the " right " or " wrong " category .  Stevo probably didn't have any easier job than I deciding which hat he wanted for Penny , but opted for the leather one . It does have what my be considered a " gunfighter profile " moreso than the felt open plain hat . I had chosen to give Penny a snakeskin hat band and therefore had to decide the best way to approach it . Since I needed it to be thin , my first thought was paper , perhaps even generating a snakeskin pattern in one of my graphics programs and printing it out . Then I realized that I could use a technique for paper sculpture where you score the paper with a needle , a very simple method of crosshatching that will transfer a scale texture . With this method I could achieve a realistic relief not possible with a printed version , and actually paint the snake skin color pattern prior to scoring the paper . I used 100% cotton rag watercolor paper for strength and have created a simple test band to see how it would look . It is definitely promising .   Penny's blouse is not exactly western styled , in actuality it's Miss Fear's from the " Sword of the Dragon " set by Dreams and Visions . There are several reasons I chose it . First it's a pullover rather than button down blouse , so it has more of the look of an early shirt style than your typical modern button down front . It also had balloon sleeves which is a look I wanted just because I like the sweep it gives the arm . It hurt not at all that its bronze color tied in well with Penny's overall color scheme . In order to give it more of a western feel , I decided to add suede cuffs to it , thus minimizing the balloon shape at the end of the sleeves while retaining that sweep . I made the cuffs , sewed the hem and stitched the cuff closed , leaving the top of the cuff unhemmed since that's where I will will sew it to the sleeve . The hem of the blouse's sleeve is removed and the elastic cut free and the cuff slipped over the sleeve . The excess sleeve fabric will be trimmed away and the cuff sewed on .  Considering that I've only been pursuing sewing for costuming for six months , I've been amazed at how simple it really is . I've thought about getting a sewing machine , but the more hand stitching I do I'm beginning to think that it's not really necessary considering what I would need it for . I still have a ways to go as far as achieving uniform and consistant stitches , but each piece I do is an improvement over the previous . If you've wanted to sew , but feel initmidated by the prospect ( I know I did ! ) my best advice would be to toss that psychological dead weight to the side and get your needle and thread! I've never sewn cuffs on a finished sleeve before and it was tricky trying to figure out how to do it . After two failed starts I finally achieved success on the third , don't know if it was the right way to do it , but it worked . I slipped my pinkie finger through the sleeve and cuff to hold the fabric of the sleeve against the cuff and just started stitching ( hoping against hope that I wouldn't inadvertantly sew my finger to the sleeve as well ) . Once I tied off the thread I pushed the knotted end underneath the cuff . Blazin' Western!  Garsh , but I just love that Blaze headsculpt , moreso when it's used to make cowgirls . Now you can see both Penny and " Doc " side by side ! Click Here : High Plains Hotties  Vacation's over and am back at work . Squeezin' in further work on Penny as I can . A cuff one day , a scarf the next . Wouldn't it be fun to do this 24/7?   Women can be so demanding at times . Having given Abraham Lincoln's longcoat to Penny , she stares coldly at me and I realize , " Gee , from that look in your eyes I'm guessin' you want a street howitzer now too , huh? " She did . Let's face it, 1/6th scale shotguns are not uncommon , any collector of Cool Girls has more than he or she will ever need in three lifetimes . Of course NONE of these are 19th century double barrels , and just TRY to find one of THOSE ! Nobody makes 'em . That's not entirely true , Sideshow made one for their Wyatt Earp action figure , but just TRY to find ONE of THOSE!!! The ruthless glances from Penny really left me no alternative ; she needed to be satisfied . I was going to have to make one .  Making a 1/6th scale firearm is not a difficult task , provided you have the right materials and tools . Lucky me I still had some aluminum tubes , sheet aluminum and plenty of wood . Once I had drawn out the pattern for the stock and transferred it to the white pine it was a fairly simple matter of cutting it to shape and then dremmeling it to final form . Now , as you may recall , this is a custom for the Toysmith , he of the tag line " Got Metal ? " I could not very well give him a wood reproduction , nor a sculpey or kneadatite version , I would have to construct this double-barrelled shotgun out of wood and metal . This also is not a horrendously difficult task , all it really requires is some good reference material and some deft trimming and filing of the various metal parts . Probably some minor embossing and or engraving , but nothing that is beyond the reach of most folks .  Once the stock has been shaped , and the barrels cut to length , all that remains is cutting the individual details . Most of these will be cut and dremelled to shape from sheet aluminum , aluminum rods , pins and any other bits of steel I have lying around . Since this is to be a percussion cap firing mechanism , I am using round brass brads on the breech of the barrels .  I needed the back of the barrels to flare out a little more than the fronts , so using a nail punch , I hammered away at the backs of each barrel to widen them . This was done rather carefully and thru several passes in order to not split the aluminum . The rear back plate and tang was cut to shape , and a round butt cylinder of metal was hammered shape the extending flanges of the back plate . The tang will be further shaped and contoured with a dremel .    The trigger guard , triggers and hammers all had to be hand made , the easiest being the former two ; the trigger guard is just a strip of aluminum bent to shape . The triggers are the two prongs from a brass brad bent to shape and the brad head cut away . The hammers were dremelled and filed to shape from a flattened 1/4 inch aluminum armature wire .  I really didn't see much reason to actually use wood stain for the stock , so I used Dr. Ph Martin's watercolor dyes instead . I used a mix of burnt sienna and sepia , and layed on several washes , wiping off the excess pigment after each application until I had achieved the desired color saturation .  Stay Tuned For More on Creating Copperhead Penny . . .  Maybe it's some kind of deep seated psychological castration fantasy , but I like girls with big knives . When it came time to outfit Copperhead penny with a fightin' knife , there was little question it would be an Arkansas Toothpick , one of my all-time favorite bowie styles . At a typical blade length of 13 inches , double edged and straight bladed dirk , the Toothpick is just a mean ol' nasty pig sticker . The knife is a full tang construction , the blade is aluminum , with a brass hand guard and pommel . The hilt is basswood carved to shape and stained with watercolor dyes . You may also notice that I have begun Penny's braids , they do much to help cement her " look " , and are receiving a brass wire insert to allow them to be posed as well . | Blazin'Western | CopperheadPenny2 | CopperheadPenny3 | | Warrior Maiden | Femforce Customs | Jungle Woman | CopperheadPenny | CoolioGirls | WarriorMaidengallery2 | Race Bannon | sci-figal | biminirhodes | Catwoman | sorceress | Femforce Customs2 | A Mod Look | Jennifer Wetworks | OnnaBugei_sha | Gila Garnet | whisper | headsculpts | costume | Wigging It | Darth Fatalus | Swashbuckler | Finn O'malley | Darth Fatalus Diorama | streetfighter | MoonGirlRedux | dakota_montana | ZombieKillerBikerLesbos | Hair | Thaay Katar | halfbreed | princessofmars | HestervanWeiren | Autumn Bliss | BioSaber Ruby | | CoolGirlCustoms | WildRoses | CoolGirl Collection | CoolGirl Collection2 | CoolGirl Collection3 | TheToysmith | CoolGirl Collection4 | CoolGirl Collection 5 | CoolGirl Collection 6 | CoolGirl Collection 7 | CoolGirl Collection8 | Kill All Robots CyberHuntress | CoolGirl Collection 9 | CoolGirl Collection 10 | Bad Amy | Buckaroo Betty | SimpleDetails | CoolGirl Collection 11 | coolgirlHQ | Cool Girl Comics | Cool Girl collection 12 | KisaragiKustom | AlternativeCutey | coolgirl_collection9 | DX-Style Yuni | DX Style Sanchez | Triad Toys | Cool Girl _Akiko Fuji | CG Gallery | Samurai Figures | Cool Girl Collection13 | Cool Links | Triad_2 | Playscale ResourceCenter | Sword and Sorcery | | ReelArts Blue Bulleteer | Shocker Toys | Cool Girls | KiniKomix | KiniKomix2 | Custom Action Figures | eBay Auctions | AppleseedTribute | Macross Valkyrie | Planet of the Apes | Horse Sense | WeaversUpholsteryToo | ToyBiz_Iron Man | Dirty Pair | On Display | The OTHER Gorby | | Return Home | Updates | The Archive | Gorby Site Map | Geeb-O-Rama's Model Workshop | Geeb's Toy Box | Geeb-O-Rama Goodies | Movie Madness | World Of The Bizarre | Cool Beans | |
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