Any advise on shortening an Action Figure?

PotionMistress

Sr Member
I’m in the process of customizing an action figure and one of the things that I want to change is the height of the figure.


Since I am aiming at the miniature standard, 1 in = 1 ft (1:12) ratio, I want my female figure to be approximately 5.5” high. The best figure I could find for the project in all other respects is actually almost 6 ¾” tall (which would make her a way too tall 6.5 ft female), I need to shorten the legs on this.


I’ve looked through this forum and throughout the action figure tutorials on the web and have only found one reference to shortening a figure, It just said to cut out some of the thigh and/or shin areas of the figure and glue back together, which is rather vague. If I were to cut out sections of the legs on this figure, would just gluing those pieces together be sturdy enough to ‘play’ with it afterwards?

Has anyone done something like this to shorten a figure to make it more realistic with any success? I just thought I'd ask about this before I go ahead and 'disfigure' the figure.
:confused
 
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i would be interested in knowing this too.

i make custom g.i joes of myself and my friends and love to change things and alter them!

what figure are you trying to make??? and what action figure are you making it from???
pictures would help out a bunch here!
if we put our heads together i'm sure something awesome would happen!
 
1.25 inches is a lot to take out of a 6.75 inch figure. I think the proportions of the rest of the figure might be obviously off. If you do it one way to strengthen the legs is to put a pin in them. Drill an over-sized hole on both pieces at the cut in the leg. Glue a piece of dowel rod in one side. Then glue the dowel pin section that's sticking out of that side into the other section. The reasons the hole needs to be bigger than the dowel pin is that gives you some wiggle room (literally) to align the sections if the holes don't line up perfectly. If you just glue the two flat surfaces created by the cut together it won't be very strong.
 
Here is a photo of the figure. I may not be able to get the full inch and half shorter that I'd like, but even if I can get an 3/4" off, I think that it will look more realistic. (see lines where I thought I'd cut the legs) I like the dowel pin idea for reinforcing the pieces back together...thanks for that idea~!

I want to turn this it into a Mrs. Weasley (from Harry Potter) figure, and plan on dressing her in her characters' excentric matronly clothes and adding real hair, etc. I also plan on using Apoxie Sculpt to 'plump' her up a bit to be like how she is described in the books.

ActionFig2b.jpg

Thanks for your advice guys!

ActionFig2b.jpg
 
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making mrs weasley is an awesome idea lol

plus i think your idea of plumping her up will help you out a lot in hiding the seams after every thing is glued back together!

i took your pic and chopped it up with a little quick photoshop and we have this when you put it all back together:

weasley.JPG

will take a little sanding or adding of the epoxy sculpt
 
Hi Ultraman! I was just going to post an update on this. It went very well, I think. I only had to take out chunks from the shin area afterall, and she downsized really well into a more realistic proportion. Then I 'fattened' her up with Apoxie Sculpt, sanded and painted. Here are a few pics from the process and a comparison.
Shortening AF.jpg AF Compare.jpg

I've been busy making her clothing and props to set up a small diorama. I'm only about half done though....making the Weasley Clock and getting some good brickwork background amongst other things, but so far, I'm having a lot of fun with this. Thanks so much for your help and interest!

Mrs.Weasleyx.JPG
 
this is turning out really cool!!!! :cool
makes me want to bang out some doll house sized potter props!
if you did a little at a time you'd end up with the whole weasley house lol :)

make some tiny daily profits to toss on the couch....could even make the fire place where the brick wall is and put little floo power holders on the mantel.
or got to the paper props form and get all the packaging from fred and george's shop and shrink them down on photo shop!
the ideas are endless.
 
this is turning out really cool!!!! :cool
makes me want to bang out some doll house sized potter props!
if you did a little at a time you'd end up with the whole weasley house lol :)

make some tiny daily profits to toss on the couch....could even make the fire place where the brick wall is and put little floo power holders on the mantel.
or got to the paper props form and get all the packaging from fred and george's shop and shrink them down on photo shop!
the ideas are endless.

I know what you mean! There are so many possibilites in the HP world. I made some miniature Honeydukes candies a number of years ago for someone, and I've always kept those ideas in my mind to do all those again some time...this might be the right time.

Perhaps I should start a Harry Potter-related miniatures thread!

Anyway, thanks for the inspirational ideas. (I WAS going to make a pot of Floo Powder for this diorama, by the way.) :)
 
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i think a potter miniatures thread would be perfect!
wait until you got a little more done and the diorama is where you want it to be....then take a bunch of glamour shots and start the new thread on the main forum!
i'm sure lots of potterheads will want to join in.

i was just thinking how cool a knick-knack cabinet would be full of tiny miniature potter props!!!
like one of these:
1353169230365396.jpg
oh its just so awesome lol
:$

you know i work with other prop makers building molds and casting props and parts......we could easily make tiny molds and make tons of little minis...the only work would be adding labels and painting them to finish them off and then spray fixing them.....might be a good idea for junkyard runs.

-just a thought-

I know what you mean! There are so many possibilites in the HP world. I made some miniature Honeydukes candies a number of years ago for someone, and I've always kept those ideas in my mind to do all those again some time...this might be the right time.

Perhaps I should start a Harry Potter-related miniatures thread!

Anyway, thanks for the inspirational ideas. (I WAS going to make a pot of Floo Powder for this diorama, by the way.) :)

1353169230365396.jpg
 
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Miniatures tangent:
Here are a few of the HP miniature candies and the beginnings of the store that I made in 2008. And yeah, a shadow box painted with shocking pink and green is perfect for displaying Honeydukes or Weasley's Wizard Wheezes items.

DSC01639.JPG Honeydukespartial.jpg pinkgreenshadowbox.jpg
 
oh i love those little candies lol !!!
i could see how this would start off as a hobby then slowly turn in an obsession....next thing you know your building shop after shop and you have all of diagon alley in the basement on a giant wood board......then you're forced to do the model train of hogwarts express hahaha
 
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