Orbital Drop troop (1:35) is shaping up

This is an update regarding a design sketch in sculpture of a science fiction orbital drop troop. The scale is 1:35. It's a FIMO mix over a wire and Green Stuff armature.

Following on a lead from our trusty blog follower and fellow blogger Stargazer I tried a design inspired by the cool American M1 helmet model. I decided that it had to be a full face helmet, if we are to believe our troopers can hang out in some toxic acid atmosphere. No breathing hose though, I'm not sure I want one and I can always explain it by tech.

The armor became segmented and much lighter, to give a sense of flexibility as well as protection.

I think the riding boots are a cool touch. I was inspired by a Luke Skywalker action figure my son handed to me as I was working; I needed to make Luke and the Ghostbusters werewolf fight (Luke won because he has powers). Incidentally, I didn't progress on any of the other stuff because I was taking care of my son who's very busy improving his immune system by contracting viruses and pathogenic bacteria.

The suit is supposed to be a kind of basic kit. On it you can add the various pouches and gear. I do want them to appear like they're loaded up to get busy but I wanted to give a clear image with this sculpt of what the very basic get up looks like. They will probably all have backpacks, grenades, combat knives, tech stuff etc. etc.

Take note of the rifle shouldering plate on the figure's right hand side and that the ammo pouches are on the left. I want to sort of take this asymmetrical look as a feature. There's a real practicality to it, I think.

Another feature I'm considering is a kind of cloak because it can be used as camouflage and cloaks are awesome (re: my camping trip pictures). On the other hand, cloaks will hide a lot of the detail so I'm not entirely sold on it.

Oh, almost forgot. I prepared and primed a Stug, a German rifleman team and command team as well as six 1:72 IDF. Of the Caesar set quite a few are unusable to me because one type (there are 4 of each, I think) is kicking down a door or making a weird dance move and another is using a Cornershot system. I think there are at least another 2 sets of 1:72 modern IDF from Orion and a few higher end ones from some resin makers.