RAH Reload: "Chairman M.A.R.S." - James McCullen Destro XXIV (More content added)

[gaiagear]

Hiya!!

I have been wanting to mod Destro for like eternity. Heck I even have the thought of using the mid-90s Hasbro melon as base. Glad it was somehow conveniently forgotten. What reignited the project was probably sometime shortly after stumbled upon Draxhall Studio's Joe toyline package concepts, immediately got hooked by them like a hopeless crack addict. I was gonna mod him based on one of Draxhall's designs(see the concept pix down below); but the creative drive veered off to a different path. I wanted to retain most of the key features that we associated Destro with. The only thing left out are the wrist rockets which I can't stand them from day one.

Scratch one from the to-do list, hundreds more to go.

























The hardware: Brügger & Thomet MP9 & M.A.R.S. 10mm offensive handgun




Draxhall Jump's Destro concept


In the nutshell

• Head - Repainted Cody with Plasti-kote Classic Metals and sealed with Decoart Triple Glaze sealer



• Body - Partially repainted BBI G3.5 with Plasti-kote Classic Metals

• Pendant: Custom

• Neck choke piece - Custom
I cut the piece from the lime green colour cap of the carbonated drink Ramune. That particular cap has a detachable piece in the middle that rams the marble inside the bottle neck all the way down in order to control the quantity of drink to seep each time.





• Wetsuit - Triad

• Red collar vest - Cannibalized from various outfits.

• Tactical Vest - Reworked BBI Owl's vest with big ... zipper replaced by buckles; utility pouches from HT & DML; magazine pouches from Medicom GIGN

• Dummy pouched magazines - Staked styrene strips

• Grenade pouches - Custom

• Assorted web belt pouches - Modified/repainted DML, HT pieces

• Drop down holster - Modified Hasbro carded pieces

• Shoulder armour - Reworked Hasbro Sigma 6 Duke pieces & Takara CG Aska pieces.


• Gloves - Reworked DML Jin-Roh with unknown maker sleeves
• Gauntlet - Reworked Takara CG Aska pieves
• Boots - HT CVC boots
• Kneepads - Reworked Takara CG Aurora pieces
• Combat knife - No freakin' idea, HT or DML perhaps? Reworked with new buckles and straps.
• Shin guard: Custom
Again I cut the pieces from everyday items, this time from blank cosmetic dispenser.





• M.A.R.S. 10mm handgun - DML MK23 + Japanese live action playset junk parts.

Receiver came from Cybercop Lucifer's shoulder mounted blaster.


Assorted wip shots....

[Dave70b]

Looking good Leo! Good choice on the head sculpt. Is it Cody?
Now lets see some more pictures.

[Iron_Mike]

Wow, awesome job Leo! Love that hs as well, great work man!!
-mike-

[Auret]

COOL!!!...

really captures the feel of the character...

[kuato]

Awesome Leo! Destro is one of my favs.

Chris

[W@sh]

WoW !!! Very Well !! Great figure.

[crowinghorse]

I'm going to post a link to this from www.YoJoe.com as soon as you post more photos - AWESOME WORK!

[KneeJoint]

Leo - I hate you!

First Dave and his Rock N' Roll, then Deadguy's Baroness now your Destro - Get out of my head!

Oddly, I happened to be working on a Rock N' Roll when Dave posted his first WIP. Now my Rock N' Roll is about 90% done, but I thought I'd wait for the hype on Dave's to die before I posted.

The other two GI.Joe characters I wanted to do were Destro and the Baroness - All the parts have been ordered, drawings, plans and paints set aside... Deadguy used almost all the same pieces I had planned for the Baroness (oh yeah, and the parts just showed up today).

I'm just glad my Destro is going to be in a suit. With the old Hasbro Melon head that I just scored from Bear at one sixth depot.

All that aside - Your Destro is rocking! Have you seen the 25th Anniversary Iron Grenadier Destro? It was the first thing to pop into my head when I saw your dude.

[holiday]

Nice!

[Kibagami Jubei]

That would be ill if you could chrome out his dome. xD

[getoninja]

looks great, cant wait for more pics

[gaiagear]

Dave...thanks boss!! Yep that's him.

Mike, Terry, Chris, W@sh, Jesse & Holiday...thanks bros!!!

Jess....thanks man, much appreciated that.

Jubei....Yeah well until I figure out a method that yields better result, this will do for now.

KJ...LMAO!!! Thanks bro, yeah I'm having a RAH pandemic lately, so modding Destro is inevitable. Got a few more Joes on the drawing board, then I'll jump to another genre. Can't wait to see how you envision Rock'n Roll. If I work on Baroness probably might end up with the same pieces too. Hope you don't mind me taking a shot at Hasbro's melon since you're using the head for your Destro, it was rather huge with Triad wetsuit. I'm actually looking forward to how your imagination work around the head size with the suit.

Afraid I haven't seen the 23th Aniv IG Destro pix until today. I was reading the IG's background on the web the other day though, thinking those IG grunts would be a damn slick project; and then you brought the subject up here. Hmmmmm

[rawrington]

Daaang Leo! If you do an IG, I'm gonna die!
I love that you decided to mix the combat gear into his classic uniform, ala the chest gear.
I know you said that you didn't like the wrist rockets, but what about making something in that spirit? Maybe a hand-held version?

[KneeJoint]

Daaamn! That chrome Hasbro head is HUGE!

Leo - I'll PM you pics of my Rock N' Roll. I am not happy with the pictures so I'm not putting them up for public scrutiny... Yet.

He is very to similar to Dave's, so I'm going to do a little tweaking and re-working.

[Grunt1162]

Excellent job! The hs is perfect.

[Sir Eaton Flipflop]

Excellent. It is a treat to see the WIP pics - gives us a glimpse inside the creative process. Amazing as always - any company would be hard pressed to make this figure's equal.

[cosmicbaby]

Best lookin one by far!

[cdn_rhino]

Hell Yeah!!! That is Destro.

Cody is resurected again. That sculpt rules.

[gaiagear]

Grunt & CB...thanks gents, still learning. Hopefully someday I'll figure out a better way to chrome him properly. Not totally satisfy with the result this time, but what the hell....need to move on to the next project.

Mike......lol thanks boss. He's sort of one of the many holy grails in my to-do list. Have numerous chances in the past to work on him, but they never materialized. Not too many wip shots this time, kinda forgettable on taking pix. All I've in mind was charging to the finishing line.

Rawington.....thanks man!! Yeah the IG idea has been floating in my head lately, not sure if I'll actually take a shot at him. Probably after rolling out a few more JOEs then we'll see. Hmm.. a hand-held version of the wrist rockets?? Novel idea man. Yeah he ever get a revisit from yours truly, I'll likely get something mounted on his gauntlet or like you said, a hand held version perhaps.

KJ....yep he's huge particularly in tight suit, but anyway....like I said in the PM, looking forward to your Rock'n Roll and a host of other JOEs in your pipeline.

Michael.....thanks bro. Yep the man has resurrected again. There were only tow things came in mind when I got Cody: "Holy ....!! 47 & Destro!!"...go figure. Probably one of the best DML could ever put out and that was eons ago.

[lucas]

Very good job and very original

[uramegak]

Killer rendition, man!

[WritinMan]

Very cool, Leo! Great version of Destro! The silver head sculpt looks great. Sometimes metallic paints just don't look right, but this came out great.

[Migster11]

Outstanding custom of Destro!!! That is one very nice kitbash Leo

[blackops4free]

X-O-LENT. Man, this is banana's.

[hqpham]

Look at Destro..all mature and badass looking...Another amazing job Gaiagear!!

[Tiger USMC]

Leo that is a great looking Destro one of my faves from the RAH Joes, and he definitely had the coolest sounding voice on the cartoon. Super talent bro. All these RAH joes are making me want to try my hand at one.

[Rogue Trooper]

Real impressive figure, like your use of parts.

[Tiger]

Awesome work as always Leo!!!!!

Niels

[mgbb]

Brilliant ideas to create all the custom parts!

[Darth Sheba]

Great use of everyday stuff. Incredible piece of art!