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Well, after a long hiatus (mostly due to schoolwork, family and being a newlywed) I'm back! Thought I'd show a bit of what I've been up to starting with a figure that I've wanted to do for such a long time. One of my favorite 'desert war' movies and certainly one of the most brutally ironic war movies ever made is Andre de Toth's (who also directed the original 3D 'House of Wax' and 'Springfield Rifle') "Play Dirty". From the opening sequence, where the lone survivor of a botched raid drives through the desert blasting "Lilli Marlene" over Radio Belgrade and wearing an Afrika Korps cap, until he's almost to the British lines whereupon he changes into a British officer's peaked cap and changes the radio to the British "You are my sunshine", the film's plot is builds counterplot upon counterplot till the twist at the very end.
Central to the story is the piratically devious Captain Leech played by Nigel Davenport. He's the unit's old leader, trusted implicitly by the misfits under his command. who is pragmatist enough to casually massacre Bedouin who might turn hostile or turn a blind eye to an ambush that massacres a British armored column rather than risk his mission and his men. Leech is played by veteran British actor Nigel Davenport, who's also dad to one of my most favorite contemporary actors, Jack Davenport.
The genesis of this project was my very serendipitous and fortuitous find of a GI-Joe Desert Jeep at a thrift store (for the awesome price of 8 bucks!). It was farely complete, even having 2 jerrycans on the hood and one strapped to the back, a spare tire and the desert water condenser. I eventually acquired two aftermarket Vickers K guns but then when I saw Play Dirty I thought it would be even more fun if I could make this the 'play dirty' jeep that Leech drives at the beginning of the movie where he transforms from Afrika Korps survivor to SAS officer.
This is the dirty dozen on meth. As the unit commander says, "War is a criminal enterprise - I fight it with criminals."
Central to the story is the piratically devious Captain Leech played by Nigel Davenport. He's the unit's old leader, trusted implicitly by the misfits under his command. who is pragmatist enough to casually massacre Bedouin who might turn hostile or turn a blind eye to an ambush that massacres a British armored column rather than risk his mission and his men. Leech is played by veteran British actor Nigel Davenport, who's also dad to one of my most favorite contemporary actors, Jack Davenport.
The genesis of this project was my very serendipitous and fortuitous find of a GI-Joe Desert Jeep at a thrift store (for the awesome price of 8 bucks!). It was farely complete, even having 2 jerrycans on the hood and one strapped to the back, a spare tire and the desert water condenser. I eventually acquired two aftermarket Vickers K guns but then when I saw Play Dirty I thought it would be even more fun if I could make this the 'play dirty' jeep that Leech drives at the beginning of the movie where he transforms from Afrika Korps survivor to SAS officer.
This is the dirty dozen on meth. As the unit commander says, "War is a criminal enterprise - I fight it with criminals."
opcorn:goodluck
