"15mm torso with alternative arms and hands" Topic

Many 15mm lines carry alternative heads for figure customization (GZG, Peter Pig…)

I think that 15mm torsoes with alternative arms and legs could be useful as well

I envision torsoes from the main lines of a given producer's ranges (say: Earth Force, Titan Marines, Droptroopers, Home Guard and Sahadeens from Rebel; Federals, Nova Republik, Raaths and various aliens from Khurasan; Protolene, Arc Fleet, Kaamados etc from CMG…) with different arms and legs to be able to patch together different kinds of figures for example:

torso + sitting legs and arms outstretched on handlebars (bike/jetbike/gravbike rider)

torso + standing legs and arms with binocular or tricorder-like thingamagee (scout or recce type)

torso + binoculars stuck into turret hatch (tank commander)

torso + kneeling legs and arms operating something (mortar/MG/support weapon crew)

torso + standing legs and arms operating something ("technical gunner" and other similar stances, w-out legs also stuck in a hatch operating vehicular weapon)

I think that such a range of options would be very useful to hundreds of gamers needing "one particular figure" to liven up a model or a squad/force saving them the time/effort to painstakingly converting them out of other figures (when available) or sculpting the missing parts (which some people are unable to do)…

I ordered some GZG NI seated figures, and then some regular NI figures. I chopped them in half and now I have NI seated figures with guns.

So, short reply is that I agree with you and I think that'd be awesome

I am very clueless about the cost/returns of having such a set sculpted and moulded, so I would understand if Rebel Mike, the Khurasan Guy, Jon and other types like them would pop up here saying it would be antieconomical to do so, but, perhaps, having such a set for their main ranges would help sale of the other miniatures as well…

The main concerns of economy in this particular instance is all in how you pack them together. It shouldn't be terribly more expensive to sculpt three sets of arms, legs, and torsos instead of three mono-pose figures. In a way it's even akin to selling people the sculptors' blanks.

"The main concerns of economy in this particular instance is all in how you pack them together"

Any ideas on that?

I am also going through the pangs of wanting the odd unique character and also a specialized weapons team for my Control battalion, i want to build a Russian style heavy machine gun similar to what they used in WWII. If i use the Control battalion mortar teams loader lower legs and the upper torso of the Control battalion hatch gunner figure that would make a great looking kneeling machine gunner, i just need to find a Russian style Heavy machine gun now…

That would be great! If it seems uneconomical, just raise the praise of such set to balance smaler quantities. We wil buy such sets no matter the price, frankly.

Khurasan Power armor set is built like that.
Each mini have arms/weapons sprue.

I think its great way to do this (ma favorite 15mm Power armors so i bought 5 sets)
But they are bigger and more massive, and have some flat surfaces – could be fiddly for normal 15mms..

I like this with plastic stuff from PlasticSoldierCompany but metal would be pain to work with..

I think the main difficulty is the creation of the molds and casting of the parts. At 15mm you have to be maddeningly precise to ensure a proper fit, with metal and air flow cuts etc. Then it would probably be a right pain in the @rse to put together again for the builder. Power Armour (larger troops) it would be a little easier to do

As long as you are not suggesting having the heads and arms actually separate but simply mix and match upper and lower bodies I think you are okay.

Head swaps in 15mm are often beyond manypeople's comfort level. I don't say ability because most people I find who think they can't, CAN but are not comfortable with that level of fiddly.

The hardest part is the economy mentioned. If you can figure out a way to make sure that after all is said and done each pack produces a collection of useful figures with minimal or no leftovers, you are okay, otherwise you are going to hit another comfort zone issue – "Why should I buy six minis worth of parts to get three usable minis?".

A solid example of this being done in 28mm is with Zombiesmith's T'ok Medium Squad –

In this pack, all upper and lower halves work with any other, allowing four sculpts to create 16 possible pose variants.

-Eli

I was EXACTLY suggesting what you mentioned, Eli,

'swappable' upper and lower bodies, for a small variety of figures and needs,

I have often though that gunner and vehicle commander figs could benefit from attachable lower bodies.

I have also thought that open-top vehicle gunners with adjustable position waist connections would be useful in making them more accessible to use with "generic" vehicle lines and conversions (technicals and such).

-Eli

Ahh I see. Thought you meant changeable arms to

Hmmm interesting!

Maybe the next Kickstarter campaign :)

I didn't know if changeable arms were feasible and/or practical,

I originally was thinking about changeable arms too (actually if you look at the topic's title it mentions alternative 'arms and hands') but then had doubts on that so I only mentioned bodies and legs in the topic proper.