I showed my wife some pictures of pilot figures for quarter-scale gliders, and she got very interested, because she's a fabulous artist and sculptor in polymer clay, among other things.
We are thinking of starting up a custom pilot head business where customers would submit a front and side picture by email and she'd use those to make a hollow 3-d simulacrum of their head in polymer clay or a softer, spongier specialized modeling material, (pretty tough and light) and paint it with acrylics to make it look as realistic as the original photo. We're still talking about how we'd handle the eyeglases/sunglasses issue. Any advice there would be welcome.
At this point, we are thinking she'd just make the heads and customers would be responsible for the bodies, but if there is demand for things like the upper torso, she might consider that too. My take on that was that GI Joe type doll bodies are easy to get now in a couple sizes, it's the custom look-alike heads and faces that builders would like to add to an existing pilot figure body.
I was wondering, if such a service was available, what scales are being under-served for good quality pilot head figures now, and what kind of price range would be attractive? As in, how much over the cost of a generic pilot would a person be willing to pay? This would not be a mass-production thing, but one-off handcrafted pieces, custom to order.
We are not taking orders, or asking for any right now, we're in the "thinking it out" stage, and this is not an advertisement by any means, more in the line of a marketing question. I'm only going to ask it here once, so as to not offend aanyone's idea of list etiquette unduly.
But I will be watching for reactions, opinions, etc. about the idea, to gauge the market for what scales and what prices. My own opinion is, God Bless Williams bros., for example, but I don't think they've changed their molds for decades. In the scales between 1/5 and 1/10th, I think there's room for more realistic options in jet pilot figures as well as civilian types.
What say you? If you prefer not to discuss this on-list, send opinions direct to
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Thanks for the bandwidth, I promise not to abuse it.
