Saturday, December 20, 2014

ZCGirl 1/6 Sniper Muriel Black Ver. Part 5

No socks?

With her jacket detached in the previous posting, the "actual" articulation potential of ZCGirl 1/6 Sniper Muriel Black Ver. can be shown off. ^^



Supported using a wire stand meant for Gunplas.

Besides getting a clearer idea of how movable Muriel is with her ZCGirl "EVE" body design, all the joints can be moved more easily, and without too much stress placed on them as well, since they don't have to fight with the jacket's tough fabric to show off their posability. ^^



Very wide neck articulation allows the head to bend to all directions.


The pointy-tipped neck peg with a ball-type joint embedded inside the neck is responsible for the flexible neck movements shown above. ^^


Revealed through the removal of the head, Muriel is wearing an earring on her right ear. ^^
The earring is made of metal, which is also painted I suppose, ...


... as the paint unfortunately left a mark on Muriel's neck after the figure was been kept in her box for an extended period of time. ^^;


Muriel's face part can be removed to reveal her unique ERT (Eye Rotation Technique) gimmick. ^^


A pair of pegs behind the face part connect to their corresponding slots on the head piece.




By rotating her eyeballs from behind the face part, Muriel's eye direction can be changed. ^^
This is not a very special gimmick per se, since good old Sci-fi Revoltech Woody is designed with the same feature for his eyeballs as well, but its execution still looks really beautiful on Muriel. ^^


Lifting the arm upward from the side of the body is limited by the T-shirt's folds forming up above the shoulder. ^^; This bending range is more than enough to cater for Muriel's action poses I believe.


Swinging the arms forward/backward is very easy.


The upper arm can swivel around the shoulder joint.



A full 180-degree bend for the elbow.


Either hand can be hinged upward/downward at its wrist level.


The hands can be bent to all directions, but their posability is severely limited by the gloves' cuffs.


With the gloved hands removed, the multiple joints of each wrist are revealed: hinge-and-swivel combo with another ball-type joint at its front peg on either wrist joint.


The upper body can be rotated from side to side.


Standard range of side expansion for the hips.


Each leg can be lifted forward for a wide degree, but the tough fabric of the pants will keep pushing the leg back down. ^^; The wire stand meant for Gunplas is the support that kept the leg in that bent position in the image above. ^^;


Slightly over 90 degrees for the knee bend.




Very flexible ball-type joint movement for the ankles.


The tactical boot is detached to reveal the ball-type ankle joint. The round divot on the front edge of the shin allows the foot to be bent forward for a slightly wider degree than what the ball-type ankle joint offers.


Made of soft plastic, the boots' own flexibility is a boost to the ankle articulation, but I feel that it's a redundant design anyway, since the boots' collars are made to be much wider than Muriel's shins. ^^



For a military figure, designed with all the flexible joints as introduced above, a very natural-looking kneeling pose is well expected of Muriel. ^^




While the kneeling pose is really good-looking, the stretch on Muriel's pants to enable that pose also exposes that she's wearing no socks beneath her pants. ^^; That sounds like a weird nitpick, but it really bothers me. ^^; For a sniper, kneeling is perhaps one of the standard poses to show off the long sniper rifle, but the lack of protection around Muriel's shin areas seems like a vulnerable spot on her when she's doing her best waiting to kill someone. ^^;

For some odd reason, no socks as standard issue in Muriel's military gear list is really bothering me right now. ^^; I suppose that feeling is going to be even harder to shake off after she's all suited up for combat. ^^;



Muriel and all the weapon, and other equipments she'll be carrying on her body. ^^


The anemometer is stored in one of her sleeve pockets.


The jacket removed in the previous posting is returned to the figure. ^^


One of the tied side strap on the plate carrier is detached before the vest can be equipped to Muriel's body.
Even with the head detached, getting the top opening of the plate carrier past the hood proves to be might troublesome. ^^;


After quite a bit of pulling and sliding, the vest is finally set to its intended position on the figure's body.


Tying up the side strap is another troublesome task, but is quite interesting too. ^^


Using a pair of tweezers, the strap is repeatedly fed through a slightly elastic loop to fasten it. The bulk built up from layers of strap section stacking on top of one another inside the loop is what's keeping the strap securely attached beneath the figure's armpit. ^^


Muriel with her plate carrier. ^^


The MOLLE system belt is equipped to the waist next.


An option part not introduced in the previous two postings: a drop leg magazine carrier.


While the two magazine pouches in front are the more important parts on this carrier, the many straps on it are doing well to steal the spotlight. XD


The carrier is placed beside the right thigh, before its two back straps are being fed through the clip buckles.


The top, Velcro patch-tipped strap of the magazine carrier is slid around the belt. The Velcro patch is only set in place once the proper position for the magazine carrier is found, and that may involve adjusting the belt itself.


Once the magazine carrier is set to its proper storage location, another two rounds of "stack-strap-inside-loop" tie the par down on Muriel's right thigh. ^^


The pair of rifle magazines are stored inside the magazine pouches.


A pair of loops are included next to the front, and rear magazine pouches.


Either loop shown above can be used to hold the suppressor, or the default barrel tube from CheyTac M200 Intervention.


The metal pin on each of the three straps behind Eagle Desert's chest holster is important to the part's positioning on the plate carrier.


True to its actual MOLLE (Modular Lightweight Load-carrying Equipment) system design, the rows of straps stitched on top the vest have openings in between that can be used to mount other parts with compatible attachment points. ^^
Then again, without using tweezers, or other tools with sharp, narrow tips, it would be mighty difficult to work on those openings. ^^;


One-by-one, the straps behind the chest holster are slid into the bottom center set of openings on the vest.
As you can see, the metal pins mentioned earlier on prevent the individual straps from sliding out of the openings. ^^



When the straps are all fastened to the vest, they can be pulled from beneath to straighten the holster. ^^


Clipping the long barrel type Desert Eagle's holster to the left side of the belt is the easiest step since placing the anemometer into the sleeve pocket. XD



The bag is slung onto Muriel's left shoulder, and placed across the body to the back of her waist on the right side.
Placing the bag's strap behind the chest holster not only helps to avoid any conflict between the two parts, it also loosely confine the bag to stay behind the figure. ^^


The bag's position is not fixed, but it would be good to get it away from the long barrel type Desert Eagle mounted on the left side of her waist. ^^



Muriel is already looking all set for action at this point. ^^


Additional steps to give Muriel a more bulked up look: ^^ thin slices of paper are folded up into tiny blocks, secured using clear tapes, ...


... and slid into all empty pockets to make them look like they are loaded with additional equipments. ^^


Extra content, made using sheets cut from plastic bags, are meant to bulk up the sling bag. ^^


All the additional parts can be fitted inside the bag, alongside the "original" occupants. ^^


The sling bag definitely looks full now, but it's still pretty lightweight because of its mostly plastic content.


The jacket sleeves are rolled up till elbow level to accommodate the arm sleeves.


Muriel's eyes are adjusted to give her a different look. ^^



With CheyTac M200 Intervention equipped to her right hand, a fully equipped Muriel is completed. ^^

More images of this combat-ready Muriel coming up in the next posting. ^^

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