While he has never been one of my favorite characters, there's no denying that Duke is a great character. So when I saw how great the latest Duke headsculpt was in the Pursuit of Cobra line, I decided to give mine an upgrade.Parts: Head (PoC Duke wave 3), Body (25th Anniversary Duke v26), Helmet (bbi Elite Force figure), M4 rifle (Marauder, Inc.).
When I started this figure, I didn't plan on posting it. It's basically just a headswap with a new paintjob and some new accessories. The only Duke figure I had was the 25th Anniversary jetpack version which had a really light colored shirt. So I snatched him out of my Pit display and repainted his shirt. While I was at it, I touched up the paint apps on the belt to make them a little bit different shade of green than his trousers. The bandolier was silver (ummm... why?) so it needed to be repainted, as well. With the smaller details, I tried to model this figure after the awesome 12" Duke that was produced by
Sideshow. The rifle is not the same manufacturer, but it was the closest I could get. So I painted it and the helmet to match the 12" figure. I also liked the "slightly graying" look of the Sideshow figure. I thought it was a good look for Duke, so I drybrushed light gray over his hair. To finish things off, I repainted the boots with a couple different tan colors to simulate the current style of boots issued to US troops. The whole figure was given a liberal application of Testors Dull-Cote before he rejoined his troops.
