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The Project: These photos represent my father when he was stationed in Tokyo, Japan at the US Army Stockade there. This was the 8044th MP Company. I believe this unit no longer exsists but still looking for more info on this. As I said, this is my father, Corporal Carroll E. Hallagan. This project began when I lost my mother in January. Soon after this my Dad and I began getting together every Friday night. I take supper and we just sit and B.S. On one of those nights, we were going through old photos and we found the photo of my Dad in him MP attire. Bells started going off and I was soon trying to figure out how I could make a figure that would capture the look as close as possible to what they wore. This was a great period and I spent a lot time talking and discussing those times with my Dad and he was able to give me a lot of info on the uniform itself and their equipment. The Uniform & Figure: The base uniform is Kakhi. This was a difficult uniform to find as not much exsists. After searching for about a month I came upon a website dealing in second hand Joes stuff. The uniform in the picture is a 1996 CC collection Bomber Pilots Uniform. I cut the straps off of the shoulders, painted the buttons, removed the Airforce Wings from above the pocket. The boots are Hasbro and from a carded AirForce Crew Chief Figure. I bought this figure for the boots alone because they were so tight fitting, and believe me it was no easy task to get them off and then on to this fig. The glasses are from Cots and special thanks goes out to Scout/L9 for this. Thanks buddy! The helmet, web belt and pouches are also from Cotswold. The rifle is and old Joe piece and the pistol & holster is 21C. A note of interest on the holster. As you will note in the actual photo, there is a white area on the holster. They were required to have spit shined holsters. Since they had such a light colored uniform the polish would rub on the uniform. To prevent this a sock like item was attached to the web belt and the holster . This acted like a barrier between the backside of the holster and the uniform. The billy club and arm band I found from the same website as the uniform but its origin is unknown. The figure itself is a good old brown haired SAM. I built the base in my woodshop, routed it, stained it and polished it. It looks kind of rough in the picture but is very nice looking in person. I drilled a whole and inserted a dowell that runs up the underside of the web belt and up to the middle of the back. He stands just fine this way and can be positioned in numerous ways. The flag was is of the standard grocery store checkout counter item. Summary: Overall I think this project turned out pretty well. This was to be a fathers day present but I didn't have everything in from Cots at the time.I recently gave it to my Dad. He loved it and immediately cleared a spot on the cabinet for it. I am very proud of my Dad for what he has endured. He is a strong man! This last weekend my dad gave me a gift that I couldn't believe and didn't even know he had it. It is the .45 holster that is in the picture. I am refinishing this and it will have a place with my collection. This I will treasure for ever! --- GroundPounder |
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