What's your current project?

[Myles_Falworth]

This evening I worked on the three newest Joes quite a bit. I found feet for all of them. I decided to give the "new" feet to the Sea Adventurer since the skin tone was the closest of the two. So the other foot on the Sea Adventurer went to join the right foot the Land Adventurer still had. I found lower arms for the Sea Adventurer and a left hand. I also found two lower arms for the Land Adventurer that was missing them. I still need hands for him. The other Land Adventurer that was missing only his left hand, I realized I had one left hand in my parts bin with a painted rivet. However that Joe's right hand had a painted rivet too. So he got the left hand and they both match. The foot on the Land Adventurer to the right was broken off. The peg had to be knocked out with a hammer and screwdriver. I had to remove the lower leg first, which required a vise, some rubber gloves, and a lot of sweat equity! But it got done. I love my vise! I have a nice magnetic attachment to it which will hold objects at different angles and in different sizes. It's extremely useful for removing stuck pegs.

[ATC]

Looks like a fun project!
- ATC

[Myles_Falworth]

Here is my latest project. You can see two figure need both lower arms and hands. The third is pretty beat up but only needs a left hand. The two feet on the Sea Adventurer were left feet. One turned out to be a Mike Power foot. So I need a complete pair of feet. I think I have some on an AT Commander lower body. I'll use those. The hand will be a bigger problem. And two of these Joes need reflocking. More to follow.

[GeekDragon]

Looks great. Shoulder holsters will definitely make them look even better.

[Myles_Falworth]

Here are the three formerly headless bodies from post 119 in the latest finds thread. All have found a head, and now uniforms and boots. I still need to give each a shoulder holster and pistol. I'm out of vintage Lebels, so the Air and Sea Adventurers will receive Club repros, but vintage black holsters. The Land Adventurer will get a vintage black Lebel, with a repro Club brown holster. I managed to stock a few before the Club shut down. Now where are they? I'll find them, with Joe's help!

[Myles_Falworth]

While I'm deciding what to do with the talker, I decided to outfit the 3 Joes I put together from some AT heads I had, plus the three bodies I got and talked about at post 119 of this thread http://www.thetrenchesforum.com/foru...st-finds/page8 So I'm still deciding on uniforms for these guys, but they are all assembled, and I found short black boots for all of them tonight. That's been the extent of my restoration work for the past week or more. Pictures to follow.

[ATC]

Ugh. Good luck. The only thing I can think of is carefully giving everything a good cleaning. Maybe give each axle some sort of lube, like that dry powdered graphite. I have no ways at restoring talkers, though. Maybe somebody reading this conversation will chime in with some tips!
:-)
- ATC

[Myles_Falworth]

I looked more closely at the talker's mechanism tonight. Tried replacing the speaker, but it didn't do any good. The string retracts slowly and haltingly. Right after I replace the speaker the first time, it retracted all the way with no effort. But after putting the new one in, it went back to being slow, and with the old speaker it's no better. Must have been a fluke. Nothing is impeding the string. My next thing was to look a the needle and tape. Nothing seems amiss. However I didn't look at the needle under a magnifier so who knows? Next I'll check the fly wheel and see if the felt is out of place. I feel like I'm a long way from fixing this.

[ATC]

Good luck on the restoration, Myles.
Keep us posted!
- ATC

[Myles_Falworth]

Me too Darryl. I've never seen eyes like that on an AT guy. But that's how they were when he arrived. I can do minor repairs on talkers. I'm no expert. If I can fix this one I'll count myself lucky. So far I've sent all the talkers with broken strings to Scott for repair. The ones that have strings, I attempt on my own. I've fixed one that way, who only needed a knot taken out of the string, and a new speaker. This one may only need some lubricant in a couple of spots, and maybe a cleaning of the tape - which I feel qualified to do from watching videos on the subject.

[TNshooter]

Your figures are coming along nicely Myles! Do you know how to fix talkers? I got screwed by a guy who did talker repairs. 60 bucks down the drain. Sent me back a figure that was not the one I sent him.
I am curious about the Land Adventurer's eyes. I don't think I've seen one with eyes that bright blue.

[Myles_Falworth]

Today the feet for the Land Adventurer arrived, and he has them on now. This figure is complete except for his uniform, which I'm still deciding on. I decided the talker's arm is so damaged that I used another spare talker arm I had in my parts box. I kept only the forearm, as it is more of a color match with the rest of the body. I took a look at the talking mechanism while I had the chest open, and noticed that the fly wheel is having a hard time turning on it's own. So maybe a little oil there will solve the problem. The original speaker is in there and looks good, so maybe all it needs is a cleaning and a little oil. I'll try it and post
once I know. There are two blue marks on the left side of the talker's head. Some zit cream is on my shopping list.

[Myles_Falworth]

Tonight I restrang the Land Adventurer. I was able to use the original elastic, since the figure hadn't been played with much after the hook holding the head on snapped. This must have happened early in this Joe's life, because he's in really good clean condition with the most pristine elastic I have seen. I still am waiting for his feet, but here he is as of tonight. By contrast, the talker's strings are worn out. He's very floppy, and will need a restringing as part of his restoration. Also a really good scrubbing. This is one of the dirtiest figures I've ever purchased. He should look much better after the full treatment.

[Myles_Falworth]

Tonight I put the talker's left hand back on his left arm. I also gave him two feet which are roughly of the same vintage. The right shoulder is cracked in three places, which is why the original owner scotch taped it together. It wasn't enough to hold the pin which attached to the rest of the arm, so they taped the arm in place. I am now looking for a shoulder piece for a painted rivet Joe talker. I'd rather not have to put the metal rivet in a a non-talking shoulder piece. The hunt is on! I also ordered two feet for the AT Land Adventurer. Once those arrive, I'll restring him - however his original string looks good, so I may only need to replace the hook which attaches the cord to the neck post. I'll hope that's all that's needed. Once he's together, I'll have a look inside the talker. The string retracts SLOWLY, and the sound it garbled. Probably a bad speaker maybe shifted to block the string. We'll see.

[Myles_Falworth]

My next project will be a double restoration of these two figures I picked up from Ebay today.