I've always wanted an olive drab green Tomahawk that reflected the real-world Army's O.D. green helicopters---and I'm sure this has been done before with vintage ones, but I never had a spare Tomahawk to work on, and I wasn't going to buy a vintage one because they're too brittle, and not sized for the 4" figures. Well, I just found the new re-make at TRU this week, so I bought an extra one to paint green. (In reality, the G.I. Joe Tomahawk coloration is actually more modern, as only now is the Army starting to experiment with painting some of their non-specwar helos gray or desert tan instead of green; which was left over from the Cold War European battlefield mentality not factoring in the Middle East terrain.)
The custom was pretty simple, I just took it apart and used O.D. Green Military Krylon Fusion paint and Krylon Matte Finish. The paint is actually a little darker, but I took these pics in my backyard after work, so the setting sun makes the paint look lighter than what it really is.
I was simply going to leave it at that, but because I'm so damn anal retentive about detail, I also painted in the cockpit controls, as well as all the control buttons and computer/TV monitors in the cargo area. (I have to clean up some of the edges around some of the control buttons and computer monitors, but that can wait.) Because a toy would never showcase real-world detail in terms of controls and displays, the cockpit is obviously pretty toned down from real helos, but I based the general buttons and color very loosely on the Chinook's cockpit, plus I added in some of the newer full-color weapon displays that the Apache/Longbows have. Finally, I painted in the optical sensors on the chin gun turret by basing the lens colors off the Apache/Longbow sensor array.
In addition, I also repainted one of my Lift-Tickets in a pseudo-Enduring Freedom (MultiCam) camo pattern to give him a SOAR "Night Stalker" feel. I unfortunately did some of the camo splotches much too big compared to the real thing because I was rushing, but it's good enough for now---especially for someone who will essentially be sitting in a cockpit. (As a side note, it's very cool to see Lift-Ticket finally getting a cool real-world helicopter helmet, but sadly it's already outdated, as the new advanced helo helmet is moving along the lines of the TopOwl system. Ah well, better than nothing!)
...And because I'm a seeming glutton for punishment, I also painted my normal Tomahawk's cockpit and interior controls to match so I wouldn't one-up myself.
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