CLASS of 1985 Code Name: FLINT

Flint is my absolute favorite G.I. Joe character. I think it has to do with what I call the "Star Wars Holiday Special Boba Fett" technique where the character was introduced in the cartoon (Revenge of Cobra) before he was ever announced as an action figure or revealed in the comics. So, this gave me an expectation for this action figure as a child. I also liked the way the cartoon portrayed Flint as second in command, which I think matches his file card better.

One of the few things I do not like about Flint is his original card art. It is a picture of him just standing there with his fist in the air yelling. So, I went with a slightly more "action" pose similar to the Resolute file card picture.

This design is heavily based upon Wry1's amazing picture of Lady Jaye and Flint on Deviant Art. The vest is from a Steel Brigade Delta. I cut the machine gun magazine's off the vest and glued some MTF shotgun shells in place.

I wanted a Flint with a versatile look that kind of blended his portrayal in different genres. So, Flint typically seems to retain a black shirt with green or green-camo pants. The Renegades cartoon depicts Flint in, what appears to me to be, a black, mock-turtleneck shirt with a green sweater vest with brown shoulder pads. So, I used the Snake Eyes v. 54 torso, as, to me, it has that mock-turtleneck, ribbed sweater/shirt look. Plus it has the should pad things. The upper arms are from a Sgt. Stone figure.

For the head I used Resolute Flint. It is my favorite Flint head sculpt. I hate flesh tone painted faces. I found some sort of muscular, fodder forearms that closely matched the head sculpt skin tone. The wrist gauntlet is from a Cobra Viper that Dremelled out glued MTF shotgun shells, and slid over the forearm. The hands are from Resolute Duke. I like that they have the opposite hinge articulation.

I sawed the Snake Eyes torso off at the waist and glued it to the waist section of an MTF Spec-Ops. Even without web gear, it looks pretty good! I have made an almost identical Snake Eyes custom using that same Snake Eyes v. 54 upper body and MTF Spec-Ops legs.

Although not in any of these pictures, I may have overdone it on the shotguns and knives. I have like four shotguns and three knives that go with this custom. Two shotguns are the Mossberg M590A1s, one with the stock folded and the other extended (shotgun came with DTC Falcon, mine is an Avac's Lab resin cast - Looks AMAZING!). The other shotguns are an MTF "combat shotgun" with red shotgun shells glued to the stock and a smaller shotgun with backpack holster I bought from Avac's Lab.

I like to think of Flint as a mid-Western "country boy" who grew up working on the family farm, who is also exceptionally bright, which explains how we went on to become a Rhodes Scholar. I could see Flint explaining to one of his soldiers, "My daddy taught me two important things in life: One, a shotgun is a man's best friend, and Two, you can never have enough knives!"

You will notice I changed Flint's rank on my custom file card to CW-4. I never understood how he could be a "Warrant Officer," have a Staff Sergeant rank, and fly helicopters. I also wanted to bump his rank up to CW-4 so as a Special Forces Warrant Officer, Flint would serve as a Squad Leader.