Robb Long Imaging: Robb Long for Fab Defense

I recently had the opportunity to shoot a really cool conceptual assignment with a local ad agency for its client Fab Defense. I remember playing with little green plastic toy army soldiers all the time when I was a kid. This project let me re-live my childhood again.
Our job at Robb Long Imaging was to photograph a real man and turn him into a traditional toy plastic soldier holding a decked out real gun. I feel we accomplished that goal as did the client.

Here's an explanation of the project: "Research showed that FAB Defense had a loyal following among serious shooters around the world. What they lacked was brand recognition in the U.S. market. In an effort to change that, an ad series featuring FAB's new tagline of "Keep It Real" was created to tell shooters that if you buy gear from anyone else, you're only "playing" tactical. To illustrate that point, we relied on imagery of a real man made to look like traditional green plastic army men with the soldiers in each ad holding an AR decked out with FAB gear. "

I enlisted the help of Shannon Amos of Amos Styles to give me some pointers on what to do to make this guy look more like a plastic soldier; beside the obvious step of painting him green, she recommended plasti-dip. Here's what she said about the final image on a recent Facebook post along with a behind the scenes video.

"This is creativity and drive in Photography( And a super Happy Client) Robb Long and I became pals on Facebook and over the past year he has reached out about some consultation with wardrobe or props of some of his shoots. I always offer my best answers and try and send him in the best direction I can. He blew it out of the water with his latest shoot for his client. I was not 100% how the Plasti Dip REAL "toy" soldier would play out. Robb nailed this from the photography to the retouching....all in his garage" - Shannon Amos (Amos styles)