Jean's Victorian Makeover

Character:  Not so much a character as an exercise, but an enjoyable exercise.

Construction: 

This project started when I looked through my custom bait bins, and said: it's a shame, this figure has a decent head above all that hideousness:

And so I decided she should have a Victorian dress fit for a lady.

I used a combination of vinyl and Magic Sculpt to create a dress over the existing framework.

The sleeve cuffs were added later with Kneadatite. An additional feature of the skirt: now the figure can actually stand, unlike before: her bandy legs couldn't support her.

Spray Primer on everything but the head, and then lots of paint.

Last I repainted the lips and the hair, and sealed the whole thing.

Not too bad for an experiment. Completed 2011

This is not the first time I've rescued a Jean Grey. 

Also See My 8" Phoenix.

DinoBride and ZombieGroom

Character: Two good friends of mine recently got married. As they are crazy fabulous people, I created this duo to commemorate their special day.

Construction: 
The Bride is made from a Wedding Dress Ariel Zizzlinger, and a Jurassic Park Raptor:

I carefully carved the face out of the Ariel, shortening the bangs to fit the dinosaur head. I used Magic Sculpt and pins to attach the new piece and added new sculpted hair to blend it into the edges. The doll portion got a full repaint as well.

 The Groom is made entirely from a GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra Storm Shadow:

I carved away the bangs and much of the hair, and used my Dremel drill to add the empty eyesocket. Kneadatite was added to create his mangy Zombie-style hair. I cut down the ninja star in Storm Shadow's hand and smoothed it into a disk with Kneadatite, then added a small crystal bead to create a ring.

He also got a repaint, except I just touched up the eye area, leaving that mostly original.

As it got closer to the wedding, I picked up a display case to keep the figures safe, but decided it was missing something. A base!

I sculpted a base out of Sculpy, adding plastic poles after baking.

The marble look is only on the top level, and is in the Sculpy itself, created by careful blending of white and dark clay. A heavy cardboard base level was painted and glued to the bottom to support the Sculpy.

Testing the size of the base in the box:

I strung some ribbons between the poles, and sculpted tiny bees out of Kneadatite to "hold up" the banner.

In Progress

After Painting

Complete display:

Completed 2011

More Pictures:

Mutant Toy: Thing From The Fur Dimension

Character: 

Another Mutant Toy. The Fur Thing  doesn't photograph well, because his fur is so clear an expression of his black treacherous soul, that he throws off the white balance of my camera.

Construction: 

I was digging through my bins, looking for inspiration, when I came up with this all at once. I love this project. He looks much better in person, though.

The Fur Thing is almost entirely a X-Men Movie Cyclops. His head was sculpted over with Kneadatite, and I loosened up some of his joints by shaving off pieces of the plastic that inhibited movement.

In Progress

He got new claw-like fingers over his hands, hand-sculpted out of Kneadatite. He was sanded, painted, and covered with fur. The 'fur' is a mixture of synthetic hair and black feathers. I also added a little red paint around the eyes. 

Why Cyclops? I also cleaned out his battery case and replaced his batteries.

DOOM!

More Pictures Below Completed 2011

More Pictures of Green Lantern Barbie

Previous Posts about this project: The reveal, How she was made

With a DC Direct Black Canary. Yeah, there's a reason I don't collect their female figures.

With another Barbie-brand Heroine

With DC Direct Hal Jordan. I'm not sure he knows what to make of her.

And here's my most recent custom 12" superhero hanging out with my very first custom 12" superhero, made way back in 2005. 

More Comic Character Customs:

12" Rogue 12" Gambit

4" Animated Gotham Girls: Calendar Girl, Poison Ivy, Catwoman, Talia, Harley

4" Starcrossed JLU Figures: Bruce, Diana, Wally, John, Shayera 

(I should get better pictures of those one of these days...)

4" Superman: the Animated Series Supergirl

8" Comic Phoenix

6" Comic Raven

Mutant Toy: Pirana Man

 

Character: 
Another Mutant Toy. Pirana Man isn't especially friendly, though he's more likely to claw than bite.

Construction: 
Pirana Man's base is a loose Batman figure, origin unknown. He has hands from two different Witchblade figures, and his head crest came from an armor piece from the spare parts bin.


I removed much of the original paint first, and cut off Batman's ears. Then I used Kneadatite to fully re-sculpt the head, add the panel over the torso, attach the new hands, and sculpt the fin on the right arm. 

In Progress

After Painting

The tube on his back is a piece cut off of an X-Men Movie Toad. The holes in his back that the tube is glued into were drilled with a Dremel. All non-green parts of the figure were hand-painted and sealed.

Pirana Man retains the articulation of the original figure: Shoulders, hips and neck. Completed 2011

I Can Be... A Green Lantern!

Character: 
Barbara Millicent Roberts, you have a history of willpower and you are capable of overcoming great fear. Will you accept this charge?

Construction: 
When I found out the only Barbie product for the new Green Lantern movie was a San Diego Comic-Con exclusive Carol Ferris, I decided that couldn't stand. After all, Barbie has had over a hundred careers, even spent time in Starfleet, and been transformed into a number of superheroines. She deserves this. Much to the movie marketers' surprise, I'm sure, the Green Lantern Corps are not an all-boys club. (For more on why I like Barbie, you can see my review of I Can Be... Race Car Driver Barbie)


The Barbie I chose to receive the ring is a Fashionista "Sweetie," for her classic Barbie look, and her Fashionista articulation. I re-did her hair into a simple ponytail, but didn't change her eyes or lips.

I bought a pair of 1/6 scale fists on eBay, and sculpted the ring onto the right one as a first step. Attaching the fists to Barbie's arms required the sacrifice of her original hands so I could use the existing wrist articulation. 

Her arms were so slim that I decided to give her a little more muscle with some Kneadatite epoxy putty.

Next step was building her jumpsuit. I bought a shirt at the local thrift store that had the texture I wanted: almost a thin swimsuit material, a lycra with a little sheen to it.


Her jumpsuit is entirely handsewn. Her boots used to belong to a Princess Amidala doll.

I painted her boots, and cut down and painted her earrings. Her green gauntlets and symbol area are painted onto the jumpsuit by hand with fabric paint.

The final step: sculpting her mask out of Kneadatite. The mask and ring I left the base color of the Kneadatite, because it's a perfectly nice green already.

Even More Pictures to come in another post. Completed 2011