Automatauntaun Customs

SATURDAY SPOTLIGHT! Packrat studios!

2012-07-28T16:37:00.000-04:00

This Saturday I'm super juiced to bring you a spot light on guy who needs no introduction. He's Jonathan Kuriscak of pack rat studios. And he is an Epic level Customizer.

I contacted Jonathan about being featured and he was more then happy to oblige, which in turn made my day. He has been featured on Figure Realm, Wired Magazine, Toycutter and many more.

Among his fine works are a Dark Knight Returns Batman

A WWII themed Star Wars Empire Strikes Back bounty hunter set.

As well as a Vader to lead them.

An AWESOME apocalypse!

An R2-D2 Bertie World War Robot that blew me away.

I'm a huge Ashley Wood fan :]

A Concept Red Cross

And a concept Robo Cop to name a few.

But what caught my eye was the first thing I ever saw him do.

This bad ass Steam punk Iron Man and Tony Stark Smithy! Personally Stam Punk is a Genera that leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth due to the amount of vagueness surrounding it. It was just.....

Stuff like this always turned me off.

Well stuff like this got me going. Thats a costume by the way. A PERSON IS INSIDE THAT!

The figure is a bit larger then a ML scale fig and the Tony Stark is a Ml Univers.
I started off with the normal question. Tell me a bit about yourself.

"PRC: I'm a Action figure collector, who since I was in high school "customized" figures. Its a hobby I have loved doing for a long time, and in the last 5 years gone further into the rabbit hole, basically, I'm addicted!"

I share this sentiment. It is a truly addictive experience, making something, from start to finish that their is no other like. And Mr. Kuriscak has certainly done that, and then some.just look at the detail on the back from gas tanks to the port hatch for tony stark. This Figure is an amazing scratch build.

A common question here is how did you get started?
PRC: As stated before, I did this in high school, but after Graduating from University I got back into it.

Getting the chance to ask him about his recipes was a thing I couldn't pass up! HE was Kind enough to share his amazing process with us.

PRC: Recipe for my SteamPunk Iron Man, goes as follows (from what I can recall):

Fox Cleatus Robot figure for the Chest, and Upper Arms.
To this day i want to get my hands on a cleatus. Such an awesome base.

Custom Built head from StyreneCustom Legs, built around a Sigma Six figure for the joints using styrene again

Feet, Styrene and Sculpt.

Lower arms an Hands: Mega Morph Hulk

Rest is basic bits and fodder from my (ever growing) fodder collection

Hex Rod cuts for the bolt heads

Fake Candle/tea light for the light

Thats not the least of it.
He felt he also had to make a Thor to match.

This isn't just a normal Thor. Aside from being a Steam punk Thor its an INSANE CUSTOM!
He was kind enough to provide us with the recipe for this as well.

RPC: For my Steampunk Thor:

Legendary Comic Book Heroes Conan for the Base

Magneto Head I believe, with sculpted beard

Hair is from... I believe an LOTR Aragorn figure

Boots from an Aragorn Figure

Right arm is built up with styrene, as is the other armor

Hand from a fox Cleatus figure

Then the HAMMER:

I created a Clear acrylic box out of clear plastic, sculpted on a rock formation, leaving the cracks clear.

In the box was Flickering LED Setup I created, with a switch on the outside of the box, hidden in the rock formations.

I then painted the rocks, left the cracks unpainted, but then followed up with a blue clear in the cracks.

Shaft of the hammer is built from a tube from fodder, and wrapped in vinyl.

Wow, just wow. All of what is here is amazing. True craftsmanship. So with everything accomplished here I had to ask, of someone who made such amazing things. What can you say to others looking to follow in your footsteps?

PRC:Keep learning, and dont be sloppy!
Learn how to paint! Read up on it, in the customizing forums, Tutorials, GO TO MODEL Maker FORUMS!!! Tons of stuff out there, worth learning!!! If it is a figure you are really interested in creating take your time, give it 100 percent, and practice. Keep trying! I dont do this with dreams of working in the big biz of Toys, I do this because I enjoy doing it, for me its a hobby! If you enjoy customizing, keep it up, it takes time to learn how to do all the various different techniques out there!

I can't agree more. Their seems to be a theme among customize I interview. From the novice to the pro. Which is learn, practice, and do what you love for yourself. It makes me feel good about our hobby community. We have, in most of the forums I go to, a great community. Great people all looking to share the knowledge and experience. And that's a good sing of things to come as our hobby community grows and grows.

Check Pack Rat Studios blog

And his Facebook!

Custom Concept Young Thor, Part 2

2012-07-25T05:00:00.000-04:00

"You will follow us to the police... in the name of... The Avengers!"
~Thor Odinson

Click here for Part 1 of my Custom Concept Young Thor.

The first thing was to disassemble my other Wiccan. I had two of each hand and each head. The two Hammer Holding hands will be sized differently; one to hold the thin wand type hammer and one to hold the super heavy duty hammer.

Of the two open hands, one will be left the same and one will be RE-molded to be open but curled.

After the head, neck joint, arm pegs and wrist attachments were removed by boiling I filled them with sculpt and, when dried, drilled a hole in them and then used a Dremel grouting bit to make a semicircle indentation to receive the Revoltech joint. Next, the forearms were glued in place, disabling their rotation. After this dried, a hole was drilled and then the same approach to the hands was implemented to make way for a Dremel joint since both sides of the joint are identical. After you know they are the right size, I coat the inside with crazy glue and let it harden. the same was done to the neck.

This is what you would end up with in the end.

After some adjusting, the Revoltechs fit nicely.

If done successfully, you end up with this. Granted, I still need to clean these up a bit (mainly the hands), but you get the idea.

You may notice a hammer in the above pic? Interested? Well here we go.

I wanted a LOT of hammer heads and the ability to swap them between handles. I set about making a test hammer. I settled on a fairly simple design I would call "The Fanged Hammer" due to its downward pointing ends. I started by getting the genreal shape on the end of a chop stick and letting it cure.

Next I went with the Ultimate Thor incarnation war hammer

For this I just shaped the conical cylinder and left it sit in a puddle of water so it would not adhere to the object it was drying on. (Note: as the water dries you must re-wet the area to keep it from bonding.)

And finally, a small square hammer.

I then took a DCUC Hawkman mace and cut the mace off.

A small magnet was glued to the end after sanding it level.

My test hammers now cured, I went about sanding them to get the base shape that I wanted to sculpt over.

I also wanted to be sure the hole I put in them was large enough to snugly fit the Hawkman handle.

For the Ult. hammer I decided I needed to make moorings for the parts. A peg going through the center of the hammer so a peg could stick out both sides for the hammer and axe end to be on. And a peg in the center bottom to attach to the handle. I did this using my Dremel work press since I wanted it to be pretty exact. It worked out well. If you customize, I highly recommend one. Also it's great for around the house stuff.

I, for the life of me, have never been able to figure out what these are. They come in EVERY Revoltech package and are completely useless to me. They do not come with any Revoltech figures to my knowledge. (Maybe with the Assemble Borg brands, but I haven't bought one yet.) So I was pretty pleased when I finally came up with a use for them!

I shaved one of the disks off so it would work better for what I needed!

A lot has happened here on the main part of the hammer. A heavy coarse grit sanding, a moderate grit sanding and then a fine grit wet sanding with Black Ice 1500. Then a small transition piece was sculpted to the hammer.

For the fanged hammer I sanded it down. I then applied a thin layer of sculpt and then went to work making it look war torn.

I wanted to give the sense that this hammer, at one time, was almost pristine. But was ancient. And that it had been used both to attack and defend.

With that drying I went to work on the next hammer. I wanted this to be more like Thor's traditional hammer. I started by sculpting these "panels" on the hammer.

Later on I plan to sand the space between the "panels" and sculpt flat surfaces.

I wanted this hammer to look less worn. Now on to the Ult HAMMER!

As you can see I sanded the small transitional part much the same way as the center. The wet sanding really makes things shine. This way when I paint it silver. It will lend itself to looking more like polished metal.

I wanted to make a large hammer that was lightweight so that a figure could hold it in dynamic poses. My solution was Foamy. I first decided how big I wanted my hammer front to be. I cut a strip off making sure to be as even as possible. I made a ring and measured to make sure I hadn't cut too much again.

Then I glued the two ends together.

For the ends of the hammer I cut out circles covered them in Crazyglue to harden them, then sanded and grinded them to the right size. I then glued it into the hammer body.

This is what the disk looked like before I coated it in glue.

The back of the hammer (already pictured) was flat so I did not need to do this, but I wanted the front of the hammer to be slightly rounded out. So I took the disk after applying glue and curved it so it would keep its curved shape. I did this by pressing a glue cap into the back as I rotated it.

The finished product.

The same piece after a liberal amount of reapplying crazy glue and sanding, and then wet sanding.

The next step was drilling a whole in the center of the back of the flat part of the hammer. You see where I'm goin' now, don't ya?

Next step was to cut out some different axe shapes. I usually end up with left over sculpt so i made some outlines for the axe heads.

The next step was to Coat them in crazy glue. This is to harden them.

After many coats of glue and sanding this is when I ended up with. Of the four this was the one I ended up liking the most.

The last thing before assembling the axe head was to take a pice fo foamy and roll it into a tube and glue it together. Then after a coating of glue over its entire surface I cut out a rectangular channel to slide the back of the axe into.

Put it all together and you have the end of this update. Thanks for stopping by! Don't forget to follow, subscribe, like (FB) and + (G+)!

Look out! Next time on Automatauntaun!

"Red and Gold..."

Custom Concept Mystique Commission and the round up!

2012-07-16T05:00:00.000-04:00

"I have work to do... after a quick change!"

~Raven Darkholme

SO! we are back to this lovely gal! But sadly I haven't had enough time to dedicatedly work on one thing, so this will be a mash up of the items on my desk.

First up Mystique!

First thing I did was sculpt the belt end. I tilted it up for no particular reason other then ascetics.

a shot fo the same thing from the side.

The next step was the buckle, I was gonna sculpt it but, decided to go with a super thin twist tie.
I took players and twisted it into a square shape. Then I snipped the long ends off. After I made sure to re-adjust them to be the right shape I snipped them again at angles, so they formed a point when they met.

If you look at the lower left side of the " buckle" you will see their is a tiny point where they meet and a gap where they don't. This will get filled later. But for now it is done. A hole will be dremeled and a twist tie or a sculpted belt prong will be glued in.

It was just coincides that I took these together, I put an ear on Francien Castle ( my female punisher). It ended up covered up but, at the time I thought her hair would show this side of the head.

If you have ever seen the long kiss good night with Jenna Davis, firstly congratulations. It's a rad movie. Also Jenna Davis is super hot! This Francine Castle is very heavily influenced by her character "Charlie" Baltimore in the film. (Read Super hot Mcsexyer)

So, I used the ML Electra head, which I always hated. It was a good base body, unlike Hbml females. What bothered me about her was that stupid hair pice. It just never sat right with me. Once I cut it off I didn't mind it so much. I resculpted her skull and then took this domino hair ( thanks to Gears Effect for the hair!) and popped it on.

As you can see I thought it was gonna pull up a bit more but, I ended up putting it further forward. Covering the ear.

And last but not least, A VERY tiny magnet implanted into the mouth of my patch Wolvi.

This was the last of my super tiny magnets. And when I get more form my sponsor K&J magnetics! ( check the side bar for my link to them! I only get a sale counted if you buy after using that link so if you DO want to buy from them Think me please!) Another one will go into the end of a Duke nuk'em cigar for wolvi to chomp on. I did this cause the first attempt was to drill a hole and hope it would just be work with friction. this worked once or twice and then the fit was to big. so my back up plan went into effect.

As for updates thats all for now. In lue of more pics of figures I figured I would share some of the things I am reading/ following right now. First is this amazing artest who I have tenativly worked out a deal to spot light! Super pumped about him!

A: joining Figure realms WIPS's section
B: His blog

He mainly works in the 1:18 scale ( which just blows me away with the detail he gets outta' these guy.)
Its so incredibly precise! Oh, you think thats good well have a heaping slice of THIS!

Thats not all folks. This guy is busting out a WHOLE ALINES SERIES! I am only gonna put up Dalles cause its the most insane.

check all his stuff out after the jump at Sith_fire30 Works on Tumbler.

Then we have got this guy, Pack rat studios. This guy is also soon to be fully featured here. HE got my attention with the SHEAR SCALE of some of his works.

The above is a shot from his web site Pack Rat Studios Via Blogger. It's , from what I understand, V2 of his Amazingly large Steam punk Iron Man.

Another item he did that got me going was this Insane Steampunk THOR! That hammer Lights up! I kid you not. When this guy does stuff, he does it. You have to watch the video of the hammer lighting up. Again after the jump, Give Pack Rat Studios some of your time. It's well worth it.

When I am not looking for anything in particular, I check out this awesome hodge podge of cool stuff called "Toycutter". It's a great all around showcase of cool customs of all sorts. From Dunnys To Warhammer and everything in between. In fact quite a few pro-customizers and Realmers have been featured their. Give it a shot.

Another MASSIVE genius I try to keep up with regularly is a guy named Johpaulkaiser.

His style is instantly recognizable. With use of Ink black and off white he makes negative images that can't be mistaken.

From clean to busy, it all looks good. And an occasional color splash to change things up.

This is one of those people that I need to get an original by. He is awesome. Keep an eye out for his Dunny in the 2010 series three collection hitting shelves soon. and of course...his is the chase...making my life just a little more painful then normal

Thanks for reading!

Join us NEXT TIME! On another tail bone tickling installment of AUTOMATAUNTAUN!
"GET YOU SOME!"

SATURDAY SPOT LIGHT! Shinigami!

2012-07-14T05:00:00.000-04:00

If you've been on Figurerealm's custom workstation, you may have seen Shinigami's work. He has wow'ed us with his awesome rendition of Frank Miller's Dark Night, his Sexy Time Sinestro, His Awesome Iron Fist, a super sweet Dare Devil, A Monotone Cyclops as well as his Batman Beyond. But I wanted to focus on a creator owned property when I decided to spotlight him.
Captain Poland!

I found Mr. Kosakowski quite comical when I asked him about himself.
Bartek: My name's Bartek, 24, and I'm from Poland, where we don't have electricity and polar bears run rampant. Or that's what people think about this place anyway.

Well, now that my fears from that horrible travel show were assuaged, I felt comfortable moving on.

Bartek, aside form having an awesomely heavy metal name, got into customizing much the same way I think most of us did... slowly and confusingly.

Bartek: As a kid, I never really thought making my own toys is a thing. I knew for a fact that only giant factories are allowed to do that. Oh boy, you can't even imagine how surprised I was when I visited FigureRealm for the first time years ago. Then I stumbled upon Jin Saotome's website and the remaining unblown parts of my mind were to reunite with their already gone friends. So you're thinking "Oh, so that's how it started". Sorry, but no. It took me a couple more years and rediscovering FR alongside the Fwoosh (and meeting a customizer from my country) to get into the biz. The very first thing I made was a more classic looking repaint of a discounted movie Cobra Commander figure. After two years and a bunch of customs, here I am.

I too suffered from the concept that "You can't make your own toys?!" Luckily, my father was one of those "YOU CAN DO ANYTHING!" guys, being that he owned his own business.

This amazing figure is actually an incredibly simple recipe. Deceivingly so? When I saw it and realized the recipe it blew me away that from start to finish it looked like a whole new factory grade figure with just a head swap and a massive paint job. Well, a little more than that.
Bartek: This white and red dude here is my personal creation - Captain Poland. He's a slightly modified version of my DC Universe Online character. He's a Mattel WWE Elite Chris Jericho body with a DCD Blackest Night 6 Hal Jordan head and SOTA Street Fighter Gen hands (on Jericho wrist joints). I think he's the first custom I've done in a while that was painted only with base colors. I usually use multiple layers of shading on my figures (I like to think that it's sorta "my thing"), but this time I figured he'll look more striking in very sharp, contrasting colors.

As you can imagine, paiting a pure white, SYMMETRICAL eagle on top of a red surface won't be the easiest thing in the world. But after multiple retries I've done it. And then came the silver squiglly thingies. In the game, the white part of his suit is muted with a tint of gray and the silver designs are white. And glowing. That's why I used the white-silver color scheme on the figure. The silver linings were carefully painted by hand, I came up with their designs on the go. The most important thing is, every single one of them was done only once, that's why they're slightly different from one another.
On the plus side, they're silver (read: shiny) so the differences aren't visible under direct light.

You see what I mean? its deceiving...like a decepticon. Or, Something that is deceptive.

after a long pause I took a moment to ask Bartek if he had any words from the old ones from the land of the Dovahkiin and this is what he said.

Bartek: I'm no Mr. Miyagi to customizing, but if I were to give any advice, I'd say don't get discouraged. I know what being mad and disappointed when looking at your WIPs means. I get it literally all the time. That's when I say "screw it" and get back to painting or leave it and return in an hour, the next day, in a week. If you really think your custom is turning into crap, start from scratch. And if you don't know how to do something, seek advice. There are lots of useful tutorials on the FR and other community sites. Learn from them all you can and if you're up to it, modify the advice, experiment with something new. And, you know, live long and prosper, don't go to the Dark Side and all that jazz.

Shinigami, Bartek, The Dovahkiin. By whatever name you call him He is awesome. He's a all around good guy a great fellow realmer and an awesome customizer. Check his other works out over at his Realm page.

Custom Concept Young Thor, Part 1

2012-06-28T22:26:00.000-04:00

"Stay thy hand! 'Tis the God of Thunder who doth command thee!"

~Thor Odinson

So, I was never the biggest fan of Thor or Captain America. When I was growin up in the 80's I was very big into Punisher, Spiderman, The Ghost Rider and Iron Man. Mortal men with flaws. Ok, Ghost Rider was immortal but, Johnny blaze was not. But Cap was always to lame and jingoistic in a leave it to beaver way? A soldier who didn't use a gun? His stories were outdated and his enemys made me more concerned about the future of villans then what they might attempt to do in any menacing way. And Thor was always to convoluted and messy. He was a god, he wasn't a god. He was an alien? He was a crazy guy? He had an accent, he didn't have one? Not till Walt Simonson did I really have Thor stories I could follow and get into, like REALLY INTO.

I got his univers. I got his reasons. I got his relationship with Loki. I just really liked siminsons work with Thor. And about 5 months ago a co-worker of mine named John or more affectionately know as "Boots" due to his awesome German style biker boots, reminded me of this.

(photo from local comic shop "Comic Book West" on "Cosplay day" from local blog "fourhman" )

He is also known as "Thor" due to his insane cosplay outfits of Thor Inspired by Walt Simonson. He has met Walt on multipul occasions. And Simonson has commented on the hand craftsmanship of his costumes. Oh, did I mention he hand smiths. Yes, he is a smithy. That hammer on his belt is 52 LBS! He loves when people ask if they can hold the hammer. Cause it gives him a reason to say " If you can pick up Majron, you may." just so he can set it on the ground and watch the unworthies strife as the comedy ensues.

A long time ago I started a Thor custom. I was disillusioned with the many re-envisioning of him ( All of this was before fear itself and the run up to it which I loved. I wanted my own Thor.
I loved Simonsons, for his ruggedness.

I love this Old world Thor he did. Thats were it all started..future figure.

But I also liked thunder strike, look wise. It was a good look for modernizing thor and still keeping him like Thor.

And I loved the Ultimate Thor! It was like Thunderstrike on steroids! But still i didn't want these guys for my custom. I wanted my own thor...

I found Wiccan, formerly known as Asgardian for obvious yet to be mentioned reasons. I always thought Thor should be more celtic? Redish hair? Dark hair. Not that the fair haired nord Thor doesn't work. I just imagened him with red or black hair. I also wanted a young modern Thor. And asgardian was a cool character. Especially when Marvel took a chance and made him homosexual. And not like a big coming out party way. His coming out was more organic like " oh, the reason I want to sit next to hulking well we all watch this movie is he's my BF. Is that an issue? cause if it is thats a problem." it was not a big deal that he and Hulkling were in love. And normally when comic companies do things like that they pick low cader pawns or characters that aren't already established, or haven't been around for say 40 years? ( cough DC Cough!) SO them taking a chance on a new character that was supposed to be a big book was cool.

I really like their relationship. And the idea of might and magick. ( yes, Magick)

With that I found my base and my concept took shape. A young Thor from an alternate time line. Keeping in his role as arrogent and pompous. Mjölnir had also been capped , but in this world it was that he could only summon it for limited periods of time. more on this later. I wanted him to be hot to trot and snide. And the look of the figure with that smirk worked. I also decided my Thor would be more magick based then the 616 thor. I wanted him to be like Son Goku Insanely powerful but lackadaisical and immature.

And so, I began...

The first thing I noticed about the base figure that I liked was something I didn't like so much. His shins pads! Which had no rotation? Which was unacceptable. So I went about looking for a good set of shins to swap in. I settled on a ML S4 Gambit who I had turned into a Storm Shadow. I had swapped in some ML S14 longshot shins so these were just waitin' around to get used up.

I started by sculpting ruffles in the tights. Then dremleing away the legs till they were basically stilts. I then coated them with crazy glue to add rigidity and then sculpted over them. I then measured out some foamy and glued it around the part where the shin rotator is. I wanted to keep his boots looking similar but not exactly. I really liked his boots. I just didn't like the lack of articulation. I cut a gap for a seam line as a detail when its all done.

I then sculpted the front guards. These are just the base and will be built on.

Then final thing I did before moving on to let everything dry was coat it all in crazy glue so it would not snap.

Next was Wiccans staff. ML legends staffs are always made of a rubber mold. Completely lacking shape and form. Gambit and Wiccan looked kinda' silly holding droopy sticks.(Yuck,Yuck,Yuck!) So I made one out of a LOTR Gandolf the gray staff ( hard plastic) by shaving it down and making it very uneven. ( sorry no better way to describe that) Then I took an exacto knife and gouged and nicked it up. I also made two stick from scratch of smaller stature cause I wanted part of his deal to be his

Mjölnir can be the traditional short one, a normal war hammer size or a super long war hammer.I made the additional sticks by rolling sculpey into tubes smoothing letting set then dremeling and the same trick with an exacto knife.

He was coming together nicely. But I needed something else. I loved the ult Thor and Thunder striks sleeveless jackets. Thunderstrike sporting a brown biker jacket without sleeves and ult thor a trench or duster. SO I had this old MGS 2 Mcfarlane Shalashaska

Its a cool figure but bricked to me. ( no articulation really ) But his head sculpt and accessories were amazing! So I went about removing the soft good belt and bullets on the chest strap. The boots, the jacket, guns and hands. I put everything away in my fodder box except the coat.

And it starts to take shape.

The agenda: Interchangeable hammer tops ( Walt Simonson style. Ult style and Celtic lore.)
Two opening and closing books of magick
Secret arcane artifacts ( it's a surprise)
Interchangeable alt action head ( I have two wiccians.)

I started this figure a long time ago but, am finally getting around to getting him under way.
I'm fairly excited about him as he is up for attention after snakeyes and mystique.

NEXT TIME! On another nipple tickling installment of Automatauntaun!
DEATH COMES RIPPING!

Custom Concept Snake eyes!

2012-06-23T00:48:00.000-04:00

Last time we went over some accessories. This time more meat. I needed to sand the vains off since the arms will be painted black to match his traditional suit. I used a dremel and then I wet sanded with 1500 grade called "black ice".

My big thing is the inclusion of revoltech joints. I love them. And they went in here swimmingly. same procedure as usuale. Dremeled out a semi- circle and then drilled a whole for the peg.

Next I decided, Snake eyes needs grenades and they need to be detachable. So I started with one of these.

A 3/32"-1/16" magnet. Hobby shops usually carry them. They come in packs of 50 for about $7-$8. I use K&J magnetics they are a sponsor so check out the side bar cause I broke!

For this trick I took one rubber grenade from some figure and dremeled a hole for one magnet and crazy glued that Sumnabich' in their. Then I took the corresponding magnet that would go into the belt and marked it so I would be sure to glue it in the correct polar direction or whatever you call that. I do this by sticking the magnets together and marking the side I will glue down with a sharpie. If you think it's stupid just wait. One day you will crazy glue something together only to find the items that should be attracting are repulsed by each other and then you will have to destroy your precious work. And if you'r anything like me you will pound the last of your sixth stone ipa and curse furiously how "if magnets weren't made by ass hats this never would have happened! And it dosen't help that pandora thinks Royksopp is ANYTHING LIKE passion pit! GOD DAMIT WHY IS EVERYONE BUT ME AN IDEOT!" It helps, trust me.

I then dremeled into the place I wanted the grenades to be ( I choose the belt.)again using the marking technique. I also made sure I placed the magnets with enough space so the grenades would not be crowded but would be close.

I made this ninja pouch which I wanted to be adheared to his back belt when the sword isnt' their Al'a Naruto. So...

If you are not familiar with the Giorgio Tsoukalos meme's get familiarized.

Magnets, they'll stick your shit to your other shit. Best friends forever.

Now I have made holsters out of foamy and I liked them but, I wanted something that looked sleek and was low profile and light. So I had been kicking around an idea about craft ribbon. Then someone on figurerealm ( I forget who) dropped by one of my threads and mentioned he used craft ribbon and it made my mind up. I would try this.

I started with deciding on a style, obviously. So I started with something I liked and improved upon it.

Soft, sleek low profile. It had all the elements I wanted, but my vision was slightly different.

Step one was cutting and measuring. I wanted a over hang.

I made sure my cloth came out to about where the handle ended.

The next step was glueing. I glued the seam as far from the gun as I could and added more glue to bring it in as needed. After it had set I cut away enough to revile the grip.

After sizing it I cut out a pattern for the design I wanted to incorporate, BUT before I sowed this bad boy up I added one more Integrale factor!

I cut out foamy in the same shape, coated it with crazy glue and after it dried shaved it super thin
( using a rotary tool.) As a backer to add substance and rigidity and to house...

I really just can't help myself...It's a problem I am working on.
anyway, THATS RIGHT! MAGNETS! Cause aside from revoltech...the only thing I use more is magnets. When it comes to magnets I'm like whores to the crue. I just can't help myself.

when I got it to the desired width I glued it to the holster and then wrapped the loose parts around and glued them to the back.

The next step was drilling a very deep narrow hole into the leg.

Then placing a tower of magnets in it. Magnets stacked have more power I needed lots of holding power and not a lot of area. This was a photo to show case and to gauge depth.

final product about 7 magnets stacked.

When it all comes together...we are left with a whole lot of awesomeness.

I will be moving saturday spot light to every other week due to time constraints and language barriers. Until i get off the 10 hour 1/2 hour schedule it's just not feasible.

On the next liver quivering episode of Automatauntaun Customs!

"OF POWER!"

Saturday Custom Spotlight! LOOSE COLLECTOR!

2012-06-16T05:00:00.000-04:00

It's one thing to say "I believe in making quality custom action figures." It's another thing when other people say "They don't just believe in making quality custom action figures. They ARE quality custom action figures."

When you talk like this, there's only one group I could be talking about...

They make some of the best figures I have ever seen. "They" are Dave/Loosecollector, who actually makes the toys himself, Corvette, who is in charge of fodder hunting, organizing parts and all things shipping/receiving and sales, and Z-Dunk, the man behind the magic that is the website and the MIND BLOWING PHOTOGRAPHY that makes these amazing figures look all the more amazing! The photos of these figures almost make you forget you are looking at a custom figure.

See what I'm talkin' about?! Its frickin' majestic over here!

I feel like I'm looking at a preview for NYCC?!

I got the chance to correspond with Dave for this spotlight. I asked him the standard questions.

First, how did you get into figure customizing?

Dave: My earliest exposure to customizing was the same as most guys. I was in high school spending quite some time "frankensteining" GIJoes. But on this mature level, it's 2006. My first figure was a custom Hulkbuster Warmachine… and it gloriously sucked. For a guy who loves art, comic books and action figures, this hobby is the way to go.

In many of the conversations I've had, kit bashing or frankensteining G.I. Joe's is step #1 for most people, myself included.

Obviously, Dave has come a long way. This Wolvi is a revisit of an older figure they did in 2010. Dave was kind enough to provide photos for a comparison.

As you can see, even the 2010 version was amazing. However, I like the direction with the 2011 figure better. The blue is more brilliant and although I love the ragged Wolverine head, the one he used later fit better. Other things were improved, such as the legs and the X on Wolvie's outfit.

If you're curious about the exact rundown, Dave was kind enough to drop us a detailed recipe. Thanks Dave.

Dave: This is Wolvie in his AXM duds. We made this last year and it's an update of the one we made a year earlier, 2010 (see comparison pic). This time he uses the SOTA Ryu body, DCD Flash fists, Yellow Jacket legs and Panther boots. He was shortened to lend him his trademark stature and was given three interchangeable heads. The two masked mugs are retooled SOTA Guile's and the unmasked from an ML figure. He also has real metal claws and a combo of shiny and matte paintjob wrapped him up. We hope to do another update on this model anytime this year (2012) if my schedule permits.

You can see the amount of detail that went into this guy. This isn't their only gem, mind you. Among my favorites are their Weapon X Deadpool, Deathlock (with custome head sculpt), a Humberto Ramos style Wolvie with interchangeable heads and hands - I love this fig especially... but thats also because I love all Ramos and am a huge Crimson fan. Their Gambit, Astonishing Colossus, a badASS Professor X, a Jim Lee Cyclops, and The END Wolvi. Just to name a few.

They really nailed this figure though, especially the alternate heads, which are both Guile SOTA heads retooled. Amazing.

As always, I ask each person: What, if any, advice to you have for those looking to get into customizing or those who already are?

Dave: Start now, get some tools, explore, make mistakes, get injured, ask old-timers, use feedback constructively, learn from each work you finish, develop your own style, and while you’re at it… enjoy the ride. When you feel that you've reached the peak of your abilities, never forget to acknowledge those who helped you get there. Humility makes a man.

Dave is pretty awesome. He's an all around helpful guy, very eager to help both newcomers and vets. super positive and really polite. OH! And he makes figures that make me feel sexualy attracted to plastic. I mean, these are boss figures! Come on... if you say that you don't even get a little boner (dude boner or lady boner) over these toys, I say you need to go to a ER cause your bonerer is broken.

In the end, what we have here is an example of what you can do if you're awesome. If you're not awesome... you will just have to pay someone like Dave to make you an awesome thing. Loosecollector does take commissioned work at their website, so if you're awesomely challenged (MAN, THAT SOUNDS LIKE A SWEET DISABILITY!) you're in luck! Go check it out. It's got so many of the things that you won't have enough time to look at all the things.

Also, for those who are interested, I will be spending today doing this to fight pediatric cancer. If you want to make a donation (a minimum of 1 buck) you can go here! Please consider it! It's for a righteous cause... punching pediatric cancer in its stupid dumb face.

Custom Venlactus Figure!

2012-06-06T11:48:00.000-04:00

"I have come from the farthest reaches of space --- to proclaim the doom of the human race!"

~ Galactus

Galactus is a pretty big deal. A devourer of worlds. a Savior of worlds. A creator of worlds. And a Skrull to name a few.

My pal Shapp, of Figure Realm, gave me this Galactus after a discussion about...

I was basically saying " I wish I had more parts to the Galactus BAF I have so I could make him into a Venlactus. Shapp just showed up later that week with the parts. So he will be the proud owner of a venlactus in the future. I liked the idea of Venlactus but, not this picture exactly. I decided to approach this with a more retooled Valactian look.

First I picked which style of venom I wanted. And surprisingly...

I have grown to love the way the Mac Gargan venom looks.

I started out disliking it to an extreme degree but, as the writing of the separation got better and the symbiote "bonded"

to Gargan he "evolved" and venom grew eyes ( which I HATED at first). He grew finger nails, started showing a vascular system and lips. I liked this idea. That a time came when TRUE symbioses occurred to create a NEW living entity. It had to grow on me over time but I ended up liking it. And if Venom had meet Galactus over the millenium I imagined they would have bonded...HARD. Like a hydrogen atom with an electronegative atom, such as nitrogen, oxygen or fluorine.

I started by filling in the face to build my eyebrows and made a base for the mouth. I Also added the trade mark venom fingers.

The next step was drawing out were the eyes and eye blotches would go. I wanted to keep a lot of the Galactus elements of his space suit. Including his odd hat rim (?) But I plan on making him shades of blue, white, black and purple and like this purple, maroon, blue color scheme.

I tried to give him a lip ridge, and eye brow ridges. Also you can see I was hoping to make a good base for teeth but, I will be dremeling all of that away now since he will be getting a mega galactic tongue to come out of it with a magnetic base.

same shot form the other side. Sorry for the super short post but I gotta get to bed ( and show I stink.)

Next time on another bladder shuddering episode of automatauntaun!

THE SATURDAY SPOT LIGHT!

"A LOOSE COLLECTION OF TALENT!"

Saturday Spotlight: DarthThomas81!

2012-06-02T05:00:00.000-04:00

"Well, the last time I messed up, she turned me into a giant flower for three whole days."

~Grizzlor

So, this guy is mind blowing. His stuff leaves me in AWE every time, and of ALL the things, this one is my favorite. THE GRIZZLOR! Yes, of all the Masters of the Universe factions there are, I am most partial to the horde. They were like the REAL bad guys, and their henchmen looked less comical and more maniacal.

The Horde are teh sexy.

What we have here is a Grizzlor, and the man who made it is DarthThomas81 of Figure Realm fame. He dosen't have a website or blog but you can check his work in the WIPs section of Figure Realm!
I check his wip daily because he does a lot of the same kind of documentation with his work that I do.

I asked Darth (Yeah, we're close like that) if he wanted to be on my blog, and he was all like "HELLZ YEH!" and then I was like "4 SHO!" then we were all like "4 Tha Shorties!"

At this point I said "Darth, let's get down to the brass tacks. What got you into customizing?" And after some more singing and wiggling he calmed down and said:

"Well I suppose I've been into it for a very long time. I remember using normal poster paint to paint my TMNT. It never worked and I was always upset when the paint came off. I then moved on to painting Games Workshop miniatures when my dad bought Hero Quest. I bought some GW paints and never looked back. I loved painting those little guys although Blood Bowl was the only game I ever played. A few years later I got into painting my Star Wars guys and started doing part swaps, etc. It was then that I discovered Figure Realm and the inspiration I found there lead me into full-on action figure customizing."

And when he says full action figure customizing, he is not exaggerating. Among his many lauded accomplishments are a Clawful with 31 points of articulation, the anime inspired new Thundercats Panthro, a rebuilt custom He-Man based on the 200x cartoons but better, a MIND BLOWING scratch-built Two-Bad, an amazing concept Tygra, and a Cavecat Lion-O. That's just to name a few.

His process is very involved and amazing and his avid documentation of it allows you to see how much work goes into each figure as well as give you insight into some issues you may have or have always wondered about. I personally benefit from reviewing his work and converse with him about it as often as I can, prodding and probing like an aggressively curious adolescent.

The recipe for this Grizzlor may surprise you, because it sure as hell surprised me. Darth was kind enough to provide the whole recipe in its entirety, with notes. I mean, come on. Now you're just being a show-off.

Recipe:

Base = Spider-Man Classics Sandman.

Head = 200x Grizzlor Staction, Dremmeled down the stump to fit properly. Darth left plenty of clearance to the neck so he has slight side to side movement of his head.

Upper arms = SMC Sandman, sanded down the shoulders and sculpted the fur on them as well as the arms.

Lower arms = 200x Grizzlor Staction, modded to fit the sandman arms.

Upper legs, knees and part of lower = SMC Sandman, sculpted all the fur.

Part of lower legs and boots = ML Bishop, grafted the cut joint onto the Sandman legs and sculpted fur and boot cuffs.

Fur = 200x Grizzlor Staction, given a haircut to make him a little less furry.

Loin and Chest piece = 200x Grizzlor Staction, had to mod the belt a little using foamy. I'll probably revisit this at some point, but it's barely visible, so it does for now.

Crossbow and backpack = 200x Grizzlor Staction, slight repaint.

Paints = GW and GW Satin sealer.

And if you're wondering, yes, all that fur on his legs and arms was sculpted. Hand sculpted. And those little Horde symbols on his boots are cut and transfered from the original static figure.

Didn't believe me, did you? Well... who's laughing now? Darththomas81 is, that's who.

This thing isn't just super posable. Its accessories are integrated into it. I mean... it's one thing to make a great figure. It's another to just destroy all other figures. This guy is like if Michael Jordan (like Chicago Bulls 1991-92 Jordan, not Scottsdale Scorpions Jordan) showed up at a middle school basketball game and just dunked on all of them while trash-talking their dead parents... because the game is at an orphanage... Darth... there's no sport in this.

With all this awesomeness just oozing from him and his creations, I sat and pondered a moment.
Might this wizard of resin and sculpt have some sagely advice for myself and others? And should I dare ask it of him? I pondered a moment longer. Yes.

And he said unto me...

"Never give up on a project. If the well of inspiration runs dry, set your project aside and start another one. You may end up with several WIPs, but there'll always be something you fancy doing a little work on. Take time to sit back and look at your project. Look at it from a distance. I find this helps fix any proportional problems. Take pictures throughout the process. This also helps show any problems. You may notice a part with paint rub that you didn't notice by looking at the actual item."

Sage words indeed! And from a guy who turned this, a static figure...

Into this...

I would say they're words to be heed... head... headed... heed... to heed... To listen to.

Otherwise, his Grizzlor might just show up and dunk on your figures... with his fists!

Custom Concept Mystique Comission

2012-05-29T05:00:00.000-04:00

"Who am I? That, my dear, is an excellent question. Though not one easily answered." ~Raven Darkholme

This was my first NON friend commission for a ML legend style fig. The person wanted the modern mystique featured below form her stand alone series ( which i have all the frist run of cause it's awesome and she is a rad character who has long been over do to be used correctly...).

I always thought her old white outfit had kinda' outlived its usefullness...as well as that bowl hair cut.

So, I was given the task of taking a ML domino base and making it a mystique by swapping out a blackwidow upper torso from a HML. I was provided a good amount of fodder base materiales from the client. Including guns, an amazing belt, hands, a knife and sheath and a couple heads as well as a package of revoltech joints. ( as well as some gift fodder which is always appreciated :] )

After some back and fourth with the client on what he wanted and what I thought we could/should do we came up with the idea of a concept approach to the modern mystique. He wanted the middrift look the belt modded to hold the knife and its sheath. A resculpted Domino head to fit mystique and Xmen xtream Rouge hair. I suggested a chicks leather jacket sculpted onto her since dominos shoulders look like a jacket. Also on the left arm is a indentation were I would sculpt her trade mark, The skull. The client at this point said basically go nuts. I agreed to run all ideas by him and so far he has loved it all. SO let's get started!

This is the black widow top I dremeled away the arm joints to get revoltechs in them.
Same goes for the neck. Take note of the left shoulder the "patch" will go their.

I cut her open on the bottom so I could re-adjust her to match the lower half I am attaching her to.

My next task was making the domino wast rotate, as she only had an ab crunch. I used my dremel to cut it in half and then sanded it so later I could sculpt over it to make it look like a bare belly. I also took out the knee joints and filled them with sculpt.
I used a magnet to attach the torso to the lower half.

This was my first mock up to see what the proportions would be like and obviously her torso is a little long. The upper half will be attached by a magnet as well.

A big step in putting revoltechs in is filling the previous space left by the hing joint system. Just a shot of everything filled in.

The next thing I did was measure the arms with the Revoltechs provided by the client in. They were Extremely long. I mean she would have fit into a Kohta Hirano book perfectly! But thats not what I was going for here.

So I first had to shorten her forarms then the back where it meets the elbow.
Then I went about making the revoltech receiver joints.

we ended up with this. More dremeling and fine tuning is needed at this point, but you get the idea.

The next move was dremeling out the knee/ leg joints to receive the revoltech joints. This is the Knee on the shin. I ended up deciding to go much MUCH lower when her legs ended up looking freackishly out of proportion.

this is the Knee on the thigh.

Another shot of dremeling down. Its a slow process of making a semi-circle

The next thing I did was use acetone to remove the paint form dominos head and sculpting ears in place so when I re-attach the hair they peek out a bit.

I also am going to sculpt some fuller lips on her since its just not right for mystique to not be pouty.

These are the double jointed knees from revoltech/assemble borg.

As you can see in the background I had to cut off the part i was building and start over on the shins. they were just TO long.

Now what you see here is again the rough RE mock up with the joints in. Just seeing if they can support any weight, and so I can gauge if I needed to make the joint receivers any deeper. Also pictured is the belt the client sent. Its a amazing belt.

The belt is removable and uses a peg system. Pretty awesome. So in order for it to be mystique it needs a giant honking skull on it. I opted to not sculpt one but instead cut it off the mystique sash I had form the ML Legends Mystique the client provided. I sanded the belt clasp down and then simply cut off the skull sanding the back and applied it with crazy glue.

I think it turned out pretty Bad Ass. The belt still comes off as well.

It will be painted silver or bronze later based on what the client wants.

Next step was the client wanted the knife sheath glued to the belt. Although capable of doing this, I thought it would be cooler to do something else. And the client agreed. So I took some small rear earth magnets I had laying around and dremeled out holes for them and glued them in. I got these magnets at the local comic shop/hobby store. but I usually get mine From K&J magnetics do to their wildly advanced selection! ( their a sponsor on this page! check them out on the right hand side!)

Next up was the fact that the sheath was not what I wanted it to look like. I dremeld off the front details and then set about sculpting a clasp for it. I did this the same way I did for Snake Eyes custom ninja sword. I laid out a small amount of sculpt on a wetted work surface. Then I went about flattening it out, trimming and flattening again until I got the desired diameter I wanted.

For this to work you need the work surface to be VERY wet as well as the blade and sculpt. Just remember to apply water frequently and you should be fine.

This is about the thickness I wanted. now to cut out the shape I want and maybe flatten/ clean up a tiny bit.

This is what we are left with after all my cutting away.

To get it off without completly destroying it, liberally wet the knife and the surrounding area and carefully start prying the piece up, bit by bit, till all of it is separated form the work surface. If it was slightly damaged thats fine. You are about to adhere it to the object at this point, so any small fix's can be done here. you could alternately just smooth sculpt over the surface and shape it that way. I just prefer this way personally.

The finished project! It will be painted black and get a buckle sculpted onto it as well.

a comparison shot to show the size and stature of her scale next to a Electra on a X-32 lower half and a LCBH Ann O'Brain.

This is the magnet system that keeps her torso attached to the lower half.

Hair has been glued on.

Making the rolled up sleeve's also to help cover the revoltch ball joint

A shot of the before and after. (the rightt and left) Lots of dremeling and applying glue to tighten the joint up.

After lots of back and foruth, I finally got them to the right size. the arms and legs gave me a lot of headaches. Proportions did not want to match up but, I finally have them about right here.

They are still a bit long but, I actually like this length. The torso still has to be shortened.

A full shot from the front.

Since I had most of the proportions close it was time for some detailing. I dremeled a spot for her trade mark skull hair pice.

Then dremeled out the shoulder pad for my skull logo.

I sculpted both of these by first making a small orb of sculpting material, then pressing them into place and working them out form their. Letting them set up half way then adding detail.

All in all, I was pretty pleased with the outcome here. As was the client.

another scale comparison.

On the next nipple puckering episode of Automtauntaun!

"THE FOOD OF THE GODS!"

Custom Snake Eyes Concept Figure

2012-05-22T05:00:00.000-04:00

"He gave up."
"He never gives up." ~The Baroness and Storm Shadow

Last we saw this figure he was just in the beginning stages. A LOT of progress has occured since then and I documented as much as I could! He is on track to be finished this month. Depending on work, a 5K I'm running and the training it entails and you know... trying to have a life.

I covered how to make his removable mask in my "custom removable mask tutorial", so I'm not going to cover that again.

After making the first removable mask I set about making shoulder pads. My plan was to make the arms sleeved instead of the bare look the figure has. I started by Dremeling out a divot to fill with sculpt to make the shoulder pads.

I was heavily influenced by the Snake Eyes: Resolute look.

I waited for it to half-set (about an hour and a half) and then used the sculpting knife to cut out the square pattern, let it set a little more and then lightly rubbed it down with water using my fingertip, applying almost no pressure. I just wanted to smooth it over and give the appearance of quilted cushioning.

Next was a custom machete. I looked at a lot of variations until I found something that struck my fancy. This was a G.I. Joe knife as a base completly sculpted over and sanded with 1,500 wet sandpaper called Black Ice. Holes were made with a Dremel drill bit.

Another thing that inspired me was Null from Metal Gear Portable Ops (Also known as Gray Fox/ Cyber Ninja). The cyber ninja is one of those super cool ninja (modern) archetypes. And Null and Snake Eyes had a lot in common: silence, uzis and swords.

One of the next things I did was start making the custom weapons. A Kusanagi style sword, a grass cutter. Much like the blade of Zatoichi (I am a super huge fan of the legend of the blind masseuse.) It's the sword from a ML Blade shaved down.

A custom sheath made from electrical tape and crazy glue. (Tutorial still in production. Sorry I know I have been promising this but, I lost ALL my photos and have been doing it all over.)

and a custom uzi made form a Toybiz 1990's Punisher toy uzi.

After I made sure the sword fit I filled one open end with sculpt to start the cap of the sheath. I wetted the blade and kept it in as I sculpted so the blade would fit snugly. once done i removed it so it wouldn't dry to the blade.

While the sheath tip is drying we will work on the uzi parts. The tips for the uzi start off as a soft ball of sculpt.

Flattened into a round disc.

Then cut into halves. Now we just wait for them to set so we can sand them and attach them.

A shot from the side and from the front at an angle to show what the placement looks like after they dried. Before I attached them I sanded them on the bottom and the rounded tops with hard grit, then smooth grit once it got to a place I liked to even it out.

Now back to the sword sheath. First I wetted the work surface. I took my sculpt and wetted it, then smoothed it out with the flat of a sculpting blade, but really any blade will do. Pressing down and applying even pressure the whole time is important.

I then cut the sides and re-wetted, and smoothed it pressing down well applying even pressure, Repeat the process till you get the desired outcome.

This is the thickness, or rather, thinness that I wanted. So I cut the sides off to make a long band.

Then I wetted, smoothed and used the flat of my blad to make it flat.

Then, VERY CAREFULLY apply more water all around the base and to the blade, then gently pry the piece up.

Next figure out which side you want the seam on. I always put mine on whatever the back or least used side of an object is so if I can't make it completely disappear, it at least isn't super obvious. Once you do that, place the middle of the strip on the sheath. Using the knife carefully press one side down. Then press in the opposite direction till you have a small overlap. If it dosen't overlap don't worry. You can fill it in later. At this point, if it overlaps, trim it before you smooth it down.

Don't worry if their is bulging, as there will be sanding later. The only thing I did do was tamp the part that meets the sheath to be even with the flat of the blade well it was wet. You cannot sand against the sheath as it would ruin the nice ribbed texture.

Once everything is in position just let it sit. I did not smooth the bottom as later this will get filled and sanded.

Back to the uzi. After the glue has set, give it one more application on the sides, fronts and backs and let that set. Then I went about sanding them and making sure any unevenness was corrected for that nice even shot down the middle.

I put the ribbing on the side of the frame on next. I admit this was a bit big, but it was my first attempt... smaller next time. I basically made two tubes and then smoothed them on with water. I did have to sand them a bit.

That little "nub" on the top of the uzi (part of the slide and bolt I think) were a challenge. I wanted it to appear close to the frame but as if it were floating. So I snipped a small pice of paper clip for the peg, and rolled up a tiny orb of sculpt and flattened it. Then let it set.

While waiting for that to dry, I Dremeled out the shell ejector. You can see the crude grip I did. I plan to re-do this later now that I know a lot more about sculpting as this figure was one of my first. I learned a lot making him. (Also note I wet sanded the frame and "ears" so their was as little a gap as could be.)

As you can see the little peg never worked out. It was either too high, or when I shortened it it didn't stay glued in place. In the end this looked more natural as well.

Before getting back to the sheath, a diversion dealing with the sheath. I plan to attach it to the belt since it's a straight blade. I took a rare earth magnet and glued it into this hole. I plan to sculpt over it but as you can imagine, sculpting with metal over the surface of a magnet is kinda tricky. I will post a shot of the sculpt after I get a proper plastic tool.

The next steps are all about your taste so I omitted them. I wanted to do a straight blade cap, but couldn't get it looking quite right, so I went with this. Then I painted it black and dry brushed it silver till i got the desired effect. After that, one final coat of black wash (diluted).

I used the same technique for the sword sheath end as with this clasp for the sheath. I just made this not as thin so I could use a sculpting blade to edge in the quilted pattern. I also shaved the hilt of the blade ML handle down and sculpted over it.

I sculpted the handle by letting it set almost completely then carving in my best impression of wood patterns. I then painted a bright ocher yellow base, bright red dry brushing and then lots and lots of layers of brown dry brushing in alternating dark brown and light brown. This little circlet at the top of the hilt will be gold or silver, not sure yet.

I then painted the clasp black and Dremeled a small hole in it.

I then took some sculpt and again, you guessed it, rolled it into a ball. BUT this time I left it as an orb.

I then painted it silver and washed it with a diluted black wash.

Next time on the next heart racing episode of automatauntaun!

"SOMETHING WITTY THIS WAY COMES!"

Saturday Custom Spotlight!

2012-05-19T05:00:00.000-04:00

"Been walking a while now. Weeks, maybe. Always south, southwest, orienting by the feel of the sun on my face. Took the bus for as long as I could stand it. The noise, the stench--too much. But out here in the badlands there's nothing. It's what I need. Nothing. Nothing but the hiss of the wind in the needlegrass and the endless, hypnotic tread of boot heels on dusty asphalt. Nothing to fear. I don't think about what I'm walking away from. I don't think about anything at all. I just walk." ~ Matthew Murdock

Starting this Saturday I will be taking some time to share with you what I have been admiring lately. The Saturday Spotlight! There are lots of great customizers out there. From the high end to the new blood. I spend a lot of time looking over lots of peoples' stuff. Great ideas, good concepts, cool techniques. Let's take a look shall we?

This week we will look at Cherry Bomb Customs. She caught my eye with this awesome Daredevil concept figure. I would include her blog or website here but as of yet she does not have one.

"My Recipe: My Daredevil is a complete Ronin with the hands of the Movie Masters Batmans hands. A Spider-Man Classics Daredevil head. Alt head is from a Marvel Legends Wonderman. A chainmail skirt from a Shrek 2 Prince charming . The ninja mask, hair on the matt Murdock head, chest piece where I replace the DD logo with 鬼. it's Japanese. it means Demon, and Abdomen chain mail are hand sculpted. The whole thing was hand painted then voila!" ~ Cherry Bomb Customs

It's a simple recipe and a cool take on the Shadowlands Mr. Murdock. The Kanji is a nice touch as well! In my opinion, this is a great example of a great figure. It was well thought out and well executed and simplistic. If you follow my blog you are probably well aware sometimes I get lost in the details. I get so wrapped up in a figure's details, articulation and accessories that I forget...

sometimes simple is better.

I asked Miss Bomb for some advice for other customizers, and these were her sage words:

"Well, as far as advice, I'd say if you're truly having fun doing what you're doing then don't give up, no matter what. You'll never get better if you quit. I live in a house full of collectors and customizers. I never got the interest until I got my first figure, then I was hooked as soon as I remembered playing with all my father's old Marvel figures as a kid! Before I knew it my artistic side and collector side mixed to this. I then quit after early discouragement but I'm back now full force!"

Haha, well she didn't go TOO simple. This awesome Alt. Matt head really seals the deal. Well painted from what I can see. And therein lies my ONLY criticism. Better pictures. This figure SEEMS to have great brushing detail (as evident on the leg, chainmail and beard), but these photos being slightly out of focus makes it hard to see the true craftsmen (or womanship? crafts...folk...ship...craftynes- no that's a different word. We all know what I'm talking about.).

Other than that, this is a solid, well thought out work. The sad thing is this customizer almost stopped customizing all together. Why? Her first attempt didn't garner a lot of press. What I have to say about this is twofold and something I have been thinking about a lot lately.

One: You should never do something hoping for praise. You should always do it cause you want to. And if praise follows, that's great. But a hobby, a love, a craft should always be about making yourself content. I'm not saying never strive for improvement! The joy is in improving, being proud of your outcome, and even more proud when you improve upon your best. Also, never shy away from criticism, always take constructive criticism and look at negative criticism and see if there is any truth to it. But always remember, you're doing it for you. Never give up.

Two: As far as websites, the Realm is a pretty friendly place. It fosters an environment for learning and is always welcoming to newcomers. But even there, sometimes people forget. We are all not Jin Satome... yet at least ;] And what if Jin gave up after someone badmouthed his first attempt just cause it wasn't his Sistine Chapel? I'm not much for preachin' but what I'm gettin' at here is beginners don't need to be told they're beginners. They need constructive criticism, pointers, advice. Not to be ignored or ridiculed. We all were there at one time. Let's remember that. And wherever you are, be nice to n00bs, don't be a troll.

So keep an eye out for this one! If you want to check out more of her work jump over to Figure Realm
and become a fan! I hear she may even be starting a WIPS in the custom workstation?

King He man Custom action figure!

2012-05-05T05:00:00.000-04:00

"That's very interesting, but silly."

~ Man-At-Arms

He-man, I have fond memories of He man toys. But not of the show really? My memories are vague on the opening? Was this it?

I really only liked SOME of the toys. Not all of them, mainly the villains. Skeletor, Hordak, Beastman. But I wanted to do a MOTU line and I started with the idea of my versions of the MOTU line. How I would do it. Very different.

It started with a savage dragon LCBH fig. I got him so I could use his hands for a Mac Gargen Venom, but I had already moved on. I still loved this fig ( and Savage Dragon).
SO, I was just goofin' around with this 200x He-man stuff I had and had an idea. I had been meaning to work on more fantasy stuff. I had recently talked to someone, I think of Figurerealm, about how MOTU let me down cause the pilot comic it came with was VERY different from the cartoon. The Pilot comic, if I'm correct, had He man taking place in a post apocalyptic future ( similar to Thundar The Barbarian )
were he man was the leader of the last of his tribe? It was more about the people of " eternia Fighting over lost technoligy and magic it seemed? And its focus was more about barbarians. Thats when it hit me. I wanted to make a concept barbarian He-Man.

I took two of the He-men apart. Stripping them of their soft goods and scalps. ( I never loved the 200X none matty collector clubs face sculpts for he-man.) I had LOTS of medieval Spawn weapons. Just to see if it would look good. and I decided it did, save those jeans.

I had a lower half of a Iron Fist I had been saving for a long time ( was gonna be the first Snake Eyes I ever made). I decided to go with him and use a technique I had seen and never tried ( and I had seen it A LOT thanks to my buddy CosmicFantisycustoms who pretty much reinvented this technique as far as I'm concerned. check his stuff out he is AMAZING! I look at his WIP's for inspiration when i'm stuck.). I was going to use magnets so I could swap out soft goods skirts.
First I took a half inch rear earth magnet and traced out its silhouette on the figures lower half.

I then used a rotary tool to make make a indentation so i could sink the magnet half way down. I figured out how far down by measuring the top half I was doing this to as well. It was really by eye so I can't give a great instructions except for go a little at a time and check. The sash will cover the small bit of magnet peeking out. I glued it in place and then I coated the whole thing with glue. When it was dry I scraped it off the top. I wanted it to hold the magnet down solidly and more then once one of these bad boy went flying out of its gluey home when i brought its counterpart to close. Do't get discouraged if this happens! It took the right amount of depth, glue, cure time and coats to get it to stay.

I did the same thing for the upper torso I let the glue set each time before I applied the next coat.

now any time I have used a magnet I mention this just in case a first time reader is here. Whichever magnet you apply first after it sets, take you "partner" magnet and let it stick to the set magnet. Take a black permanent marker and color the whole bottom black. This way, when you go to attach it you will glue it with the black side down. Otherwise you can accidentally end up with two pieces that repel rather then attract :{

It's got good possibility. Which is importent to me.

Good stability. Also importent to me.

The only thing I really want to change is the hands. You guessed it, Revoltech joints!

Looks awesome!

You can see it looks good from the back as well

I started by deciding He-man needed a more barbaric hair cut. So I started by sculpting side burns or hanging hair.

I waited till it half set. Then I sculpted following the lines.

same for the next side

Waited till it set and followed the lines again.

I then started adding scars and battle damage. As well as the makings of a barbarian pony tail...or...whatever manly name their is for pony tail.

I wanted this He-Man, dubbed King He-man, to be the barbarian Ruler of Eternia. And as such he would have had to have won his share of battles and partaken in his share of combat.

I changed my view of what I wanted to do well in progress, which affected my vision and direction. And in turn the quality. So up front. not the best thing I have ever worked on. But moving on. I did this in stages. I wanted it originally to be a samurai type/hellboy top knot. Then I wanted it to be a tied up leather piece with a small tuft on top. Then I decided to make it a simple tied up piece of hair with a leather tie in the middle or rope.

So here it starts to hang down. Ever notice when your hair is real dirty it has a natural oil in it that makes it kinda' hang? i wanted to achieve that. Dirty ratty but not fully dreaded.

A side shot of stage two.

This is the second stage back. adding the rope, which was just jewelry rope (sewing thread would work well too) and I just crazy glued it.

And a shot of the front with the third stage.

And a shot of stage three from the side. The final stage. This is something I am still not 100% in love with so it may change.

Next I needed to add some damage to the legs. The little "X's" are what I see as arrow scars.

I imagined he would at some point in his life had used his muscly for arm in a knee jerk reaction to block a blade.

I also decided if this He-Man was gonna be more manly I need to Frazetta him up.
If you are not familiar with Frank Frazetta he is a fantasy artest known for his super muscly warrior men, with loin cloths BURSTING WITH TESTOSTERONE! bulging with masculinity! And large bosomed curvy vixens posing in nothing but a dager in its sheath.

But he was made popular mainly by two things

The animated film movie FIRE AND ICE

As well as a comic written by Glenn Danzig called "Death Dealer" Frazetta drew cause danzig was a super huge fan.

Frazetta didn't draw that...But when I think of death dealer, I just sub-imposed this in my psyche.

I also wanted to give him some knuckles. I had a second shot but, it will not load. it will be for the next post.

This is a second torso for the "Heat of battle" version. Since he has magnets his torso and pelvis/legs parts can be switched out. Some of These "gauges" will have arrows sticking out, or weapons stuck in it.

These are two alternate heads. One is for the juggernaut obviously and the other is my screaming he man. If you are thinking of saying pulp fiction, good job. Your very originale.

ON THE NEXT COCKLE RAISING INSTALLMENT OF AUTOMATAUNTAUN!
" A MAN OF WISDOM!"

cable custom action figure

2012-05-03T23:49:00.000-04:00

"I'll need guns. Very, very big guns."

~ Nathan Summers

Cable, The eternal solder, is one of those characters whom I believe has had multiple arcs that have been amazing. From him being a savoir form the future, to being the bad guy the world needed to bring the world together ( See deadpool and cable).

I really wanted a Cable figure but i did not like the one form ML. It looks like the Marvel Vs. Capcom version. Which is really cool, but lacks a lot of articulation and also is SUPER SMALL?!

The head is awesome, and so is the shoulder pad. but the rest was no good for this figure.

First thing I did was find a good base. Which was a large beefy figure. So I picked a X3 Movie Juggernaut upper torso. I then decided I would use Bishops handsand added revoltech joints to the wrists.

This ended up being my mock up to see if Bishops legs would work. And I decided it would. But I would have to remove the belt otherwise he would look to much like bishop.

Next step was addressing the Techno organic arm. I decided to try something. I took my rotary tool and started dremeling lines into his arm. I then sanded them.

As you can see I put lines all along the ball joint parts. So as long as you click the arm to a Tooth it will line up. took quit a bit.

shot of the top and you can also see u started sculpting a "glove back" to the juggernaut cuffs to make them look more like well...gloves.

I added the the joints and sculpted a lot of the glove and the front of the wrist cover.

Just the other hand.

Now, everything's together. And the front part of the belt removed and re-sculpted

I wanted will re-sculpt a lot of his body soon.

I then removed the arm to paint. I started by putting down a base black coat. Then a Dark blue base and wash.

The next bit was the paint silver on it.

After this I painted the lines black. (You may noticed, I have another cable arm here cause i'm working on two very different style wise cables.) So For the arm on the left I did a couple black washes to sink into the crevices. and then some blue washes. For the Beefy arm i used watery black to paint the lines in then gradually made it darker ( less water). Then i picked areas i wanted to have "Shadow" and washed them a heavy blue.

For the left arm i washed it in black and blue and then dry brushed silver. For the Right arm I added more blue wash, then SILVER WASH! then some dry brushing and a final blending with a blue silver watered down.

This is the final product! SUPER SLIK! LOVE IT!

I did hit up high lights with pure un-watered silver highlights. and with that...it all went down hill from here...

(Oh a shot with the HDR and some extra lighting to show the undertones of the blue depending on how you reflect the light.)

I used this to clear coat the figures. i tested it on a piece and it gave a cool grainy effect.

SEE How COOL THEY BOTH LOOKED!

Well, when I boiled them and put them back together they all flaked apart...

also they lost their shimmer. Everything ended up sucking. Horribly.

You don't need to see them. It was just a mess. I have to start them over. Which I have yet to do since, out of RAGE I had to walk away.

ON THE NEXT LONG AWAITED EPISODE OF AUTOMATAUNTAUN CUSTOMS!

" GIVE A MAN A FISH AND HE WILL EAT FOR A DAY!

TEACH HIM HOW TO MAKE A CUSTOM SWORD SHEATH AND HE WILL KICK ASS!"

Custom Johan Hex!

2012-04-30T17:00:00.000-04:00

Of all the DC characters, their aren't many I like as much as Batman (especially the New 52 one!) and the Blue Beetle ( Ted Kord to be specific, not all about that new mystical beetle. I know he's the poor mans Batman but thats exactly why he rocks so hard. Also his awesome friendship with Booster Gold.)

But this bad boy is right up their with them!

Johna Hex is awesome. Hands down one of those cool characters that almost no one knows is a DC property? Sadly a lot of artests didn't embrace his ugliness? making him just look silly with one bulging eye and the "Mouth strand"

Up till the movie.

The casting of Josh Brolan was brilliant! he looked the prat and his gritty portral of a older fellow ( I was so worried they would make him like....20 or something.) made so much sense.

The movie look was amazing, a marriage of all the best things about the character. Plus a infusion of new parts. Only one thing they added was not so good...

Oh, I'm sorry I seem to have confused an unflattering picture of Hillary Clinton drinking beer, a photo of Failed presidential candidate John McCain, and Jaws actor Robert Shaw for That cock bearded Ass Hat Megan Fox...I don't think anyone will notice.

All that aside, I got the movie figure in a trade and loved the way it looked! Save that it lacked a whole lot of articulation.

Other then that it had a near perfect movie likeness! So I set about disassembling it.

I started by picking a base. I chose the loki body form the Marvel legends 13 onslaught series, being it looked like ruffled clothing with cowboy boots. The first issue I face was these arms?! They were pegs?!

So I made a make shift/ peg hole system to fit into the torso. I had no aves at the time so I went about this with Sculpy that I boiled. The next step was hardening the sculpy. In my experience Sculpy has the tendency to crack...So I coated every part of these in glue after fully letting them set. Even the inside. This also aded in making for a snug fit between the peg and the hole.

Next I cracked open the torso and went about sanding the shoulder joint receiver out of existence.

This was so I could glue my nice new receiver joints into place.

I then sanded the receivers to fit into each sides respective place. Leaving them course enough that they would form a bond with the body.

The end result may not be pretty but...

It works! and allows the coat to fit over nicely.

The next step was stripping the old figure of some of its detail. SO i wanted to keep the front and top of the torso's sculpting work. So i cut them off and shaved them down to fit on the Loki torso.

I also shaved down loki's top half to fit this in place.

This was my first mock up after the arm pegs were in. The top was not yet glued together cause I needed to see if it looked like he was to tall.

This is the end result.

NEXT TIME ON AUTOMATAUNTAUN!
"LADY IN BLUE!"

Custom Marvel legends scale Wraith form G.I. joe.

2012-04-26T15:59:00.000-04:00

I was born in 82'. When I was a kid the big thing in the 80's was the cartoon boom to sell toy's. Thundercats, Silver hawks, Bionic Six. All hits from the forgotten groove yard of my youth. Too many to count actualy. All of these show's were made, in part, to sell a toy to kids. and honestly most of them did their jobs, wells be entertaining. (for me at least.) In fact, I still have VHS tapes filled with episodes of the bionic six!
But, above all was G.I. Joe.

As you can see, I tended to like Cobra a bit more then the joe side. So after hanging with a buddy of mine, Crazy j (Who has an amazing band called "Wrath Of Typhon" you should check them out!)
and looking at his immense G.I. Joe/ MOTU collection. He had both the 25th anniversary and the chase version of "Wraith" The cobra saboteur! I love Cobra commander above all, storm shadow being a close second. But I also love the cobra use of "contractors" Major Blood, Zartan and his band "Cold Slither "er I mean, his dreadnoks. Fire Fly (Sigh, he's a dream boat)
SO after a night of nerd love, I decided to make him a wraith!

I really liked this interpretation form Devils due I think? It was them or IDW. But I wanted to change the blade to an energy blade. I also really liked the lines in the suit.

I sadly did not make a lot of progress shots. I apologize. I started with a Hasbro ML Ultimate War Machine.I cracked the torso and sanded down the ab's since they allowed for extremely limited articulation. I then added sculpt and made a quilt pattern for cushioning/ armor. I swapped out the hands with Some fodder, I forget what at this moment? Then i took a helmet (Final Fantasy spirits within movie solder that i got in a trade with fellow member of figure realm.)

I then took the shin guards and flipped them and glued them in place. I just liked the way they looked better also added more foot articulation.

To make the blade aspect i too some Foamy and glued it to the gun then covered it in glue. let it fully harden then sanded it down. The next thing i did was carve a channel with my rotary tool for a "tube"

another shot form the top down.

COMING SOON TO AN AUTOMATAUNTAUN NEAR YOU!
"HE HAS THE POWER...TO KILL!"

2012-04-23T04:11:00.000-04:00

"$#%^ING UNICORNS!"

~ James Howlett

Knock, knock!

Who's there?

Wolverine!

Wolverine who?

Aren't you glad I didn't say Deadpool!

Lets face it. Of all the customs out their, two are the most abused. Wolverines and Deadpools. And honestly, most of them are bang up jobs! So, it's no surprise I have five wolvie customs in the works and two deadpools. It's hard to bash them. I wanted to do a patch for a friend ( Nick Holder, the same who donated the omega red body). I was gonna go with the appearance he had with the Fixer hulk and make a set as a surprise but, obtaining a gentleman ghost base. ( the only one I was happy with for what I wanted to do without fully sculpting a tuxedo)I decided to put that on hold and do his Madripoor appearance.

with some changes due to personal preference :]

I started out with a Nick Fury ML head and sanded the chin down. And sculpted the eye brow and side bruns

I was really pleased with the side burns and how I managed to blend the hair in. I left the left eyebrow missing cause at the time it felt right.

Then sculpted a new chin over it. Waited till it was half dry...

Once it WAS half dry I took a safety pin and poked in the stubble holes. As well as all over the rest of the face.

Then I realized the sides needed to be filled out. If you were familiar my with my other Wolverine custom this was originally supposed to be the hair for that. but over time they changed places.

As you can see it looks much better with these side burns.

Then I looked for a good body. I wanted a bulky, big wolverine, With sausage fingers! and ham hocks for arms! But, Since I didn't have a sota akuma, the legends 2 I think it was? Was the next best thing. I loved it aside form its lack of ab crunch so it seemed logical. wolvie head and extremities transplanted. And the bulky bod to match my dream boat? I found an AOA Sabertooth. and swapped the arms and lower legs out. And with this my plan changed. Yes, he would be patch but he would be also have alt Patch colored wolvi outfit.

I sanded off the collar,

Then sculpted in muscles all over him and outfit.

NEXT TIME ON AUTOMATAUNTAUN!

"HERE ONE MINUTE, GONE THE NEXT!"

Custome Storm Shadow Part 4! Custom White Cobra!

2012-04-20T05:00:00.000-04:00

The Last time I was working on this figure was the removable Gi.
I wanted this storm shadow to be more like a traditional mythical ninja.
After giving him a Gi, and scrolls. I decided he needed a summons. Can't be a proper mystical ninja without a contract beast, right?
So it was fitting being he is nefarious, and part of corba, that it would be a cobra!

This bendi Cobra came form a Mcfarlane toy. The mummy to be exact. A cool figure to begin with.

I took it and scrubbed it with warm soapy water to remove any factory seal left. The next step was to decide what I wanted to do exactly which, I knew EXACTLY what I wanted to do! I love Naruto, Its got awesome art and a lot of great ninja stuff in it. A mix of traditional with Masashi Kishimoto's own spin on it. Costume designs, to story arc's! I love it. ( the manga that is, the anime has to much filler for my tastes and drags. ). So i looked to MANDA! the serpent summons of Orochimaru

I liked the look, the black around the Green eyes ( kinda' hard to see here ) and the straight up and down traditional serpent slit pupils. But, I wanted it to be white, and shaded with hints of purple and blue. So I set about this task by assembling my paints.

These were the colors I used to make everything you see here with the exception of black. I personally love citadel paints. I would love to get my hands on some vallejo paints, but as of yet have not had the cash to. I obviously used black for the eye sockets. Those colors are (From left to right) Skull White, Scab Red, Enchanted Blue, Blood Red, Catachan Green (both Blood red and Scab red were used to produce the purple I made)

First I made a purple base coat. Since I wanted it to be white with purple highlights.

The purple was a custom mix of which I made no measurements. Forgive me. I made it by sight. I added red then blue, and if it was to dark I pulled it back with a small bit of white. Till I finally got the color I wanted. The next step was to start dry brushing white onto him.

I did this in many coats of dry brushing. I didn't want to make it to overpowering. So I took my time and went little by little. Being you can always do more if it isn't enough, But if its to much....you're screwed.

This area I was very delicate with, as I wanted it to have the most shadow and to blend evenly. I also like a rough look so, achieving what i want is sometimes painstaking.

I kept adding white dry brush applications till I got it were I wanted it to be.

This photo was the filter on my phone. HDR...sometimes it's great! some times not.

When I got the back to look like this, I knew I had arrived at the point I desired.

The back had enough shadow all the way down that I felt comfortable.

The underbelly also looked how I wanted it. So it was time to move on to highlights.

I made a wash out of Enchanted Blue by diluting it with water. I did this till it was extremely thin, transparent even. Then started applying it were I thought shadows would fall. The tiny area in the hood that is indented first

I Then sparingly applied it down the sides, picking and choosing alternating uneven areas to splash

I then hit up areas on the front, I washed the orbital lobes, the underside of the hood probably the most heavily. The inside of the mouth and part of the snout ( do serpents have snouts?). And then down the front.

After that I hit the spots I thought the blue was too brilliant in with a light white dry brushing or two.
Then the I did the black in the orbital lobes, and a base coat of the eye balls with a dark mix I made of Catachan green and white. Then I painted the mouth a bright pink as the base.

After that it was clean up time. I used a different, VERY light mix I made of Catachan green and White to round out the eyes and make them POP. I cleaned up the black by edging it out. And then washed the inside of the mouth with the leftover purple and black as wash's ( again made by simply diluting the colors with water till they are transparent.)

A nice shot of the front. I feel the highlights really blend well and bring out a lot of detail in the "Figure" that was missing earlier with its dark paint job.

This, and the Right eye, were the only parts that gave me issues. I wanted to duplicate this in some way. I mean, it's not a cobra without the Cobra eyes on the back?! So i tested it out on spare parts till i found a pattern I liked ( I looked at a LOT of cobra hoods...a lot till i decided on the above). Then set about testing applications of how to make it look right and this is what i came up with.

I started by picking a pattern (Redundancy forgive me). Then I took my finest brush and painted it on... THICK. This was cause I hoped by dry brushing over this VERY LIGHTLY, it would blend in and appear to be part of the scales.

It turned out ok I think. Not EXACTLY what I imagined, but satisfying. it was a learning experience.

Some shots of the annoying Right eye, It was sculpted different then the left one which BUGGED me beyond belief. Like Kid Death from Soul Eater, I can't deal with asymmetry...unless I put it their. So in reality nothing like him i guess...

Next was drawing in the eye slits! The left one went on seamlessly! And I was more then ecstatic with how it turned out!

This was the left eye before I painted over it with utter distain. Also the next thing I did was paint the part were the serpents tongue comes out purple and his teeth white.

Another shot of the same, I was not super happy with the teeth so white? since snakes fangs aren't so big, I felt having them be SO white would not work. I went about adjusting that.

Before I move on, here is a good shot of the inside of the mouth. It got a wash in purple to make it less hard and let the colors blend more.

In the end it was a brown/ yellow wash that I went with that felt right for the teeth. I really liked the way this all ended up.

In the end I loved this snake. A couple sprays of sealant and it was perfect. I couldn't have asked for a better familiar for Storm shadow. With my concept Storm Shadow going so well, and my other concept Snake Eyes working out so swimmingly. I decided to do what I had always planed and make matching counterparts for this storm shadow and my other snake eyes. So keep your eye WIDE open!
As a traditional style snake eyes is in the works, with his own Timber familiar. And a Modern Storm shadow as well! Timber is proving hard to do as I need a static wolf toy to match the ML legends scale so I can add revoltechs to it and make it posable. Any suggestions would be welcome! Also comments!

NEXT TIME! ON ANOTHER SPINE TINGLING EPISODE OF AUTOMATAUNTAUN!
"SCREW YOU, AND THE PALE HORSE YOU RODE IN ON!"

Custom concept Omega Red

2012-04-19T05:00:00.000-04:00

"Who has brought me back from the dark domain of death? Who has summoned, Omega Red?"

~ Arkady Rossovich

Omega Red. This is one of those characters i have always wanted to love. But, He was always a protagonist that never got a fair side story i feel? Also his look was cool but also kept so close to the best, the Jim Lee style. I also thought it was REALLY LAME that his mutant ability, a death pheromone, was never really utilized. A great story arc could have been have him kill a bunch of people, including wolverine who would come back, and then the X -men would have a reason to FEAR him. also vibranium....i don't want to go into the horrid late 80's-early 90's sudo adamantium...

So, I love this character and their are some pretty cool concept artworks out their for him?!After spending some time developing my personal view and looking at concept art. I got HOOKED by this guy, Marco Nelor. This concept of Omega just BLEW ME AWAY! It was so many things I imagined about him and then some! Please check out his Link. His work is awesome on so many levels. I am working to contact him about this figure.

With a donation from My good pal nick, I received a Omega Red for the PAIN OF DEATH! IS THE JOY OR REBIRTH!

I was, back then, just fooling around with Revoltech joints. I actually dismantled my eva prototype concept art work Revoltech fig for joints!

That...was....a big step. For a figure collector. Or the beginning of madness. One of the two.

So I started by cutting the hand off, then dremeling a concave semi-circle to receive the revol joint.

After filling in the hand with sculpt and dremeling a hole to receive the peg this is what we get.

I still have to dremel the hands down some. And i plan to replace the for arms.

next i removed the horrid hair piece he had and sculpted a bandana, as well as cut off the super stupid giant knee pads. I then cut into the side's of his feet so they could lean to the side. I plan to replace his feet after much thought in the future. The last thing I did was remove the soft goods for alteration.

The next step was to start the base for the hair. I also removed the pony tail that rotated and dremeled out a hole and filled it with glue and made a receiver for, you guessed it! A REVOLTECH JOINT!

The head will eventually have the trade mark side burn pony tails with tiny revoltech joints attaching them and then the soft goods hair reattached hair after its been cut down and shortened.

The next step diods...or face things. whatever you want to call them. In order to make them I simply sculpted a disk and let it dry. Then I glued it to his face. after it set ( 2 days and multiple coats to be safe) I just used my dremel and the small orb grinding attachment to achieve the image above. it took time and patients.

When done i completely coated them in crazy glue just to be safe :]

The second set was simply a repet of the above process. I saw these as some kind of regulator of his death pheromone. As you can see , or maybe not, the pony tail is pretty adjustable.

The next step was the gloves. i liked the large metal plates but it made no sense that they were just adhered to fabric? So i saw it as straps.

The next steps, Replace the forearms with ones that twist, add revoltechs to the tentacles. make the harness look more like a utility vest. add details to the main body.

NEXT EPISODE OF AUTOMATAUNTAUN CUSTOMS!

A MAN OF MANY FACES!

Custom Concept Juggernaut

2012-04-18T21:55:00.001-04:00

"Nice Punch. Cute Suit. You the local good guy?"
~ Cain Marko

I'm a huge fan of the juggernaut. I have always loved him and especially how his character has evolved in the last 10 years. Going form Cosmic powered baddie to Mutant to Cosmic muttie good guy. Even losing his powers in the name of being an x-man. Even more recently hooking up with she hulk, who was also his defense attorney. (and probably the only person who he could sleep with) Up to being chosen as one of the big baddies in FEAR ITSELF. and then lossing his powers to Colossus. The last 10 years have been hard for juggy.

I always loved the old look but the movies and some other concept artests have taken him in a cool new direction. one I always wanted to play around with. So i got an X3 juggy and went to work

I started by asking myself what I wanted out of this juggernaut. I ended up eliminating lots of ideas. if i hadn't he would have been a steam punk/ female slash tiny/ you get the idea. All those items went into my Concept bucket for future figures. What I was left with ended up being a really nasty jewel powered ( and know I don't mean Alasken acoustic hobo powered) football player with rage-ohalisum.

I decided I loved the helmet not being nailed to his suit cause I always wondered how Mr. Marko looked both was before ways before walking into traffic to let the cars smash into that itch on his leg he just couldn't seam to scratch enough. So i kept the helmet, but added a visor. I did not like the open face look. The next thing I added was the base for a collar out of foamy and glue to make it ridged. Then the shoulder pads.

As you can see once it set it allowed for movement and protection. As well as just looking boss as hell. Big props to my Girl friend who helped me decide how exactly to angle or not angle them since I was obsessing over their angle and placement and decided to leave the final call to her and she went with idea two of three the convex at the top look. She is very helpful with all sorts of things. She helped me with this blog and , it's design and strapping me into my velcro shoes this morning. And she is very witty as well. She is also taken. But, if any of that other stuff interests's you check out her life styles blog "Gingero.us"

The next step was a bit tricky and took many applications of sculpt.

I built up around the outside frame shaping the collar and adding details so i wouldn't forget where i wanted to place them. also since my final layer might be three after my first. and this would stop me from making deep marks without dremeling or otherwise putting undue pressure on a fragile pice.

With the basic shape achieved, I realized I had made it lopsided....So I had to make add more to the right which worked out as you can see the right side looked to thin.

I wanted lots of damage to this color as his neck in my mind would be a major attack point. Since in some juggernaut lore removing his helmet stops his power.

See the over hang as opposed to the right side.

So I set about evening it out.

so the shoulder pads ended up kind of incorporated into the collar. as my second custom I really approached in ML Scale i thought it was a good learning lesson and turned out great. I had really wanted to match a part on the helmet were a chunk was nocked off exposing rebar.

I also wanted a little memento form the person he torments, and who torments him, the most.

having evened it out to a degree i felt was reasonable and realistic for something so battle worn I was ready to move on. As you can see I added LOTS of small wear and damage. i'm a sucker for detail. may have gone over board, but i like it!

And thats the collar! I sanded the inside a bit and added some sculpt to make the inner edge match. The big thing was to get the helmet to look snug yet also allow movement. like they were ment to create a seamless piece.

The next bit was a belt. I had no REAL idea what i wanted save something to cover up his waist and look good. In the end after surfing concept art and just images of belts i came up with an idea of steal plates and started out. I took Foamy and glued it to the lower part of the fig allowing for overlap on the upper waist. this would keep the belt in place but still let his upper parts rotate.

it was much harder to get the sculpt to stick to the soft smooth foamy then I , a noob, imagined. so some partes sagged. but i chocked this up to individual plates moving. A front for this belt is yet to be finished as i can't come up with an appropriate buckle.

With fancy new...shirt substitues? And belts in place. I decided papa needed a brand new pair of shoes!

The figure had these awesome boots and shin guards! but they just looked....weak. especially compared to the new "tank" top I just gave him. Thats a little RPG humor their.
So i set about filling in where the buckles weren't and making it the same material as the top.

Although, not utilitarian at all. I liked the way it turned out. I wanted to keep the buckles and straps.

MY BEAUTIFUL METAL BOY! Well more of a behemoth then metal...anyway. I was super pleased with this outcome so far. Production had to stop sadly as i needed a small Diamond shaped gem of ruby color. and no matter how many yard sales or little girls toy jewelry sets I looked at. I could not find one subtitle. So i will have to make one and that means waiting till i get my casting equipment. But his leather harness hill hold a large metal receiver for the mythical gem of Cyttorak! The jewel will be removable.

Until then...he still could be done just at this stage. That makes me happy....for now.

TUNE IN NEXT TIME WHEN WE SEE:
"ALPHA AND OMEGA!
THE BEGING...OF THE END!"

2012-04-17T02:20:00.001-04:00

"They laugh at the law. The rich ones who buy it and twist it to their whims. The other ones, who have nothing to lose, who don't care about themselves, or other people. All the ones who think they're above the law, or outside it, or beyond it. They know all the law is good for is to keep good people in line. And they all laugh. They laugh at the law. But they don't laugh at me." ~ Frank Castle

This figure is one of the first figures I REALLY put my soul into. A character I LOVE. a character i dream about. A Character i want to write! You may call him "The Punisher" I call him...Frank.

Sadly, I did not take to many photos of the "before" and a lot fo the "after" but I started with a ML punisher. I disliked the lack of an ab crunch. So I got a ML Bullseye and swapped out the upper torso. Trust me... DON'T DO THIS! It was a long and argues task. I had to re-fit the joints for the arm and torso joints. but in the end, for me, it worked out. Although not without pain. I will go into this in a later post. In the end ,I sculpted over the Long shot torso to recreate the "warzone" movie look.

I used foamy for the neck collar. I also added kevlar bullet holes for effect. Also as you can see, i took a resident evil "hunk" shot gun and moded the hell out of it to be a sawed of "whippet" Gun. for my pal Franky.

step two was making that navy style sweater look for the sleeves.

I think, whiteout being to presumptuous. I nailed it.

This shot sends it home. And shows off the holster i am gonna be talking about next!

Added to this figure was custom leg holster. made of foamy, rubberbands and Aves fixit..

As time passed I wanted to add realism to it. So I added sand paper to sub in for Velcro. and rubber bands to sit in for the opposing velcro straps.

The next step was pauldrons! I did this by taking "foamy" and Shaping it to what I needed. Then covering with crazy glue on the bottom so it kept its shape. After this I dremeled a channel into the existing shoulder patch to anchor a foamy strip so the pauldrons could be flexible. As illustrated above and below. (Also pictured below is a shot of the "seaming" used .

The next fun part comes in a mortor launcher from a Mcfarlane Terminator figure

I needed it to be awesomer then it was. It opened but, the removable shells form the bandoleers did not fit in it? So I dremeled the back of it to receive the shells!

The next step took some more thought. I wanted franks belt to be more then it was. I cut off the patches on his waist and found a rubber band,I glued the end pieces of the ouches to the rubberband leaving the inner parts flexible. then I took paper clips and shaped them into what you see here. A clasp and hook system.

The next step was to add seams to the outfit. I used the bendy wire that comes in figure cases and attached it with glue.

ON THE NEXT EPISODE OF AUTOMATAUNTAUN!
TRUE COLORS!

Storm Shadow part 3! Your nice new cloths! ( removable Gi!)

2012-04-16T03:37:00.000-04:00

When we last left this custom I was going over the revoltech joints I added, custom flexible scrolls.

This time I will be going over some of the accessories made for this figure.

First thing I did was found a Gi I liked. I choose a NECA Akuma. A Ken or Ryu would work as well. But I liked the rope belt. I inspected the sides and front for a seam line to cut. I ended up cutting on the left side.

I had to cut out a portion since it was to big and I wanted it to be slightly more snug then it was.

the next step was cutting a section of the front out so it will be more snug all around. After cutting out the side I needed to make the rest of it match up.

After all the resizing I needed to make sure it fit well. I used duct tape to see if it was snug and allowed movement. Having decided it was good enough, I then set about trying to find a way to make this outfit removable yet seamless. A task much more complicated then I imagined.

Pictured above is my first attempt. I thought this was fail safe. Take a button clasp and attach one side to the vest and the other to a small piece of cloth. This was, by and far, in retrospect....the dumbest idea ever on my part. if I wanted it to float and did not mind the gap it would have been fine. I didn't so I had to come up with a better idea.

That idea came in the form of these bad boys! I would normally had bought them from K&J magnetics but I was in a fit. I had tried other options but, none were satisfactory. as you can see it is a package of 50 3/32" x 1/16" magnets.

I started by ripping out the disastrous calamity I had placed into this jacket last.

Next I used some crazy glue to harden up the soft rubber. I then dremeled out small notches for the magnets to sit in.

I had decided to place three magnets. I have to stress...MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE POLARITIES CORRECT OR THE MAGNETS WILL PUSH OR PULL AWAY FROM EACH OTHER! It's best to mark it in some way. I took a sharpie to the "back" of each so I wouldn't mess it up when gluing them cause trust me, if you try to glue a magnet next to another magnet it will either push away or jump onto it's counterpart. And it is easy once dropped to forget which is your "top" and which is your "bottom".

After all three were in, I realized three next to each other was not gonna work. I removed the middle magnet leaving two on each side. I coated them in many layers of brush on Lock Tight. (It just happens to be the glue I prefer.) The magnets need a liberal amount of glue. Let each layer dry completely before you apply the next layer otherwise you might end up with rubber rather then glue. You will wanna repet this process for the opposing side. But make sure as you place your counter magnets that they are placed to be attracted to their counterparts. Mirror their placement by marking the opposite side.

It should be noted I ended up removing the magnet in the middle. leave just the Two outer magnets (pictures to follow at a later date) Once I knew it was dry and the magnets were set in the lock tight I had to have him try it on. Now this took a couple weeks and patients. every time I had thought I had it secured when I put them together one magnet would rip out and be stuck to its counter part.

Now,This is cause I double stacked the magnets increasing their strength in the front. Six in all, (four in the front Stacked two each) two in the back (not stacked)

Once done It will be getting a coat of white and the rope will stay red. The back will get the characters for "Arashikage" which means storm shadow.

A shot of the gap left by the magnets

I have to say, I was pretty pleased with how it turned out. The only down side is with the fact that with to much movement and posing it will separate. Nothing is perfect.

But I am happy with the way it works and looks. Mainly in that it is removable. It will not infringe on the body work I will be doing as his main outfit.

As you can see it allows for possibility.

What we have here is a shot of the aves I used to fill in the gap, some light sculpting. More will come later.

The next piece to make storm shadow storm shadow is a hood! and I wanted a flexible hood.
I started by looking up hood patterns form sowing sights. I didn't find exactly what I wanted and also I do not have a great background in sowing. So, I cut out three of what seemed to be the best looking options as far as patterns went, leaving a lot of room to shorten. It's always better to have two much then two little. Also the base will be glued to the neck and will become solid. So make sure to leave room.Then I made a skeletal structure using the flower wire used for the ninja scrolls I made in the last storm shadow post "Custom Storm Shadow part 2! Secret technique: REVOLTECH JOINTS!". I adhered them again, using the fabric glue over many layers in a watered down coating.

The next step is to glue the hood to the neck. Its a hard trick in that you need a strong hold to the neck but, any part of the fabric that is glued to the neck is no longer flexible. you have to decide how much you are will to give up to the flood so to speak. Or like me you could plan to loose some off the bottom and give yourself some extra on the bottom.

I adhered the wire to the underside of the hood using the fray away fabric glue. the only thing left to do is glue down the "Tail" in the back.

.... which you need to do otherwise he looks like a klansmen ninja...not cool.

The best way to go about this is to take the "Nip" at the top that is still open and pull said open part against the back of the hood and adhere it with the fabric glue in its least water diluted form as we did in the last Storm shadow post with the flexible scrolls.

This is what you end up with! A final VERY watered down couple of coats with the fray away and its ready to roll. the final cots are importent to give the parts that have no wire support some rigidity so it all doesn't fall down. of course you could always experiment?! i plan to try some without it.

The only DOWN side to this method IS that the hood is locked in place as far as turning. it has a little play to the left and right and with proper planing cutting and measuring could have more. But it still awesome!

As you can see it also folds down pretty well.

As he comes along i am more and more pleased with this figure. Scarf shown is from a Ryu Hyubasa NECA figure for show.

NEXT TIME ON AUTOMATAUNTAUN!
"EVERYONE NEEDS A FRIEND!"

Removable mask tutorial

2012-04-13T01:53:00.000-04:00

So, to those of you familiar with my work on Figure Realm, I love accessories. Of all the things in figures I enjoy, it is the amount of interchangeable parts and features. In that spirit, when i set out to make my own i set high and ostentatious goals. One such item was removable masks. This is a short how to on a basica non magnetic removable mask.

This is the end result ( sans the detail, as in just the base you build upon.) Below are the steps to take to achieve this.

First I picked a medium. I chose as my experiment, Sculpey. I didn't want to use aves since it takes too long to dry and might sag in that time. I may try it just to see but am pretty sure it WILL sag.

With my medium selected i moved on to stage two.

This is the piece I will be "stuffing' with sculpey. This is essential to making this technique ( refereed to form hence forth as a "tech") work. Of course you can evolve this to suit your needs! and if you do please post here and share in the comments section!

I start by soaking the face in water as well as the "glob" of sculpey I will be using. THIS IS INCREDIBLY IMPORTENT!

You can use oil as well but it is much harder to remove. If you do not lubricate the sculpey and face then much like a mold without mold release it will bond and stick to it. Again, I only used water it worked perfectly.

Taking that "glob" of sculpt and impressing it onto the face and then spreading it with out sliding it off the details. This is importent. If you smear it when you remove it, it will not be a perfect match as you will see later. SO, start by pressing the "glob" straight down on to the area you wish to copy first. If you need to fill in more, as with this mask were I have a seam line to meet, spread lightly from the outer edge. You will want a lot of excess cause the next step after setting or boiling will be sanding to fit. you can never have to much, too little is more complicated to fix. So even if you over lap your seam, do it. Just don't leave a gap. Also, It's good to start out with too much if your learning. This way you can adjust as you learn and soon you will be able to eye it up! If this sounds confusing just look below.

When you feel you have the right shape, gently and carefully pull it off. Be cautious, As it will bend a little. I said use more then you need in the step above, this was two fold. One, it gives you more to work with. Two the thicker the mask the more sturdy the soft sculpey will be when you go to pull it off. If it is thin it will give way very easily. but the denser it is the more rigidity it will have even in its soft state.

The above is the inside. If you scroll up you can compare. its pretty accurate.

Stage three is kinda scary to some. You must boil it.

Sculpey is a clay that only hardens when it cures.

this can be done two ways. Baking and boiling. I happen to preferrer boiling. For baking instructions please refer to the box or wrapper the sculpey came in as it will explain that being the previously mentioned method. If you are gonna boil it you need to make sure you have a small pot that you will NEVER USE TO COOK FOOD IN AGAIN! PLASTICS AND CLAYS RELEASE TOXINS THAT WILL LEACH INTO YOUR FOOD. DESIGNATE A POT FOR FIGURE THINGS! I use one small pot to boil parts to separate boil sculpey and any other water based heating events i need to for figures and everyone knows not to use it for anything at all.

Once you have picked pot fill it with water and bring it to a boil. once this is accomplished put your item in a slotted spoon ( AGAIN THAT WILL NEVER COME INTO CONTACT WITH FOOD AS IT WILL BE PERMANENTLY CONTAMINATED)

and proceed to submerge the item(s) in the boiling water for up to 5 minuets.

After five minuets at high heat ( 9 to 10 on a electric range) it should be set. Pull it out and let it sit. i do so for 24 hours just to be sure since after futzing with it i have cracked it :{ So let it SET!

Once it is done you should notice a graininess to the color as opposed to the solid nature of the color before you boiled it. At this point I go about fitting it, shaving it sanding, and generally trying to make it line up perfectly were I want it to. I start by using my dremel to get it in proximity to the base object.

As you can see you can get close to the base object! and after you are this close its time for fine tuning with very fine filling, sand paper and dremeling.

after lots of fine tuning and usage of 1500 sandpaper called " black ice ( a wet sand sand paper i use dry) you end up with something like this. yes it is a older shot fo the first mask i made and all previous shots were a new mask but thats cause i was out of fresh 1500 when i made this tutorial. please forgive me.
Below are some examples of what you can do just with like...the basic of skills. More advanced stuff to follow.

I hope this has proved helpful. please leave comments and let me know what you think and what you would like to see!

ON THE NEXT EPISODE OF AUTOMATAUNTAUN CUSTOMS!
ASK NOT WHAT YOUR FIGURE CAN DO FOR YOU!
A RETROSPECTIVE AND REVIEW OF FIGURE COLLECTING!

Custom Storm Shadow Part 2! Secret Technique: REVOLTECH JOINTS!

2012-03-25T01:27:00.000-04:00

When we last left this WIP (work in progress) I had just started the process of adding Revoltech joints.
I would normally link to where to buy them, but sadly their official web page, Revoltech Collectors Nation, has been abandoned for a over a year. Assembleborg.net, the site which promised to kick off North American sales of joint packs, seems to have suffered the same fate. So the best bet you have is go to Ebay and look for them for a decent price. I paid between $7 - $12 a pack not including shipping and handling. If you have a friend in Japan there is one store I know of that sells the packs exclusively.

The packets say both Revoltech and Assemble Borg, but they are the same thing.

Adding the Revoltech joints is, to me, a pretty simple process. Once you have done it two or three times
you get a feeling for what you need to look for. The first step is sanding and Dremeling the old joint off.

The next thing you need to do is drill a hole to fit the peg of the Revoltech joint. Make a semi circle indentation around the hole to fit the orbital joint.

The next step is making sure it fits well. If you make the hole too big for the peg the fix is pretty simple. Use Crazy Glue or Lock Tight on the peg or in the hole and then wait for them to dry. Fit them together and if needed, repeat until you have a nice snug fit. The other option requires you to be quick. It is exactly the same as above save one small detail. You take the objects with the Crazy Glue freshly applied and put them together. The key here is to spin the joint, or move the joint in whatever way possible while the glue dries. If you've done it correctly, the Crazy Glue will have tightened the surface of both items while not bonding them together.

The next step is to cut any appendages or overhanging pieces that get in the way of the modification of the hand joint and then drill a hole into the hand and repeat the process listed above. The only step not listed is filling in any of these bare spots with Aves and then re-Dremeling your holes. I skipped that step here because I planned on doing a separate post later on that subject. This is just the prep work.

The beauty of this is that you can make many alternate hands for your figures.

The hands seen are Iron Fists hands with the last two fingers cut off to achieve that Ninpo hand pose.

These joints do a whole lot of awesome things!

The next thing is the ninja scroll... Yes, you heard me, ninja scroll. A fully posable ninja scroll. We start with this. It's called craft wire or flower wire.

I got 30 gauge. Very, very thin.

These are all the things you will need for this accessory:

1. A piece to use as the center (spindle) of the scroll. I used a piece of sculpted Aves for my center.
2. A piece of cloth cut to be just slightly smaller then the wood center piece. I used an old pillowcase and for a separate piece an old shirt.
3. A bottle of Fray No More or any fray stopping glue.
4. Two pieces of flower wire cut slightly longer then the cloth so you can secure them around the center piece with glue.

You need to know one thing first... In order to use the Fray No More you need to test it first. The one I used was very thick like paste. This is good for the initial line you need to lay down to adhere the wire to the cloth. Otherwise you will have to dilute it with water to a thinner consistency You will notice I left a large amount of extra wire. It is obviously more then I need, but it's better to have too much rather than too little.

Once you have put on a couple layers of the watered down Fray No More, you can glue the center piece to the cloth.

Next you're gonna take pliers and Crazy Glue and you're gonna simultaneously apply crazy glue to each wire and slowly wrap it around the center piece. Do this in small increments, letting the glue dry each time.

I took this shot to show how the process goes and the finished product.

Just pulling the wire down over the center piece.

Next, you are going to have both the wires glued down and place some glue on the center piece and roll it up in the wire ribbed cloth. Not too far. Just until the cloth meets as seen in the second picture.

Once the Crazy Glue is dried and after a couple more layers of watered down Fray No More, you end up with this! It's completely flexible and rad.

As you can see, this is completely malleable and even ROLLS UP!

It works exactly as I wanted.

Multiple layers of the watered down Fray No More is key to getting a even smooth texture. Make sure you let the previous layer dry before applying the new one. You want to build as well as smooth.

(Also pictured is the longer version.)

With a small paint application this will look like gold in no time! Pick the colors you want, then water them down. Because we're painting cloth, if the paint isn't diluted it might cause cracking or rigidity in the fabric.

I put black on the edges for two reasons. One: I thought it looked awesome. Two: To help cover the wires on the reverse side. Also, Cobra colors.

Evened it out.

After a lot of paint and patience, and a lot of breaks for my wrist, we ended up with this!

Since it's a ninja summoning scroll, I had to make a blood mark, and I had to add
that little cobra design from the cobra hood logo.

I just loved the way it worked out.

The process can be used on a much larger scale with a lot more patience. The longer it is, the more complicated it gets to keep everything lined up.

I used weights to keep them in line and brushed on the watered down Fray No More like I explained above.

With time and patience, you end up with some pretty neat gravity-defying effects.

And again, with enough layers of watered down Fray No More, you get a nice even surface.

In the end it turns out like this. This concept can be applied to lots of things: capes, hoods, books, karate gi, scarfs... just to name a few. Their are a plethora of things you can make using this technique, some of which I will be showcasing here at a later date!

TUNE IN NEXT TIME! YOUR NICE NEW OUTFIT!

SECRET TECHNIQUE: REMOVABLE CLOTHES!

(Please write your own jokes here _______________________________)

Custom Storm Shadow ( tutorial)

2012-03-17T01:15:00.001-04:00

"When our master was killed, you took a vow of silence. Now you will die without a word."

~Thomas S. Arashikage/Tomisaburo Arashikage

So, way back in the way back I started a figure. A figure I am still working on, but a figure that has become very involved. More so then what I planed. And, I love it! He started very simply as a extra head from a Ryu Hyubasa.

(the head form the snake eyes previously shown)

I started by removing the rubber ornamental headband by heating and cutting it off being it's soft goods. (I use boiling water cause I feel it does less damage and is more efficient, but you can also use a blow dryer for this if you so choose. Be warned blow drying can with some plastics and soft goods lead to damage.) I then took my Dremel and using the sculpting/carving tool (pictured below) I Dremeled out a small channel. I then took a small bobby pin and stripped it of its rubber. I cut it length wise to match the small rare-earth magnet I would be using to place in the figure's forehead. (pictured left). Using crazy glue I placed the small piece in the groove I had made and let it set.

After removing the soft goods piece I had to fill some spots in. The side flanges on the face mask were ruined by rubber and glue as well as the areas you see sculpt added to. The only parts that were not damaged by removal were the top ironically, where I Dremeled out a hole and placed a rare-earth magnet. Then sculpted over and smoothed and sanded. I used a 1500 grade wet sand called black ice. Love the stuff. Even dry it does an amazing job. Also, I added a scar over the right eye... scars are badass.

Some small sculpt needs to be put on the metal brackets, clean them up. But, other then that, it's done.

The rare-earth magnet (the circle in the forehead) was put there for one simple reason. I love accessories! (also, obviously, to hide the magnet.) The outcome is pictured below, but I am working on a second head ornament that is more Naruto inspired and cobra themed! The beauty of the magnets is that they allow items to be added at a later date with ease. Any new item can be made and added to the figure without creating a peg hole or other attaching system that might damage the finished figure's paint job. I use lots of magnets in my work and I get them from K&J Magnetics. Good prices and an amazing variety of shapes and sizes.

Now onto this guy's body. The recipe is a Marvel Legends Gambit with the pelvis sanded to allow the ball joints in the legs better movement and to eliminate paint rub. I removed Gambit's neck soft good by heating and cutting. Then filled in with sculpt. The feet were Marvel Legends Longshot feet. Heavily modified. First sanded the detail off like the rubber knife and boot cuffs. Then I cut out the sides of the rockers to allow them to completely turn sideways. I then took a file and filed away in between the toes to create that Tabi foot look so common in ninja footwear. I then sculpted to clean up each toe. (Disregard the little ruffles on the pants. They were later eliminated with a Dremel after I decided I hated them)

I also filled in the heel arch to make most of the bottom even.

This is how the knee pads started. I Dremeled away the giant knee pads Gambit had and started layering in Aves.

What you see here are the underside of gauntlets starting. Also pictured are throwing stars from a G.I. Joe Rise of Cobra Desert Storm Shadow

Pictured below are the custom Kunai I'm making and the next step to the knee pads. More sculpt and a lot of sanding. They will get Cobra symbols around them as in some of my favorite depictions of Storm Shadow from IDW.

What we have here is a Hawkeye bow with early mods so it can become Storm Shadow's signature compound bow.

I wanted him to be able to do some really ninja-y stuff. I choose the Gambit for his hands and lithe frame. In the end I really liked choices I made and how they fit together.

TUNE IN NEXT TIME! NEW HANDS NEW JOINTS!

SECRET TECHNIQUE: REVOLTECH JOINT!