Black Lantern - Scar and Cyborg?

Well here are two Black Lantern customs. Scar you'll probably be familiar with already, but probably not with Cyborg here.

Scar was created from my botched dye-job experiment on painted figures. The product of that experiment was not only ghastly ugly, but resisted most attempts at repainting. The dye would seep back out of the plastic and discolor the paint. I finally was successful in painting it after a few layers of oil-based enamel and just accepting the discolored blue for his skin tone. Scar was thus born.




Here's a little bit of fan-fiction. What happened was I had an extra Cyborg body and thought that it would be neat if he became a Black Lantern since his strictly biological life was over when he became mostly machine. I used the head and right hand from a Deathlok figure (the Cyborg was the Sonic Hand variant). I should probably figure out a way to put a Black Lantern symbol somewhere on there. For now, it's pretty good though.

A Few Marvel Customs

It's been a while so I'll just quickly throw up a few Marvel Customs I've done recently.

Destroyer:






I knew that I'd have to pay through the teeth to get one of the ToyBiz figures, so I took my Thor-Buster Iron Man and re-deco'd him a bit. He's got some sculpy, then a black-wash, then a slight silver coat with blue-highlights.


Then up is my Fearsome Four ally, the Iron Maniac!



He was inspired by Robert Kirkman's Iron Maniac from the Marvel Team-Up series. I wanted to expand my Fearsome Four group and he came to mind. He's a First Appearance Iron Man with a War Machine gun, and a few sculpting bits.



He's not a very nice guy.


Oh and here's a nice blurry pic of his face without mask (and before the black-wash).



Tombstone:




I basically got the idea for this from a few custom projects posted on-line. Sandman body with a Mr. Sinister head and cape part. I pitted the head to match the body, then painted the whole thing black and put the finishing touches on top.



Nick Fury - the Life Model Decoy:






Quick and easy - Terminator body with a Nick Fury head. Can't get easier than that.

Some Joe Customs

First up is my take on Doctor Venom from the Marvel Comics - 25th Anniversary style.



He's made using a Cobra Commander body, Cobra Soldier arms, and a modified Destro head. I actually cobbled most of this together from spare parts I didn't have any other use for otherwise. I added some hair to the Destro head to make it more of a actual head rather than the metal mask. I think he turned out pretty well.

I picked up a 25th Anniversary Arctic HISS on-line. I wanted it to have the normal armament while the missile rack would look great on a mainline HISS. Here's the frosty HISS (stickers not yet applied):



Here's the mainline HISS with missile weapons package:





Cobra Soldier: "Uh, Mr. Destro, Sir? I don't think- maybe being up here isn't a good idea..."

Destro: "Shuddap! Next time you won't make eyes at the Baroness!"


Last up is my Oktober Guard group-shot. I haven't made any customs for the Oktober Guard yet, though I do have a few on my list. Here's my current team:

Elongated Man - Black Lantern

Here's my take on the Black Lantern form of Elongated Man:



He stands there with his more living form. Here he is with Black Hand:



I made him from the body of the Marvel Legends Fantastic Four Classics Mr. Fantastic body, the neck from a movie-line Mr. Fantastic, the head from a different movie-line Mr. Fantastic head, and some of the cape material from a Marvel Legends Mr. Sinister.

I cut the cape material to fit the shape of the symbols and super-glued them on. Then came the paint. On the head I drilled out the eyes and mouth, then cut off the nose and used a heated paper clip to make the nasal cavity.

I'm happy with how he turned out but I realize now I missed his armbands. I'll probably comeback and do those sometime.

Here are a couple of other Green Lantern customs:

Sinestro as a Green Lantern in DCUC style:



He's just a headswap - Sinestro Corps variant Sinestro on an Abin Sur GL body.

Here's a Kreon figure. I made him using the ML/FFC Torch head on a GL boxset Tomar Re body. He's got a golden prosthetic arm and eye-patch.

Young Avengers - ASSEMBLE!

I'm a big fan of the Young Avengers. I know that a lot of the hard-core comics fans out there viewed the Young Avengers as rip-offs or lame - whatever - they're fun.

Here's my group-shot of the original line-up:



That's Patriot, Asqardian, Iron Lad, Hulkling, Hawkeye (II), and Stature

Here's the most recent group:



That's Patriot, Hawkeye (II), Wiccan, Speed, Hulkling, Vision, and Stature

I'll showcase a the customs figures from those shots. Up first is Hawkeye (II):



She's a movie Jean Gray with the spare head from Elektra, the glasses from a Doc Ock, and the bow and arrow from a Chronicles of Narnia figure. I'm not set on the bow/arrow, but before I paint it I'm going to see if I can track down a better set.

Hulkling here just got his hair done:



Basically he just got some blonde hair to better match his comic appearance.

Here comes Speed:



He's a heavily modified Wiccan figure. I cut off all the extra padding and bits of armor and then smoothed him out a bit with the dremel.

Last up is my pair of Vision and Stature:



He is a repainted Iron Lad with a cape from a Black Panther. She's made from a 12-inch Fantastic Four movie line Invisible Woman (clear version).

Here's a close-up of just Vision:



That's that. I need a better bow for my Hawkeye, perhaps a Stature that isn't quite so endowed to better represent an early teens girl, and some touch-ups here and there. Oh, goggles for Speed. Other than that I like these quite a bit. How about you?

Dyeing Some Figures

Over the years I've read about a few people using fabric dye to change the color of action figures. This has an advantage over painting as the joints and other contact points wouldn't wear off the paint. The disadvantages include the mess and the possibility of ruining a figure.

I've considering trying this method a number of times, but finally decided to give it a whirl after seeing the new figures for the DC Blackest Night line. The Orange Lantern figures are all translucent orange. I had a clear figure and thought it would make a good addition to the Orange Lantern Corps and the best way to make the clear-orange finish would be to use fabric dye.

I found a few resources on-line, but this link is probably the most informative:

Dyeing

In a nutshell: I picked up some orange ("sunshine") Rit dye, a cheap metal strainer, and gathered a few supplies I already had - a stainless steel pot and the figures.

Here are the figures I'm starting with:



That's the clear variant Judge Death from the Legendary Comic Book Heroes line with pads and various other bits taken off, two 25th Anniversary GI Joe Timbers, and a modified Guardian from the Green Lantern series. Oh, also a bat creature thing that I cut off of Judge Death.

Judge Death will become an Orange Lantern construct (along with the bat creature), the Guardian will become either a Controller construct (or just a Controller if the dyeing doesn't take), and the wolves are just an experiment.

Here are the supplies:



It's a good idea to make sure everything's going to fit (the waist on the Death figure broke, but it's cool - I'll fix it in the end):



Bring the water to a boil, lower the heat to a simmer, add the dye, and carefully stir. Then add the figures (in the strainer):



I let it sit for a few minutes, but after about five to ten minutes, the clear parts had already taken on a good color:



The Death figure got taken out and rinsed in a clear, cool bath:



Here are all the parts post-dyeing. I let the painted and solid color plastic parts sit in the simmering dye-bath for about thirty to forty minutes.



The wolves are pretty much a write-off, but that's no big whoop since I got about seven of them in a lot recently. The Guardian figure I'm going to paint and make into a normal Controller figure. The Judge Death and Bat-creature figures were perfect though.

Judge Death is getting all up in Hal's face - "MINE MINE MINE MINE MINE!"



Finally comes the little bat-creature.



I think I'll work up a clear plastic stand to support the bat coming out of Death's back.

In the end the clear plastic pieces took the dye really well. Painted plastic parts didn't take the dye too well. The modified parts of the Guardian figure did, which means unpainted parts take the dye well. If I happen to score more clear figures I'll probably dye them up to increase my Orange Lantern Corps!

Once I get the "official" construct that's packed in with the Larfleeze Blackest Night figure I'll put some finishing touches on these figures. For example, it looks like the teeth are actually painted.

The Blackest Night - More Meat for the Grinder!

I'm a big fan of the Green Lantern characters, so I've been very excited about the upcoming "event" from DC Comics. Normally, I'm not a fan at all of these things. In fact, these over-blown crossover events really piss me off most of the time. I guess now that it's finally a character, or group, that I actually care about it's different.

My customs-to-be-made list is dominated with Green Lanterns and related figures. Here are a few I was able to do recently.

First up is my Green Man Green Lantern figure.



I used a DC Classics Hal Jordan, and in retrospect should probably have used a different head. I cut off Hal's hair and smoothed his head a bit. I added some white sculpting material to the hands to change him from having five digits to just the three. I painted his head to match the limited reference pictures I have and done.

Next up is a member of the Sinestro Corps - Romat Ru.



The Sinestro Corps variant Sinestro figure from Mattel's DCUC line isn't very impressive. The figure is much too short and generally doesn't resemble Sinestro's body type. Fortunately, I have the much better DC Direct Sinestro Corps Sinestro figure coming in the mail. I popped off DCUC Sinestro's head and then frankenstein'd Tomar Re's head on from the Green Lantern box set of figures. I then painted the hands to match the orange skin and his mask to match the yellow uniform.

I saved my favorite for last, Red Lantern Hal Jordan.



I popped the head off of a DCUC Green Lantern Hal, and plopped on a Magneto head from the X-Mens Marvel Legends boxset figure. I was going to scupt an eye mask on, but decided to paint one on instead.

Here's a comparison picture of my Red and Green Lantern Hal Jordan figures.



Here's in-progress picture:

GI Joe SWAT Team

Who do the Joes call when they need help? They call their SWAT division!

Here's my little group of Bullhorn, Shockwave, and Surefire (with added goatee):



Here come the reinforcements!



Here's the group shot of my custom figures. That's my counterfeit convention Long Arm, Shockblast, fan-fic Ram, and Low-Light.



There's no way that I can afford these particular club exclusives. To create Ram, I used the Low-Light torso and Shockwave legs that I had left over making Shockblast and the head from Salvo.

Here's the whole gang all together. That's the V1 Surefire figure there in the middle, I renamed him Breach. He drives the SWAT Hammer.



I picked up the SWAT accessories pack from the Gunrunners at Marauders, Inc. Great stuff!

A Few GI Joe Customs

Here are a few GI Joe custom figures I've put together over the past couple of years:



First up is Agent Deming. This is truly a LBC or lazy-bastard-custom, HISS Driver legs and waist, Baroness arms and torso, with a Bombstrike head. I was going to match the red portions of the legs and waist to the blue of the torso but then I either decided I liked it this way or I got lazy. Probably I just got lazy. Perhaps I'll revisit this one later on.

Cadet Deming was the ill-fated Cobra trainee from the Sunbow cartoon series. I figured she got herself some head-shrinkage and got back to work.



Next up is a figure that I'm not entirely sure I'm keeping. I call him Cast Iron and have him as the Commander of the Viper units. He's made with the body of a Cobra Officer V2, the head from a Skull Squad Trooper, and a hollowed-out cast of a Viper head. In retrospect I should go back and hollow-out the helmet more and match the color better.

Cast Iron is a Viper that rose through the ranks and served with distinction (mostly he didn't get his ass killed). Cobra Commander rewarded him with a new post as Commander of the Viper units.



Here's a quick little Cesspool tweak - a head-swap to give this character a bit more dignity. Cesspool head on a Cobra Commander body.



This is my counterfeit or "tribute" figure of the Cobra d Aco figure. That's a Snake Eyes head on a Flash body. I really need to get a Cobra Sigil sticker.



Finally comes my Skystriker figure with new helmet. I always thought it was weird that while the original Skystriker figure has Wild Weasel's body that he's got a combat helmet instead of a flight helmet! I fixed that and added some cute whiskers to boot. Well, cute or French - you decide!