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: