The Imperial Shipyards
Imperial Creative Engineering => Custom Figures => Topic started by: smeagol92055 on April 16, 2014, 06:01:52 PM
-
Hi everyone!
So I know that I haven't exactly been the most active in the community, with only one custom figure and his (crappily) painted astromech droid, but I've been wanting to make a new custom for a looooooooooong time and I'm finally able to do it!
So this is the character I'm going to make a custom of:
(http://i.imgur.com/VAiauBK.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/wMli9qu.jpg)
He's called The White Skull, a memeber of the Ruthless Organization Against Civilian Heroes (ROACH for short). I created him back in 2009 as a gag and drew four comics featuring him, which is honestly more attention than I've ever paid to any of my other comic-book creations. Sadly, his day is passed, but I've been wanting to make a custom figure of him for years.
In the second picture, where he's telling that poor flea-moth-thing-guy to get out, you can probably guess where I took the inspiration for his day-to-day jumpsuit from: a Vintage collection Bespin Luke Skywalker. (Because he's a member of an evil organization, and they have uniforms.)
So, my thoughts were to get a second Luke figure (which I just did through eBay!) and a second Red Skull head from the new Captain America film from Clonehead (in progress) and do some painting to make a custom figure of him.
I'll post progress pics as I go!
-
Progress on the figure:
First, I ordered a second Dagobah Luke online.
(http://i.imgur.com/gRiEZV1.jpg)
I took to my fodder bin and removed the bootss from an old Han Solo figure.
(http://i.imgur.com/y63Q01V.jpg)
Then I repeated the process for Luke and, using Shoe Goo, attached Han's boots to Luke's legs. (If you can find Shoe Goo, I HIGHLY recommend it; it sets up in seconds, is tough as rubber, yet can be removed easily later on.)
(http://i.imgur.com/ctWO89t.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/5ZRzt6n.jpg)
Next up, I have to acquire the necessary skulls and repaint Luke's coverall to a dark blue. (The trenchcoat outfit is actually next on my list of alt figures to create!)
(http://i.imgur.com/ymC7d2v.jpg)
Don't worry, Han ol' buddy... we'll fix you up in a jiffy.
-
So I found the trench coat I was looking for; it'll work perfectly for the plainclothes variant I'm building.
Here's some quick progress on the planning phase:
The art reference
(http://i.imgur.com/VAiauBK.jpg)
The mockup of what the figure will look like
(http://i.imgur.com/uUoHwoJ.jpg)
-
Wow, love that mock up.
I will tell you one thing. I have seen that Vintage Bespin Luke used to great effect on a number of awesome customs. They should really rerelease that figure again.
Off to share on the front page.
-
Great. And now my creativity has been sparked. I just spent the last two hours making this instead of prepping for my lecture tonight. Whoops.
(http://i.imgur.com/ZoBSJBE.png)
-
Wow, great looking cover. I would buy it to read.
-
So I was going through my fodder bin and came across a body that I had put together previously, mostly Bespin Han with Dagobah Luke's boots (the leftovers from the last custom that I started to put together.)
(http://scontent-b-sjc.cdninstagram.com/hphotos-xaf1/t51.2885-15/10576018_1512461675639160_884990586_n.jpg)
EDIT: Okay, so I had to reorganize my bookshelf, and I came across my copy of Shadows of the Empire, and I thought, HEY! Why not make him into a swoop biker?!
Okay, so this is phase one: the rough cut-n-glue. I cut up some additional figs to give him swivel knees, more beefy arms, a matching jacket and ammo belt. He's got an ugly mug hidden behind the blast shield, and you'd better hope he never points that bucket in your direction, because he'd just as soon fry you as say hello.
(http://i.imgur.com/pZyWb1O.jpg)
(http://photos-d.ak.instagram.com/hphotos-ak-xaf1/10554246_267604053434067_1296603500_n.jpg)
Phase two will be to give him a good thorough paint job and fix up the mistakes I made during phase one (seriously, I MANGLED that jacket fitting it over those arms!)
-
Looks pretty cool. Almost reminds me of Judge Dredd custom.
-
Looks pretty cool. Almost reminds me of Judge Dredd custom.
I actually got a little of that vibe myself once I had put the helmet on him! While I think that would be totally rad to make a 1:18 scale judge figure, I'm going to stick with the swoop biker idea. Has anyone out there ever built a swoop from scratch? I know there are a couple that I've seen here on the boards from time to time, and (hopefully) I'll locate my box of old figures from when I was a teenager soon; I know I had a speeder bike in there.
-
That swoop rider work in progress is looking interesting. Nice part work on it too!
-
I like those arms with the jacket. Good stuff!
-
I really like the swoop biker, too. Looks great!
-
I like those arms with the jacket. Good stuff!
Thanks! The arms came from a SUPER CHEAP 'the Corps!" figure (seen here in the Orca team)
(http://i.imgur.com/iS0vgfv.png)
The Corps! figures are only about four bucks for a pack of three (or two with a vehicle) and over the years they've turned from something that was compatible with older GI Joe figs to... well, now they're ugly rubber monstrosities that don't really fit with any other figure, so quite a bit of whittling was necessary to get those darned arms to fit in the arm sockets. The knees also came from a Corps! figure and are surprisingly sturdy.
The right leg is permanently bent like that, so I'm actually thinking of making him a leg brace, à la Mad Max!
-
Oksy, phase 2: I decided to scrap the jacket completely in favor of more heavy armor. I gave the figure an initial paint job (really rough, more of a wash than anything else at this point,) so that I have a nice consistent base coat for the final paint application.
(http://i.imgur.com/zmsb4vJ.jpg)
Recipe:
Head: Dagobah training Luke
Torso: Indiana Jones
Legs (upper): Indiana Jones
Legs (knees): The Corps! figure
Boots: Dagobah Luke
Arms: The Corps! figure
Helmet: Millenium Falcon training Luke
Chest armor: Jango Fett and Halo Reach armor pack
-
Oh yeah, like the more armored look. Off to share.
-
So I've had this Helljumper figure for a while and I lost his head a while back. (Don't ask, silly story.)
Anyway, I bought a Halo: Reach figure that had a lot of alternate pieces and helmets, and it came with an ODST helmet! I was pretty stoked to have a complete figure again, but he'd been headless for so long that having the helmet back on just looked weird to me.
So, I did what any red-blooded customizer would do: I went out and bought a super-cheap $2 GI Joe knockoff, decapitated him, dremeled out his skull, and made an alt head for the figure!
Now he can take his bucket off in between skirmishes.
(http://i.imgur.com/OVlU9A5.jpg)
Next up, I'll be repeating this process on the Halo: Reach figure to give him an alt head as well! (Or maybe even a couple!)
-
Looks great, on the front page.
-
Thank you!
(And thank you for merging my topics! I hadn't realized that I had so many of them on the board! :-X)
-
Your welcome. With over 22 pages of individual artists for the custom figures boards it is so large we make sure each artists keeps all their stuff in one thread. I think there are a few I need to go back and merge, but this area is huge! Its an awesome problem to have!
-
I screwed up the darn ODST helmet trying to make it a wearable bucket.
Doggone it.
-
Punch a hole through it with a dremel?
-
Ran the dremel too long and turned the faceplate into plastic soup.
-
Ran the dremel too long and turned the faceplate into plastic soup.
it happens. I always work in short controlled bursts from the dremmel. Don't let that sucker get too hot, and I use my fingers around the helmet to keep track of how close I'm getting to the outside of the helmet. typically I can feel the helmet start to give, warp and soften when the bit is getting too close so I can stop. Also, holding it like that will help you keep track of how hot it's getting. Of course... you have to be careful not to acidentally dremel your fingers...
-
Yeah, it was so hot it burned my fingers! Sometimes common sense, she does not prevail.
That's all right, though; like I said, the Halo: Reach figure I got the bucket from came with an assortment of helmets. Though it won't be an ODST helmet he ends up wearing, I WILL make him a bucket!
What's left of the helmet actually looks like one of the helmets from the very first Halo game that the Marines were wearing... so, stealth win?