Custom Johan Hex!

 

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.

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!"

"$#%^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!

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!"