Firestar

My next custom is something that's a whole lot simpler than the last couple I've produced, but no less special to me:

Firestar

Spider-man and his Amazing Friends is perhaps my favourite cartoon of all time. I think it's what got me interested in Marvel super-heroes so much in the first place. Every week there was a great new bad guy doing what they do best, and there were also great cameo appearances from great heroes.

Best of all was the friendship between the Spider-Friends.

So here's the only member who didn't receive an official Marvel Legend. And the only one to microwave her own ovaries in the Marvel Universe proper.  



Recipe:

Head: HML Elektra
Body: SOTA Cammy
Forearms, lower legs & feet: HML Elektra
Hands: ML Wasp



I chose SOTA Cammy as I really love the articulation, and knowing that the hair was going to limit the neck articulation, it was important to have a decent female body with waist, rather than mid torso swivel, and also an ab-crunch to allow her to look upwards while flying.



I covered all the peg-holes as I really wanted to try and capture that smooth, figure hugging costume.

I sculpted and lengthened the hair, trying to make the strands of her hair curl upwards to try and give a more fire-like feel to it.



Her fire accessories are made from wire covered with hot glue.





I always like to add a little extra to my customs and while Firestar doesn't have a secret compartment that opens to reveal Ms. Lion trapped inside her (?!), she does have a removable mask. It started out as some plastic that I kept trimming and trimming until it was about the right size, before I covered it with miliput. I embedded a couple of magnets behind the front strands of her hair and also on the back of the mask. The mask tucks in behind her hair and snaps into place.





The paint job was quite interesting as there are many different shades of yellow, orange and gold used to avoid her looking too cartoony.

Anyway, I hope you like her.

WIP

Swarm

My next custom actually pre-dates Onslaught, and was an entry into the Bug Off! Custom Contest over on FigureRealm. I couldn't post him anywhere else until the contest was over, but here he is.


Swarm



Sometimes I'm a victim of my own convictions. Take this guy for example, Swarm. I made a decision late last year that I would enter the next Figure Realm contest, no matter what it was. I wanted the challenge!

So I was a bit lost when the next contest was insect themed. Not because I couldn't think of insect based characters to make, but rather because I instantly thought of Swarm and the challenge of realising the character really stuck with me.

How do you convey the idea of a human skeleton covered in bees, wearing a purple cloak and gloves?

The answer was unfortunately, not easily.



I chose a LCBH Madman figure as a base. He had very little definition to his design, so I wouldn't be losing a good fodder piece by tearing him up for what was a bit of an experimental custom.

I dremeled randomly all over him to create a rough surface and gouged out holes in his limbs and hollowed out most of his upper body. I swapped his head for a Spider-Man Classic Hobgoblin, and his hands for a F4 movie Reed Richards.

I chose Hobgoblin's head as it matched the image of Swarm I had in Runaways. It also already came with the hood. I sliced the face off of Hobgoblin and attached a magnet to the back of the face and embedded one in the head so that the face could be swapped out for his alternate look which comes from a ML Face Off Red Skull.





Then, to create the skeleton inside his body and limbs, I took some electrical wire and glued it inside the cavity of his upper chest, arms and legs. To get the flexible wire to remain stiff I covered it in superglue and then sprinkled talcum powder over it. The powder was absorbed into the glue and when it dried it created a hard crust which made the wire rigid. It also helped to create a nice, calcified effect rather than the smooth surface of the insulate wire.

Next, I started to work on the main feature: the swarm of bees. I had thought long and hard about how to convey the effect, but I just didn't have the patience to be sculpting lots of little bee sized balls and glueing them on. I thought that would look like he was covered in yellow balls more than anything, so after wandering round the craft store looking for inspiration I settled on using beads. I chose the smallest transparent yellow, gold and black beads I could find and just went to town on him.

Before I put the beads on, I coated the whole thing (apart from the skeleton) in yellow paint.

I used hot glue on some parts and then just poured the beads over him, letting them attach in their own haphazard way. I was careful to stay away from the articulated sections as I didn't want his movement to knock the beads off. I also just superglued the beads on in some sections and they started to make cool shapes. I used wire in some sections where you can see the bees spiralling out from him.

I covered the beads in transparent yellow paint, and then washed it with transparent black at certain parts. I drybrushed some sections with gold as well to pick out areas.

The final addition to him was his cape. I had been working on it all the while I was making him as it was a very time consuming process. It is made from scratch using liquid latex. I drew out a rough shape on greaseproof baking paper /parchment paper, and mixing a little purple paint in with the liquid latex, painted onto the paper. After a thin layer had dried I would mix up another batch of purple latex and add another layer, and repeat. Once I had about 5 layers down, I added in some electrical wire around the edges of the cape so that it would be poseable. I then painted another 5 or so layers on top of the wire to make sure it was good and embedded in there.

Once the cape had dried, I coated it with talcum powder so that it didn't stick to itself and peeled it off the paper. I then cut it to shape and attached it to the figure to create a full poseable cape.



All in all, I am happy with how Swarm turned out. He was a lot of work and quite experimental, but satisfying. I don't know if I've quite managed to capture the effect of a humanoid swarm of bees, but I'll let others be the judge of that.


Oh, and he won the contest. That's two contests I've won on FigureRealm. I've only entered two, but yeah, I'm quite proud and at the moment, bristling with confidence.


Hope you like him!

Warrack's Custom Legends on YouTube!

Some of you may have noticed that the YouTube videos at the bottom of the blog have vanished. Well, you can now find them over on the sidebar, and you'll be happy to see more videos popping up.

I've really been pushing Warrack's Custom Legends' YouTube channel, so you can see videos of some of my recent customs up there, along with some comedy vids and shorts giving you an insight into my hobby.

You can watch the videos right here in the sidebar, or pop on over to http://www.youtube.com/user/warrack

I'm enjoying letting people see my toys moving, and I'm just generally having a laugh with it.

I hope you enjoy the videos, and don't forget to subscribe!

Onslaught: Behold My (other) Mighty Hand!

Onslaught (version 2)



This is my second version of Onslaught. (Click here to see my previous version.)The last one was a commission and I was really proud of it, so I was gutted when I had to let it go. Soon after I made that (in Summer 2009) I started recreating one for myself.

Yeah, it got sidelined for a while.

Anyway, he's back, and not in a horribly scripted Jeph Loeb, horribly drawn Rob Liefeld way (meow)! 




This Onslaught uses the Marvel Legends Icons Venom as a base. His head was completely resculpted and his armour was created from a combination of sculpting, fodder pieces and other materials.



As with my previous Onslaught, I hollowed out the chest and recreated the opening chest effect. I added some magnets to the doors of his chest so that they snap closed and hold there during posing.

Inside, held in black ooze (hot glue with gloss black) is a Charles Xavier head and hand. The head is created from a ML Longshot with resculpting to the expression, and the hand is from a SOTA Remy.



New additions to this version of Onslaught are the four tendrils that can be inserted into his chest cavity.



These are good for a general effect but the real reason I added these is for this little guy:

Franklin Richards



Franklin is made from a LOTR Gollum figure. I had to shorten his limbs and torso to lose the grotesque proportions and then completely sculpt the clothing. His shoes are from SOTA Sakura and his hands are from SOTA R.Mika. His head is a resculpted ML X-23.



The Heroes Reborn Universe... ball... thing comes from MOTUC King Grayskull.



Franklin can be held by Onslaught in his hand, or entwined in the tendrils.








Onslaught's final secret is inside the shell on his back. 





The shell is hinged and splits down the middle, folding up like wings to reveal:

Nate Grey, X-man



Nate, like Xavier is held in black ooze.



Unlike Xavier though, Nate is fully removeable and a figure in his own right.







Nate is made from a ML Longshot with all the detail sculpted on (apart from his collar which is just slightly cut down from its previous disco proportions) and his replacement hands are from SOTA Remy.



I had a slight problem in that I wanted Nate to have a neutral expression when he was out of the shell, but to look distressed when he was restrained inside Onslaught. To resolve this I created a little magnetic tendril of black ooze that snaps over his hands and his lower face while he's in the shell. I felt that by covering his lower face and only showing his eyes, it was easy to read distress into his expression.




WIP shots
















So there we have Onslaught and his 3 captives. I hope you guys like him.