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Custom Action Figure Tutorials
Welcome to the wild, wet, and wonderfully weird world of action figure customization!
This section of Figure Realm is where great customizers pool their figure-smashing know-how to help new customizers become even greater! Why customize? Because the toy companies will never make that gorgeous Red Sonja figure of your dreams, and customizing is the only way to get it! We have an ever-expanding collection of tutorials you can use freely to sharpen your skills. No matter how hard or how insanely impossible a task may be, keep poking, tearing, popping, and burning your way through your figures until you get the results you're looking for! And as always, feel free to use the boards to ask questions if you need help with anything!
Custom Tutorials Disclaimer
Customizing can be a fun, but dangerous hobby. These tutorials are contributed by other customizers.
Some of the things recommended in the tutorials may be dangerous, such as the use of boiling water or
sharp objects. You shouldn't attempt anything mentioned without adult permission and supervision.
Figure Realm and/or the authors of the tutorials are not liable for any injuries or damages occurring
from any attempt to follow suggestions in these tutorials.
That being said, good luck with your creations!
That being said, good luck with your creations!
Share Your Know-How!
If you have an informative tutorial you'd like to share with the customizing world, feel free to contact Captain Coder for all the details. Pictures are great to follow-along with, but tutorials don't have to be photo-based, text-based tutorials are also welcome.
Getting Started | |
| The following are recommended must-reads before starting to customize. Stick a sponge in your brain and dive in! | |
| Apoxie Sculpt Guide | Details on how to use and order Apoxie Sculpt. (by Jin Saotome) |
| Basic Customizing | Another wide over-view on things you need to know to start customizing. (by Jin Saotome) |
| Custom Beginnings | If you are new to customizing action figures, you want to start with this tutorial. It covers some of the basics, including paints, brushes, techniques and terminology to get you started with your hobby. (by VariablePenguin) |
| Fixit Sculpt Guide | Details on using and ordering Fixit Sculpt. (by Jin Saotome) |
| Joint Types | Explains some different types of joints you might run across on your action figures. (by Dr Nightmare) |
| Paint and Tools | Over-view on important tools and paints you'll need to start customizing. (by Jin Saotome) |
| Pre-Paint Wash | The first step to a great paint-job is a thorough washing, in this tutorial, Fathom shows you how to do just that! (by Dr Nightmare) |
| Ultimate Starting Guide | The ultimate starting guide to customizing. (by Kyle Robinson) |
| Which Sculpt | Tutorial showing different sculpting compounds to help you get started with sculpting detail on your figures. (by Kyle Robinson) |
Tricks of the Trade | |
| Basic Joint Disassembly | Explains basic joint disassembly for newer, multi-jointed figures. (by Dr Nightmare) |
| Boiling Sculpey | Figures melting in the oven when you cure your Sculpey? Try boiling them instead! (by Gee_jays_Customs) |
| Dry Brushing | A mandatory lesson, here's a comprehensive (simple) introduction to Dry Brushing. (by Dr Nightmare) |
| Hair Sculpting | Tutorial that explains how to sculpt hair. (by Punstarr) |
| Heat 'N Pop | If you don't have a pot, or water, or a stove, use this tutorial to remove those pesky body-parts. (by Dr Nightmare) |
| Joint Protection | Super-Glue isn't just for covering your hands to play with porcupines anymore, you can prevent paint-rub with it too! (by Dr Nightmare) |
| Metallic Color 101 | Shows you how to give your figure that cool metallic color. (by Kyle Robinson) |
| Painting Effectively | Covers major painting techniques and how to do them. (by Jin Saotome) |
| Painting Eyes | Use this tutorial to give your figures perfect eyes so they can stare at their perfect bodies. (by rateeg) |
| Removing Body Parts | Describes how to remove body parts from your older figures using the Boil 'N Pop method. Also talks about the 2 different kinds of plastics used in action figures and why you should get a dremel-tool. (by Dr Nightmare) |
| Sculpting Clothing | Because real manly super-heroes don't wear tights, here's how to sculpt clothes on your figures. (by Kyle Robinson) |
| Sealing Customs 101 | How to seal your customs to preserve their great paint-job. (by Kyle Robinson) |
Special Effects | |
| A custom is great, but a custom with a giant laser-beam coming out its eyes is even better! Use these tutorials to help add some awesome effects to your figures. | |
| Energy Blasts | How to make cool energy blasts with straws! No kidding! (by hellz-yeah) |
| LED Eyes | How to add LED Eyes (real light-up eyes) to your action figure. (by VariablePenguin) |
| Make a Base | What to use to make a base to display your action figures. (by Jin Saotome) |
| Optic Blasts | How to make nifty optic blasts (for Cyclops) to add some BAMF! to your customs. (by Kyle Robinson) |
| Ripped Masks | Because heroes can't always keep their masks in pristine condition, here's a tutorial showing you how to make a "ripped mask" for your action figures. (by Kyle Robinson) |
| Steel Claws | Shows how to make sturdy steel claws for Wolverine so he can stop getting beat-up by Sabretooth and start getting beat-up by Magneto. (by Kyle Robinson) |
| Steel Claws 2 | No, it's not a bad sequel about a giant mechanical man-eating shark, here's another way to make those nifty steel claws for Wolverine. (by Jin Saotome) |
| Sword Canes | Because airport-security won't accept "but I need the sword to cut-up my fruit!" as an excuse, here's how to make sword-canes for your figures. (by deadeye) |
| Symbiote Tendrils | How to make Symbiote tendrils for Venom and Carnage figures, watch-out Spidey! (by Kyle Robinson) |
| Symbiote Tendrils 2 | Another tutorial showing how to make symbiote tendrils. (by Jin Saotome) |
Advanced Lessons | |
| The following tutorials are recommended for customizers who are confident in their ability to improvise and have a good amount of customizing experience under their novelty-sized, multi-pouched, utility-belts. | |
| Adding Swivel Joints | Tired of how static you figure's arms and legs look? Learn how to add some simple swivels and magnetic joints to your figures with this tutorial. (by Jin Saotome) |
| Air Brushing | 4 steps to airbrushing. (by Gee_jays_Customs) |
| Articulating Digits | Finally, a simple way to add basic finger-articulation to those static hands! (by VariablePenguin) |
| Converting Swivel Heads | Convert those swivel heads Marvel Legends style! (by Kyle Robinson) |
| Gun Hands For Girls | Hot chicks love to shoot hot lead, use this tutorial to make your babes' hands hold their favorite toy. (by Kyle Robinson) |
| Joint Pains | Yes, action figures get them too, here's how to help stop the paint from chipping-off at the joints. (by Jin Saotome) |
| Magnetic Ball-bearing Neck-joints | How to use magnets to create super-poseable joints for action figure necks. (by VariablePenguin) |
| Painting a Head | Step by step instructions with pictures on how to paint a custom head. (by Hemble) |
| Shoulder Joint Modification | How to modify bulky shoulders to make them look more natural. (by Dr Nightmare) |
Repairs | |
| Sooner or later you're going to need to fix a broken figure. Here are some common problems and how to fix them! | |
| Bend Fix | Tired of those crooked knees on your Black Cat? Use this tutorial to straighten-out the arms and legs on your figures. (by Dr Nightmare) |
| Broken Shoulders and Hips | Did Spiderman slip-off a roof and break something? Here's how to fix your figures' hips and shoulders. (by Jin Saotome) |
| Neck Peg Fix | How to repair a broken neck peg (by Gee_jays_Customs) |
| Peg Fix | Someday your figures will take one dive too many from the shelf, this tutorial shows you how to fix the broken or torn pegs of your figure's limbs. (by Dr Nightmare) |
| Peg Joint Fix | Did your figure arrive in the mail with a broken leg? This tutorial can help! (by Kyle Robinson) |
| Tightening Joints | How to use super glue to tighten joints (at your own risk!). (by Dr Nightmare) |
Miscellaneous | |
| These are tutorials that are useful for specialized jobs. | |
| Ball-Bearing Salvage | Explains how to easily obtain ball-bearings and magnets from the Dollar Store to use in your customs. (by Kyle Robinson) |
| Cape Storage | How to store your super hero capes when they aren't in use to avoid damage to them. (by Dr Nightmare) |
| Figure Photos | Because blurry pictures make us cry. Learn how to take clear pictures of your figures here. (by Dr Nightmare) |
| Landmine (Movie) Finger Mod | A great way to add play-value to your Transformer! (by Dr Nightmare) |
| On Plastic Wings | Disappointed with the standard Marvel Legends Archangel? Here's how you can make your own, complete with poseable wings! (by Jin Saotome) |
| Painting Transformers | Helpful tips, from the master himself, on how to paint Transformers. (by Shinobitron) |
| Removing DCSH Belts | Here's the easy way to slip-off those sturdy belts. (by Dr Nightmare) |
| Shoulder-Mounted Rocket Launchers | Now your Tansformers can ditch their puny laser-guns and upgrade to full-blown rocket-launchers! (by Shinobitron) |
| Venom Jaw Mod | Sick of accidentally ripping-out those flimsy "teeth" in Venom's mouth? (by Jin Saotome) |