Esperanza is an original character of mine that I thought would make an excellent addition to my Marvel Legends collection X-Men team. This was my first custom and was quite a challenge.

Recipe:
Head/hair: Hope Summers
Torso/arms/hands: Rachel Summers
Skirt: Modified Mary Marvel skirt with additional sculpting. X-Men logo take from Rachel Summers necklace.
Hips/legs/feet: Hasbro Marvel Legends Series One Emma Frost

Paints: Testors acrylic

Process:
This is the first custom I’ve ever completed and it took a lot of trial and error to get it done, including one full do-over. I’m not 100% pleased with it but I think it turned out pretty well and it looks good with the other figures I have on display. I was going for a kind of silver age Invisible Girl / Marvel Girl look with a modern twist to it.

The hardest part was definitely painting the figure. Luckily there are some great tutorials on this site that helped me out. I prepared her joints by filing them down with a diamond head burr and then sanding the excess plastic down. Once that was taken care of I applied “a million” thin coats of the flat white paint and mixed a custom skin tone for her to reflect her Hispanic ethnicity. Pink and silver accents brought the costume together and final I was finished. Virtually no paint rub due to the joint preparation and use of Emma Frost legs.

Articulation:
Ball-jointed head, ball-jointed shoulders, single hinged elbows, wrist swivels, mid torso swivel/pivot, ball-jointed hips, upper thigh swivel, double hinged knees, hinged ankles

Character description:
Esperanza is a mutant with ability to heal herself and others through touch. She rarely engages in combat as she has no active attacking powers but has learned some basic martial arts from her fellow X-Men. Esperanza is known as kind, compassionate, and caring individual by her fellow teammates. She believes everyone has responsibility to make the word a better place and bring hope to those who need it most.

Hope everyone likes it. Comments and critiques are welcome :)

Thanks!!!