raybot

 I didn't need to sculpt since I dremeled down, but it was pretty touch n go to dremel without gashing the legs enough that I'd have to use clay/apoxie.

 Quite the opposite. Hasbro's engineering is a lot tighter than Toybiz's so the joints need more work. On the upside I've gotten way better at hiding the joint work I did.

 I got some plans for the Scorpions. And who says I only bought 4? Lol

Thanks for the kind words everybody! Had a great time making this one and glad it came out just how I wanted it.

 Yea, I’m glad I eventually got back around to those. I don’t think the shoes were drawn very consistently at all but I loved the look of the Adi Granov designed ones for the Sideshow statue. Avoiding sculpting those must’ve set this project back at least a week lol.

 Thanks! I did grind them down. Just really, really evenly. I did that to all the discs, and also dremeled the cavities for the shoulder balls and torso joint so the parts just don’t slice into each other. Wish I had a more exciting trick to share though.

Thanks everybody! I like how simple/effective this one was. Really reminded me of how I'd plan for simpler customs to come together when I was just sort of testing the waters with this stuff.

 Yea, I loved what they did with everything on that line, except that weird muscle flap on the front of their thighs that goes over the hip. I totally forgot I did this extra mod, but just to make sure he fit in with ML, I resculpted that hip joint and got rid of that flap thing. It looks the worst on Superwoman.

 Thanks! Hope you and the fam are doing well. Seems your work's been moving along great.

 Yep, it's bizarre how little time I find to play with toys given how much time I spend with toys. Always fun though.

 Yea, it's that perfect medium-bulk range between the Hyperion and Bucky-Cap type bodies. ML could definitely use something like this.

 Well, it definitely helped that Gentle Giant (who work on Marvel stuff a lot) sculpted the Crime Syndicate line. I wish I'd bought the whole set....but actually I just wish they'd made the Justice League if they were going to do super-articulation and hire Gentle-Giant.

Thanks a lot! I was sort of worried all the different finishes would come together sort of badly, but I really like how she ended up. Guess I'm just really used to finishing everything with Dullcoat.

 Thanks! Really paid off to finally buy some nice brushes.

 Yea, sort of hard to tell since I didn't really put up any comparison pics From a 3/4 view the reshaping's pretty noticeable since the Spider-Girl torso's a bit cylindrical. The joint break's a little more streamlined too, but it did end up pretty subtle.

Thanks so much! I was super happy with how pretty she ended up looking. I thought she was going to turn out sort of plain, but I'm a lot happier with how the work went than I thought I'd be.

 Thanks! They turned out really nice. I wish the haircut (as photographed) didn't cast so much shadow over the other eye. I actually sculpted and painted the bangs separately and attached them last so I could make sure the eyes, eyebrows, and makeup were all symmetrical. And then nobody got to see any of it!

 Wish I'd had a custom Rachel Grey and Rogue around for that last shot...but then again I kinda hate Rachel's costume now and I might have a Rogue soon...

 Yea, I like this costume of hers the best. I think it's the only one that actually got better after Astonishing X-men! They just changed a few details here or there, but now she looks better in the comics than she ever has.

 Hah, yea, I did make it sound sort of easy. Those shoulder pads were really touch and go! I was dead set on using the original plastic (for flexibility) so I actually just dremeled the Jean Grey ones down until they were the right shape, then really carefully dremeled them until they were just about 1mm thick around. Hope to see yours soon!

Thanks a lot for the kind words! I really liked working on this guy. Really took me back. I should've added suction cups to this bad boy.

 I'm kind of surprised to see there aren't like, hundreds of these since the parts were just screaming it. Actually I'm surprised that the body isn't getting used a ton! I love the new mold.

 Yea, I just sculpted it in kneadatite. Turned out pretty good on the 2nd try! First go was a hot mess. I went with the heavy shade like he's usually drawn with, but I might make another sometime with just the normal look and see how I like it.

 I kept a few casts for myself Might make some more eventually, but casting is so boring!

 Usually I block in the main colors and two-tone shades with an airbrush. I keep the paint mixes I use, then basically roll back in and clean up the basetones by hand. After that I'll handbrush the highlights, then after that I do the really small details. Takes forever, but I'm always glad when the paintjob comes out nicely.

 Yea, I really liked that body, but it was all wrong for Mar-Vell.

Thanks so much everybody! She was a real fun custom to make and I'm happy all the detail work panned out.

 Yea! Looked more girlish and seemed to fit pretty well. The hair was from a 2-pack invisible woman, with the back of the front strands trimmed down so they wouldn't scuff up the scarf. I wanted to use a Hope Summers head but it looked enormous to me.

Thanks for the kind words everybody! Glad to hear you like the new stuff, and really glad I can make customs again. Been a busy boy, so there'll be a bunch of stuff coming up real soon.

 Wow, almost forgot how much I liked hearing things were bad azz lol. Thanks man!

 Well, wish I'd been around, but crazy year! Glad my hand healed up. I was just worried I'd have trouble getting back to where I was, but stuff's been turning out pretty well now that I'm back at the table. Work was coming out really shaky for awhile.

 Thanks! I don't know who's casting hands, but I'm decent enough to cast a solid piece like a head, fist, or foot like this. Totally lost the wrist hinge and just converted it to a swivel though.

 Well I'm certainly not going to spill all my secrets on the public forum

But if I did have two tips they would be to paint 24/7 and never listen to anybody. Can't say what works for others has ever worked well for me It's possible I don't take instruction well.

Thanks for all the encouraging words guys! I'm really looking forward to hitting the table more now that I've got the new studio set up. Never had a workspace this good!

 Yea, soon as I got my shaky hands back on track the stuff started looking good again. I've got a few nice ones coming along soon that I just took forever on, but I'm sure the wait'll pay off.

 Thanks! Less was definitely more on this guy. Not sure what they were thinking with the factory paint. Glad to be back working on this stuff.

 Thanks man! Site's pretty cool. Things are definitely going these days

 Might work out for Select Scale. The Red She Hulk body would be really tall next to other MLs.

Thanks a lot for the kind words everybody! Really nice to hear back on customs that had so much time put into them.

 Well, first I need a disc joint with the peg coming out of the bottom of the ankle. In this case, there just wasn't a joint there at all so I cut the ankles off a 3.75" Captain Britain figure and spliced those on.

The trickier part is dremeling out a socket for the foot, and drilling a matching peghole that holds the peg right. Usually I'll use various dremel small drill bits and shapes of steel high speed cutting heads to get that done, but it's always delicate since there's never much room for error.

Thanks a bunch everybody! I don't pop in much since I'm crazy busy, but seeing all the nice comments always keeps my spirit up and gives me a good push to make more time at the workbench.

 Naw, it's still the morphing Eddie Brock head from the MS Venom I used. Does look a bit like him though.

 You may be a little biased given your screen name, but I'd definitely suggest an airbrush. They really do work like magic, especially since they similarly take a lot if practice, prep, and maintenance.

I do still clean up a lot of the shading with washes and hand brushing though. Always upsides and downsides to all techniques.

 Yea, I gave those a shot but the wrists are way smaller on this guy. I do like the look of the monster claws quite a bit though.

If I really wanted accuracy I would've forgone the symbol and just covered him in spaghetti though

Really nice piece! It's a tough armor to sculpt, and making it stylized like that really tops out the difficulty. Would not have guessed those were the base parts.

 Thanks! Really was a shame that the factory release had such crummy articulation. Had a V-Hip that didn't pivot forward much at all (due to a restrictive cut around the hip pegs). If you could get his leg forward at all his thigh had to rotate unnaturally out of line with his lower legs. Works so much better this way but it's sort of a risky mod.

 Thanks so much! Now if only it actually were easy

 Thanks! Really rare when I get the free time to just put a lot of different complicated techniques into a single piece (or when I really need to), but I always like the results.

 Thanks! There's so many Caps on here I know that's high praise.

 Paint makes a helluva difference! Sometimes I feel like a flat finishing coat on factory figures and some shading really changes the overall look of a factory piece a lot.