[Ryu's Krew] --customs v2--
[Ryu's Krew] --customs v2--
Posted in
Custom WorkstationThere isn't a v1 of this topic just so everyone is clear
However. Before I even created Ryu's Krew (my graphic novel series that I'm creating) I had wanted action figures of my characters. I honestly thought it was the coolest thing in the world, and I had NO idea that this wonderful world of custom action figures existed.
That is, until I found Jin Saotome and such a few years back. Two years ago I stumbled upon Figurerealm, and searched around. I asked questions about how to make customs and the such, but at first I wanted to use SFIV Neca figures. I have had essentially NO experience sculpting, nor painting. So the first result would inevitably be a disaster. ...and a disaster it was. I had good tools (Aves Apoxy Sculpt, Testors Model Master Acryl paints) just...not the skill. I only managed to sculpt the hoodie (which is essentially their armor) on one before I decided I hated it. I tried painting it, and laid the paint on WAYY too thick to where it was glossy, and ugly. Then I gave up.
Only a few months later I decided I'd try again, this time with different base figures. I used 5 inch Dragonball Z Super Poseball figures, and over the course of a year slowly worked my way at making them by hand (no dremel, so all the sanding and cutting was done by hand). But by the time it was done, the characters didn't have what is now their current outfit, nor their current faces. Everything seemed a bit off, and they can't even hold weapons (partially because of the hands, and partially because I just suck and the weapons were too heavy). Also the way I made them made the figures lose a LOT of articulation, so they're essentially stuck in one pose. So they're more or less PVCs in a sense.
Then a few months after THAT, I decided I wanted Mission 2 (or current) versions of them. Because I was collecting so many figures in the 3 3/4's inch scale, I wanted to do it in that. So using my new dremel that I bought, and a few of my not-wanted Marvel Universe figures, I set out on making such things. The hair sculpt on Ryu was good, except it made it so I literally could NOT work on his face. Draycho's hair was so long (and I used a Black suit spidey...with no back of his head basically) that it rendered the neck joint useless. And Archound was just a big mess, trying to smooth out Colossus' arms and such. Not to mention when I went to go work on sculpting the pants around their feet (which is baggy and essentially goes around their feet) it made the leg joints incredibly wobbly, to the point where not even super glue would fix it because it was so unproportionate. That's where I gave up.
Now, fast forward ANOOOOTHER few months, and I decided I wanted someone to try and make customs for me. I only messaged a handful of people, a few of which whom respectfully were too busy or just couldn't declined, and the rest...just didn't respond. So, I took matters into my own hands (which is probably for the better, seeing as I'm the one who created the characters :P) and have set out to make incredibly poseable, straight out of the comic action figure customs of my characters. I found the perfect base figures, albeit a little big. GI Joe Sigma 6 figures look PERFECT for the bases, as they have really cartoony proportions, and they're really poseable. So, using those, I shall embark on this epic quest of making an entire line of my characters (from the good, to the evil) starting with the three main protagonists, the Soldiers of the Gods: Ryu, Draycho, and Archound.
At the moment, I don't have much to show, as I'm awaiting my base figures being mailed to me, and I need to get more sculpt as well. I also plan on making their hoverbikes in the future too. But I have all their weapons done (as of today) and a few little "extras" that are just kinda neat accessories.
[[CLICK HERE TO SEE THE FIRST RYU'S KREW CUSTOMS]]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Overshot of all what's completed thus far. Weapons, three cans of Kreature (energy drink made by the Gods to heal them mid-Mission)
Closer look at the cans.
Top view of the cans.
The 'lazer' weapons they use. Ryu's got the sword. Archound's got the axe, and Draycho has the twin short swords.
And last but not least, each of their 'custom' guns. These won't actually appear in the comic until Book TWO, but essentially each gun is named and based off of a dinosaur to a certain extent. Tyranno, Stego, and Ptero. See if you can guess which one is which ;P
All of what you see is sculpted, but I sculpted over stuff. So the sword was originally a Bionicle Tahu Nuva's sword, but I completely sculpted over that. And it goes like that for all of them. None of what you see is a repaint or anything. So lots of work done. Tell me what you think so far!
Please wait...
Posted by
ryuskrew on Friday, December 9, 2011
User Comments
Sci Fi on eBay
Update Topic
Currently trying to repair a broken arm..it's a big pain in the ***, because the Jazwares Street Fighter line is...not very well put together. So I'm having a tough time trying to get an arm back. Gonna try using a 4" Tygra arm and see if that'll work. Gotta keep trying. More pics will be up after I fix this!
But right now I'm doing work on the weapons...and it seems to be working pretty well. I need to do some modifications, but I think with a bit of work, these futuristic weapons could be sweet for the Krew. I just need to figure out the guns though..
As for the Charles & VIktor and Battletoads ones, I just got some new paints today, so hopefully those can be completed soon!
Thanks again!
As to why I didn't like them? The majority of the clay I used was model magic, and I found out why nobody uses it..the hard way.
So here's some brand new WIP pics!
This right here would be the new 3 3/4's inch Ryu's Krew figures. I used the Jazwares Street Fighter upper bodies for all 3, Sagat for Archound, and Ken and Ryu for Ryu and Draycho respectively (I was going to use Ryu for Ryu...but I ended up making the Ryu body shorter somehow). I had to cut the upper half down and cut the lower half on the Power Rangers Samurai figures. Why the rangers? I loved the wide variety of motion on them. Plus I had some that I didn't really like. I would've just stuck with MU figures, but with how my character's feet are, the leg joints that connect to the hip are too weak to support it. Amazingly, the Power Rangers like how I did the feet, as in they aren't too wobbly and don't fall off. I already had sculpted the heads, as that was left over from when I started out with MU figs. Archound is from Colossus, Ryu is from Sentry, and Draycho is a custom head altogether.
Here's Ryu. Just a close up of him.
Draycho. As I said, the way I spliced the bodies, this one was MEANT to be Ryu (the guy above) but the way I cut the bodies, and added it on with the sculpt, it ended up being shorter. And Draycho is shorter than Ryu/Archound.
This one was the hardest. I knew with Archound I wanted Sagat's body, no matter what. It was just a matter of figuring out -how- to do it. I was gonna just keep all the original lower halves for Ryu/Draycho and all them, but I felt it worked better with the Power Rangers. Archound, as always, is a challenge. I couldn't just use a Samurai fig, as the porportions would be absolutely horrid. Luckily for me, I had an extra super poseable Dragonball Z fig I wasn't using, so I just used the lower half, and bam. Archound!
Charles & Viktor! My other original comic characters. Last time we saw them...they were terrible. Now they're slightly less so! The only thing that's really left on these guys is paint apps.
Battletoads! Again, same sort of thing here. The majority, if not all of the sculpting is already done. So there's barely anything else to do aside from paint. Rash (the green one) just needs clean up, and a mouth and stuff. I'm waiting to do a Zitz figure, as I don't have a base figure for him yet.
With the Ryu's Krew figures, I still wanna sculpt more around Ryu/Draycho's legs, to make them look more like pants, but I'm going to have to scramble for more clay because I'm running out. So I'm hoping that the very little bit I have I can make it last..
other than the issues you had, everything seems to be working itself out, also I suggest using wooden clay tools for the foam if you are to add any details, work better IMO. keep up the work and hope this helps.
Loljk. But it's taken so long on account of me finally getting the base figures (except for Archound, which I'll get to that in a bit) for the Ryu's Krew customs, and I had to get some new clay after my Aves Apoxy Sculpt ran out.
So let's start off with Archound. Archound is the tallest, strongest and biggest of the 3 in Ryu's Krew. When I got the base figure for him, I realized that one of his legs was broken, and after spending hours on attempting to fix it with a new knee joint, I gave up because it just wasn't working. So I'll have to order another one online, so you won't be seeing him for a little while.
As for the clay...well. I at first was just going to go with the Aves as usual. But I decided to get fancy and try some different things out. This will also help other n00b customizers if they for some reason are the same way as me and try to go a "cheaper" route. The first clay I tried out was Play-Doh. Thankfully I was smart and only sculpted ears for Charles, then realized why nobody ever uses it at all ever. Because it's absolutely terrible. Glad I found that out though.
Secondly, I tried Crayola's Air-Dry Clay after seeing it in a Target store one day. That was basically the only "rule" for these clays, is that they had to be air-dry. So I was really excited about using it. I first sculpted feet and such for the Ryu's Krew customs only to find out that it has terrible cracking issues, even when mixed with water to smooth it out. Needless to say, I got what I paid for. (7 bucks for like a 5 pound bucket).
Next I decided to try something else. Activ-Clay or something along those lines. This was something I ordered off of Hobby Lobby's website for 21 dollars for a 2 pound thing. SAME problems. Except this is even heavier, which caused some problems for the Ryu's Krew customs. I sculpted hoods and all around the feet with that, which essentially set them really off balance. Luckily for me, I managed to rip off the sculpted hoods and re sculpt it with the next product..
Crayola's Model Magic. Now, while most of you customizers might be facepalming, I'm finding it right now to be easily the best stuff for me personally to use. While most customizers and artists like putting in a lot of detail, I like just basic sorts of shapes and stuff, and I'll inevitably have to do most of the stuff via painting, but that's completely fine with me. My characters aren't incredibly detail based, so I found this also really helpful when working with it. I never once had to add water (although I should've for a few parts). And it's really lightweight, which I used for the hoods. I'm waiting for it to dry to really tell if it was worth it (also 21 dollars for a 2 pound bucket, but I didn't realize how much clay you actually got). If it doesn't crack, then I'll be one happy customer. Only reason I really don't like buying Aves is because I hate mixing it up, because I can never seem to get it 50/50, and I hate waiting for it to ship to my house. I suppose I'm really impatient.
But let me show you some of the cracking damage the Activ-Clay did to my custom for Draycho. The layer of clay behind it was the Air-Dry stuff.
Pretty much the most annoying thing. Thankfully most of you are smart and have already either not bought any of those aforementioned products or have already dealt with problems such at this.
Now to the progress pictures!
=====================================================
First actual pictures of the Ryu's Krew customs. Ryu (left) and Draycho (right). Still have more work to do, but surprisingly got a lot sculpted already, which is weird for me because I only tend to sculpt a little at a time.
Close-up of Ryu's face. Still lacks sideburns/goatee.
Close-up of Draycho, same thing.
Side view of both, note that the hoods aren't connected to the lower body. I did that so I could still have the hoods without losing posability. Now, when I did this with the Activ-Clay, it was too heavy to sustain itself properly on just the top half alone. If I really wanted to use it, I would've had to connect it to the lower portion as well, which meant losing articulation. Which is not at all what I want for these customs.
Big update for Charles & Viktor. Charles has a head, and bigger feet now. Viktor is near completion as is Charles. Just a lot more clean-up sort of stuff, but this is essentially them. Very basic.
Boom!
Here is two of my original characters, Charles & Viktor in the works. Wait...what's that? There's three figures in that picture? The rectangle headed one with no arms was going to be Charles (whom is an alien bunny), but proportionally, the smaller DBZ figure is more correct. Viktor (the big dinosaur) is massive, and is obviously the most done. I would post pictures of what they look like, but I lack good reference images of them -__-
Here's a good side-by-side comparison of how much bigger Viktor is than Charles. Also, the oversized hands on Charles is correct as far as the character design goes.
Not a very important picture, but here are the beginnings to what I like to call, the "Doom-bat", which is Charles' weapon of choice. Viktor just fights using his massive body, and Charles does for the most part, except for the Doom-bat. Obviously, this needs a LOT of sculpting work. But because this entire series is a colorful, more lighthearted (at least it was) comic as opposed to Ryu's Krew, there's not many weapons that are needed.
And right here we have the Battletoads! Pimple (the tallest), Rash (the other standing one) and Zitz (the one laying down). Still needs a lot of sculpting work, but I have a lot of the basic parts done. I was really inspired by G-Brand and his Battletoads customs that I wanted to create my own, because I just love their designs and found the games to be really fun. I had legs sculpted on Zitz already, but they were misproportionate and awkward looking, so needs much, much more work.
Side-by-side comparison of Pimple and Rash.
Closer picture of Pimple and Rash. Missing any/all facework, because I'm focusing more or less on the bodies at the moment.
But I actually found a bunch of old Max Steel figures I used to play with as a kid. I plan on using a few of these to make into the Gods (probably just Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon and Loki).
There's the lot of them (minus the one I'm making into Zeus)
Here's Zeus so far. I JUST started on him, and only get a little bit done at a time. Still needs TONS of work. But since the Sigma 6 figures are 8 inches, and these are about 12 or so, it'll definitely work. It just needs a lot of work to turn him into my character. The black fabric wrapped around him (still need to get superglue to do that) is essentially his skirt-esque thing he wears in the comic. And I'll also be making his belt as well.
Very rough face shot, the beard needs a lot of work and clean-up, and the hair also needs a lot of work.
Also started a bit on the feet, only really wrapped it around his ankles, but I figure that'll give the figure better support for when he stands.
And right here, we have the Grim Teddy. The oldest villain of the series, as he was created before Ryu's Krew even existed, and only him and Ryu were there. At a point, Grim Teddy was intended to be the MAIN villain of Ryu's Krew. But that changed. Now he's just a part of it all. Still very important.
Grim Teddy standing. The fabric is the cape, and the sculpt in the front is merely to hold the cape on until I get superglue, and I might fashion something out of it. Dunno yet. But the circle on his eye is a button (will be anyway) and he has little tufts of fur on the top of his head as well.
That's all I have for updates now. Hope you all enjoy!
As for the sigma 6 figs are great bases and come wtih some reallly cool accessories that could be turned into some excellent things. But would say that the wrestling figs are cheaper, but would advise really look at lots of both fig sets and try and get a bunch at one time that would seem to work for you. buying piece by piece can be more expensive, so just look around and have a little cash stashed back for the purchase. hope this helps.
can't wait for more your weapons/accessories are looking fantastic and liked where your customs are going, keep it up bud.
And thank you very kindly! The sword actually went through...3 different versions? XD But I finally got it to look good. So I'm really happy with that.
Action figure series based off my graphic novels, so more or less yeah :P I'm trying to go all out on this. Eventually..I might have like every character made. Which would be pretty insane. I don't know if I'll do that for a fact, but it'd definitely be cool. The only problem is that I think I'd have to use Sigma 6 throughout the whole thing in order for them to be in scale with each other...except for a few. But I'll have to think some things through.
Anybody have suggestions for what I could do for the other characters? Should I just stick with Sigma 6 for minorish characters? Or do you think using 6" wrestlers or something would be fine?