X-Men Movie figures

Still a work in progress. I have ordered a dark knight cloak and painted the ribbing on Storm since this was taken. I've held off painting Cyke just in case I decide to do Gambit, dependent on if they do a Channing Tatum figure or not (I have a spare Cyke in the box still). Shame that Mystique got cancelled. I really hate the X-men 2000 figure but unless I can think of an alternative I might have to buy one.

Issues I still have are:

- Angel's legs are too loose. I've tried nail varnish but it's the ball joints inside the pelvis that are the problem. Can anybody think of an option that doesn't involve boiling and popping? I traditionally had trouble popping hip joints and I'm worried about the wings.
- One of his wings works perfectly but the other is too loose and won't stay in position. I've tried milliput and nail varnish but it's still a bit too loose. Any suggestions?
- Kitty's body is ready but I can't settle on a head that5 looks enough like Ellen Page. Any suggestions?
- Any suggestions on how to make an improved movie Mystique?

I'm really struggling to get a paint match for Storm's neck. my skill at painting faces is nominal on action figure scales (I'm more of a 25mm man) plus the paint job on this particular X1 Storm is pretty reasonable so I don't want to paint everything. Should I give up or does anybody know of a particular paint colour that will do the job?

Thanks for the tips!

I have now drilled wing slots for Angel on a movie Cyclops. One of the wings even works although I'm not quite sure how to get the second one to do the same... Need to work on his head next. Wolverine's neck has been sanded down for Nightcrawler and just needs a tiny bit more to finish it off, then just need to repaint his trouser bottoms.

I think you are right about swapping limbs. It has proved to be a literal ball-ache. The heads are off the ladies and my mate is working on X3 hair for the X1 Storm. I was thinking of trying a Megan Fox head for Ellen Page if it isn't too small for Kitty.

I had a quick look at Gamora - her legs do look like they would make really cool uniform legs but they score low on articulation reviews because of the way the figure is designed. I will keep an eye out for one and maybe buy one to see how they work. I suppose I could try leg swaps but I'm a novice at drilling and cracking so I'd be reluctant to try that on two expensive figures. Hmm - quick review of articulate reveals thigh swivel so that could still work actually. Interesting...

I am currently looking at Spidergirl as a more promising option than Sue Storm for Kitty (although I noted that Marvel Legends build-a-Jubilee would require even less work) with maybe with Buffy shins for the trousers. Still, have you seen Rogue in the later movies - she really is curvy! I think Widow should work fine for her and the boots will match. Cute bum.

That leaves Jean and Storm. I think for now I will use Widow for my experimental base and re-adjust once Maria Hill is out with possible Gamora Leg swap. However, Jubilee is using the Spidergirl body with a few tweaks and I think Hill will be using the Widow body with a new head. My only criticism is that the arms on Widow are really thin but I'll see how it turns out. Since the arms have swivel pins at the elbow I can cut and glue long gloves for Jean and Rogue and short gloves for Storm and Shadowcat and still retain the swivel but I might also try pinning and gluing the original plugs to get swivel on both. I'll see how ambitious I'm feeling...

It's going to take some work to get wasps arms into the Buffy shoulders, the pegs are very different.

I don't think reusing anything but the heads from the original xmen figures is worth it, Jean has a excellent resemblance, however storm and rogue didn't fair as well.

If it were me, I'd use GOTG gamora for storm and jean, and movie sue storm for kitty and rogue. The Gamora head would probably work pretty well for storm, or maybe even the scarlet black widow head.

I'd have said movie black widow would be a good base, but she's too curvy. There is a movie Maria hill figure coming out that would be pretty awesome of a base for Jean and storm.

Well good luck, hope that helped

Well, I've started on Jean Grey! I thought I'd try to keep the torso of the originals with better limbs but it remains to be seen if I can pull it off. I nipped the ponytail hair off the X1 figure, shaved a bit off the back of the X3 Phoenix's head and plopped the wig on. It looks reasonable - a far better likeness than either of the two originals. First technical hitch - while Buffy figure Kennedy had decent bare arms for Storm, the Faith figure was horrible - painted clear plastic with stuck joints and two of the pegs sheared off while trying to free up the joints. I think I'm a bit too ham-fisted for this kind of precision work!

I'm hoping to use Faith's ball shoulders to anchor Wasp's black arms. Since one of the Faith pegs is broken, I might try removing and gluing Wasp's shoulder pegs onto Faith's shoulder ball joints for a better fit, as long as the glue is tough enough. I like the wasp's arms but with no wrist swivel I'm debating whether to cut off her hands, apply Jean's original pegs and then attach her gloves with swivel. Was going to use the gloves on Rogue (using Black Widow base body) but I can always get a spare.

Jean's and Storm's original legs were the worst part of the figures but I think the ball joints of the Buffy figures might be too widely spaced to fit comfortably in their hips. I need to crack one open at the weekend and see what I think.

Next step is to hollow out under Jean's arms a bit to get a closer fit for the ball joints.

All tips welcome!