Customs by lastmaximal

[lastmaximal]

I really appreciate the votes of confidence, everyone. That's a pretty neat coindicence too, hellpop, love to see what you come up with!

Yup, the Nightwing lines certainly are a nightmare, especially with a malfunctioning pen. You can see where I had trouble. Also, steal away, it's an honor to have the recipe put to good use [and, judging by your other work, better use than I've put it to]!

New this week, a few easy ones and a few long-awaited customs!

ROULETTE

I still haven't found any hair that'd be perfect for her, so barring learning how to sculpt this is the best I can do for her for now. I'd long been a fan of her look, and I'd enjoyed her appearance in JLU. This was also the first custom that was on the table when I picked up my first-ever experimental pot of clear red acrylic paint. It was a Mr. Hobby brand bottle, as all the stores were out of Tamiya clear red -- which turned out to be a happy accident, as the Tamiya clear blue I got later on was a bit too thick for my tastes. Anyhoo, I'd originally gone with a Red Gore layer touched up with some P3 Khador Red Base, but to get the reflective sheen for her outfit I gave the whole thing a once-over with the Mr. Hobby Clear Red. Raven skirt, Formal Wear Sand Saref hair [scorched Brown], decals for face, chest and back, and some Snot Green/Golden Yellow/marker detailing on her right leg to continue the winding snake.

THE SHADE

One of the long-awaited AND easy ones -- basically got a bunch of black and close-enough parts together, gave everything a Chaos Black layer and then markered up some lines on chest and hem ends, then took a Penguin top hat [Remember the black-suit Penguin custom? I'd gotten the Penguin base specifically for the top hat to make the Shade, whichj is why Oswald has his widow's peak instead]. Decal for the face based on the Justice League/JLU look, which was a pain to do without his animation model's very distinctive nose!

DR. DESTINY

Looks a bit unfinished even to me. The costume read to me like "blue Dr. Doom outfit", so that's what I did -- Enchanted Blue and Regal Blue all over a base body and Dr. Doom hood/cape and skirt [well, and a decal for the face - scratchmade after I realized reusing a Taskmaster design wouldn't work as well]. Little did I know that the Dr. Doom hood/cape never really sits that well on the shoulders, leaving an unsightly gap. Oh well. When I learn to sculpt [or, more like, get some money together to commission some sculpt tweaks] I may try and fix this. That, or start over with a Spectre hood/cape...

"THE DARK KNIGHT" BATMAN

This I'm very happy with, and very grateful for lucking out on. One evening after dinner out with a friend, I checked a sale kiosk and found a clearanced-to-hell QBlox "New Costume" Batman which supplied me with the base chest armor, fabric cape, and belt. Then AA/Marvel put together the Age of Apocalypse Magneto, which I later won relatively cheap by himself on eBay for the gauntlets, shoulderpads and shinguards [the head and hair have since gone on to a Joseph quick-custom]. Then three or four batches of "trial-and-error" scratch-mixed Skull White and Chaos Black got me relatively consistent gray paint. Overall, it's a BIT too bulky [except for the helmet, which doesn't go over the cheeks, requiring me to use paint instead], but I'm very happy with how it turned out.

"BATMAN REBORN": DAMIAN AS ROBIN

This was always a cool design, big ups to Frank Quitely. Tried my best to get there with: cut-down C3/JLU Batman armbands painted Snot Green, a LOTR cape [the one with a sculpted folded-back hood] painted Golden Yellow with Chaos Black for the hood, original decals for the chest and face [the one for the face was intended to match Damian's expression on Quitely's B&R #1 cover but kind of misses that a bit], cut-down M. Bison skirt piece, and Shazam hair. Wouldn't mind going back to Damian's cobbled-together outfit from "Batman and Son" later on. And maybe his Batman 666 outfit, except that'd require some serious demonic trenchcoat sculpting.

"BATMAN REBORN": DICK GRAYSON AS BATMAN

Another easy one -- basically a bunch of old C3 Batman parts cobbled together, with the cape, pelvis, cut-down gloves and boots given a few coats of a special "dark navy blue" Chaos Black/Skull White/Regal Blue mix intended to approximate DCD w1's Modern Batman color. Oh, and a C3 Flash head to try and match the Mark Bagley-drawn Dick Grayson Batman grin. Cutting the purse off a DCD Batgirl belt is the closest I could come to approximating the new "big bat buckle" utility belt without sculpt-modifying it to get the sloping panels [for Damian-Robin I actually just drew the panels onto the belt, heh].

TALA

It was hard to design a Minimate-style decal for her face, mainly because one of Tala's distinguishing features on the show was her gaunt face and pointy chin. As such, the decal for the chest was easier to design, as I just had to focus on dropping the neckline and including her occult tattoo thing. The hair is Raven's, painted with a P3 Beaten Purple/Citadel Regal Blue and Skull White mix. The rest is mostly Chaos Black with a hint of Regal Blue for the dressy bits [which include a modified Formal Wear Sand Saref skirt and may later on include Wolverine or whoever's pointy shoulderpads to match the animation model], and skin is Skull White with a tinge of Elf Flesh because I blew my paint budget on the experimental clear paint and couldn't buy Bleached Bone.

KINGDOME COME FLASH

This was on the to-do shelf for some time, basically an easy quick-custom consisting of an Invaders Torch body and head and a trimmed-down Jay Garrick Flash hat. After having run rampant with the Mr. Hobby Clear Red, retouching Jesse Quick, [Mia] Speedy, WI?CW Iron Man and JLI Rocket Red, I went to town painting the clear orange body clear red. Works well enough for me. Now how do I go about hiring someone to sculpt me some Kingdom Come Batman and WW armor?

Edited December 11, 2010 by lastmaximal

[gledzee]

fantastic work ,dark knight batman is stunning any plans for more customs from the batmovies scarecrow etc ?

[Nessex]

great work. I really like the kingdom come flash. Simple, but so effective!

[boyd]

Another nice set. Really nice work on your Dark Knight - the parts all work well together. And your Damian Robin and Kingdom Come Flash are really nice.

[TENIME_art]

Love your stuff, man!

[lastmaximal]

Thanks for the kind replies, all, and for looking past the niggling imperfections in the paint work!

@gledzee, that does seem like an avenue worth considering, but I'd have to get around to learning to sculpt in order to facilitate important details, like Scarecrow's mask and Two-Face's hair and stuff...

Anyway, the latest batch is up -- this makes more than 100 to round out the year!

ONOMATOPOEIA

This was one of the easiest to make, hands down! TENIME's excellent face decal plus a movie Sabretooth body and spare black hands equals Onomatopoeia. I may need to get another Sabretooth for the jacket [for a Yellow Lantern Scarecrow], but this one went straight to the enigmatic sound-effect killer.

CAPTAIN BOOMERANG II [OWEN MERCER]

I always really liked his design and felt he was one of the good things Identity Crisis contributed to the DCU, which is why it was kind of annoying that they killed him off in that "Blackest Night" Flash tie-in mini. Bought a bargain-bin [factory overrun, I believe] DCIH figure, and painstakingly cut off the boomerangs from his back and leg sheaths. Used a trimmed-down Formal Wear Sand Saref scarf [now I need to find another for his dad], which fits decently with a trimmed-neck-cuff Lobo jacket. He's got Walter Peck's hair for now too.

METALLO

I tried to go after the DCUC look for this one . Basically this is a T2 Endoskeleton head and inner body wearing a Hammer Drone gauntlet/boot set, with Iron Monger thigh armor a modified Iron Monger chestpiece. Tried to make the silver more uniform using Mithril Silver on the Monger/Drone parts, and touched things up with Scorpion Green for the Kryptonite charged bits and some detailing [ice Blue, and a Mithril Silver/Red Gore/Blazing Orange rust/copper mix].

JLU ATOMIC SKULL

The discovery of Mr. Hobby clear acrylic paint led me to go back to the shop and buy a bottle of Clear Green. [in retrospect, the Tamiya and My. Hobby clear paints may not have been so different in thickness after all]. This led to a great look for the Alt Superman bracelets and cut-down Cylon armor, as well as a pretty effectively clear green Invaders Torch flame headpiece. Scorpion Green and some Mithril Silver rounded out the rest of the colors on this guy, along with a Ghost Rider-based decal for the Gamma Hulk head [it was still a bit difficult to see so I touched it up with more Scorpion Green].

TERRA I

This was on the to-make shelf for a while because I could never get solidly behind the shades of brown and tan to use [the paint flubs on the "finished" figure reveal that I was flip-flopping to the last moment]. Original decal face based on a BSG female for the lips and eyes and DCD Stargirl for the mask, original torso decal, and the rest is a Tau Sept Ochre/Golden Yellow and Bestial Brown/Red Gore mix. Worked to track down a Janine Melnitz for the hair, as nothing else seemed similar enough to the George Perez artwork.

POISON IVY

Tried to make an original face decal based on a Gotham City Sirens cover, but it ended up resembling a female Skrull face, heh. Then again that might be the shade of green I ended up with after mixing Snot Green and Scorpion Green . X-Factor Jean Grey hair, original decal torso with Dark Angels Green touchups, and the rest is paint.

ELECTRIC SUPERMAN: RED AND BLUE

Had some spare Blue Angel helmets, which got trimmed down and painted. Then two Frankenmate bodies were painted all over with Khador Red Base and Enchanted Blue, with original face and chest decals and some Skull White detailing. Superman Red's face decal got a bit damaged [not enough clear coat, I think], but I tried to repair it to the best of my ability. I'd like to try and track down a couple of extra Electros or 90s Storms so I can give them some energy effects for the arms, but that can wait I guess.

CHEETAHS [MODERN/CLOTHED CHEETAH I, AND CHEETAH II SEBASTIAN BALLESTEROS]

Not having the right shade of yellow-orange sucks, as the pigment in Blazing Orange is really difficult to control when attempting to custom-mix. Feh. Anyway, Barbara Minerva's pants-wearing version has an original chest decal and some Chaos Black paint for her clothes . The short-lived Sebastian Ballesteros version struck me as a simple enough custom, and sure enough an original chest decal and wave 28 Sabretooth-based face decal helped make this version a dude .

"SHIFT" METAMORPHO

The modern Outsiders version seemed a bit more interesting to me visually [the little details take him just a bit beyond classic Rex Mason], and I tried to get that across with the original decals for the face and torso. Still need to figure out how to best imitate the DCUC lava effect for the right fist [the yellow and orange wipes and washes didn't quite get my goal accomplished], but I like how the layers of clear blue and clear red on the Invaders torch flame effect made it purplish enough to work for the left arm. I did up both his lower bodies: one more in line with classic Metamorpho [trunks with soil/mud right leg and metal left leg] and another more "Shift"-like one in black pants [essentially movie Sabretooth's with an M on the buckle].

Edited December 31, 2010 by lastmaximal

[undeadpool]

dude you are a freaking inspiration to me. youve got about 100 DC customs that all look amazing. i hope you keep making more and more because they are all works of art and its great to see my favorite DC characters come into mate form i hope you dont stop customizing for a long time

Edited December 31, 2010 by robomate

[boyd]

Another good set of customs, and several of which are on my "to-do" list. Particularly like the modern Cheetah - such a simple but effective repaint - and the work you did to get Captain Boomerang his boomerangs.

[Punisher]

Stealing that Metallo recipe! That thing friggen rocks.

[TM2 Dinobot]

Dude, those are amazing. What is this Mr Hobby paint you speak of?

[hellpop]

Really like Metallo. I've also been pondering turning a Terminator into him (they look sooooooooo close), and you've given me a great recipe to follow.

[lastmaximal]

Happy new year, all, and thanks for all the kind words. robomate, it's particularly thrilling to be able to pay it forward by inspiring you [well, to a degree] the way the more established customizers here have lit a fire under me! Feel free to take the ideas and execute them even better, everyone, I'm certain it'll be a kick to see!

TM2Dinobot, I've seen it called Mr. Hobby on various sites online, but the label also calls it Aqueous Hobby brand [i've seen it referred to that online as well]. Think it's Gunze-Sangyo; hope that helps.

Anyway, on with the chlorophyll. Big batch up ahead, one big and one small smooshed into a giant batch to open the new year!

JLU AMANDA WALLER

I'd long wanted to make a Minimate of this influential Badass Normal, and I soon got my chance [now I want to track down a spare Thunderbolt Ross and Ultimate Hulk to make both JLU versions of General Eiling]. A quick December deal that netted me some Wave 26 extras got me a Blob torso piece that I shaved down and added a SM3 Gwen Stacey skirt to to make The Wall. Original decal face , Wave 26 Sabretooth hair.

STEPHANIE BROWN ROBIN

Originally a quick-custom that I'd left alone, this was one I went back to with original face and chest decals and some of the clear Mr. Hobby green paint over Dark Angels Green. Still want to find a way to attach the C3 Robin belt to a skirt to really complete the look.

SINESTRO CORPS SINESTRO

This was originally an experiment in using newly-acquired white decal paper, but it kind of went badly a couple of steps in. For some reason, the ink did adhere to the decal paper but in removing the film from the backing all of the adhesion was lost. The chest and wrist decals ended up being a big touch-and-go adventure with super glue as a result. Face decal is a modified DCD Sinestro face with a Defenders Hulk snarl, I believe.

GREEN LANTERN SINESTRO

Not much to say here. Made a quick alternate expression for the face decal, remembered my last spare Sinestro head and Hal Jordan body, and put 'em all together.

RA'S AL GHUL

Thank you to TENIME for the excellent face decal! I'd long wanted to make a Ra's, at least since I'd had the suit-torso decal made and since I saw TENIME's neat face design for Ra's, but I couldn't get a spare Ocean Master cape to save my life. In December I found a local collector store selling a fairly cheap [for here] Black Panther/Storm pair, which I quickly snapped up for parts -- the Panther cape is readily recognizable here.

HRO TALAK

As should be obvious by now, I love alternate takes on existing characters. Plus the Justice League finale made him out to be a pretty cool character. I'd been raring to make this one for a while, as a result, and I think I did reasonably well. X3 Juggernaut gauntlets [soon to be replaced with Apocalypse ones -- a later Lt. Kraeger will get the Juggy ones], cut-up-and-glued-on Ghostbusters elbowpads for the shoulders, DCD Hawkman torso, body and modified helmet.

MISFIT

I'm not sure why I'd neglected to make a custom of Charlie; maybe I'd overlooked her as a bit of a silly character. After reading through a few scans, though, I found her to be really charming and endearing with her DAAAARRRRRRRK VENGEANCE bit, and realized she'd be a pretty simple enough custom. C3 Batgirl belt glued to a cut-down Rachel Grey skirt [should touch up the glue soon I guess], IM2 Black Widow hair, original face and chest decals, and cut-up Darkseid gloves.

"BATMAN AND ROBIN" RED HOOD

Fora fan of alternate costumes I sure forgot about this one easily enough. I'd kind of drifted out of Morrison's Bat-comics during the "Batman vs. Robin" arc, and got back into it so engrossed with ROBW and "Batman and Robin Must Die" that it overwrote the coolness of this Jason Todd costume. Thankfully I stumbled onto a RonnieThunderbolts gallery where he drew it in detail, giving me the idea to recycle the shelved Drax cape from my Justice Lords Martian Manhunter [i'd replaced it with a Red Tornado one] and a spare removable Spidey mask as the main parts of a new Red Hood.

"ALL-STAR" BATMAN

Decided I'd make this after I'd decided to make Batgirl, mainly so she wouldn't be entirely out of place. Original decal for the face based on X-Force Wolverine's grin and Jim Lee art, and original chest decal with the series-specific symbol. Debating whether or not to go back and paint the interior of the Mini-Batmobile Batman cape black.

"ALL-STAR" BATGIRL

My brother got me a DCD All-Star Batgirl for Christmas, and upon close inspection I saw that her signature earrings and belt danglers were easily removable and wouldn't look too bad on a Minimate body [simple enough custom with an original chest decal, Golden Yellow and Chaos Black paint on a DCD Batgirl base]. Ended up scouring bargain bins to get a spare one loose, and found myself cutting up the belt itself to give to the custom too. Would've preferred to use the upcoming Omega Red hair to match her wild ponytail, but since that's likely to be a tough find as it is I thought a SM3 Gwen Stacey hairpiece would have to do. Topped it off with a cut-up DCD Robin cape.

REX MASON, CLASSIC METAMORPHO

Figured I'd just go ahead and make a new upper body to use Shift's spare legs. Tweaked the chest decal to make it different, and made a new Justice League-ish face decal for Rex's more classic look. After I clearcoat this one he'll be given some arm attachments; I've also considered making an old Human Torch base look like a mud flow base with some brown paint.

MANCHESTER BLACK

Even back when I first read the "Our Worlds at War" TPB's I'd bought on the cheap in my first foray back into comic reading -- long before I'd even heard of a Minimate -- this had seemed like an easy enough custom. True enough, all it took was a Union Jack chest, Tony Stark hair, a Punisher face, an all-black lower body, and a painted We're Ready to Believe You jacket.

PIED PIPER

First of many Flash Rogues I'd end up making this go-round. He was stuck in the abominable Countdown weekly, but this guy had a cool moment when he destroyed Apokolips with the music of Queen. He'd always had a neat look, too, which I tried to capture with face and chest decals, an Ultimate Cyclops belt, and Cloak's hood/cape.

WEATHER WIZARD

I once bought a really pricey custom of this guy from the seller now being called the "custom stealer", and after I'd done a few of my own I figured I could make a better one. With an original face and chest decal, Bizarro hair, a shaved-down Palz stake as a wand, and plenty of Scorpion Green and Sunburst Yellow, I think I did just that.

THE TOP

Noticing that the Top has a similar shade of green all over, I repurposed the old Weather Wizard custom I'd bought by giving it a new face and chest decal, and then proceeding to unite everything I sucked at with customs [crooked lines, uneven yellow paint] to put together The Top.

THE TRICKSTER

Taking a cue from someone else's recipe -- bobafett? -- I modified a Red Tornado cape to allow the neck peg to move further forward and let the head wear a hairpiece. The original face decal has Steph Robin's mask and X-Force Wolverine's grin flipped, and the chest decal is original too. Cut-down Ultimate Cyclops hair and Robin booties round him out. Also, lots of Blazing Orange [Citadel's only remaining orange, I think -- really gotta get me a lighter P3 yellow-orange, maybe Heartfire] and P3 Beaten Purple.

Really want to make a Captain Cold already, so my rogues have a boss, as soon as I get some fur sculpting for his hood and gloves/boots.

CLASSIC HALO

I thought I'd try starting up my Outsiders. Surfing Comicvine, I saw that she'd had this costume before with short close-cropped hair and longer hair with red/yellow/blue strands. There's some complicated P3 Khador Red Base/Sunburst Yellow/Enchanted Blue painting going on from the front to the back of the torso [original chest decal] and legs, and some paint on the Dagger hair [but none on the IM1 Pepper Potts face].

MODERN HALO

Mostly finished, except for some clear yellow highlighting [wanted a "glowing so bright it's white" effect -- plus, was getting kind of lazy]. Pretty neat and simple costume with a diamond motif. Original chest decal, Pegasus Six face, Ultimate Storm hair.

CALCULATOR

Aside from the kickass Zoomerang concept, one of the better things about Identity Crisis was the new take on the Calculator as the villans' Oracle. Saw an easy custom in him too, and so it was -- original face decal [modified my Clock King one], repainted Ghostbusters Peter hairpiece, and one of the "We're Ready To Believe You" guys with added suspenders and new white sleeves.

CLASSIC/BRIGHTEST DAY MERA

First experiment with epoxyclay sculpting, and already I'm making mistakes. I'd planned to make a crown for Red Lantern Mera but ended up using the wrong memories as reference [i'd originally misremembered both versions as having the same crown shape, but Red Lantern Mera had a five-pointed one]. Now, as it happens I also had a spare Lady Loki body that I'd done some Mera custom experimentation on, based on a quick custom from here -- marker-made scale detailing, mainly, and a bit too thick a layer of Mr. Hobby clear green. Decided to use the crown for this instead, only to find that I'd sculpted them at a somewhat awkward angle. Heh.

TALIA

Something of an expansion of her TNBA look -- original face decal based on a screencap, chest decal based on Champions Black Widow. C3 Robin belt painted Mithril Silver to match the strap on her right leg. Lots of gloss finish for the leather costume, and Scorched Brown on the repainted Dawn hair.

If you've read this far, thanks! Here's a reward, of sorts. Chronologically, these actually belong in the middle of the batch -- would have wanted to post them earlier to kick off the year but things got in the way. Anyway, here's a bunch of new Guardians inspired by the recent DCUC lineup reveal!

ORANGE LANTERN LEX LUTHOR

Basically DCD Lex armor and head, painted Blazing Orange with Sunburst Yellow highlights and some Mr. Hobby clear yellow for shine, on an Invaders Torch body [wish there were some way for me to get a clear orange cast of the armor!]. Cut and sanded down the Luthor armor chest logo and hand-painted the Orange Corps symbol.

BLUE LANTERN BARRY ALLEN

"All will be well." Just an awesome splash page, with this guy at the center. Plus it was a very cool costume design once I saw it more clearly -- more than just a bright blue version of Barry's Flash costume, it had a lot of black here and there for good contrast. Mixed Enchanted Blue with some Mithril Silver for a shiny non-gloss metallic effect, and used Ice Blue for the electric-blue parts. Original decal chest, modified C3 Flash mask, and a Jay Garrick face.

INDIGO LANTERN ATOM

This was fun to figure out. One reason I'd avoided making Blackest Night new-guardian customs, despite having thought the idea really cool when it came out, was wanting to avoid anything with complicated parts. Looking at the DCUC lineup reveal pictures, though, I realized that the Atom -- previously thought to be the most difficult to make -- actually only required a handful of unique parts. Dawn shoulder armor, original face and chest decal, modified Chun Li skirt [the cut-away side panels got cut down somewhat unevenly and glued together to become his championship-belt-like er, belt], and a very modified Adam Warlock staff. Oh, and a sanded-down Bizarro necklace.

YELLOW LANTERN SCARECROW

One reason I dusted off my Manchester Black concept was to take his modified Blade jacket to give to Onomatopoeia, so that the Movie Sabretooth coat could go to this guy. Had a bear of a time painting on the black coat with a Tau Sept Ochre foundation and then some Sunburst Yellow. All this plus some Ultimate Sabretooth pointy-fingers/fur cufflinks, original decals for the face and chest, and -- desperation or inspiration? U-Decide -- a Jay Garrick hat with some nicks cut into the side.

VIOLET LANTERN WONDER WOMAN

Aside from the difficulty of finding good front-and-back reference for the leg design, this custom was Love. It was easy on the eyes design-wise, sure, owing to the stripperific cut of the costume, but there's just something neat about that shade of pink-violet [Warlock Purple plus Mithril Silver] and gold [burnished Gold] going together so well. Plus tweaking the face for the decal [added the face-border parts of the helmet, flipped the face left to right so it'd be a bit different, and made the lips purple] was fun because that's one of the most pleasant faces they'd designed. Shaving down the inner part of the Wonder Woman hair to let the Deadman collar fit was the major challenge.

RED LANTERN MERA

My first-ever foray into sculpting -- Red Lantern Mera's crown -- was actually a bit of a gaffe shape-wise, and ended up being more appropriate for Classic/Brightest Day Mera above. Made a new one [thank God there was another Battle-Damaged Wonder Woman on hand], which also ended up being too big for the whole thing when put together. Heh. At least the coral spike-things I sculpted onto the cut-down Alternate Superman shoulder piece look ariyl respectable. Also made new decals based on Lady Loki's chest design and Battle-Damaged Wonder Woman's [flipped it left to right, made eyes white, added blood spatter around the mouth]. It's basically Khador Red Base with marker-made scale detail and some of the clear red Mr. Hobby paint. Glad it ended up brighter than green Mera's detail-obscuring green.

Edited January 21, 2011 by lastmaximal

[hellpop]

Just wonderful. I think my favorite (surprisingly enough, because I've never cared much for the character) is Halo; that costume really pops as a figure.

By the way, if you want a quick Captain Cold, there's a pretty good quick custom recipe floating around that (I think, sorry if I'm misremembering) Mystery Man developed. Mole Man head, Moon Knight Hood, the fur collar from the F&F Black Cat, Mystique's arms and legs, a matching blue chest and crotch, and a yellow X-Men belt. Not 100% accurate, but definitely recognizable as Captain Cold.

[TENIME_art]

I am both honored and ashamed that you're getting more use outta my decals than I am!

Also, one of these days, I'm going to get into casting, and I will be doing a translucent orange cast of the Luthor armor...

[boyd]

Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou! for posting that Amada Waller custom! I've been wanting to make one for so long, and kept putting it off because of the sculpting I'd have to do. I never thought about using the Blob chest! And it works so well! Thank you!

Really like the rest of customs as well. The Black Panther cape does work well for Ra's. And I love your Top, Trickster and Halo.

Edited January 21, 2011 by boyd

[dj87]

nice work, as usual... I'm always pleased to see you've updated your thread.

Oh and yeah, I pretty much did what hellpop suggested, Mystery Man's recipe works very well indeed... I'll update mine thread tomorrow.

[lastmaximal]

Whew. I still function!

I actually worked on these off and on over February and some of March, in between juggling more pressing work and thesis-related concerns. Nope, still haven't managed to dig up the parts or the sculpting knowhow for a Captain Cold [but that IS a great recipe!], but I'm pleased with how some of these guys turned out in the meantime.

It's amusing how Spider-Woman II seems to keep showing up in these pictures like that drunken dude at a party who keeps leaning into the background every time someone snaps a pic.

TWO-FACE

Bit of a blend between his DCUC and BTAS versions. Did the original face decal up with a screencap of his BTAS face for the scarred side, actually. Got the Half-Human Endoskeleton hair reuse idea from hellpop, and embellished it with a bit of epoxy [filled in the hairline on his non-scarred side]. I believe this suit was an extra Tony Stark one, and the coin hand was a hand holding... cards, I think, maybe a BSG piece.

EXTANT

I think I came up with the motivation to make this surprisingly easy custom when I saw that his cape was essentially a Magneto cape. Repeated the trimmed-Magneto-cape plan I used for one of the earlier Superman customs, made original face and torso decals, and tweaked an Adam Warlock body with some Chaos Black and a Khador Red Base/Mithril Silver mix.

JLU OBSIDIAN

Another striking but simple design. Original face and torso decals, lots of Regal Blue and Chaos Black paint [it was at this point that I noticed my paint was drying up a bit and getting gummy], some Mithril Silver touch-ups, and a custom gray mix on the slightly-sanded-down Adam Warlock cape.

PER DEGATON

The other time-traveling baddie in this batch seemed to me to be really easy to put together; the thought came while watching the JSA episode of Batman: Brave and the Bold. I think that's a PALZ skirt piece and First Appearance X-Men Hank's face; original decal for the chest and a custom Khador Red Base/Blazing Orange mix for the hair and Cap gloves.

KILLER FROST

Like Weather Wizard, this started out as another eBay custom I'd bought a long time ago but was never too happy with. It didn't even come close to the show model, so I made a new one almost from scratch [this one just reuses the basic body parts with new paint]. I took a screencap and made a new face decal, then made a new more on-model chest decal as well, painted a Rachel Grey hairpiece over in Regal Blue, and that was that.

JLU FELIX FAUST

This was an idea I'd had for some time but was hesitant to experiment on. The body was simple enough: Mephisto belt/sash, Drax boots, Black Panther armbands painted Sunshine Yellow, lots of Regal Blue as well as an original chest decal. The face was an easy original decal as well, but the unique hood/hairpiece thing? Ended up shaving and sanding down a Reborn/Modern Thor helmet for that. The hair works surprisingly well.

GENTLEMAN GHOST

Another BATB-inspired one [that show made him pretty kickass, although I liked his cameo in JLU as well]. This seemed like an easy idea but actually putting it together would be challenging. At least, until Mattel finally put out a JLU Gentleman Ghost. Got a loose factory-overrun one cheap from a local specialty store, cut the collar/monocle/hat piece off for use, and then superglued/epoxied it to the modified "We're Ready to Believe You" coat. Fit the whole thing onto a gooey-Ghostbuster body with an original chest decal and the neck joint cut off [and epoxied flat], and boom.

JLU SHAYERA

One of the first applications of my newly-bought pot of Sunburst Yellow [why don't they restock the primaries more often, I wonder] paint. BSG TRU Athena [?] hair was the closest I could get to her distinctive hair shape [maybe I'll try a D'Anna later on if I can find one] without sculpting, but the rest of her was much easier to customize. The Rachel Grey torso gave me a fleshtone base with an exposed belly that meant I just had to make the top half a decal, and an old pair of Giant Size X-Men Wolverine legs gave us a good yellow base for her track pants. Wings are a wing bracket from a spare Angel.

JLU LT. KRAGGER AND PARAN DUL

These were in the back of my mind when I put together Katar Hol. Then, they were only "those other hawk sidekicks Katar Hol had", but seeing the JLU 6-pack made me want to put them together as well. For Paran Dul, I used a pair of Dagger Legs, BD Wonder Woman arms and a Rachel Grey torso; modding the Bullseye belt and the Angel Wing bracket was kind of dodgy so she looks a bit paunchy in the belt area. Kragger followed basically the same approach I took with Katar Hol. The biggest trick, though, was the distinctive helmet... which came to me in a flash as I was looking at a spare Nova. The results are far from perfect, mostly due to my own tough luck with a marker, but the shape works wonderfully and I may revisit my Justice Lords Hawkgirl as a result.

CLASSIC RED HOOD

A nod to bobafett, who as usual gave me an excellent path to follow with this one. Spidey slip-on mask and LOTR cape on a body painted Chaos Black and given an original torso decal [based on my Gentleman Ghost one].

SINESTRO CORPS KARU-SIL

I am moving painfully slow in filling out my various Corps. The GLs are nice and numerous now, but I don't even have any other colors yet, and this is only the second Sinestro Corps member I even have. Heh. X-Factor Jean Grey arms and legs attached to a C3 Batgirl torso with the symbol painted out; one of those horrible opaque decals applied to a cut-up Alternate Superman shoulder piece, and Ultimate Sabretooth hair on a head with an original face decal.

Edited April 6, 2011 by lastmaximal

[undeadpool]

holy crap!! i just went through your entire gallery and i am dumbfounded, i cant even think of a word good enough to tell you how much i envy you!

...i would kill for those new gaurdians....kill

[Hawkeye's Junk]

Nice work, Im really digging the Gentlemen Ghost. I like your choices that you do. Nice work on Karu-Sil. Do you still use the Mr Hobby paints?

[Fujis]

Great work all around! Lt. Kragger and Paran Dul are amazing!

[A.J.V.]

Wow lastmaximal, you have quite the array of awesomely made customs!

As for your latest, I'm really liking your Two-Face. Clever use of the terminator hair piece.

[dr baghead]

What I like best about your customs, lastmaximal is you're always making characters that are on my to-do-list so I get some ideas on where to go with mine. Consider your hair ideas for All-Star Batgirl (Omega Red's pony tail is a great idea!) and Karu-Sil (I tried every hair EXCEPT Sabretooth's on her, and that one seems absolutely perfect!) to be stolen.

Also, awesome Per Degaton, I only him from the B:tB&tB episode but his design was very striking on the show (probably because it was simple, red and black) and your custom captures it perfectly.

[TM2 Dinobot]

see, the JLU mates, these I like. I don't like the DCD ones. They mean nothing to me.

[boyd]

Another great batch. Love Per Degaton, and how you made Faust's funky headpiece.

[lastmaximal]

Thanks very much again to all of you. I'm always thrilled to see people here, customizers and Minimate enthusiasts I admire and respect, responding so enthusiastically [and positively!] to my less-than-perfect work.

I'll try to respond to everyone this time. Really should have been doing that all along!

Hawkeye's Junk, yup, still use some of the Mr. Hobby paints. Just the clear gloss ones, mind: of the previous batch, only Classic Red Hood and Lt. Kraggar [the former for the hood and cape and the latter on the pants] seemed to need the Mr. Hobby clear gloss treatment.

AJV, gotta give credit to hellpop for the hairpiece idea. It was stunningly simple -- I'd had the Half-Endoskeleton for like a year before seeing his custom and realizing what was possible! Thankfully by that time I'd also learned to sculpt a bit, so I was able to fill in the gap.

Dr. Baghead, glad I'm able to give you ideas. I've gotten a handful of them from your work also [beast Boy is the clearest example I can remember], and it's good to be able to give back, heh. Plus it makes more sense in that direction than the other -- no way in heaven or hell am I ever going to be able to pull off your The Dark Knight Returns Batman! Fancy a commission?

TM2 Dinobot, hopefully I've got more JLU in the future. Still waiting on parts to make both versions of the General, and I need hats for my Crimson Avenger and Phantom Stranger concepts. robomate, thanks for the props as well. I'm glad those guardians look good to someone

Fujis, boyd, glad you guys dig Per Degaton. I never really appreciated him until seeing him in that simple classic costume in BATB!

And now for something... slightly different.

INTERMISSION: MARVEL CUSTOMS

I tend to avoid Marvel customs on the whole, especially once I realized that duh, Marvel is still going strong and is likely to make everyone who isn't Kang eventually. But I needed a handful of guys to fill out display cases, and some were just tweaks of older customs or official releases that were "eh, may as well."

NEW MUTANTS DANI MOONSTAR, BOBBY DACOSTA, DOUG RAMSEY, RAHNE SINCLAIR

The New Mutants I just made because I needed more bodies to fill out my New Mutants display cases, and I was too cheap to spring for either another New Mutants box set [which isn't even available here, so shipping would double the price] or the FA X-Men box set. Also, too lazy to go full-blast and make a Magma custom. Dani Moonstar is the only really notable one, at least the only one who's more than just gloves/boots painted yellow, body painted black, and head from the official release. She's got repainted Valkyrie hair [had that idea for quite some time now!], a Hawkgirl face painted a different skin tone, and Shocker boots with marker "fringe" details.

WHITE PHOENIX OF THE CROWN

The White Phoenix was a re-do I felt necessary because my loosecollector-ordered one had the joints fused for some reason. Not just painted shut, outright glued. So after I'd gotten the hang of painting I thought I'd make a new one out of the same NXM Phoenix head and hair and a Dark Phoenix body. By that time the Marvel Girl flame base was available, so I brushed that up with some Mr. Hobby clear yellow [as I did with her gold gloves/boots].

WEAPON X

Weapon X was an improvement I'd long wanted to make on the official one. First I gave him the adamantium claws instead of the bone claws the box set gave him, because IIRC the whole bloody point of the project was to bond adamantium to his skeleton. Went with a Gollum skirt piece as well for better contrast, and used a headpiece/helmet from the 3.75" Wolverine Origins line to round it all out. Put it on a different snarling Wolverine head, cut up a Wolverine hairpiece to fill out the bottom half, filled the gaps with epoxy clay -- fingerprints make great hair flow lines -- and gave the visor part a clear red gloss.

80s COLOSSUS

This version of Colossus was an idea I'd had percolating in the back of my mind since seeing a similar custom here [Mattalica, I think]. This always was a near costume, which I think the Acolytes costume kind of hearkens back to. GSXMen Colossus head/hair, arms and legs, with an original torso decal on a wave 6 Iron Man torso and new gloves/boots from Feral and Reborn Thor to give him a very different look from his predecessor.

Not pictured is Ultimate Colossus, whom I made based on an idea from here to beef up my Ultimate X-Men display.

RAGNAROK/'CLOR'

Clone Thor! Lucked out and got a Classic Thor on the cheap recently, and -- inspired by the Marvel Universe Gigantic Battles pack -- figured this was a good opportunity to reuse the head from that Half-Human Endoskeleton. Shame I could no longer find the spare Mjolnir I had lying around [think I may've traded it away ]

Back to regular programming!

DC CUSTOMS

[update: finally got Photobucket to work.]

VIBE

One of the poster children for obscure, perhaps, was someone I was destined to make in Minimate form. And here he is, crafted from a Cable vest and Captain Marvel hair with an original face decal.

KAMANDI

What seemed like an easy enough custom was a bit aggravating in spots. Mostly quick-custom style, parts put together -- Ultimate Sabretooth hair, Beyonder torso, Stargirl legs with the white stripes painted over and a Daredevil belt/holster painted black. Ran into a wall when I realized I'd used my last available fleshtone arms for Vibe, and had to take the acetone to a pair of Rachel Grey arms. The yellow flecks on his left arm are evidence that acetone is hard to cotton-bud onto that particular body part/shape.

"THE FLASH: REBIRTH" WALLY WEST

Lazy Flash custom #519 [Kingdome Come Flash, Barry Allen Flash... dude really does lend himself to the concept] came to me as I was reading the Flash: Rebirth mini. The main costume changes Wally goes through involve his mask having a pointed Batman-style nose instead of the exposed Captain America-style one, a change in the belt buckle area and subtle color changes to the red and gold [deeper and less saturated, respectively] along with a gloss treatment. Tried to get that across in Minimate form by sculpting a new nose and painting a C3 Flash over in Citadel Red Gore then some clear gloss coat, but it ended up looking still too bright a red.

GRACE CHOI

Adding to my Outsiders! [i'd made a Geo-Force, but he looks a tad... unfinished still, so I didn't include him here yet] Starbuck hair on a Battle-Damaged Wonder Woman face, an original torso decal and Secret Invasion Wolverine arms given marker tattoos. Chief Helo legs, Shocker gauntlets and X3 Juggernaut boots painted black. In retrospect X3 Juggernaut gauntlets might've been a better match for her One Year Later gauntlets.

KATANA [JACKET]

I may go back and make the non-jacketed, shorter-haired version later. Basically this was a fairly quick custom, with the black-painted Morrigan hair I was going to use for Phantom Lady finally seeing use. SM3 Gwen Stacey jacket, original face and torso decals, some red hands and legs/feet, and a Psylocke katana.

DAMAGE

Dude finally had a costume I was on board with. Shocker slip-on mask, 90s Beast chest cap [my first time working with the muscle-y chest cap instead of the classic flat one], Mary Marvel arms painted over, and a pait of legs painted over. Original face and torso decals, with some Sunburst Yellow rounding it out. Seems to work well enough in making him all bulky without going 2.5"... I may use a similar recipe for KGBeast.

METAL MEN -- MERCURY, TIN, LEAD, GOLD, PLATINUM, IRON -- AND DR. WILL MAGNUS

Ah, the Metal Men... and Platinum. Brings to mind a Scott Pilgrim quote from the clash with Crash and the Boys. "Is that GIRL a BOY too?" "Yes." [Trasha gives the finger]

I'd originally saved these for the spring CustomCon -- having sadly missed the last one -- but then promptly got swamped with real-life stuff and forgot the deadline. Can't catch a break!

All have original face decals -- Gold's based on TRU Mr. Fantastic, Tin is Peter Venkman, Mercury is a Guy Gardner face, Lead is Shazam, and Iron is... I forget, but it's the same face I based Geo-Force's on. Platinum is a blend of SM3 Gwen Stacey and the Poison Ivy decal designs, and Doc Magnus has a GA Flash head. Gold, Lead and Iron have powerhouse chest-caps, Platinum has a backwards Akuma skirt and a Mary Marvel hairpiece with sculpted hat, and the Doc has a FA Beast hairpiece and an old lab coat.

Gold is straight-up Citadel Burnished Gold, Mercury is a Mithril Silver/Khador Red Base blend, Tin is Ice Blue/Mithril Silver, Lead is Chaos Black/Mithril Silver, Iron is Regal Blue/Chaos Black/Mithril Silver, and Platinum is just plain Mithril Silver. Doc Magnus is a human dude, with an original chest decal and Jigsaw's pants.

If I had some spare parts -- or, more to the point, time -- I'd paint them up them some arm attachments, but oh well.

ANARKY

Working on this and getting the shadows 'right' was hell, but damn if I'm not terribly happy with how he turned out. Always one of the background Gotham guys that seemed to have potential for a cool story [bro] or two, Anarky had a nifty design I figured could translate decently into Minimate form. Original chest and face decals were the easy part, but it took a Mole Man cape [and staff] and GA Flash hat to round him out completely.

EVIL STAR

Starting and ending the DC batch with obscuros this time around. Evil Star! I know next to nothing about him, other than he looks like he's gotten himself permanently Starro'd. Just some Chaos Black and Beaten Purple on a standard body, making him look almost MvC3-Super-Skrully, and his face star [badly] sculpted onto a modified Daredevil mask.

Edited May 11, 2011 by lastmaximal