Customs by lastmaximal

[Twisted Two-Face]

Oh, she needs to come back alright!

And White Phoenix was also seen on the ending pages of "Phoenix: Endsong," info here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-Men:_Phoenix_-_Endsong

Love the customs, can't wait to see more.

[lastmaximal]

After a long time of nothin' [loosecollector has been busy -- business has been good!] and after receiving the final four commissioned customs from our original set [pictures to follow], I decided to try and learn the ropes myself.

With inspiration from all over the Multiverse and a good bit of painting advice from our friendly neighborhood fnwebslinger -- not to mention a goodly and ungodly number of Citadel and P3 paint pots -- I've put the following customs together.

Please to forgive the rotating. I blame Imageshack.

EDIT: Photobucket comes through, woo.

THE RAY

This was an adventure in frustration before I started using Citadel Foundation. Kree helmet and legs, Ultimate Cyclops arms, sanded-down Ghost Rider jacket piece.

BLACK MASK

Just a Ghost Rider skull painted black, with some paint on the hands and wrists.

MIRROR MASTER

Bullseye mask sanded down, and painted along with the belt. The rest is a Gollum base painted orange and green.

ZSASZ

Another Gollum base and M. Bison head with an Invaders Cap hairpiece. Plenty of Sharpie-ing and a New Goblin dagger and voila.

BLACK SUIT PENGUIN

Fairly easy idea once I'd decided to give my spare Penguin's top hat to a pending JLU Shade custom -- Penguin suit painted black on a Tony Stark body with Pengy's short-guy feet, and a spare Shocker hairpiece for that widow's peak.

MAX LORD

Direct copy off of someone else's from here, and I think I may need to redo the Checkmate sigil on his chest.

SINESTRO CORPS CYBORG SUPERMAN

Again, an idea that's been done before. Essentially a straight-up Cyborg Superman repaint, with Sinestro legs [fittingly enough]. Toothpick-drawn chest symbol.

WONDER GIRL

This was a long-awaited custom -- it's an easy thought when you have a spare Starbuck hairpiece and Supergirl face -- as I dreaded doing the golden bra armor. Still, I think it turned out nicely. First custom where I used P3's Khador Red Base instead of the Citadel Red Gore that I'd used previously on Cyborg Superman and Red Claw.

SUPERBOY

Mostly a parts-swap, with repainted Ultimate Cyclops or Chun Li arms and blackened Battle-Damaged Superman chest. Took me a while before I settled on the face [Chekov I think] and hair .

RED CLAW

I'm not sure why I suddenly got the idea to do up this DCAU villain, but it worked out reasonably well. Haven't painted the Mandarin hairpiece yet [she's supposed to have a white streak] as I still need a spare Mandarin.

MAX MERCURY

Might look more like a pirate, but he's close enough to the elder-statesman speedster for my taste. Cut-down Deadman collar and a painted-over Bruce Wayne head [no slipover mask would fit!].

BLACK FLASH

Wasn't sure which color guide to follow -- images have him with no red boots and no red belt, but I thought that was a little boring -- so I gave him a black/red version of the Wally West look. Toothpick-drawn detailing over the ones on the JLU base. Ran out of skull-heads so I did a rough black wash type thing on a spare M. Bison head to make him look decayed.

THE ALL-NEW ATOM

Finished this one over the weekend, excited to have gotten some P3 Arcane Blue to go with the Khador Red Base. Used a Bullseye helmet and assorted parts for the body [spare Marvel Boy face]; I based this one off of the JLU version [it's damnably impossible to draw that Atom symbol so cleanly].

oh, and:

"ARCTIC ARMOR" IRON MAN

I figured I had to do something about those leftover Sentinel parts, so I dug up the last Iron Man helmet I had in my spare parts box and got to painting. First one I ever did, actually, but I ended up having to redo it [with Citadel paints after my initial foray into Tamiya] after clearcoating it made everything melt. I was pleasantly surprised at how evenly the painted detailing on the faceplate turned out to be.

Edited August 15, 2010 by lastmaximal

[buttheadsmate]

Brilliant customs although I've spent too much time laying on my side admiring them

[lastmaximal]

Fixed. Hope you at least got a bit of relaxation out of it, BHM, thanks.

[NorthRaider]

Not bad for some early custom attempts, man!

[Gramps]

Very nice work! Thanks for sharing them with us!

[pawcanada]

SUPERBOY

...blackened Battle-Damaged Superman chest.

I'm pretty new to making customs, but I wondered how you acomplished that. I recently got my hands on a dupe DB Superman for a different custom, and Superboy is a custom I'd hope to make one day.

Anyway, great job on the various customs . I like The Ray and Cyborg Superman customs.

[fnwebslinger]

Finally! Great work man. I'm especially loving Arctic IM, Max Lord and Black Mask.

[Nessex]

Wow - some awesome work again LastMax!!!!

I really love Black Mask - that guy is psycho! what a great custom. wondergirl & SuperBoy look good too.

I really really love The Ray. I've never heard of him before but he looks awesome! kinda like a contemporary Rocketeer or something. A+ dude!

[lastmaximal]

Thank you for the kind words, all!

The Ray always seemed like a cool design, and I wanted to make this 90s version since I remembered the old movie/TV-style ads they used to do to promote his book [well, there was like one ad].

Arctic IM was a fun thing -- all I ended up painting was the helmet/mask, as the rest of him is Dr. Doom + Sentinel armor. Citadel Regal Blue made for a good color match, all things considered.

SUPERBOY

...blackened Battle-Damaged Superman chest.

I'm pretty new to making customs, but I wondered how you acomplished that. I recently got my hands on a dupe DB Superman for a different custom, and Superboy is a custom I'd hope to make one day.

I'm not sure if this is the best way to do this, but what I did was basically fill in the blue parts with black paint using a detail brush and a lot of patience. It's like coloring by numbers [it's the same thing I did for Cyborg Superman's red torso half]. The black paint finish ended up looking different from that of the existing black muscle detailing.

Anyhoo, here's a handful of new guys!

HOURMAN II AND LIBERTY BELLE

Hourman is a random Frankenmate painted black all over. First custom where I experimented with using a Tau Sept Ochre foundation color base instead of the old Space Wolves Grey; it seems to have worked well and allowed the yellow to take hold and pop. I hate painting anything yellow, it takes forever to look close to good and even then it's a bit dodgy. He has Spectre cape/cowl and Magdalena gauntlet things . Experimented with different finishes here -- gloss clearcoat for the cape and hood, and flat for everything else. At least I'm getting some neat use out of that extra can!

Liberty Belle was a Bucky torso, arms, boots and gloves, a BSG female head, AXM Emma Frost hair and like the last yellow lower body parts left in the parts box. At first I tried Regal Blue for the blue parts, but decided the newly-bought Enchanted Blue would look better. The mask isn't something I'm terribly proud of -- ditto the bell logo, but I think that came out a bit more decently.

AQUAMAN [ARTHUR JOSEPH CURRY]

I dunno why but I always wanted to make a Minimate of this guy. It's a pretty cool spin on the classic Aquaman design that doesn't look doofy. Thankfully the local miniatures shop that stocks Citadel finally got in some Shining and Burnished Gold; I used the darker and more robust Shining Gold to paint this guy's torso and arms. Shoulder armor is made from the shoulderpads of a cut-down M. Bison cape, hair is Baltar's and armbands are Justice Lords Superman's . Sword is Dawn's though. Oh, and his legs don't have the Aqua-fin behind them [these are just some Sgt. Rock legs painted Snot Green].

Later on -- if I ever come across another Aquaman -- I might make a Minimate adaptation of the bright gold one from the DCUC 2-pack versus Purple Manta. And give him a clear blue left hand, or something.

ATOM SMASHER

I'd had this Bane base painted up for a while, just waited for the aforementioned gold paint. Used Burnished Gold for his belt . Might go back and paint over the Mithril Silver bits with darker Boltgun Metal.

PLASTIC MAN

Plas! I waited forever to work on this guy because I was holding out to try and get some sculpting help for the glasses, but in the end I figured why the hell not. TRU Mr. Fantastic Base and somewhat sanded-down SM3 Sand Form Sandman arms, a Magneto torso IIRC, C3 Superman hair and a Shazam head, which turned out to work out great. I may whip up a pair of regular arms and legs later.

GOLD MOVIE MARK I IRON MAN

I'd been waiting for Marvel to make one, but they somewhat inexplicably rereleased him in a darker gray for the IM2 line and called it a night. So I figured I'd pick up one of the spares I had on hand and try slathering it in Burnished Gold. This was my first full Citadel metallic paint project, and I'm still getting the hang of the way the consistency differs from regular colors. Still, I think it turned out decently in the end, although that sure wasn't the way I was feeling when the stuff was gooping up a bit at the start! Anyway. Funny, I always seem to end up with a tagalong Iron Man, although that's probably going to stop with this batch since I've all but run out of ones to do [at least ones that fit within my skill level].

Edited September 1, 2010 by lastmaximal

[Nessex]

dude! that plastic man is spot on! A+

[TM2 Dinobot]

You do Ironmans like I do Black Cats. There's always one tacked onto every batch.

I really like Plasticman

[minimateman]

love the hourman

[Fujis]

They all look great but my favorites are Hourman II and Plastic-Man - well done!

[TENIME_art]

Plastic Man is phenomenal! I was thinking of using the stretch base for Elongated Man, myself...

[MiniFiend UK]

Liking the Plastic man, very nice. I have wondered how someone would tackle a Hourman custom as his cowl is very strange depending on who seems to draw it it can go from a hood with an open face to something that seems to hang over his head.

Well done.

[boyd]

Nice job with Plastic Man, but I really like how your gold Mark 1 armor turned out. Wonder if I've got an extra set to do that with?

[minimateman]

who`s face did you use for aquaman and hourman?

Edited September 9, 2010 by minimateman

[Bob Harris]

I can just echo the others: great job on Platsic Man! Very cool part selection and very goof paint job on him.

[lastmaximal]

Thank you kindly, everyone! Very high praise. I'm glad Plas is getting a great response!

Aquaman uses a spare blue-costume Angel face and and Hourman has a painted-over SHIELD agent face.

Now, though, the next level in my custom exploration: decals! I've had a pack of decal paper sheets for like a year or so now, being very tentative about going through with actually using them. Now armed with the same can of flat clear coat I use for the mates themselves -- and a LOT of Minimate Factory reading -- I actually took the next step beyond thinking of designs.

Incidentally, forgive the weird photography -- I was rushing to make sure I got the shots down before the camera battery died. As a result, the shots aren't the most focused, macro aside, and I didn't really have time to go back and fix things like the Manhunter's reversed left hand... additionally, I left out a couple of customs entirely.

THE CREEPER

In getting a spare Skrull soldier for a deal I ended up with an extra Sabretooth, whose unique torso piece I immediately started hacking to pieces to make the Creeper's weird red fur boa thing. While I was going through the rigors of painting up a fully-yellow body [realizing too late that I could've used a spare Yellowjacket!] I came to the conclusion that painting a face would be too difficult for this go-around; this is what actually got me resolved as far as trying out a decal batch was concerned. So here he is! Basically a painted-over Minimate base, chopped-up Sabretooth fur piece, and I think cut-up Green Goblin boot tops for the leg fur. I used TENIME's face decal, found at the Minimate Factory.

RED ROBIN

This took some doing. After getting annoyed with the initial attempts at painting his chest straps and logo onto a red torso, I decided to put him on the list. Made the chest decal from scratch, the first of many original Photoshop jobs. Unfortunately due to the lack of a spare classic Robin belt piece I had to cut up an M. Bison one -- the difference in the cleanliness of the pods on the chest and belt is pretty jarring. Opted to use a Yellowjacket helmet painted over, with the interior head having a flat white stripe across the eye area. Spare C3 Batgirl cape.

STEPHANIE BROWN BATGIRL

Then there are the times a decal doesn't go on as planned. The face decal, in particular, is off-center favoring the left side. I ended up painting over the chest decal's side stripes as they ended up being too small in print. First layer of the stripes on the arms/legs/sides was P3 Beaten Purple [store was out of Citadel's Liche Purple], then went back and touched up with some Citadel Warlock Purple. Basically a spare C3 Batgirl body with original decals for the torso and face, the latter applied to a DCD Batgirl mask. Oh, and an IM2 Black Widow belt/leg holster cut apart and painted yellow.

CLOCK KING [ANIMATED]

I figure I'll get around to the flat-headed classic Clock King quite a ways down the road, but I'd always wanted to makea Temple Fugate. This was also a long-planned custom that came to mind as soon as I had a spare C3 Riddler hat and brown-suited Professor X body. Original decal for the face, Citadel Scorched Brown for the blazer and hat.

CRIME SYNDICATE ULTRAMAN

Pretty easy one I'd had planned for a while -- an entire Minimate body painted in Citadel Regal Blue [and some Mithril Silver discs] with a heat-vision Superman head and hair, plus a DCD Supergirl cape in P3 Skorne Red. Chest logo and muscle detailing is an original decal.

ICE

A blend of the classic and JLU versions -- the JLU mainly in the icicle-shaped boob window and the classic mainly in the use of boots. First custom to use the Citadel Enchanted Blue I got when the local tabletop-gaming store restocked Citadel paint. Original decal chest, BSG Cally Tyrol face , repainted Rachel Grey hairpiece and repainted Shazam boots.

FIRE

My wave 34 Rogue came with a Black Queen Jean Grey head, so as soon as the LCS restocked I grabbed an extra Rogue/Beast pack [they'd sold out of Cyclops and Jean, sadly]. The spare Black Queen Jean Grey head is projected to go to a Poison Ivy custom, but the spare Rogue hair went right to Fire. Citadel Snot Green for the pants and gloves [and a bit to touch up the original tube-top decal], and I think P3 Wurm Green for the hair.

MODERN DOCTOR MID-NITE

I now need a spare Black Queen Jean Grey because I took her cape and painted the inside black for this; I also glued a cut-down shoulder/neck piece from another cape so that the whole thing wouldn't rattle around on the shoulders. Original chest decal, Lady Deathstrike loincloth, Citadel Bestial Brown paint for straps and boots, and an X-Factor Beast mask with silver-painted eye rims and a Scorpion Green strip on the face underneath. Also scrounged up a couple of Steel arm-blasters to go on his arms.

JUSTICE LORDS MARTIAN MANHUNTER

Soon to be joined by a Justice Lords Hawkgirl as soon as I figure out how to do her helmet [a Justice Lords John Stewart might beat her to showing up since I just need to fix his chest decal design and make one for the face]. Original decal chest, and Citadel Regal Blue paint on a cut-down Drax cape, Alternate Superman armbands and legs. I would gladly improve this with a Mephisto or Ocean Master cape if someone would sell me a spare.

==========================

There was also a bit of a Green Lantern Corps assault.

KYLE RAYNER [1990s]

Used TENIME's designs for face and torso with C3 Nightwing hair, as well as Shocker gauntlets and Lady Loki shinguards painted Snot Green.

HAL JORDAN PARALLAX

I tried making a Hal Jordan mask to go onto the TRU Mr. Fantastic face [had a spare head and hairpiece left over from the extra one I took Plastic Man's stretch base from], but it turned out to be a bit small. Since it wasn't too noticeable, I painted over it with green and white to make it opaque -- and once I'd done that, I couldn't help but work overnight to finish painting the M. Bison cape and body. Fudged the chest decal design a bit but I tried to save it in the final painting process.

SODAM YAT

A spare grinning C3 Flash head from a parts lot gets green eyes and Apollo hair to go on top of this totally painted-over body with an original chest decal to match.

ARKISS CHUMMUCK

I'm not sure what drew me to make this guy, other than the nifty name, but here he is. Decal face and chest, Snot Green paint for the rest. Turns out I can probably make an alternate-head John Stewart [with his JLU goatee] this way, although that's for later. Not too happy with the Logan hair I used, but I didn't have a whole lot of options at the time.

KYLE RAYNER [2000s]

Pre-Ion, I think, with Citadel Scorpion Green paint to try and match the metallic bright green of many depictions as well as the DCD action figure. Original decals for chest and face. Hair is from Civil War Iron Man, I think, or one of its reuses.

Edited September 26, 2010 by lastmaximal

[Fujis]

They all look great but I particularly like Red Robin and Dr. Mid-Nite.

[TENIME_art]

Whoooooooo!!!! Creeper looks great!! (They all do, but thanks for using my decal! )

[fnwebslinger]

I love those Kyle Rayner Minimates. Seriously. Great work.

[dj87]

whenever I come into your thread, I can't help back look at your work and think 'ahhh, I did that... ohhh, I was going to do that!". We seem to have very similar taste in characters, and I always look forward to seeing your updates.

keep it up buddy, lovely stuff

[MINI_MYTE]

Great looking stuff! Keep up the good work.