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.

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].

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?

Long time coming for this latest batch -- so much stuff got in the way [and I kind of got a bit burned out on the constant painting] in the last few weeks, but eventually I got back on the horse and churned out a few new customs. Didn't make it to CustomCon, sadly, as a few ideas hit some snags -- Roulette now has the right skirt for the part but the Sand Saref hair is still a little off, and I had a Vigilante custom planned but the JLU figure I ordered never arrived, so he's still hatless. Then again these are probably still a little too amateurish for the big time. Did some listing and apparently, I've gotten around 80 of these little guys done! Certainly pales in comparison to the lineup of our more established and more talented customizers, but it feels cool to see so many of these already painted up. ALEXANDER LUTHOR I'm not really sure what base I used here, but I covered it in an ochre base and laid on the Burnished Gold before giving him an original chest decal. The rest is rather crookedly obvious [and obviously crooked] marker work. Face from one of the many Wolverines, and hair from the Villains box set Magneto painted Burning Orange. HUMAN BOMB My first Freedom Fighter [got a Phantom Lady decal set printed too, but this was a good and simple time-burning project with no decals really needed]. Now to endure the tracking-down of a Vulture so I can make a Black Condor [may be easier than tracking down another top hat and whatnot for an Uncle Sam]. I may go back to this guy and touch up the white paint, as I'm not entirely pleased with the finish. Radioactive Man parts on a base, all slathered with Skull White and touched up with Mithril Silver. THE GRAY GHOST Started with, fittingly enough, a Batman base painted with a lot of custom-mixed gray [which ended up being a bit too dark]. Battle-Damaged Spirit hat, trimmed-down Batman cape, original decal for face [modified version of the Clock King/Jack Knight decals] and chest. OSIRIS Meh character, although the original direction was interesting. I'd rather have made an Isis, but that seems like it'd take a lot more work Alternate Superman base with the ochre foundation paint before some Burnished Gold. Original decal chest, Bruce Banner face and Tony Stark hair [the last two may be placeholders if I can work up enough interest to go back and improve this guy]. BATTLE FOR THE COWL JASON TODD "GATMAN" Among other things I'm a sucker for, I apparently dig bad Batman costumes. This has an original decal chest, a Union Jack belt and SDCC X-Force Cable holsters painted over in a Mithril Silver/Enchanted Blue pseudo-metallic blend, and a miniflyer Batman mask and face. Still need to work up a faceplate -- toyed with the idea of making a decal for it, but that wouldn't be too faceplate-y. "OUTSIDERS" ARSENAL Always liked this look better than the "two shades of brown/tan" look he had in the late 90s. This was actually one of my earliest customs [easily along with the batch that brought us Black Flash], but I shelved it because the chest decal had gone on pretty badly despite a couple of trials. Eventually painted up a new chest and put a new decal on -- the wait was fortuitous, because in the interim I bought an extra Shocker from fnwebslinger and the hair from that turned out to look pretty good on this custom. Invaders Bucky shoulder harness, Akuma gauntlet things, Steel [?] belt, original decal face and chest. Considering making a second one with the jacket and without the domino mask. 90s NIGHTWING I don't care what people say, I love Knightfall and whatever madness was happening or being worn at around that time. As such I'd always prioritized making this Nightwing look over the "New Teen Titans" Disco Nightwing [this also needed simpler parts]. I used SDCC X-Force Domino hair, which was itself a happy accident as I was rifling through my parts box. Made a new face decal that used a modified C3 Nightwing face, then and original chest decal, and a lot of Regal Blue, Enchanted Blue and Golden Yellow and bad marker applications. BUDDY BLANK/CLASSIC OMAC I'm not sure where the idea for this struck me, but it did seem like a simple enough operation [oddly, it wasn't after watching Brave and the Bold -- might have been seeing a DCUC OMAC in a specialty store]. At first I had the Alternate Superman bracelets in mind, which was easy in and of itself, but I spent a bit of time waffling on what would make a good hairpiece. Then I remembered the Daken hair, which ended up being pretty serviceable despite being a little too tufty and real-hair-ish to be the OMAC mohawk. Original decal chest, SHIELD agent head, paint colors Enchanted Blue and Burning Orange and Burnished Gold. "THE TITANS" JESSE QUICK I'd also always kind of liked this Johnny Quick logo look for her, better than the big circle-lightning-bolt-Q on her right boob or the current "I found this shirt and shorts combo in my clothes closet" post-Flash Rebirth costume. Would've preferred to try a Clear-Red-over-Mithril-Silver-coat to get a more metallic sheen, but all the stores were out so I just did a bit of P3 Khador Red Base highlighting on the Citadel Red Gore base. Original chest and face decals, spare brown costume Wolverine arms, Warbird/Ms. Marvel hair.

For Dani's hair I always figured a Valkyrie hairpiece would work best.

Thanks again, all. Bit of a mini-batch this week. Running out of ones I can do with little to no sculpt work [some of these are missing unique accessories too], which I could really use some help with... anyone up for a sculpting commission? JLU GALATEA Here's another long wait-listed custom from someone who really, really enjoyed the show. Came up with original decals for the face and chest [the face was a bit of a challenge as I couldn't get any good head-on screencaps, but it's decent I guess], and used mostly as-is parts [with some paint on the SM3 Gwen legs and Rachel Grey glove ends]. I'd like to get better hair than this Emma Frost piece for her if that's possible. CLASSIC GREEN ARROW My arrow guys are all missing quivers and bows, somebody help! That aside, this was a pretty quick custom -- wanted a "Brave and the Bold" style GA. Marvel Boy arms, Bucky gloves, Red Tornado boots and an M. Bison skirt piece all painted up in the appropriate colors. Made an original chest decal and a face decal that basically puts a mask on a Shazam face. Went with an Invaders Cap hairpiece since I didn't have a spare GA hat. GREEN ARROW II - CONNOR HAWKE For some reason I'd always wanted a Connor Hawke figure. Big on legacy characters, you see. Waffled on just how to make this for a long time -- then I settled on cutting down a spare New X-Men Cyclops jacket to be his pullover hoodie thing. A modern Ultimate Cap hairpiece, Batman belt and spare Namor bracelet [plus lots of Snot Green and Bestial Brown paint] later, Connor was ready. Without any actual bows or arrows, but I guess he can lean on his martial arts until I get him some gear. ROCKET RED - DMITRI PUSHKIN Rocket Red #4 took shape over a long period of time and lots of drawings mostly involving Crimson Dynamo armor pieces . This was almost entirely a repainted STRIPE with some Skull White and a Red Gore/Mithril Silver blend. I'm pleasantly surprised about how cleanly the hammer-and-sickle logo turned out -- especially given the uneven shape of the star it's on. STRIPE's chest detailing, shoulder rivets and abdomen grill were all shaved and sanded down. I also shaved the neck ball joint way down so I could wedge a standard 2" Minimate head onto it, upon which I put a spare Darkseid helmet painted white. Maybe later on I'll see about getting to an alternate Rocket Red armor, based on a Vault Guard armor base [he's got the shoulder gun at least] with a Cyclops visor on. Right now, though, I wanted to help round out my JLI. Now how to go about getting a Mr. Miracle and Barda...

Thank you again for the great response, all! I honestly don't know where the time pops up. Most of these are really just done up in the late hours of the night after I come home from work; it helps me relax and gives me a fun cathartic outlet for what little energy I have left by then. I really do appreciate the positive notes on the paint, as I'm forever having trouble getting straight glove lines and it's refreshing to hear very forgiving feedback. The Serpentor head was a perfect fit IIRC, although I did have to stretch it a bit so as to allow the head with the Copperhead decal to fit undamaged. [That is a weird sentence.] One week later [wow, has it really just been one week] comes an odd hodgepodge of heroes and villains! 'MOSAIC' JOHN STEWART I always thought that it was cool that John had had a unique outfit of his own, like Guy's big jacket thing. It also struck me as a potentially easy-ish decal-based custom to do, so I set out to do it -- a different take on my Justice Lords John Stewart face decal and an original decal for the chest, plus an old hairpiece that worked pretty well -- 'fro-ish without being an actual 'fro. 'RENEGADE' I'm a sucker for alternate costumes, I guess [thanks for sharing the Kyle Rayner love, minimadman!] as well as undercover "heel-turns", so I'd always also been intrigued by this Deathstroke-siding Nightwing identity. This was a straight repaint [with black, P3 Skorne Red and Citadel Scorched Brown] inspired by the rumored DCUC variant, although I did alter the chest logo and make a new face decal based on the DCD wave 7 Nightwing, who's much more scowly than his C3 counterpart. I waffled on making a new mask that better matched the art [spiky hair plus fuller headgear that only left his nose and mouth exposed] but this look is already menacing enough for me for now. JUSTICE LORDS FLASH Sure, technically he didn't exist -- he'd gotten killed, thus inspiring the League to turn into the tyrannical Lords. Still, since he'd gotten made into a Brainiac/Luthor construct along with the others, I figured why not... although I'm sure as heck not in a hurry to make "construct" versions of the others. This was an experiment of sorts, with a Frankenmate brought to a friend to be sprayed over entirely in white before taking it home and painting it P3 Cygnus Yellow all over [the same treatment was applied to the mask]. You can see where I had trouble, although at least the decal [original, based on the Justice League/Wally West Flash logo with one jagged point in the middle] seems to have evened out the yellow on the chest. KINGDOM COME SUPERMAN This was mainly born of looking around and seeing a C3 Superman body, TRU Cavil head, DCD Wildcat hair, and thinking of a simple decal design that would work. As well as having some Citadel Regal Blue and Red Gore handy. JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED JOHN STEWART John Stewart is back, and this time he's got his badass goatee. I ended up being more attached to this look than the crew cut he had in Justice League, and figured it'd be cool to make a new decal based on the original Minimate. I'd kept making mistakes with the printing size for this guy's face, but here I think I got it more or less right [the same is true for the size of the GL logo on the chest decal, which was a lot bigger when I used it on Arkis Chummuck]. 'HAL JORDAN' SPECTRE Following in Boyd's footsteps isn't easy, as this shows. I'd had the idea around the time I read a preview for Green Lantern Rebirth -- thinking it was pretty cool for Hal to be all GL'd up inside the Spectre cape -- but it was seeing Boyd's custom that sealed the deal for me to want to make one myself. Copied the face of the original Minimate, but I should've done the same for the chest. As it is it's pretty spotty, and I may later on go back to redo the chest since the rest of him is actually all right by me. EARTH-2 SUPERMAN Mainly another quick custom job with a spare C3 Superman body painted Enchanted Blue, DCD Wildcat's face and I think my last spare C3 Superman hairpiece. Oh, and a cut-down Magneto cape, which it turns out looks pretty good cut down just so. Now I have a use for all those spare Magneto capes... SILVER BANSHEE The leftover Spectre body came in handy after I'd used the hood and cape for Spectre-Hal -- some black and white paint and original chest and face decals helped me create the basic frame for a Silver Banshee, and Ultimate Storm hair completed the overall job. ORACLE Another one I'd long been wanting to make! I'd had my eye on the FA X-Men Jean Grey hairpiece for this custom a while, and I figured it was now or never. Reused a Prof X wheelchair [i'll go back and figure out how to cut the handles off] and I think Mary Jane legs and someone else's sandal-wearing feet. I made an Ed Benes-art-based original decal for the chest, but something was going wonky with the clearcoat I was using for this batch [silver Banshee had some of it too, although it's hidden by the lack of color], hence the weird texture/light reflection. Also put together a new one for the face, a blend of FA X-Men Jean Grey's eyes with Silken Floss' glasses. Wanted her to use a GI Joe: ROC laptop but it turns out there's next to no stable room for it on the wheelchair, although there seems to be an arrangement that works a bit.

Thanks, guys! I couldn't help but want to make an Arisia as she's one of the most visually distinctive humanoid [read: one that doesn't require me to sculpt anything, as I don't know how] GLs. Was in such a good mood this weekend [yesterday was really cool for a number of reasons] that I got fired up to finish a couple of other customs that have been on my list for a while now. COPPERHEAD This guy was in my parts box forever, at least ever since I bought that loose GI Joe reissue Serpentor [from one of the comic three-packs of old, I think]. The snake head was just too perfect for words! The rest of him is an original JLU-based face decal and a bunch of parts [mostly Thing bits and a couple of Venom hands] painted Burning Orange and Snot Green [the chest scales are a flesh/yellow/orange blend]. I may have to keep him far away from the similarly-colored Mirror Master, heh. BARRY ALLEN FLASH Speaking of Mirror Master, his old-school foe finally got painted up today! His waist piece was one of the first things I ever painted with my detail brush, and several dozen customs later I went back today and tightened up the lines. He's mostly Khador Red Base and Golden Yellow on a C3 Flash to darken up and strengthen the shades of red and yellow already on that figure [trimmed the lightning bolts a bit also], with a decal for the chest.

Thanks again, all! I'm utterly floored that these are getting such a good response from such highly-respected customizers. Must be doing something right, and learning all the while! This batch was an interesting one with a number of firsts and a lot of errors along the way. JACK KNIGHT STARMAN After waffling on how in the world to get his glasses sculpted, I... didn't. Well, not yet, unless I can find someone out there willing to sculpt glasses and hair and other small character-centric bits for cheapish [that's what's also holding me back from, say, Animal Man and Adam Strange and others]. Went with a decal design instead, tracing the Civil War Tony Stark face and adding the glasses. Jacket logo is painted in front and a nice clean decal in back. That aside, this guy is almost entirely reused parts - Ambush Bug torso, Loony Bin Jim pants and feet I think, and Stargirl's staff. THOM KALLOR STARMAN Melee Spider-Man head painted over in black plus Alternate Superman arms and legs with gloves and boots painted on... and a lot of painted starfield detailing in both white and silver. Simple enough -- wonder why I didn't try this one sooner? Now I'm thinking of using the Wave 18 "half masked" Spidey slipover to make a half-masked bearded Thom Kallor. MR. FREEZE Decided to make a new one to try and better my early loosecollector commission. Thankfully, this time around the right parts presented themselves -- a local collector convention was a bit of a letdown for hauls and finds save for one stall that had an Imaginext Mr. Freeze . Decided to try and mix up as batch of metallic paint -- the store clerk warned me off of using a colored Ink/Wash and Silver mix, so I tried the solid color Regal Blue and Mithril Silver instead. Seems to have turned out all right, although the trial and error of mixing up is kind of a pain. Gave him some white drybrushing afterwards. Basically Imaginext Mr. Freeze helmet, Sentinel gauntlets and boots, Apocalypse belt piece and a cut-down Modern Cylon torso plate. Face decal by TENIME, incidentally. MIA DEARDEN SPEEDY Wasn't sure how to do the cape, so I focused oin making the main figure first. Original decal for the face, Red Gore paint all over with Burnished Gold boots and Lady Loki arm plating. Ended up cutting down an Alternate Superman cape to give her the front flaps and the pointy shape, and painted yellow and hold onto a Magdalena hood [was originally going to have her always unmasked with a SM3 Gwen Stacy hairpiece]. The Magdalena hood was a good idea after all, as it helped enhance the feminine look I wanted for her. KATMA TUI This custom had one of the first complicated-ish skin tone mixing experiments [actually the GL girls were sort of a series in that regard] and it shows -- the face doesn't even really match the torso. She has an original decal that tried to approximate the foxy, sly look she had on the cartoon [well, earlier on -- pre-Unlimited I think]. I went with the JLU torso design for the original decal though, since it's more visually distinctive to me than the classic look they used in DCUC. ARISIA I'd always wanted one, thinking I'd just use standard fleshtone. Ended up actually mixing a weird Burning Orange/Golden Yellow/Elf Flesh mix for this one after all, with Rachel Grey parts [from the rolled-up glove ends to the sanded-down skirt] rounding out the rest of her. Face decal is Photoshop-traced from a Power Girl face, and chest decal is all new. SORANIK NATU This was fairly easy by comparison, as the only paint mixing that had to be done was for just face and cleavage. Still, getting the right mix of Red Gore and Warlock Purple is hard! Chest and face are decals -- chest is original and face is based on TRU Starbuck. Hair is, I think, War Zone Jigsaw. Turned out to be a pretty good fit. JADE She's had a lot of costumes, it turns out -- I'll try the sleeveless white one next maybe. Spectre arms and legs, original decal for chest and a face decal based on Rahel Grey's face. Hair is from one if the BSG Sixes, painted Dark Angels Green with Scorpion Green touches. ELONGATED MAN [RED/BLACK COSTUME] Eventually I'll get around to a purple/white one, but this was a neat and quick custom. Basically a Magneto given a new chest decal and painted over with Skull Black and P3 Khador Red Base with Golden Yellow for the belt and trim. One of the wave 24 Spidey heads, and painted Aquaman hair. Maybe later on if I get some spare Sandman hands and a new Mr. Fantastic stretch base I'll trick him out Plas-style. Shame we can't paint the rubbery Mr. F arms. Oh, and finally a new tag-along Iron Man! "WHAT IF? CIVIL WAR" IRON MAN Not too happy with how light the colors turned out on this one -- well, no, I really like how the Red Gore turned out when silver-mixed. The Regal Blue is a bit too muted for my tastes. Basically a lot of custom-mixed metallic red and blue paint over an existing Extremis Iron Man armor set put on a Silver Surfer body frame, topped off with gloss clearcoat. Shield is, well, one of the many cap shields.

Holy cow, that's a treasure trove of new decals. Can I turn in the ones I've put together? They're pretty simple but I figure it'd save some people some time.

There's something I can't put my finger on that seems off about Chuck [eyebags? smirk line?], but Sarah is spot-on. Wuv wuv wuv!

New batch! JLI GUY GARDNER Picked up a spare Guy Gardner/Kilowog pack a few months ago, and realized that this was a bit of a no-brainer. Couldn't not do the "Death of Superman"-era outfit! Chaos Black jacket with Regal Blue wash and Enchanted Blue piping, Enchanted Blue on the jeans and Bestial Brown for the boots. Pretty much a straight repaint of the original with a hand-painted "G" logo. Warrior next? BLACK ADAM [GOLD ACCENTS] Went back and retouched the old loosecollector custom with a larger lightning bolt and lower neckline, plus gold on everything . World of difference, as it turns out... BLACK MARY MARVEL Turns out the Kitty Pryde hair and Barbara Gordon face work sweetly to make this look work, atop a Mary Marvel body painted black and with the yellow trim of her skirt cut down to shorten it. Gloss finish on the top and skirt make it really leathery hawt. CAPT MARVEL JR I ended up having a spare Shazam after taking his boots to give to Ice, so I figured why not. This is basically a lot of Citadel Enchanted Blue on the body and P3 Khador Red Base and Cygnus Yellow on the cape. The C3 Superman head started out as a placeholder but I kind of like it there now. RED ARROW His current state in the comics aside, I've warmed to the Roy Harper character quite a bit, feeling kind of happy that he's followed in Wally and Dick's footsteps and hitting the big time in the League. Decal face and chest, Yellowjacket hair, Citadel Red Gore and P3 Khador Red Base for the rest. I still need a quiver and bow for him, somebody help me out? CRIME SYNDICATE SUPERWOMAN Original decal chest, Starbuck face, repainted Ultimate Storm hair and the Mary Marvel cape which turned out to have the perfect chain necklace. Trouble is that the hair wasn't made for capes, so she's permanently scowling downward -- then again, that's not so far off from what she'd normally do either way. JUSTICE LORDS HAWKGIRL The cut-down JLU Batman mask I'd considered using for Red Robin worked out well here after all, more or less. I may go back and touch up the eyes so she's not always looking up and to the left. Decal chest, Blue Costume Angel wing bracket and wings, repainted Justice Lords Superman lower body. JUSTICE LORDS GREEN LANTERN Wasn't too sure how to make him all burly with none of the extra pieces the others used . Decal chest and face; the face was an extrapolation based on the JLU John Stewart minimate, but having to repaint the eyes and some details after applying kind of took away from its original look. KRYPTONITE BATMAN Basic as it gets. Angry Bruce face, standard C3 Batman gear [painted the trunks and boot tops], wave 6 Gamma Hulk torso, arms and legs and a decal. BATZARRO I may one day go back and give his gray a bluish tinge, but this quick repaint might not be worth the effort in the long run [besides, he looks plenty creepy already]. Painted trunks and boot tops, decal chest, DCD Bizarro head under C3 mask. C3 Batgirl belt with the top panel cut out and shoved onto the waist block from the bottom. 1990s HUNTRESS Even after getting the current "Hush"-debuted outfit done as a custom by loosecollector, I always wanted the 90s Huntress I followed in Contagion and No Man's Land. Original face and chest decal, lots of Citadel Warlock Purple, New X-Men belt, Batgirl cape, Union Jack holster and C3 Darkseid gloves [oh, and Silver Fox hair I think]. BEAST BOY All of his 80's exploits were a tad before my real comic time, so my main exposure to and endearment toward this character stems from the Teen Titans cartoon. As such, while I will more likely than not favor DC-proper looks for the rest of them , this guy has his toon look. New X-Men belt, Nightwing wristbands, Hulk hair, decal face and chest. BLACK LIGHTNING I'd very certainly made a quick list of parts and decal plans for this guy by the time I checked bobafett's thread -- and lo and behold, he'd thought of how to make one too! I was overjoyed to find out that my idea of using a C3 Flash waistpiece would be more or less what the doctor ordered [just keep the lightning bolt clear and paint the rest black]. Used an original decal for the chest and a modified Jason Rusch Firestorm face decal originally by TENIME. I may add extra Storm/Electro lightning bolt pieces if I can find some. CLASSIC HAL JORDAN AND ABIN SUR At first I figured they'd be easy, but when I got around to actually painting arms and legs from scratch to go with the decal-ed chests I was proven wrong. Hal has his DCD head and Mr. Fantastic hair painted Bestial Brown, Abin has an original decal on a face painted with a mix of Red Gore and Warlock Purple. KYLE RAYNER [CURRENT OUTFIT] What can I say, I'm a Kyle fan too. Snot Green costume panels with Scorpion Green highlight lines, the same face decal from before and a new one for this chest, and IM2 Mark V Stark hair. PSYCHO-PIRATE I'll cop to being inspired by bobafett's design here! Found out the Red Tornado cape wouldn't work so I used a Mephisto cape [my later Ra's Al Ghul will have to use an Ocean Master cape], lots of P3 Khador Red Base and Citadel Chaos Black. Also used a Drax helmet so I could do a face-switch . Followed the JLU color layout, which is just complicated enough for my tastes.

Really glad that these guys are getting such a warm response! Thanks, all! @bobafett: Yeah, man, I get the exact same vibe whenever I visit your thread. It verges on uncanny -- Parallax, Sodam Yat and some of the others were ideas I also had [although the execution I had planned was a bit different] -- and I think you'll find the coincidences in this next batch amazing too, Psycho-Pirate and all! @fnwebslinger: Glad to do your namesake justice! @TENIME: Dude, you do great decal design work that really captures their animation models [i'd love to pester you to make some more JLU-based ones for Galatea and the like!]. It's a privilege to have been able to use the Creeper; he was one of the ones I simply had to go to a decal for because there was no way I could craft that face on my own! Went back and redid the JUSTICE LORDS MARTIAN MANHUNTER with a Red Tornado cape [after finding out it wouldn't work for Psycho-Pirate]. He looks worlds better now, although now I have to find another use for the cut-down Drax cape. Also, this one was left out of the previous batch: "THE DARK KNIGHT" JOKER I had originally planned to hold off on showing this one until my work-in-progress "The Dark Knight" Batman was finished [i've got the cowl with eye holes in it, the Q-Blox armor plate and fabric cape, but that's about it -- the detail on that costume is nuts!], but what the hey. The minute I saw the XMO: Wolverine TRU Gambit I knew that the hair and coat were destined to go on a custom Joker -- and that's pretty much what happened here. Citadel Dark Angels Green paint [with a Snot Green wash] for the hair, and P3 Beaten Purple for the coat. Adapted a Chazwinski design for the face decal [thanks Chaz, amazing work!] and created an original decal for the torso based on the actual pattern used for his vest.

Again, a great eye for parts to reuse - that Psycho Pirate is inspired! -- and sweet designs and customs!

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.

This is a great thing to do. Even faced with the option of just color-tweaking one of the millions of existing Spideys, you take two completely unrelated m molds [seriously, the only items to have a Spidey origin are the hands!] and turn out a Spidey that blasts a whole bunch of official ones out of the water. Great work, man. And yeah, I too am eager to see your Noir Spidey!

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. 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].

"Here comes the fastest man ali-" // "ZOOM! ZOOM! ZOOM!"

I think that's be great, as I have a few heads with holes that I'd love to use but can't. Sometimes we need a hole in the head... like we need a hole in the head.

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

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.

Damn, that Marvel poster looks amazing. Wonder how I can get my hands on one.

As long as they're not overtly Liefeldian, hey.

Question: if metallic colors are done by painting a layer of silver and then a layer of clear, say, red paint over it, what Citadel paint type is best for the clear paint? For instance, I lay down a Mithril Silver coat -- what do I do next? Would an Ink or Wash work better?

Wow, I had a similar idea for the Parallax cape -- it's great to see it painted up! That Juggernaut is awesome work btw. And holy cow, you've got good ideas for parts. I *knew* that Titanium Man face could be used for someone else!