Graham

Well, I'm headed to San Diego in a couple of days and I know some of you live near there, so I wondered if anyone had any recommendations for places to buy Minimates and also other fun/cheap touristy stuff to do there. I'll most likely be going to the zoo at least. Sorry if this belongs in Minimates Arms, I wasn't sure where I should post it.

Well, as I mentioned I'm going away for a couple of months, so no customizing for me for a while! I thought it would be a good job to finish off my WIPs and take stock of how many customs I actually have. So here we go... First up, the 'Ultimates'. I know that these are hardly comic-accurate, I just had a load of BSG pilot suits left and thought it would be a cool idea for using up spares. Named characters include Wolverine, Hulk, Bruce Banner, Wasp, Nick Fury, Captain America, Hawkeye and Black Widow, and there's a few generic SHIELD troops in there too. Hulk was an attempt at a better Movie Hulk, but he fits in there well enough anyway. Continuing with a Marvel theme, these are all the Marvel 'mate customs I still have. To qualify for the photo, they had to at least have some repainting or re-sculpting on them (I missed out a lot of simple part-swap ones). Previously unseen on this photo are Thunderstrike, Spider-man, Daredevil, Peter Parker, Doctor Doom and Tony Stark. Spidey has a sculpted web-shooting right hand, which can be seen better on the full group shot photo. Same rules as with the Marvel, all my DC customs. New entries include Vic Sage Question, Mary Marvel, Man-Bat, Tim Drake Robin, Poison Ivy, Aquaman and STRIPE. Finally, just about every custom I've done that I still have. I've obviously done a lot more than this and traded them away, with the Smallville, Green Lanterns, earlier Iron Men and so on. I count 66. Or 65, not sure

It's from one of the Buffy Palz sets.

A better view of the desk. "Yeah. I can fly." The operating table, flat out. No idea why the Leader's on there! A couple of boxes of useful stuff. As requested, here's better pics of Stealth Iron Man, and one of Civil War Spidey. Link here for a picture of Spidey's back. My updated Green Lanterns. I was challenged to make Chaselon and was pretty stumped at first. Not sure how much of a Minimate this is as the body's been extensively changed. The legs were cut off above the knee and tentacles sculpted on, with C3 feet at the ends (so he can stand up, not because the character has feet). I attached plastic straw to the ends of the arms and sculpted out the ends of the tentacles to a point. The body is Penguin's, with the mohawk, face and belt(?) sculpted on. Here's a link to Chaselon's back. In case you were wondering, the poseability is shoulders, elbows, hips, waist.

Thanks for the pics elmeaux. I think these look pretty cool actually. Does Cyborg have a removable helmet? Just idly wondering, if you stuck Sinestro's head on Salaak's torso and had Smart Hulk duck feet, just how tall would your Minimate be?

Thanks for the positive comments guys! I'll try and answer a few things, pictures will follow soon. Chazwinski - Yeah, I left plenty of room for this year's additions! Spider-man's tentacles are twist ties with a bit of sculpting for the claws. TBT - Must admit I was kind of hoping you'd have a look at this, as your Hall of Armours was definitely an inspiration for mine. As far as the comic accuracy, I don't read comics and wasn't particularly a fan of Iron Man until the film this year, so don't have much knowledge about the whole thing. The girders are from a SM3 Mega Bloks set, which apparently never existed as I can't find a link anywhere! It had Spider-man and Venom and was a sort of abandoned Oscorp factory/worksite (not the construction site final battle set). Must have been some kind of exclusive, though I picked it up cheap. I think the piece crops up in a couple other of their sets. The girder height is about right for a normal Minimate, but anything with a bit of extra height like the Civil War IM wouldn't fit under there. I didn't realise this at first so had to rebuild half the thing again. Boyd - I'd be honoured if you stole my SIM idea! He's just an OMAC, with the hips filed down (which I still haven't finished as my file is blunt). I initially tried to have a Stark face painted on the blue head underneath and the OMAC helmet (fin cut off), but it didn't really work.

It would spoil the fun if I told you

Great job on the Starro pics! Where's the Starro from?

I started this Joker ages ago, back when the first picture of Heath Ledger from The Dark Knight was released. Now we have a better look and someone wanted me to make one for them I had the means and motivation to neaten up the face a bit. The torso is painted over DCD Joker's, the arms and jacket are from DCD Joker, and the legs and hands from Chemical Warehouse Joker. The knife is Bullseye's and the hair is fully sculpted. Poor old Voyager Optimus! This commission is of Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman from 'American Psycho,' but he passes very well as a movie Bruce Wayne if need be. Jacket is from C3 Bruce Wayne, hair painted over Deathstroke's. I guess you can't really call it a Hall of Armours when there's so few in there, but here we go anyway. Most of this is made from two Batcaves and Mega Bloks Spider-man 3 stuff, with some Lego in there too. This is very much a first draft, I expect to be changing it as I go along. Also you can catch a glimpse here of my in-progress Civil War Spider-man, Modern Iron Man and Stealth Iron Man. Here's the long view - not very full yet, but room for up to 16 Iron Men. Side view. Upstairs is mostly unused at the moment, not sure what to do with this. The somewhat boring exterior. The desk, with computer and Tony's works in progress. Suiting up. This can be tilted back to form an operating table-type thing. Spidey isn't finished yet, but is finished enough to get away with doing this... Feedback is always welcome, as well as ideas for expanding the Hall of Armours. As an aside, normally I'm happy to take commissions, but I'm going to be working at a summer camp in New Jersey from a couple of weeks off until September so won't be able to. If I've already started a custom for you don't panic, it will be finished, but I just can't start anything new, sorry.

I don't know if we're on the same customising frequency or something but we always seem to be working on the same characters - I only finished my Heath Ledger Joker tonight. Love yours though, wish I'd thought to use Baltar hair. Might I ask how you made the chest gun holster on Luthor?

I use Elf Flesh as well; not a perfect match but as TBT said, as close as you're going to get. I buy mine from Games Workshop stores, but you can order it online at their website.

I finished these customs earlier this week, better close-up pictures will follow. Until then, here's a group shot of my Avengers. Wasp - uses 24 Nina Myers hair and the head from the woman in the Rocky 2-pack. The wings are made from the Rocky 4-pack packaging Thor - only a temporary until I can get the proper one. Head from a 24 set, hair from Power girl, boots from Rocky 2, black crotch, legs from New Avengers Captain America, arms from Hawkman. The hammer is made from a Buffy Palz candlestick with a couple of Lego 1x2 plates stuck on top. Namor - C3 Bruce Wayne hair, Miniseries Baltar head, crotch from DCD Robin. The torso is from Hawkgirl, with the muscles painted on. The feet are normal Minimate feet, with ankle wings originally from Golden Age Flash's helmet. The trident is Aquaman's. 2.5" Hulk - already shown. Captain America - New Avengers Captain America with Sentry head and Golden Age Flash boots. Spider-man - Ultimate Spider-man with C3 feet. Iron Man - no changes Hawkeye - has Rocky's head for no reason other than I needed Hawkeye's for another custom.

I got some of the earlier Lego Batman stuff, which was before I discovered Minimates, so it kind of trailed off after that... Me and my brother shared the Indy motorcycle chase set, but I couldn't resist modifying the bike to fit Minimates.

Hulkbuster Iron Man, another commission. I hardly have any time to do my own customs these days, not that I'm complaining :biggrin: . In this case, I'd started the custom a while back so most of the sculpt work was done. The figure is a 2.5" Minimate, with Gandalf the White hair (beard cut off and put on backwards) and cuffs, cut-down Kilowog powerhouse chestpiece and a couple of other sculpted additions. The shoulder pads are Lego parts, and whilst they might look a little too raised, they don't block shoulder articulation much. The gold is a yellow wash over silver paint. Incidentally, has anyone ever varnished over Games Workshop yellow ink? I tried it once and the ink just smeared off, but that may have been because the ink was directly onto plastic, rather than paint. I just thought I'd ask before I wrecked the paint job on this one.

Thanks guys, the head is actually Hawkman's with the sides cut off, I just modified the forehead and beak slightly.

You might have seen this in the Charitymates II thread, but I'll post it up here for posterity anyway, my Minimate bald eagle. This was an interesting one to make. The head was from Hawkman, with the beak re-sculpted on. I modified the feet and made the wings from scratch. This commission of Solid Snake from Metal Gear Solid. The base is a BSG pilot suit, with sculpted hair. The face took quite a few attempts to nail but I'm fairly happy with the outcome. Finally a little more Photoshopping of my earlier Count Dooku custom.

Done and shipped off, one bald eagle!

The latest batch have been finished. Firstly some more Batman universe characters. Scarecrow - I sculpted the mask and hat piece over Deathstroke's. Not quite settled on what head to have underneath yet. The belt is Iron Fist's and the hood piece hanging over his torso is sculpted. This was originally supposed to be Scarecrow from Batman Begins but I changed to a comic look halfway through. Two-face - Hair sculpted over Hawkman's, face based on Blue Beetle's. The jacket is from Patch and the gun is a Brickarms one. Commissioner Jim Gordon - Bruce Banner's hair and coat, Jack Bauer torso, legs and feet, Captain Blackhawk pistol and a face extensively painted over Hawkman's. Ra's Al Ghul - based on his appearance in Hush. The legs are from Sergeant Rock, torso and arms from X3 Juggernaut, head based on Wildcat and hair from Wolverine. The belt is from Iron Fist and the sword from a Pirates of the Caribbean 3 action figure. Oracle - has Caprica six body, Gina head, Harley Quinn hair, Robin arms (sleeves painted black) and legs and feet form Rocky. The wheelchair is obviously Professor X's. Jason Todd - based on his appearance in Hush (I will sort out a mask for him sometime). The hair and belt are from Ultimate Wolverine, the face based on New Avengers Captain America and the hands and coat are from Punisher. I slightly modified my Colonel Tigh, giving him an eyepatch to match his later appearances in the show. My WW2 Ultimate Captain America. This was inspired quite a bit by Mattallica's excellent custom, so credit where it's due. I used a Sgt. Rock helmet, BSG dress uniform torso, Sue Storm shield holder arm attachment and the belt from one of the Indymates. The face mask, torso straps and shield are sculpted. The gun is a Brickarms one, purely because I couldn't find Sgt. Rock's machine gun at the time.

Some awesome looking customs already! Unfortunately, though nearly finished, I won't be able to have my custom done in time for the deadline

These have been finished for quite a bit, just never got round to posting them up. This image is potentially spoilericious, so I'll put it up as a link rather than a picture. BSG Cylon Skinjobs - Six was painted more or less from scratch, except the head from Invisible Woman, the dress from Gwen Stacy, and the hair from Caprica Six. - is all standard Minimate, the chestpiece and hair are sculpted. - is made form one of the 24 Minimates, minus the hairpiece. - is Powerhouse Spider-man torso, Bruce Wayne jacket, training Rocky legs, one of the heads from the Rocky 1 set and Deathstroke hair painted grey. - Boomer is straight out of the box. - is Chameleon, with Helo's head and Hawkman's hair. - D'Anna is straight out of the box.

This was just a commission, so I don't have any plans for any more, although it was quite fun to do so I wouldn't rule it out. I just bought the classic trilogy on DVD so maybe that will inspire me for some more! AJV - Thanks, forgot to mention it was M. Bison's skirt, but facing backwards.

It's been a bit, but here's another new one, none other than Count Dooku himself. I quite enjoyed making this one, although it took me about a week to find my red Lego lightsabres. The cape is modified from M. Bison's, the hair is fully sculpted and the lightsabre hilt is also modified to fit into a Minimate hand.

Well, here's me. The torso is from my now-retired DC: The New Frontier custom Superman, the head is Apollo's, with painted on glasses.

I wonder why Doc Cottle has no ears...

Well, in the past half hour since I changed my mind I've got about half of the sculpting done