I Make Custom GI Joes.
Posted by kingphilbert | Filed under Customs
About two years ago I started customizing GI Joes with parts and pieces from the 25th Anniversary line. When I tell people this they don’t always understand what I mean. I guess they wonder how, but maybe why. Here’s a quick look at the how part. For the why part, well if you know me, you know why.
You essentially start with a base figure. In this case I was inspired by the similarity between RoC Agent Helix and Abbey Chase. Here’s what is referred to as a Frankenjoe. Essentially busted up and pieced back together. Pretty simple as all the parts except for the arms are from Helix. The limbs came from Lady Jaye.
From there you can move onto paint. I def recommend painting part by part and piece by piece. It’s much cleaner and much easier. As for the paints I like Testors Model Master Acrylics. I don’t have any shot of the small parts propped up with toothpicks, but I started with the legs. Each leg breaks down into 5 parts: Outer thigh, inner thigh, knee, lower leg, and foot. Classic Abbey has green on the outside of her pants and blue on the inner thighs. The leg separation made this extra easy. The green below the knee, above the boot was much harder, but I used a real small pointy brush. I also like the contrast between using flat and gloss blacks that you can see on the knee pads and boots.
A Custom Year Review
Posted by kingphilbert | Filed under Customs
A semi belated happy new year to any visitors I may have or have had. I started this blog in August and knew my attention wouldn’t be ultimately focused within, but with the onset of 2010 I am hoping that will change. To kick off this new year I present to you a look back at customs completed and presented in 2009 prior to the post below featuring my What if…Snake-Eyes, one of my last, and most well received of the year. As always, check out the Customs section to see more pics, or if you don’t want to read the article.
Skull Buster
The Range Viper was in the tail end of my time as a child playing with GI Joe figures, but the leader of the this group of Cobra wilderness troopers didn’t come about until sometime later as Joe and Co. had gone to the sideline of childhood memories. When I was finally introduced to this character in the DD World War 3 storyline that closed out the mythos that began in 1983 with the original A Real American Hero comic from Marvel he was a lone wolf living off the land overtaken by his own insanity. Looking back at the action figure released in 2002 he was a garish metallic purple repaint of the original Range Viper. Not overly attractive. As for my modern interpretation of Skull Buster my goal was to keep him in line with the modern Range Viper hinting ever so slightly to the original figure while giving him an edge and distinction that allows him to standout from the rest.
Roadblock
The difference between adding a few minor tweaks to an existing figure as opposed to a full blown custom can still make a huge difference. One item that is highly anticipated in the new year are Resolute figures. A few that have already seen some level of production have leaked into market places such as ebay. One in particular was the Resolute Roadblock. When will we see these figures at retail still remains to be seen, but this holiday season we were treated to a RoC exclusive Roadblock using the very mold of the Resolute figure minus his accessories. We also saw the new Cobra security agent Night Adder made with the same mold (more…)
What if…Sunbow Resolute Snake-Eyes
Posted by kingphilbert | Filed under Customs
I asked and you shall receive. Some may consider it sacrilege to repaint a perfectly good City Strike Snake-Eyes, especially when they are still difficult to locate in store, but this figure begged to be repainted in homage of the blue and purple look he had in the 1980s Sunbow animated series. I think he turned out very well, maybe one of my best.
On the other hand though, the base figure was a total bitch to work with. I ruined one complete torso, broke the peg on the right lower arm and on the right foot as well as snapped a shoulder joint. And, not just on this one, but a previous use of the same figure I broke a right foot. To my fellow customizers: take caution when working with this figure.
In the end, as my comments above state, I was very pleased with the work that went into creating this throwback. A lot of thought went into getting the paints just right. Except for the Semi Gloss Light Grey none of the paints were straight from the bottle. I also feel that the scheme fits the figure very well. The base figure was well crafted with a great design playing off of the classic commando with a hint of the v2 ninja. The only change I did make was the torso I used, and not because I destroyed the original. I felt the original was too sculpted and overly muscular.
This custom figure also marks my first to be featured in the front page news section of the HissTank! You can visit the article here. More photos of each can be found in my Customs Gallery above. They are def worth checking out.
