"Villains" Willow

One of my favorite parts from the show "Villains" is when Willow dips her hands into the dark arts books and sucks them dry. I've been wanting to make the table for the magic shop as well and the scene I wanted to create helped pushed me to complete it. This particular piece took some time to create since I was collecting as many books as I could to build up a nice pile on the table. I am not sure how I could have done it differently but I'm not entirely happy with the end product (and by the lack of comments on two Buffy forums I'm thinking other people have to agree?).

Anyway, here is what I did.

I used a Doppelgangland Willow head, torso, and legs. I used the upper arms/shoulders from Gift Dawn, and the forearms and hands from a Charmed figure. I also used the largest book (I think it was a Pylean book from Angel). I needed a large book for Willow to dip her fingers into.

Here are the pieces I used for Willow (and the book I cut open):

For the table I used a Tupperware meat container (I think) and then to get it to stand the height I needed I put a yogurt container on the inside of it and cut it to size. You can see the container inside the meat container in the picture below. I went with this meat container because of the lip (which you can see on the side view picture). I then used white labels to put over the two containers to cover up the seam. Not pictured is the top. I used foam board and cut it to the size I needed.

I had made casts of various books awhile back and I used all the books I made on the bottom to bulk up the pile (plus I didn't want to paint all these books). Then I used every book I could find and started gluing them into a big pile.

For the sculpt I sculpted Willow's hair (to make it less rigid in the front), I sculpted her front, cleaned up the sleeves, and sculpted the tie in the back. I also altered the jeans for a more realistic look. I like how the side pockets turned out. Here are some pictures of that:

Okay, for the hands dipping into the pages of the book this was tricky. The hands were not perfectly flat. I got this cool heat gun from my dad and I used that to "melt" the hands. I heated them enough for me to smash the fingers a bit to flatten them out. I then super glued them to the book and sculpted the pages around the hands. It didn't look a clean as I wanted but I knew I'd be painting over it and wouldn't matter so much.

This is the part where I goofed. I wasn't thinking about the painting of the face until after I had everything already glued and sculpted. I didn't attach the books to the table (in the event I wanted to change the table and put in the light in the middle like the real table). But the hands were attached. I cracked the arm sculpted clay numerous times moving this thing around. The tricky part was tying to get close enough to the face to paint the tiny details. So in one hand I have my brush and in the other I'm trying to hold the figure attached by two tiny arms to a huge pile of books. It probably goes without saying, but I will anyway, that I am not happy with how the face turned out. Some pictures look worse than others due to the angle or the fact that the picture is magnified many times larger than what you see in reality. But anyway, here are the in-progress pictures and the final piece....

Show reference pictures so you all don't think I'm crazy why there is paint all over her arms/chest.

It is a nice addition to my magic shop scene (even though Anya/Giles in the Magic Shop don't match the show's scene). I may go back later on and make Anya standing by the counter looking at Willow in shock as she's sucking the info. out of the books. Add that to my list of figures to make, hee hee!

Baby #5 gift for Lisa

I think the fates didn't want me publishing this blog. I had to redo it after my Internet stopped working right when I went to publish it. Then my dang sensitive mouse pad kept highlighting parts and deleting them as I typed the next part. HOLY MOLY!!

Anyway...

My best friend from high school recently had a picture on her facebook site and I was just in awe at the beauty of the picture. As an artist I wanted to capture the beauty in a way that I like to do--so I action figure-ized her and her man. She is giving birth to her 5th child and since I slacked on being a friend with baby 1-4, I figured it was about time to step up and do something special for her.

This project was not an easy task, maybe even my most challenging one yet. The hardest part was keeping this a secret from her and I trying to ask her for as much information about her picture without giving away the idea for the gift. My only question I asked her was how they were sitting. I'm sure she thought this was an odd question but she told me and that gave me at least a idea where to begin. What you see in the picture is what I had to work with as far as what parts to use and how I was going to do this statue. Here is the inspirational photo and I did get Lisa's permission to post it.

As you can see there was not much to see, and no color. So here is what I decided to use for Lisa: I used a Fred head, a Chandra (Rising Stars) chest and torso, Fred legs and "You're Welcome" Cordelia arms. The arms were not exactly like the picture but I figured they were a good place to start.

I was originally going to have Lisa sitting on her butt with one leg out-stretched and the other leg bent under it. As I was piecing Chad together I noticed she was sitting very low and I needed her to be almost as tall as him. I put a pillow under her but it still wasn't quite right. So I ended up breaking the legs and cut them so that they were positioned like she was on her knees and sitting on her feet.

Here are some (early on) before pictures:

This is how I changed it.

For Chad I used a Colonel Sheppard from Stargate Atlantis head, a "Graduation Day" Angel torso and arms, a Spike hand, an Oz hand, and the deluxe Angel legs. I wasn't sure if Chad was shirtless in the picture but I figured since Lisa was "in her pjs," I'd make him in his pj's, too. I had to cut up his legs as well and I put him into a kneeling position and then sculpted his bottoms. I cut away Sheppard's hair and resculpted Chad's hair. I then did my best at sculpting over the joints but I didn't do all of them since the clay was not smoothing out like I wanted it to and I didn't want it to look lumpy.

I think I did the sculpting at this point in the most difficult way possible! Of course I was not sure how else to do it. I had to join the two figures together to get the hands right among other parts. Some things worked out well, some things turned out not how I wanted. Lisa's hair turned out great along with Chad's. Lisa's belly looks great. The sculpting around her legs and around Chad's legs was hard and not all that clean looking. I knew I was going to paint their clothing black and I knew black covers some mistakes plus the bottom parts were going to be hidden for the most part. Sculpting Lisa's shirt was probably the hardest. I had to sculpt around their arms and I was using a stick to help me mold it into the correct position. Somewhere in the process of boiling and sculpting the figures, Lisa slipped a bit from Chad so his hands are no longer resting on Lisa's belly. Since I had already super glued the joints I decided to leave things the way they were. Also, in order to get his head close to hers he had to be leaning forward. In order to do this I had to have him propped up on pillows. I then used the pillows from the Charmed figures to build up behind him to cover up some of the back area. It worked out well. Here are some of those pictures.

I decided I was going to have the two on a bed. For the bed I used a plastic tray that maybe came with a watch. I attached some plastic parts to the bottom for the legs. It was a pretty solid piece of plastic and I assumed I could boil this without warping the plastic...wrong! The dang thing curled on me and you can see that in the pictures. It was too late to do anything about it so I let that go as well. After the mattress was sculpted (using yellow FEMO clay) I decided I wanted to build up some blankets around them. It serves a dual purpose. One is it really adds to the whole scene and makes the bed come to life, and two, it covers up some of the lower sculpted parts that were not done as cleanly. To harden this clay (since I couldn't submerge the bed into water or the plastic would warp more, I had to pour boiling water over it MANY times. The parts of the sheets hanging down didn't harden all the way so I used hot glue and filled in the area behind the blanket to make sure it wouldn't break...plus the heat from the glue did harden the clay. I didn't glue the figures to the bed yet. I did this so they could slip out of their spots which would make the painting so much easier. In the final piece I glued the figures to the bed.

Here is the bed. The legs of the bed looked hideous so I ended up using some of the foam board to construct legs and hide the original legs.

I figured for the base I needed to have something long enough for the bed to sit on and I wanted a wall. Lisa is a gifted artist and she likes abstract art. I did a google search for abstract art and I came across this picture. I thought it was very Lisa-ish and I had an old dollhouse frame that I put the printed off picture into. I used two Buffy wall bases for the wall and floor. I covered the floor with some wood looking contact paper and I used plain, tan contact paper for the wall. I then glued the picture frame onto the wall. This painting also gave me a little motivation for how I was going to paint the bedsheets since I have no clue what her bed really looks like.

Here is the finished bed. The extra purple shiny blanket is something I added at the end to mainly look like she's sitting on it--it covers the dead space under her butt. I have another piece hanging down on the side of the bed to make it look like she's sitting on the blanket and part of it goes over her leg and hangs off the bed. I did this to cover up some of that area.

Okay, and finally the love birds. It was very tricky painting the hidden parts (like Lisa's shirt when it is between Lisa and Chad). Every time I went to paint a spot out of immediate reach, I'd bump their arms or hands and get black paint all over them. I'd have to quick get a wet brush and try to get some of the paint off. What I couldn't get off I'd have to repaint with about 5 coats of paint! Chad's hair was tricky, too. I think he has dark blond hair and I tried to reproduce that. In the pictures it looks gray but it looks better in real life. I had a hard time painting his face as well. I have not met him to get his features in my mind and all I had was this reference photo (also off Lisa's facebook).

In the original photograph it looks like their eyes are closed but I wanted to make the figures looking dreamily toward each other. I do like how that turned out.

Here they are!

OH, and I just have to mention this again to put my ego at ease. Keep in mind that the pictures when you click on them are going to be magnified versions of the real deal. So if there is a tiny miss brush stroke, it's going to look really bad. In real life these are 6 inch figures and you can't see the mistakes unless you are staring at it looking for mistakes! So, yes, some of the pictures look sloppy and bad but it really is not bad at all (and if you haven't been able to tell, I'm blunt and honest about my work and I'm hard on myself)...so if it was was bad, I'd say so!

Here is my dear friend. She just got the gift and I think she was pleasantly surprised. Good luck with baby #5 Lisa!

Clem's Dream

Have you ever had an experience where something happens in the real world and before you wake up, it happens in your dreams? Like before you realize your alarm clock is going off you somehow picture the music in your dream. I had this neat idea of making Clem (from Buffy the Vampire Slayer) sleeping with all these cats on him and then above him have a dream of himself eating cats. In the show he is a demon that eats cats. So I thought it would be neat to create something with this in mind.

Here is what I planned. I had a plastic bed, it might be a Barbie thing I found at a junk shop. I covered the bottom with some FEMO clay. I was originally going to use a grave stone as a pillow but I ended up using two of Wesley's briefcases. I had to cut one in half and one corner out of another and sculpt clay around them so that they looked like the were being squished with the head resting on them. I also wanted an arm resting on the pillow so that is why I had to cut a corner out.

I have these Xander eye-patch heads and I was going to use one of those heads to sculpt over for Clem...but I figured it would be more work sculpting over that head. So I ended up using a cast of a D'hofferin head. I used scrap parts for the body of Clem. When I re-did my Giles figure (from the Primeval set) I had this body left over, so I used that. I was going to use his arms, but I came across some LOTR action figure's hands/arms which was bigger and that is what I wanted. Then I used some scrap arms and leg parts so that when I sculpted the blanket it gave the illusion of legs. I think I used a thigh part for a deluxe figure, a Master's leg, a LOTR lower leg and an arm joint from a Stargate figure.

Here are some pictures of what I was planning on (The second picture is more accurate to what I used.)

Then I drilled a hole in the D'hofferin head and attached that to the Giles body. I didn't attach the arm since that all was going to be covered by the sheet. I love how Clem's hand is up on the pillow and Willow's cat is playing with it.

I then sculpted over the head to give it more wrinkles. I also sculpted the ears, neck area and the top of the chest. It was rather easy to sculpt this character. He has many folds of skin and wrinkles. The hardest part with this was getting the clay to stick to the casted head. For some reason some of my casts turned out bad. I'm sure I mixed the plastic ratios wrong. So this clay doesn't' stick once it's boiled. But super glue is my friend!

I took a break at this point to start working on the Dream Clem. I had this Spike figure that had his mouth open and I thought it would be funny to have him eating a cat with only the tail left. I had to cut some of the vampire face off Spike since the eyebrow line had a mean look to it and I wanted to convey pleasure on Clem's face, so the eyebrows needed to be slanted upward. I also had to cut down the body/jacket so that I could attach it to a flat wall base. Here is what I used for starters...

This is a picture of a side by side comparison of the sculpted Clem and how the figure started out. I didn't actually use this Spike, it was one with the rubber coat figures, but you get the idea.

Now for the dream state I tossed around many ideas. I tried drying some scenic water with flakes of fake show in it. I liked how it turned out so I made more so it would be all around the Dream Clem. I then wanted to add some cotton fluff to make it have a smoky effect. Here is what I planned...

I did end up having to make a cat since I didn't have one that was sprawled out. I wanted a cat to be in his hands ready to be eaten after he finished the one he's got in his mouth. It turned out larger than I wanted, but I kept it. I also ended up using the Master's hands for this figure. They were big and they had the right look to them. The hardest part with this was having to make the cat separate from the end of the tail, the part in Clem's hand. I had to glue the parts together and it didn't quite fit together, but I had the cloud covering some of that part anyway, so it's ok. This Clem is attached to the base with a screw.

Here is the painted Clem. The eyes look bad here but you'll see later on he's looking down at the sleeping Clem so I took these pictures at a weird angle.

At this point I made the bed sheet. First time it was too small and I was piecing the clay parts together and it looked awful. I decided I had to roll out the clay with a rolling pin in some wax paper. As I was finishing up rolling the clay the underside wax paper got wrinkly and when I took it off the paper it had creases in it. I loved the effect. When I positioned the sheet I did make folds in the sheet. It's easy to see in this picture but later on when I painted the lines on the bed sheet it is harder to see the folds. I don't paint shades on my figures and I'm sure that would have improved the 3D look.

Now I wanted to not just have the cats all over Clem. I had this cage in my clutter pile so I decided to make it seem like the cage opened up and the cats got out. There is a litter box (part of Xander's tool box) and a bowl of food and water. One cat is left in the cage. I used a piece of wood floor for this separate piece and what was left over from a carpet piece I used in the Willow/Glory sculpture and the Willow/Tara sculpture.

I did end up repainting the cats. I wanted them to look more natural and have better looking eyes. I like how it all turned out. Now, here is the whole set together. I tried to take many angled shots to give my viewers the full visual of this piece. I do love how it all came together.

I don't take many liberties in my work, meaning I don't stray away from the normal movie/show sculptures but I'm glad I took this risk.

Dollhouse Promo Picture of Echo and Mannequins

I have wanted to make a recreation of this promo picture for about a year now. I liked the concept and I thought it was easy enough to do. Here is my inspiration. This came from the show called Dollhouse, Fox TV. I think the show has been cancelled which is such a shame.

The most challenging part about getting started was deciding on what parts to use. I have such a huge variety of things and I have a hard time letting these things go because I may want to make something else with the parts. Anyway, after I had my parts picked out the sculpting challenge started with how I was going to get this to work.

The mannequins were hard to sculpt. You can see that the one standing is about a foot taller than Echo. Generally there are 6 inch action figures and 7 inch. I knew I had quite a few 7 inch figures, and I settled on using my Six figure (from the Battlestar Galactica show). I used her arms, torso, and pelvic area. I didn't want to use the legs because she was standing in a way that I didn't want the mannequin standing. Plus, I needed bare feet. I have a few figures left with bare feet. I ended up using a Daena figure from I think Tarzan. I did have to shave off the sandals and straps on her legs and feet. Then sculpt around that to clean up the cut marks. I also had to use something to get the legs to connect with the pelvic area. I have many weapons from the Buffy figures so I used two handles from an ax and drilled holes in the leg and the pelvic area and glued them in place. Then I had to sculpt in the area around this--including her butt which can be tricky since mannequins don't have a lot of definition. I used a "The Wish" Cordy head since it worked with this figure. I did have to sculpt the ears. I knew I was going to have to sculpt 4 ears and I have not gotten that down yet. I think what I have is not bad, I need more practice but it's good. I realize they look big and they aren't quite in the right spot on the head but I think it's not that obvious. Here are some before sculpt pictures and after sculpt pictures:

The only problem with this figure was the cracking. I'm not sure why it was cracking in certain spots. I put super glue over the cracks which helps but it sort of shows up after it is painted.

For the second mannequin I used such an arrangement of pieces. I used a Fred head, Deluxe Kendra torso, hips, and upper legs, Illyria legs, one arm from the Daena figure, one arm from a Heroes figure--the cheerleader girl, and a piece of a shoulder from a Dawn figure. I used the selected arms because they were the right size, and position and I like how both hands/fingers work together. I did have to shave down the torso/chest of the deluxe figure to get a good sculpt of the mannequin's chest. I also have to shave a lot off the Heroes arm because it had a lot of extra junk on it. The hard part with this was getting the pieces glued and cutting enough away from the parts to make it look natural. The figure has a slight lean to it (to the left). Also nearing completion I saw both feet did not hit the ground. So I had to cut the leg and add some sculpy to get it to be the same. I was also going to keep this mannequin wearing the shoes but I decided since the other one was bare foot, this one should be, too. So off goes the shoes, and I sculpted on feet. It's not my best work because at this point I wanted to be done with the figure. It was a hard one!! Here are some picture of the parts, then with sculpy:

For Echo, I used a Faith deluxe head, a prom Buffy top, deluxe Buffy or Faith arms, Dawn's pelvic area and upper legs, and the bare feet from "The Gift" Dawn figure.

I sculpted the rest of the pants area over the legs. Then I sculpted her tank top. I sculpted around the arm which was very difficult. I had to try to hold all these pieces and at the same time to try to figure out how her arm should be aligned according to how it was in the picture. Then without moving much I had to super glue the joints. Once that dried, I sculpted the right arm first. This one didn't turn out too bad. The left was getting difficult to sculpt so I boiled the figure, took out the arm, sculpted it, then boiled it all again and while the plastic was soft, I put the arm back in. It was super difficult because if you move the tiny arm the clay would crack and if you put pressure on the figure, the clay would crack there. It worked out with minimal crackage (hee hee sounds like a low pants problem). I then did my best at sculpting around the rest of the arm but decided to not sculpt over her shoulder. I then sculpted the hair and I am so happy with how it turned out. It it true to the picture and it looks like it's blowing. Here are some pictures:

When it came time to paint it I was nervous it wouldn't look right. My other Echo figure I made looked good, but it wasn't painted the best...and I'm not great yet at painting faces. After I did my first eye I was stunned at how it looked, it's almost like a picture!! I started painting the second eye, when I took the picture below. For the life of me I just could not get it to work! But it is what it is and it's not too bad:

Painted Echo:

For the base I had an equally difficult time finding a picture of a few white mannequins with a white background. I did come across this picture and I liked it, so I went with it. I attached it to two base stands. I then covered the bottom with some shiny gray contact paper.

And here is the finished piece! As was setting these on the base I realized that super glue might not hold the squatting figure as best as I wanted, and I didn't want the clay breaking if it got bumped. So (skip this part if you have a weak stomach) I drilled a hole in the mannequin's behind. I then used the bottom of Lorne's microphone stand and painted it silver. Then I stuck the stand in her rear, I know, I know...to get her to be propped up. I don't know if this is how a real mannequin would be held up in this position, but I was not sure where else to put the stand. Anyway, it looks good!

RollingStone Buffy 1998

I came across this old magazine with Sara Michelle Gellar on the cover. I thought it would be a nice break from making scenes from the show to attempt to recreate the cover. I was looking forward to this challenge, too. I struggled a bit with what parts I wanted to use. I know I wanted to use one of the MAC Buffy heads since it had that youthful look to it. I was planning on using a Chandra Rising Stars figure's torso since it looked to be what I needed for the torso. I was also planning on using Princess Cordelia legs.

I started sculpting the clay on the legs, boiled it, but then the clay started cracking right off the legs. I think this was one of the many bad "casts" I had. (Cast=I made legs using liquid plastic material. I pour this into a mold I also made using the original legs. The ratio of the plastic mixture was off so it makes the plastic greasy and it also makes the sculpting very difficult because the clay won't stick to it.)

Then I decided to find new parts to use. The action figure (head) I used to make Sierra, I used that body. The only problem was the legs were not right. Here is a picture of the figure I was thinking about using.

I ended up cutting off the legs and the breasts since they were too big for what I wanted. I then used the legs from the Chandra figure and super glued them onto this torso. I cut off Chandra's feet and glued on feet from a Tara figure. I then cut away the hair from the Buffy head. I had to drill a hole in the the head as well as the top of the body. I then used a stick to join the two pieces. I guess I should have made the head sit taller. This was one complaints/comments people said to me on the BTVS Figs forum. At this point in the making of this figure the neck looked fine.

I then sculpted clay over the torso just covering the rough spots and smoothing it out some. I used some wedding tulle for Buffy's stockings. (I had to paint it black before I put it on her because I knew it would be impossible to paint with it on her). I did test a sample of this in boiling water to make sure it wouldn't warp after I had attached it to her leg. I'm not good spatially so it was very hard figuring out how to attach this piece of tulle to her leg, and make it look like stockings. One side looks great, the other side I ran a little short of material but I had already super glued it so I just left it. (I'm not sure you'll be able to see the "oops" in one of the pictures). I then sculpted on Buffy's boots and clothing and chest.

Finally I attached the arms. I used deluxe Buffy action figure arms and I used the hands from a Jean Gray action figure. The positioning of the arms is a bit wrong. I guess I didn't realize until it was too late that when your hands are rested on your hips, your elbows stick straight out from your body. My elbows were slightly bent back. Most people would not recognize this but it's one of those details only the artist sees...

The hair and the upper collar on her suit was the most difficult. I tried to get that messy hair look down. Ever time I kept separating the clay to make the wisps of hair, it would rip the whole thing apart and I had to start over. I didn't want the clay to be sticking out too much or one slight bump would break the hair. What I ended up with is not what I envisioned. It looks too curly for my liking. So, I just decided I was not going to change it considering how much I struggled with it.

Here are completed pictures:

I know when you click on the picture it shows a huge blown up version. When these pictures are magnified you see many flaws. In real life you don't see the flaws, or not as easily. I like showing close ups of the face because these are 6 inch figures and painting faces is extremely hard--and getting it to look like the character is even harder! Using this head was probably a mistake. It really didn't look like Sara Michelle Geller, but I think I did a pretty good job at getting the likeness down and making her look youthful like the picture.

Here are a few of my favorite pictures. You can really see the details in the arms and clothing:

I decided to go with a very simple background. I thought about many different things but the magazine cover was simple and I kept it simple. It also looks like Sara is wearing some sort of a cape. I had no idea what it looked like (since you only see what is on the cover) I tried to reproduce this using that wedding tulle. Here is what I came up with. I have to do more tweaking to it if I'm going to use it--for now I'm not going to use it with my figure (unless I can get it to look better).

I contimplated redoing the head of this figure and using a larger Buffy head, one that is more accurate to her face, and fixing the neck, but I like how it looks and I decided to leave it alone. There are so many other great things with this figure--the arms/shoulder/armpit area, the clothing and shoe lace part. The boots.

There is one other RollingStone cover with Buffy I want to do but I'm trying to get a model car that is in scale with the figure (1:12) and that is so hard to find! If I have any luck you'll see it posted.

Here is a photo of the newspaper clipping featuring me in our local paper.

Dollhouse Promo Shot:

This is a high resolution picture of the 3 main characters I wanted to reproduce.


http://geekritique.com/__oneclick_uploads/2008/05/dollhouse3.jpg

I have this picture as the back-drop on my computer and I thought it would be a nice break from making Buffy/Angel figures and it would be a great challenge for me to sculpt and recreate.

Here are some pictures of the pieces I laid out to use:

For Sierra I used an Asian head from a warrior type action figure. I used the top torso from a Charmed figure (and I was originally going to use the arms as well--as pictured, but I decided on using Dawn arms from the Summer's 3-pack figures and a Deluxe Chosen Willow right hand). I also used one leg (and butt area) from a Gift Dawn action figure. The second picture shows the arms I ended up using.

For Victor I used a Lord Of The Rings action figure head and torso, and top part of the legs. I used a cast of the Graduation Day Angel bottom legs and feet and deluxe Angel/Spike arms.

For Echo I used a EOD Faith body minus the feet and hair. I then used the bare feet off an unknown action figure.

For the base I found this piece of plastic while out junk shopping. It was the perfect size for the floor and for the 3 figures. (I actually found this before I even thought about doing this project--talk about your luck!) It had some gunk on it so I sanded down the plastic. I did add side pieces using the foam board to make the boarder on the floor.

I started sculpting Sierra. I attached the head onto the Charmed body, and I attached the torso on to the legs. After sculpting around the legs I didn't like the positioning of her legs and how it looked. I decided to get rid of one of the back legs and just sculpt the pants. Since Sierra is wearing big pants I made the bottom look like it was around her back foot. It turned out well. I also originally used the breasts that were on the Charmed figure. When I was nearing completion I noticed the breasts looked rather large and not natural so I painfully had to cut away them and resculpt the breasts (I say painfully because once you have a figure that is near completion, it is dang near impossible to make big changes without something going wrong--breaking other parts, for example). It worked out well and I'm happy with the results. I then had to glue the arms into place and sculpt them. During the sculpting process I didn't really notice Sierra's left arm being so large. It wasn't until after I painted her that her left arm looked HUGE and not accurate. I could have busted off the arm and gone with a smaller arm but I decided it was a minor flaw and it would be facing away and in the background so I let it go.

Painting Sierra was not an easy task. I had many different versions of her eyes painted. I just couldn't pull off the Asian look. I think what I have now is pretty good. What was most frustrating about her face was all the paint I had to keep applying and it started to layer up too much that it looks blotchy and streaky. It's fine from a distance, but not up-close. At this point there was not much I could do so I let it go.

For Victor I sculpted the hair and I had to fix the ears since the original figure had pointed ears.

I then sculpted his chest, shirt and I sculpted over the legs to make his legs more solid--like he is waring pajamas. I then attached the arms and sculpted over the joints and I sculpted on his sleeves.

I was amazed at how easy it was to paint Victor. Part of it was just dumb luck I think. I was carefully painting his eye area and my brush slipped a bit and it came out looking just like his eyes. So I left it of course. The other eye was not that difficult either. His shirt does have a bit of a sparkle to it since I used the same color on Sierra's pants and I wanted her pants to look girly and glittery. I decided not to change his shirt--it makes it look more polyester or nylon spandex.

For Echo I sculpted her hair, her breasts, tank top, pants and I sculpted over her arm joints. The hardest part was the feet I used. I really should have gone with my extra set of Gift Dawn feet that I had. Instead I used another figure's feet. This figure's feet were arched back (or downward). I had to boil the feet to re-bend them into a flat position. They really didn't stay that well and I knew that if I sculpt around the feet and reboil them, they would return back to their normal starting position. (I just imagined myself trying to re-bend the feet after I had just sculpted the pants and boiled the clay and I was just visualizing the pants crack and break. I didn't want that to come true.). So what I did was sculpt the pants around the feet, then carefully pulled out the feet. Then, I boiled the pants. When it cooled, I slipped the feet back into the holes. The problem remained that she didn't stand on her own. I had to sculpt some support on the back of her pants to make her stand up. In reality if you look closely she's still somewhat on her tip-toes, but I tried to give the illusion that she is just standing on her whole foot. I was also impressed with how her hair turned out. I tried taking pictures of the back-side but it's not very clear. It is really pretty. Oh, and the other painful thing I had to do was get the action figure's arm and fingers correctly positioned. Wow was this difficult. Lots of super glue later, she is resting her hand on her hip and it looks pretty cool.

Painting Echo wasn't much of a challenge since I was using a Faith head (Eliza D.'s action figure). I worked at getting her make-up just right. It was hard trying to get all the details on such a small face. I think I pulled it off fairly accurately.

Here are the figures all together, unpainted, then painted.

Here are pictures to compare :