James as an action figure

I have always wanted someone to make me into an action figure, but since I've been practicing my painting skills and sculpting skills I decided to try this on my own. I knew it should be some what easy because I knew the figure I wanted to use--John Lennon. All my life I heard how I look similar to him. So I purchased a figure on ebay and started hacking it to pieces. Here is the original figure:

I was bummed his arms didn't move. They were stuck in this position. He really had no articulation. I removed his hair, arms, glasses, and cut off quite a bit on his shirt. I also cut away at his pants (bell bottoms).

I then had to figure out what would be good arms to use and what outfit I wanted to wear. I was going to use NECA Harry Potter arms. So I saw a deal on ebay again--but when I finally got the package--it was the 3.5 inch figures--not 7 inch!!! Grr. No wonder why it was a good deal!
So I looked at my Buffy figures and noticed I had an extra set of Spike arms--they worked out great. When I sculpted the shoulders it didn't look quite right so I had to cut off a lot of that, then hot glue the arms into place. I don't like when I have to hot glue pieces because it will loosen when you boil it and then the sculpy will break. I have learned that if you dip it in the boiling water for 10 seconds or so, then let it cool, then go again, the glue will hold. Anyway, here are some progress photos...


The sculpting turned out fine. Once I got the arms set (no photo) the rest was easy enough. On to the hard part--painting! I had asked Willowswarlok (a member on this site:)(http://btvsfigs.proboards48.com/index.cgi) for help on the jeans since his painted jeans look like they could be real. The back turned out pretty good, but I just couldn't get the front to look quite right. After many attempts I had to call it quits.


Once I finished the face the guy didn't look like me at all. My cheeks are more bloated and my nose was a bit thinner. Here are those pictures:


I figured I had to cut away at the nose some, add sculpy to make the cheeks, and make my ears stick out more. The final product isn't all that bad. It is rough and bumpy in many spots. This is due to the face not being smooth and the paint picks up every detail that's a "flaw" that you can't see when you're sculpting. That is what makes sculpting so hard! Here is my pic and the figure--then a close up photo...


Finally, since I like fire and I like to burn things, I decided it would be funny to put me close to the scene I posted earlier of The Beast in his box of fire. I made a gas can next to me and I'm holding a box of matches. Check it out!