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!

Apocalypse, Nowish

Season 4, Episode 7: Apocalypse, Nowish
Original Air Date: 17 November 2002 Plagues of rats, earthquakes and a string of strange events lead Angel and the gang to one realization: the apocalypse has come at last. Meanwhile, Connor and Cordelia encounter The Beast, who has come to Los Angeles on the verge of Armageddon to help bring about the end of the world.

A friend and I were watching this scene awhile back and he said it would be cool if I made this scene (where The Beast stands in the square of burning bodies). It sat on my mind for quite some time and I finally decided to try it. I tend to be critical of my work because I know I could do a better job if I had the time and minimal distractions. This piece took me several months--collecting parts, sculpting, painting, casting fire pieces. I'll tell you what bugs me at the end of the blog so I don't bias what you think.

I started collecting various "body" parts. The bodies are varied in sizes and styles. I had some Power Rangers, Buffy spare parts, Star Trek, etc. I tried to put the really un-human parts at the bottom and the better parts on top. (With the fire added and paint, it's hard to pick out any details which is what I wanted.) I had various fire/flames that I collected. I made a cast of these fire pieces and I made many other parts to add to the effect. It is all glued on a tile. Here are the before picture.

This is the people parts with the casted flames.

Next step was to make The Beast. I had this really cool figure that had feet that looked like it would work out great for The Beast's feet. Once I started sculpting it I realized I need to cut a lot of it's face away. I ended up redoing the nose and lips. Everything else is sculpted on. Here are some pictures of The Beast.

This is the figure I used. I started sculpting and cutting away at it until I realized I needed to take a picture of the before look. This is also about the time I realized that The Beast's neck was much longer so I had to pop off this guy's head and extend the neck area.

Once I got to this point I realized that if I were to stand this figure next to a 6 inch figure it would be close to the same size. I had to then cut the legs in half and add clay between the parts to make the legs longer. One leg broke in the process (go figure) but I glued it after I baked the whole thing. It didn't look bad at all since The Beast is a bumpy fellow.

Working on the legs at this point.

Close up of the head/chest. (the head is not attached, yet.

The completed front and back of The Beast.

This is to how how much taller The Beast is compared to a 6-inch figure.

The under coat I used to fill in the cracks of it's skin.

The completed beast. It has some orange due to the reflection from the flames.

Top view of the scene.

Front view.

This is just another front shot.

Close up of The Beast and some of the burning bodies.

Now...in all honesty I love how The Beast turned out. I liked the sculpting challenge. I couldn't get the eyes to look quite right and any close up pictures I took looked really bad. Next, I wish I had painted the tile a darker color--since the scene was on a roof-top. I still may go back and rip off the people, paint it, then re-glue the people. The white base just throws off the effect. Last, I pride myself on paying attention to details and capturing the whole scene. Using these scrap figures makes the scene seen silly. I tried to cover as many of the "off" parts with flames and lot of "flamey" (sounds like a good Buffy word) paint. All in all, it looks really good with some lights shining down on it.

The Gift Part (2 of 3 and 3 of 3)

This first one of Dawn and the creepy little guy took me a long time to complete. I had the idea in my mind of what I wanted to do but collecting the right parts took some time. I am not completely satisfied with how the old guy turned out. He is a redo version of an original one that I made. The neck is awkward due to the head snapping off and me gluing it back on.

For Dawn I did nothing. I did not modify her and I felt this piece was accurate enough.

For the old guy: I originally used a Phoebe head from the Charmed warrior set. I used a white witch Willow body. After I sculpted the figure a friend said the man looks like a woman (with the white crew cut hair). So I trashed that and redid the figure this time using a gentleman figure body. I kept the Phoebe head but I cut off the eyes (since they had a bulging look to them when they were painted) and the lips. I tried to resculpt the lips which didn't turn out too horrible. I also had to sculpt the ears, hair and some of the aged wrinkles. For the gentlemen body I really had to cut away at this. For one, the gentleman's coat came down too low. So I had to cut away at that. Then I had to resculpt the coat and pants. I used the arms from a Buffy Deluxe figure. Here are the pictures of the redo figure.

For the stand I used a matchbox car ramp thing (I think). I added a lot of bits and bobbles to the top to recreate the top of the tower. This tower is not proportional but it does look nice. I did not take before pictures (shoot!). I used metallic silver spray paint to cover the whole thing. When I used a sealer spray, the metallic lost it's shimmer and it make the plastic look more metal and real. I like this look.

Old version of the guy.

New version

The last of the three parts is where Glory hits the head off the Buffy Bot and Buffy is standing right behind her ready to say, "Glory, you really aren't the brightest God in the heavens are you?"

Glory has no modifications.

For the Buffy bot I used the Buffy body from the 3-pack Summer's Album figures. I also used Willow arms. I sculpted the leather jacket, and Buffy's pony tail. I love how the hair came out. It is too bad she went face down because I spent a lot of time on the front side that you can't see.

For the real Buffy I used a cast of a Buffy head, Deluxe Faith's arms, and Willow torso and legs. I sculpted the hair and shirt. She turned out really pretty. The face isn't the best but I am not good at painting faces. Here are the pictures:

Here is the 3 parts together:

The Gift (one of three parts)

Season 5, Episode 22: The Gift
Original Air Date: 22 May 2001 In the 100th episode, another imminent apocalypse is at hand in Sunnydale. Buffy must square off against a God when Glory prepares to use Dawn to break down the walls between the dimensions and unleash all Hell on Earth. Buffy and the gang go to battle, knowing that not all of them will survive.

I made the scene where Giles steps in and kills Ben (a.k.a. Glory). I thought this scene was interesting that Buffy could beat the snot out of Glory, a god, but when it comes to a human, she's not capable of murder.

This scene was a very difficult one to do!

I started out making Ben. Since Glory was wearing all black and an open-toed shoe, I knew that Ben would also have to wear this since Glory changes back into Ben. I found a head from a hockey figure that was in scale with the body I was using. I used Xander's torso (and arms) from the Moore action figure line. (Just a little FYI--This was actually a recycled part from my redo of the Xander Primeval scene--that is why the parts look different). The only figure that had bare feet was Angel. I had already made a cast of his legs so I was very happy. Here is what I had so far...

The problem here as you can clearly see the legs just would not work. No matter how much I chopped away at this, it would not work. Grrr.

So, I used a Lord Of The Rings glow in the dark skeleton figure's legs. I had to cut down the feet and I completely re-sculped the feet. I have to admit I love the way it turned out. It could always be better, but I was satisfied. The pictures aren't the greatest, but you get the idea.

Giles was another extremely difficult custom to make. He was in this crouched down position and they never showed exactly how he looked. So I had to get into the position, and act out how he would have looked. I was going to try to use a Deluxe 50s Angel figure but the legs would not bend into that position. So, off come the legs and out comes the sculpy. I have the regular sculpy clay and the super sculpy. I originally used the sculpy clay. After spending hours sculpting and the piece was boiled, I noticed the legs shifted a bit. I tried to ever so carefully bend them and it broke. So all that work went into the trash. I did end up using the calf part of the leg. I just had to sculpt the thighs. Here are some before pictures...

Here is my post breakage legs...

And wouldn't you know that the same thing happened. The legs shifted in the process of being boiled so I had to re-adjust them, which made them break. Grrr. So I just got out my lovely glue gun (I love that thing!) and I glued away...

To make Giles I used the 50s Deluxe Angel legs and torso. I used School Hard Spike's arms, I used a jacket--I think it was Spike's jacket. For the head I started out with a Chosen Giles head but when I panted it I didn't like it. Plus he had his glasses on when he was killing Ben and the glasses looked really bad on this head. So I swapped it for a Giles head (Moore action figure). This looks so much more like him. I did not repaint him. I put on the glasses that I think come in Wesley's box. I know they look like goggles. I really was not in the mood to spend more time sculpting glasses. I also had to boil Giles' hands to make them look like they were in a closed clamp (like what he did in the show when he held Ben's nose and mouth).

For the base I wanted it to have light coming in through the bottom. So I cut up an old VHS box. Then glued on some craft stitching board for the grate. After I spray painted this I hated the way it looked. So I redid this. For the newer one I used two backs from the display stands, filled it in with some clay, glued on the mesh board and I loved how it turned out. Here are the finished before and after pictures.