Lean On

Ever since Funko released the Mass Effect range of Pop! Vinyls two years ago, I've been upset with the Grunt they made. It's cute, and has a nice sculpt and structure, but it lacks Grunt's pretty blue eyes and shiny "new car" suit of armour. It gave me the idea that maybe I'd like to buy another Grunt pop just to paint over it - a custom paint. I was given a Grunt last Christmas, which set the plan in motion. However, I had another idea - why paint Grunt when I could try and morph the figure into another krogan I love even more than Grunt. So I did some research, looked into what materials are best for making custom vinyls and watched YouTube tutorial videos. I want to turn my spare Grunt into a Wrex!

[prog photos of grunt ]

The process is kinda simple. Sculpt, bake, sand. Repeat.
I used Super Sculpey, as I had seen it recommended on a few websites. For paint I plan to use acrylics and then a sealer for the final touch.

This project has grinded to a halt. I'm stuck with how to sculpt the armour on Wrex' back. But I'll get back to him. In the meantime, I worked on another custom pop for a friend. A friend of mine was turning 21, so I wanted to do something special for it, and because she's a fellow Dragon Age fan, I wanted to do something along those lines.
One of her favourite characters is Alistair, so what I've made is a King Alistair (as he appeared in Those Who Sleep).

[alistair prog and all]

I bought a male DIY Pop to built Alistair from. For the armour and details, I used super sculpey again. For the lining of fur he has on different parts of his armour, I was really stuck with what to do. I had sculpted the base of his armour and figured I'd come up with something to add there, possibly cut up some felt or something. But in the end I didn't find the idea of him having a fabric on him appealing. What I ended up doing was getting a hot glue gun and making dollops of glue for the fur. Once it cooled I cut them into shape using little nail scissors (which I finally had a use for) and finished up with acrylic paint to coat them.

Recycled the DIY box too. I wanted to keep him looking presentable.
Assembling the box was pretty easy, but getting the file ready was a bit of work. Making sure sizing was okay, etc, was shit. But I referenced this pretty great custom figure help post on this blog.

So the final product of my Alistair looked like this~

{x}

woo~~

I went Pop shopping yesterday and ended up buying more DIY vinyls. This time I bought a male and a female base. While researching how to get the graphics right on the box, I had come across a Bigby Wolf pop graphic (that I can't seem to find again now to reference!) and it kind of inspired me to try making a Bigby out of the male Pop. The female pop... well, I don't know. I wondered if I could just make a Snow to accompany Bigby, but the pose on the female figure doesn't seem to fit that image.
Today I got to thinking that maybe I can try making a Flemeth out of the female pop. I will investigate this possibility, because as much as I'd like to see a Flemeth vinyl, the biggest challenge would be the hair. To sculpt the horn shapes of her hair would make the head a bit heavy, but I think if that problem could be resolved that sculpting the rest of the figure will be smooth sailing.

But brainstorming ideas for characters is fun :D
I've got a bit of a list forming for DIY figs. So far it consists of:

• Geralt of Rivia, Witcher 3 appearance
• Adewale from AC4
• Ah Tabai from AC4 
• Shao Jun from AC Embers, AC Chronicles: China
• Gambit and Rogue from X-Men
• Crow from East of West
• Liara, Aria, (maybe?) Nyreen and Kaidan from Mass Effect
• Red from Transistor

and that's it so far. Ah. Much excite.

The world of figures has always been appealing to me. Sculpting in 3D and now physical clay sculpting makes me feel like I'm achieving something when I'm having a bad time trying to get drawings done. I want to dabble in paper craft someday. Maybe if I get back into using Illustrator I can try making paper crafts for exercises xD wishful thinking.