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I'm new to the actionfigureinsider, but have been customizing for a while. I will be posting new and old customs here, first up is my latest, BEOWULF
I haven't even seen this movie yet, but I am familiar with the story from several different translations though, and I have always been a fan of the story. Even though I haven't seen the flick, I was anxious to make an articulated Beowulf out of Todd McFarlane's figure. First, let me give props to ToymakerB for the recipe...I used the LCBH Conan the Barbarian as the base figure. My first order of business was to carve away at the armpits on the Conan so that his arms could be posed all the way down to his side. I used the 'heat n pop' method to get all of the original Beowulf's armour off. I really wanted the chain mail to look like it was underneath the breastplate, so I painstakingly shaved off the pieces in very thin layers and attached them to his harness. I would have really liked to have been able to keep the breastplate/harness removable, but I could not come up with a very practical solution to do this and still make it look right. I had to really dremmel off a lot of Conan's back and shoulders to get the harness to fit and wrap completely around his torso. I pieced together some spare chain mail as best as I could and attached the harness permanently (*the last picture was taken prior to this as I wanted to kind of capture the mood of one of the scenes where Beowulf is confronting Grendel's mother for the first time). All in all, this was a pretty simple 'cut n paste' job, but it took quite a while to get it done. Still anxiously awaiting the movie's release on video...






And here is an slightly older one, CONAN THE KING
Conan the King is made from a WWE Deluxe Agression "Triple H" figure with pieces from the McFarlane Conan series King Conan box set. I wanted to make an ARTICULATED King Conan in the likeness of the McFarlane box set one, so I set to work. I modified a contemporary Masters of the Universe "He-Man's" harness to attach the shoulder pads to. The shield is from a LOTR "Easterling" figure and the sword is from McFarlane's "leaping" Conan figure. The cape comes from a Stan Winston's Realm of the Claw "Nakuru". With the exception of bendable wrists, this figure retains all the points of articulation that the WWE Deluxe Agression figures have. I imagine this is much the way Conan would have looked in Robert E. Howard's story "The Phoenix on the Sword". [img[/img][img[/img][img[img[img[/img][img[/img]


Here's another one I call DEMON SAMURAI. The Jackal Assasin from the Spawn Samurai Wars Has some great "authentic looking" samurai armour, but I was greatly disappointed in the figure as a whole. I used a Scorpion Assassin from the same line for the body structure and used a SLEEPY HOLLOW headless horseman's skull for the head (on which the helmet fits nicely). The armour is mostly from the Jackal Assassin with other additional pieces and fur from the Scorpion Assassin.
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Here's another one of my old customs, GARRADOR
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Holy MOTHER OF GOD.

I think I just found my favorite two customs in the whole wide world. WOW.

I dont know if beautiful is a the right word to describe warriors, but these are BEAUTIFUL!

Nice Stuff! The Demon Samurai reminds me alot like Bludgeon from the Transformers.

True works of art. I am truly speechless. I can't adequately decribe how impressed I am with your work.

Thank you for sharing.

tyke-Thanks! I'm starting to feel welcome here!
Glassman-Very kind words Pal, I appreciate the compliments!
Primetime-The Demon Samurai is actually one of my first customs that I ever created. Come to think of it, I probably did that one about eight years ago. It was really a pretty easy chop-job, figuring out how to do the shoulders was the hardest part.
Glenn2000-I am truly humbled, thanks!

This is Conan the Barbarian, made from parts from Todd McFarlane's conan series, a WWE Deluxe Aggression Randy Orton, and various other pieces. Hope you like it.

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Awesome Job, they all look great!


D.

Thanks DUSTY
Well, here's another custom that I came up with called "Tara"
I would have made this as a character within the Conan mythos, but as I was really just wingin' it on this one, I really wasn't inspired by any particular character. "Tara" is the name of a longtime family pet we had that passed away and I just thought that would be a good name to use (it was better than Cone-Ann the Boobarian anyways). I figure that Tara is just a female barbarian who's life kind of mirror's Conan's in many ways. She has probably been a slave, a thief, and a warrior at different stages in her life and has led an adventurous one at that.

This was just an exercise in fodder that I wanted to experiment with. For a while now, I have wanted to create a basic female barbarian like those in the cheesy 80's B-movies. I think the base figure is a wrestling figure called Torrie?, while the head is from another wrestler called Lita or something. (I'm not a wrestling fan). Tara's outfit and boots are courtesy of some "adult superstar" figure. I did some minor touch up work on the head and added some fur arm bands. The belt is from a Pirates of the Carribean Elizabeth Swann figure. The sword is from a Lord of the Rings elf, I cut the long handle off and did a little resculpting on it and the scabbard. The cape is from some Xena figure. The Polar Bears are from the line of figures for the movie "The Golden Compass", a little paint here and there and that's it. I hope you like!

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Another work of art maelstrom. She is perfect down to every detail. Very nice use of parts. Great imagination to come up with her.

GLASSMAN-Thanks for the comments bro'

I originally envisioned this custom about 2 years ago. I really liked the Marvel Legends Showdown series of figures (didn't care for the game mind you). In my opinion, some of the MLS series figures were far better than their ML counterparts. Anyways, I had hoped they would release a Sabretooth to go with this line...there were not many villains released and Sabes is probably my favorite villain. Sadly, the series was discontinued and the figures that were released were very hard to find. I knew that I wanted to make a Sabretooth and I thought the Venom figure might be the right base for it, but I had not seen any in stores. So after much waiting in vain for one to show up at retail, I opted to buy one online for an exorbitant price. I went through many trials and errors on this custom, this is my first full paint job on a custom, so I learned a lot on this one. After several near disastrous attempts, I have finally finished this and "ALMOST" couldn't be happier with the results. In a twist of irony, the head is actually Sabe's arch-enemy Logan (Unmasked Wolverine Variant). A little Fixit sculpt was used for the hair and fur mantle, and I used the ends of toothpicks for his claws. Anyways, here it is!



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"HAPPY BIRTHDAY KIDDO!"


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Thats Perfect! I too love the Showdown figures. I had wanted to make a bunch of these customs too. Clever work on that logan head and nice touch with the toothpick tips.
I was thinking of shrinking a cast of the 6" sabertooth for a similar figure. Great work.

Glassman-Thanks bro', I loved the MLS series, too bad it got deep sixed when Marvel switched to Hasbro.

Well, I have been pretty busy lately with work and other commitments, and have not been able to work much on customs, much less leave feeback for other people. But I did manage to finish a new project...
Here's my newest custom that I call the "Green Sentinel" This is a Green Lantern concept that I originally came up with about a year ago or so when the Figurerealm had a Green Lantern contest. I was stumped for ideas and by the time I came up with a sketch that I liked there were just a few days left for the submission deadline. My favorite version of GL is the "Kingdom Come" Alan Scott, so I initially thought I would make a custom of him during the period somewhere between his stint as the "Sentinel" and the Kingdom Come story arc. As the deadline was fast approaching, I decided not to pursue it, but then I kept coming across the sketch again and again, so I decided I would try a "quickie". I wasn't totally sold on this design, so I thought I would just take a different approach than what I would have normally done. I decided to use a base figure that I am really not particularly fond of, the "Black Panther". The Black Panther figure looks kind of deformed to me, with the rounded off shoulders, small chest, and the severe case of hip displasia. However, the texture of the BP body kind of took on an alienish look when I applied the green paint. I wanted to make a little bit of a different looking Green Lantern, but also maintain a streamlined, traditional look. I also thought it would be cool for him to have a beard, so I used a ML "Sentry" variant figure head for the beard, the cowl/mask is from a DC "Batman" and the hair was sculpted with AVES Fixit sculpt. The gauntlet style gloves were made with thin plastic from (of all things) a yogurt cup. I wanted some biker-style boots, so I sculpted them and made some straps and used some buckles from a Sleepy Hollow "Headless Horseman". The jewel in the center of the chest is from my daughter's "Barbie" collection, I think? Alan Scott's hair is/was blond as the Sentinel, but it was stark white for the Kindom Come arc. I didn't want to make him look old, and I thought blond hair with a beard and green mask would just make him look too much like Green Arrow, so I scrapped the Alan Scott idea and I am sorry to say that I don't have any original ideas for an origin or story for this custom. But nevertheless, I like the moniker of "Green Sentinel", so that's what I'm calling this one. I figure he's a distinguished member of the GL Corps "honor guard", and is not assigned to any specific sector, but has broad authority and explores the universe. His five year mission....whoops!, I started waxing like William Shatner there for a sec...Anyways, here it is, no where near in time for the contest. But overall, I am pretty happy with how it came out.



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I've been busy working on several challenging projects lately and decided to take a break and do a quick head-swap...

So I bought the DCUC series 2 Aquaman (modern version)...I really wanted the classic version, but have yet to find one at stores. Is it just me, or was the DCUC series 2 harder than heck to find?...Oh, well. Anyways, I thought the head on the original figure was just too...how should I say this?...Fey?!!!!...

Really, I thought he looked like Prince Charming from the "Shreck" movies, and what is with that stupid grin?...

My original intent was to totally rip off Buzzy Fret's Aquaman custom (Classic Aquaman without the black trunks), but after getting tired of waiting for a DCUC Classic Aquaman to surface, I looked back at previous Aquaman entries. I really liked the one done by Arez. So I decided to give Aquaman a testosterone charged makeover. A set of whiskers could really go far at making Aquaman look manly, so (just like the one done by Arez) I used a Marvel Legends Sentry variant head (which fit surprisingly well on the Aquaman head peg). Then I sculpted just a little bit of extra hair in the back and painted it blonde.

I wanted an Aquaman that looks like he does more than just talk to fish...I know it's just a simple headswap, but I'm really happy with the way this turned out.

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That may only be a head swap, but its a great look for the figure, really regal looking. Good job!!

totally! Nice use of parts.