Today's Activities 12/10/10

I put the hair on the Venus figure I am turning into April (Turtle Version) but the paints for that project haven't come in yet so I'm going back to working on my Irma (Rat Version) figure. Tonight I'm doing the sculpting. Fun, fun. I also stopped in Hastings and picked up Tales Of The TMNT #65. It's the first time I've read the new comic. Not bad but I still think I prefer the old Archie comic...

Pictures of sculpted Rat Irma in the next post.

New Custom Project

I got the base figure for the new custom figure I plan to make. This time I'm looking to make were-rat Irma from the classic cartoon show. She was only a were-rat for one episode but I thought she looked really great as one. (One of The Ratking's few accomplishments)

For the base figure I'm using a Blink figure from the X-Men toy line. She had this awkward way of standing with her knees slightly bent and her toes pointing inward that gave a very insecure look that would be perfect for Irma. Her hands were also perfect for a were-rat. The figure is a bit more sexy then Irma ever was... let me make that WAY more sexy, but that's okay. She can be a sexy were-rat. I think becoming a were-rat was an improvement for Irma anyways.

For the head I had planned to take the head off of a Ninja Turtles 'Master Splinter' figure and sand it down just a bit to make it look more girlie, but as you can see in the picture, while the figures are about the same height, the proportions are way off. The head will be too big on her. That was something I hadn't planned on. Now I'm thinking I'll have to sculpt the rat features onto the already existing head. I can only hope it works out because as far as I know there aren't a whole lot of rat action figures out there to be used as parts. The Biker Mice From Mars sure won't work. I know... I checked...

Teenage Mutant Samurai Turtle: Step 3

The last step was to sand down any parts that needed to be smoothed out and then paint the figure. I didn't sand down too much because as I said I wanted him to have a weathered, ragged look. For that same reason I used the cheap craft store acrylic paint instead of the good stuff you would use on plastic models. It gave him sort of a dusty, chalky look which was what I wanted. I wanted this guy to look like he had been walking cross country for the last few months, not like he had just come off the shelf at ToysR'Us.

All in all I'm very happy with how he came out for the first custom figure I've made in five years... the first I've ever made that involved sculpting... Look at him there hanging out with my favorite turtle girl, Venus.

Now All I have to do is find him a good sword and make a kimono for him to wear. I'll put up another picture when I do.


For my next custom Ninja Turtle figure I'm planning to do the were-rat version of Irma from season 4 of the classic cartoon. I already have parts in the mail and I'll talk about it more when I get started on it.

Teenage Mutant Samurai Turtle: Step 2

So now that I have sculpted the new parts on my figure it's time to harden them. With sculpty you have to use heat to harden it and there are a few ways we can do this. The way you hear the most is to put it in the oven and bake it. But wait! Won't the figure melt if you put it in the oven? Umm... yeah... I've been told that you have to keep the oven somewhere between 150 degrees to 245 degrees. That way it will be hot enough to harden the sculpt but not melt the figure.

Screw that!

That's too hard, too much work, and too risky. I took the easy approach and boiled the figure. That's right, I just popped him in a pot of boiling water for five minutes and he was done.

Although as you can see in the picture, the paint on his shoulders, which were made of hard plastic instead of hardened rubber like the arms and legs, changed from green to white. I actually boiled the color right out. I think this was because I forgot to turn the heat off before putting the figure in the water. As I understand it, you need to bring the water to a boil then reduce heat and bring to a simmer before putting the figure in. I didn't do that. I just boiled him like a lobster... Oops.

But I was going to paint him anyways so it shouldn't make any difference.

PS: Again, bad picture. This was taken the same night as the other ones.

Teenage Mutant Samurai Turtle: Step 1

So I've been working on my Ninja Turtle custom figure and I'm almost finished. Here's what I did...

First I found an old ninja turtle figure (Michelangelo) who had, as I mentioned in my last post, been damaged. I forgot to take a before picture to show what he looked like before I started working on him. Sorry... So the first step was to make him some new parts with sculpty. Fingers and toes to replace the ones that were missing. Samurai looking hair, since I wanted a Samurai Turtle instead of a Ninja Turtle... And sandals sculpted onto his feet. I also used it to fill in the groove around his waist where his belt went since I didn't intend to use a belt for this figure. I didn't bother sanding down any of the places where his mask, wrist bands, knee pads, ect. had been sliced and chipped because I wanted him to have sort of a weathered, ragged look and whatever had gotten a hold of him had already done the job for me.

The next step after this will be to harden the sculpty.


PS: I know the pictures look a little... what's the word... bad. I'm not a photographer and I was having difficulties with my camera the night I did this.

First Custom Figure Started

I haven't done any comic book hunting in the last few days, (I do have a life you know...) but I have started working on my first custom action figure. It's a Ninja Turtle figure naturally, seeing as that's where my true passion is. I pulled the old colector's case full of beat up Turtle figures left over from my childhood out of the basement closet and while going through it I found that old Michelangelo who looked like he had been run over by a lawn mower. Either that or been chewed on by a shitty little dog. Feeling quite sorry for the guy I pulled out my sculpty and started fixing him up. Then I said, what the hell, let's make his a full out custome. I'll start pasting pictures of him in my next post, but so far he's coming along pretty good for my first time.

Last night after work I stopped by my local Hastings. They have recently expanded their comic book section and now have a nice sized back issue section, but for some reason I have never thought to look through it for Ninja Turtles comics. I could kick myself for that... Sure enough I found a small section labeled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but all that was in it were the newer Tales Of TMNT or whatever that comic is called... (I've never read it) So I went through the rest of the "T" section, looking at every comic just to make sure there weren't any that had been misplaced, and found a single issue of the original Eastman and Laird's Teenage Mutant Ninja turtles. Issue #47. So I grabbed it. But now I'm thinking I may have to pick a day to go back and go through every single comic they have just to make sure there aren't any more stuck in the wrong place by people who pulled them out to buy them then got lazy after changing their minds just stuck them back wherever. There's a lot of comics there so it's quite a task and I'm not looking forward to it.