Monday, September 20, 2010

Shadow of the Colossus 3" Vinylmation Mickey Mouse

This here is my first custom Vinylmation. I got this blank white vinyl Mickey way back during my Easter vacation to Disney World in 2009 with my family and girlfriend Val. Didn't want to customize it until I had the right inspiration I guess. Playing through Shadow of the Colossus for about the 6th time recently, I was definitely inspired. Here is the 3" Mickey as Wander. Wander, the main character, must climb a series of 16 colossi and defeat them only by finding their weak points and putting his sword to good use on them. Defeating all 16 would release his girlfriend from a sort of deep sleep or curse. Pretty much one of the most beautiful games I've ever played and I've been playing them for 23 years so that's saying something.

Onto the symbolism of what I painted. On the front side I wanted to depict Wander as he looked in the game using a key element of gameplay. I painted his ear as the sun because in the game you have to use your sword's reflection of the sun to locate the next colossus in a massive open-world environment (including desert, forests, caves, lakes, etc.). The sword is from another figure I borrowed. The glyph on the front of his shirt is actually what the weak points of the colossi look like when you find them, only theirs glow in a vibrant light blue. 

On the back side I used a reference picture of a colossus and painted him as a black sillouette. But I wanted to give a feel for his texture so I added some brown and green to depict the colossi hair that you had to latch onto in order to actually climb the darn things! They were made of mostly stone, grass, fur, and parts that looked like building features. There was a very architectural feel to all of them since they basically rise out of the earth when you find them. Anyhow I painted his pants green and it doubles as grass for the scene on his back.

On the sides I wanted to add some feathers of different birds hanging on his belt. In the game you could collect lizard tails, but I liked the look of hanging bird feathers instead (a little artistic license).

All in all I really like how it turned out. Up next I will be customizing a 9" Vinylmation Colossus to accompany Wander here. Enjoy!

Paints - Testors and Citadel acylic flats



Reference pictures:



Finished Wander figure:









The Artist:

The dog and the girlfriend's pretty nails:

Thursday, August 26, 2010

The Mutant Raphael (Universal Monster)

Well hey there! This wasn't really a difficult custom, but the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles had a huge influence on my cartoon watching when I was a little Joe. I collected them all, and recently I got my hands on a pretty beat up Raphael figure. His paint was chipped and rubbed off, so I figured I'd give him a new paintjob! His name is The Mutant Raphael and he is from a Universal Studios series of Turtles that Playmates put out in 1994.  Anyway, I wanted to give him a new paintjob that made him look like he was straight out of an old Universal classic horror flick! P.S. huge horror/zombie fan here!

I used Citadel and Testors paints, mixing a few greys to get that greyscale feel to the figure. I Photoshopped him into the sewer photo, but I kept his original paintjob, get it? If I saw this guy stumbling towards me in a dark swer I wouldn't know if I should run or throw him a slice of black and white pizza!

Finished Raphael:










Sunday, August 8, 2010

Bioshock's Dr. J. Steinman (a very plastic surgeon) (SOLD)

My Dr. Steinman started out as a Freddy Kreuger in a surgical outfit. I switched Freddy's glove hand with Jonah Hex's. I popped his head off, added a Jonah Hex head, and sculpted his mask, head piece, flap on his chest, buttons on the flap, a bunny mask, some intestines, and a red adam bottle. A good amount of sculpting, but I love the game so I don't mind the work. The corpse and gurney are from a McFarlane X-Files Mulder set. I cut open the corpse and added plenty of nastiness to the pure white gurney. I bloodied up Steinman's face, hands, bonesaw, gurney, and corpse. Pretty much repainted everything here. Throw in some surgical tools and he's all set!! Enjoy!

base - Freddy Kreuger
head - Jonah Hex
mask - Aves Apoxie
right hand - Jonah Hex
head piece - Aves Apoxie
bunny mask - Aves Apoxie
adam & eve bottles - Aves Apoxie
intestines - Aves Apoxie
flap and buttons on surgical gown - Aves Apoxie
corpse and gurney - McFarlane X-Files Mulder set
tools - fodder
paints - Citadel
 

Reference:

Work in Progress shots:

Accessories:

Finished Product:

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Batsu vinyl Kratos

My second custom of my favorite video game character, Kratos.  This time I took a stab at working with the oh-so popular vinyl medium.  I think it turned out nicely too!  I used a NECA Gears of War Batsu that I got for $5 from TRU.  Nothing like cheap, fun materials!! 

Well here's how it all went down.  I gave him a base coat of Citadel grey foundation.  Then I penciled in his facial features.  Basically I penciled all of the lines before getting to the final paint job.  After penciling, I used a lighter grey/blue Citadel for his skin tone.  He's that color because in the game he's covered in human ashes.  And I wanted to give his black lines on his body a sketchy feel that's why they aren't completely solid.  I think it gives a cool video game vibe.  His little cloth piece in front was from a Pirates o.t.c. figure that I repainted.  And there was no Apoxie sculpt used in this custom for once! 

For his blades I took a pair of God Of War weapons and repainted them completely to give them a metal blade look.  Then I bloodied them up to give them a less friendly look, and also gave them a magnet each.  For the chains I used some McFarlane "Creech" tentacles and painted them a bronze color, and added 2 magnets each.  They are fully flexible since they have a wire inside, and connect to magnets on the back of Kratos' arms.  Makes for some really cool posing actually!  Check the pics!  I used 9 rare earth magnets in all so that his blades could be posed for action shots.  He also has a magnet on his back so he can hold a blade there when not rolling heads. 

Recipe: 
base - Gears of War vinyl Batsu toy
blades - God Of War figure fodder
chains - McFarlane "Creech" tentacles
paints - Citadel
cloth skirty thing - Pirates o.t.c. fodder
9 rare earth magnets for posing 

Before and after shot: