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:

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:

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: 

Bioshock's Frank Fontaine (with plasmid effects)

Audio Diary #47 - Fontaine's revenge... (written by joe_of_war)

"I gotta tell you Andy, your persistence never ceases to amaze me. You think you can just send over one of your tin-can cronies to finish me off?! I had the drop on that scrap metal freak quicker than you could say 'Busto'. Put a knife in his belly and his suit on my back! This day forward, neither you or none of your Daddies can waltz into Fontaine Fisheries expectin' to come out alive. So let this Delta be a prime example of what's comin' to you. You come out here with so much as a crooked smile on that mug and mark my words you'll be fish-hooked, gutted and floatin' topside by curfew. Now I got myself inside this clunker, all spliced up with more Adam runnin' through my veins than God-given. You want some kind of a war, Ryan? Some sick revolution or evolution like that Tenenbaum broad?? I got news for ya both, it ain't gonna happen! Not on my watch. I got workers linin' up to snuff you out for nothin' more than a handshake with the boss! Better lay off the cheap dames and the nose candy 'cuz I'm comin' for YOU Ryan, baby! And I'm gonna send you back to fresh-air Liberty in a box!! YOU HEAR ME RYAN?! IN A BOX!!!"

This is Frank Fontaine in a Subject Delta Big Daddy suit. He is also sporting the Winter Blast plasmid (basically a superpower that allows him to control ice). He was made from a NECA Subject Delta and has some heavy modification going on. Starting with the head, it was a DCU Lex Luther that was a clear cast and had to be painted in full. I gave his eyes a wintery feel too. His torso was from a DC Boomerang - repainted brown, and the neck blue for ice.

The factory NECA figure was an empty shell with no human inside and no way of seeing inside the suit. The factory helmet was solid, non see-through, and you couldn't remove it at all. Well I fixed all that! I altered his helmet to be removable and I also added clear plastic for his see-through visor. The helmet can be unhinged and put back in place since I added 2 rare earth magnets 1/4 in diameter - 1 on the helmet and 1 behind his head. Ice was sculpted around the visor and the helmet was painted to look frozen. As for the drill and alternate right arm, they were also painted to look frozen. Seashells, barnacles and starfish were all fodder from various figures.  Paints were Testors, Tamiya and Citadel acrylics.

Reference: 

Base Figure:

Work in progress of head and body (paint and sculpt):

Frank Fontaine finished: