How do you make custom action figures?
 

I'm trying to make a jessica drew spider woman and i'm using a Julia Carpenter spider woman from the marvel universe two packs.Whats the best paint and tools to use to make customs? how do i make the lines on the costume straight and where could i buy the materials i need.if everything works out i'll post pix.thanks in advanced.

Being the body is not perfectly straight, you dont have to have perfect lines.

That being said, I have heard of people using the blue paiters tape or the tape used to mask off the RC cars for lines. The paints... that is a preference. I would find a medium red and bright yellow (Sucks to paint)

i dont mean the color of the paint i mean the type of paint cause i dont think a paint you could get at wal-mart would work that good.

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When I did my Iron Patriot custom, I used acrylic paint. As for this, I'm no expert. I'd ask SentinelPrime if I were you.

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I like to use acrylic paints from Wal-Mart. They're cheap, but effective. They even have metallic colors when you want something shiny. As for lines, I find that the better the brush, the cleaner the paint job. I'm not saying to spend a fortune on brushes, but get a good multi-pack that has a variety of brushes. There are brushes designed specifically for painting lines and pin-striping and that definitely helps.

I use random paints, mostly model ones.

Testor's Acrylic, Masterworks, and even deck paint. Any hobby place, or even Home Depot should have some. Krylon and Dupant work so far the best that I've done, but they take near weeks to dry. But once they do, they are like the plastic itself, they are that durable. But those should only be used as a last resort if you can. I had to do that for the iron patriot I'm working on, and it's murder waiting for him to harden so finger prints don't sink in as I handle him to do the rest. But once it was dry, that stuff won't even scrape off.

Another thing to keep in mind is how the paints are based themself. Like Jin Saotome and others use Tamiya water based paints, among more. But with paint that's water soluable, even the skin oils in your hands will make it fade and rub off over time unless you seal coat it. So that's something you need to think ahead on and be prepared for. Water Soluables are great for beginners due to their ease of clean up, but you must remember to coat it with a finishing coat once you are done to prevent fade, rub off, etc issues. As great as these are for beginners, if you aren't used to their problem aspects, you'll be repainting the figure every few times you handle it. Jin Saotome gets around this by finish coating it, that seals his work in place for moderate durability.

As for straight lines, tape and patience is your friend.
Start off slow, pick one color to do at a time, and tape off the areas that don't get that color. Paint what you need to. Let sit for a day to a day and a half to make sure no smudging while you handle it to tape up the next part. Remove the tape after it completely dries and hardens depending on the paint used. Tape up the next spot for a color, and repeat. Also remember before doing this, pick the one major color you'll be using, and do it first.

For example, with spiderwoman, cover the eyes and if need be the lower face. Use tape and an exacto blade to make sure it perfectly matches the area you need to cover, then paint her the base red first. Then once that dries, tape off the spots needed for the next color like yellow, paint that, let it dry. Then do the black borderlines using the tape on both the yellow and the red cut to shape as you did with the eyes. Or you can do the black before the yellow to make the outlines easier on yourself, but sometimes it's hard for light colors to show up as intended on black, but not vice versa.

Another great thing to help in this taking the figure apart, and handling each piece one at a time using various tools that can hold it in place for you and steady while you paint, so you can leave it as that till dry. I have a stand that I inherited from my father that does this for me with clips. But others I've seen have used toothpicks, styrofoam, nondrying clay, and more. I've even seen one person use sticky tack with toothpicks to hold pieces, while the they were placed in styrofoam to hold them steady.

Another thing that comes in handy are ROC scarlett reactive suit hands. They have the same dainty feeling as the Ms. Marvel Hands, and give you more variety to your figures.

The yellow I recommend on Drew, is Masterworks 4771 Gloss yellow.
You'll also need a gloss red, no clue on it's number designation but you may want to compare at a hobby store till you find the rich gloss red you need, and you also may want to get two blacks. One flat for the hair, one gloss like for the black lines.

A key thing to help with figures especially, Flats for skin tones and hair, gloss for clothes.
Unless you want to go for pure realism, then stick to only flats. I tend to like to mix it up with gloss and flats though, to give the costumes that extra sheen but leaves skintones that more human looking flat color unless you need some kind of 'glow' to the figure.

Another trick that I use, is ahead of time going through the various model paint websites to find the color I want. So I know the number designation ahead of time before going shopping. Makes finding the color quicker.

But honestly the first thing you have to decide on is, gloss or flat. Then pick your colors accordingly. Also be sure to buy paint thinner and at walmart they have a brush set that's about 3 dollars, each handle is triangled off for easier holding, and they have a multitude of sizes in the pack to cover almost all needs, with a soft enough brush hair that you won't get weird paint marks or gathering spots.

I was not referring to colors of paint. I was referring to brands. There are many of them. As mentioned in an above post there is Testor's Model Master paintsor Apple Barrel that comes from Wal-Mart. Then P3 (Privateer Press Paints), and Games Workshop Paints. Some like only one brand, I switch back and forth between them. Some have better color options while other go on smoother.

It all comes down to preference and trial & error.

I use Testors and Tamiya typically. ONLY use Acrylic. Typically I would recommend sticking with FLAT colors. Gloss always looks horrible on anything other than a model car.
I used to love the Testors Flat Paint Markers but then they discontinued them and I have never found a worthy replacement. I tried Gundam markers but nothing is really "flat" with them regardless of what the add says. I'm back to using Paint brushes again (and tooth picks for really small bits like eyes). As CrownCoke said, trial and error works best and what you want is a smooth paint, to watery and it runs, killing your paint job.

wow thats alot of info,do i have to remove the paint completley b4 i paint it.

Nah, at most depending on your needs you might need to base coat it in something. But the easiest approach is to use as much as what's already there to your favor, like skin tones, eyes, etc. Otherwise you should be okay.

And yeah there are a ton of paint brands out there. I've just recently started dabbling the Testor's Masterworks paints, but so far love em, and they cover a wide array of colors and are pretty durable once they completely set in.

It really depends on your needs and paint that you buy. Like for Ironman metallic colors, even with buying a metallic red or whatever color, you might need to put a silver coat down first so it shows up as you need it to. But for solid colors it can vary. And yeah gundam markers aren't worth the money at all. Those are generally a skip unless you absolutely need them for fine work. Another thing that comes in handy is to have a piece of paper or other thing that you can test colors on that you buy, so you have a reference of how it looks before you use it. I generally use old packaging for that. The bubble of the bubble cards comes in handy for that lol.

Water soluable is just the only thing I'd suggest avoiding honestly besides gundam markers. Water soluable is just full of issues unless you're extremely experienced, just as gundam markers are an extreme pain unless you're experienced at how to keep them sealed. And also yeah, gloss paints vary per need. Flats are generally better, but thankfully testor's masterworks has every color in both.

I use Green stuff when I'm sculpting on details. And I use Warhammer paint.

Please make sure you don't bump threads of this nature.

As to answer the question in the original post, there are quite a bit of resources here: Table of Contents - TFW2005 - The 2005 Boards