Avengers Captain America with improved articu
 

So I was working on my custom Mr.Freeze today (funny way to start a Captain America thread I know). Anyway I needed a distraction from Freeze and suffering plastic crack withdrawals from lack of hunting I grabbed my carded Maskless Captain America and ripped into him!

Great sculpt but as we know the Avengers line is a bit lacking in articulation, so I decided to fix that! I added the following articulation:

Waist Rotation
Wrist Hinge/Swivels
Ankle hinge/Rockers

http://i334.photobucket.com/albums/m...g/P4180060.jpg
http://i334.photobucket.com/albums/m...g/P4180062.jpg

I was very happy with the results, so much so I went ahead and started painting him up. Going for a more "real world" or "GI Joe-ish" color scheme, here's where I am so far:

Got the lower half pretty much done, just washes left to do (but I'll do that after the figure is totally finished).
http://i334.photobucket.com/albums/m...P4180062-1.jpg

You can note I used a ball joint for the waist, rather that the screw method. This allows a bit of wiggle to assist in some poses:
http://i334.photobucket.com/albums/m...g/P4180058.jpg

Some shots showing the buckles and boot eyelet details, they were a pain, hah!
http://i334.photobucket.com/albums/m...P4180057-1.jpg

Some closeups of the belt, went for a nice worn leather look, the flap buttons and rear grommets were toughies too! I drilled a tiny hole in the hand grip of the pistol and painted it steel to accurately replicate the screw that hold the grips to the handle:
http://i334.photobucket.com/albums/m...P4180060-1.jpg
http://i334.photobucket.com/albums/m...P4180059-1.jpg

Also here's how I add articulation for pennies without sacrificing other figures. I use an old school method I came up with as a teenager for my StarWars figures. I use fishing hooks and brass rod (back in the day I used fishing hooks and straight pins) Basically cut the curved/barbed part off and leave yourself a shank with an eyelet, and use the rod to act as the pin.
http://i334.photobucket.com/albums/m...g/P4180065.jpg
http://i334.photobucket.com/albums/m...g/P4180064.jpg
See how that works? Instant ankle articulationWITH rocker action!
Also works great for wrists too:
http://i334.photobucket.com/albums/m...g/P4180066.jpg

I'll work on the upper body tomorrow! Enjoy!

That's a pretty ingenious joint method. I'll stick with cannibalizing joints though. Only cuz my scrap bucket is loaded :P Great custom.

I am not really understanding what you did for the joints there. Okay, I am not understanding it at all.

Can you please explain it

and how do you keep your rod/eyelet method from being completely loose?

what paint do you use? all I want to do is make caps sheild look a bit more metalic with some pop. Do you have any samples of that? new to this and very interested in learning from the pros.