[Mordiganne]

The Universe is expanding.... (pics to follow in next post)

Well, I finally picked up something new and the Yellow Daredevil does not disappoint - a given since it's on one of the good, articulated bodies. Ended up picking up a bunch since I ran across a seller that had them for $5.00 each in package. Cleaned him out at that price. Anyway, Daredevil: Yellow is a great read and if you have the means to get a copy I suggest you read it. Good stuff there. Other than that? Still waiting to pick up what I want. So, back to my villain customizing. I had long planned to do the Marauders as a group since I'm such a fan of the Mutant Massacre storyline. One fantastic read. But, I'm missing some parts to complete them all at once so doing them in phases instead. The first four are below which just leaves 6 including Malice though she really came in to play post massacre. The partially transformed Hydro and Sand men are just there for the bonus shots. Dr Spectrum got some touch ups and Gambit had his hands replaced. For some reason - seriously, I have no idea why I did this - I had previously painted Titannia's hair a gloss red. Yeah...definitely had to fix that. So, anyway, onto the rest...


Hydro-Man - I ran across a statement online that there aren't many fully transformed 1:18th Hydro-Man customs. That piqued my curiosity so I did a quick search and, turns out, there really aren't that many. So I decided to make one for the collection. He's a QEC (Quick & Easy Custom) in that he only took a couple of hours to make. 7 different shades of blue and many, many layers of paint later Hyrdo-Man is all powered up. Not sure if I'll make a "normal" Hydro-Man like I did with Sandman. I doubt it, but we'll see...

Volcana - My Secret Wars line up is almost complete. Soon I'll have every character from the first series in figure form - only missing a powered down version of Volcana (almost done) and lastly Molecule Man (in progress). Then I just need to round out the characters with comic accurate customs of the teams/ outfits. Volcana started as a QEC. I had her fully painted in an evening and then I decided to sculpt the flames on her as add-ons. That took her over into a day to make so, she no longer qualifies for QEC status. (I really didn't put as much thought into this as it might seem.) Anyway, I sculpted the flames so that no matter what angle you look at the figure from you can see flames coming off her somewhere. Best way I could think of to simulate her being encased in flames when powered up. Glad I made her, it gave me a chance to try out a few new things custom making-wise and it was mostly all successful.

Sandman - I finally got around to opening my Sandman (sand) version and almost immediately upon freeing him from the package I knew he was getting a repaint. While the regular version was nice it just lacked a certain...something. Just didn't convey the full on "sand/concrete" type of appearance that I've envisioned for the character. This one fits in more with what I picture.

Ares - I've had this guy sitting around for a while waiting on something to be done with him. The base figure that Hasbro gave us is very good, but just missing a few things to be "great". So, I added his elbow spikes and the arm sleeve, a decent cuff on his right wrist painted his boots and highlighted the mohawk on his helmet. Fairly minor changes, custom wise, but they make a world of difference on the figure. Like him much better now. The flash kind of washes out the shading that I did on his face. It looks much better in person.

Sabretooth - As requested here's classic Sabretooth. As with most classic designs they vary by artist so I found the design I liked the most and used that one. It helped that he also fits in with the Marauders team that I wanted to make anyway. Two birds kinda thing. A mix of parts and a whole lot of sculpting later and the big badass of the Marauders is done in his classic skivvies. While the painting was pretty simple, the sculpting was a bit of a chore, but necessary for the design. And honestly it's my favorite part of the figure. The head is from Angry Nomad. Very good quality and not much flash to trim off. After seeing the pic the sideburns are a little off - one side is much smaller. Might sculpt that up at some point and even them out. Still a great mold. Will be ordering from him again. So, all in all, I'm really pleased with how he turned out. He's in the top ten of my created customs list.

Prism - I always thought Prism made for a lousy Marauder and over the years nothing has managed to change that. But, he's on the team so I had to make him. Pretty easy custom. Just had to sculpt the head crystal and paint. The painting was easy but I had to go into another room to get it to show up with the flash. Since his paint scheme is very straight forward he was easy to knock out. Now I don't have to worry about making him later. I really can't believe they couldn't have come up with a better character than this guy.

Arclight - While researching the costume for this character I spent a lot of time re-reading the "Mutant Massacre" storyline. Arclight features heavily in the various issues, but I noticed that while she has a major bloodlust she never directly kills anyone - though she did *attempt* to kill Colossus. She really just knocks down a lot of walls. Just thought that was interesting. Just about out of all those Valkyries I picked up. She's among the last of them. Time to go shopping for more. Arclight is pretty simple: Lots of silver paint along with some minor sculpting.

Riptide - He was the first of my Marauder customs to be completed. I started him around the same time as Arclight but she needed sculpt work that Riptide didn't, so he was easy to wrap up quickly with only two shades of purple and a custom head. I have some ideas on how to do his spinning effect, but until I can tackle that you get unspinny Riptide. The head again came from Angry Nomad. The hair on the head mold is not as long as I'd have preferred but I liked the look of the head enough to just go with it.




Next batch preview:
Volcana (powered down) - Well, was able to get the parts for my normal Volcana custom assembled and painted quicker than I thought. She's not entirely done to my satisfaction but she's pretty close. Close enough for a preview anyway. She's powered down often enough that I wanted to have a normal version to go along with my Secret Wars line up. Pretty simple custom parts wise. Believe it or not this was originally a red She Hulk and not one of the Valkyries. The feet don't sit quite right so they'll have to be modded a bit. Probably going to be taking her legs apart too, they don't seem to fit together as well as the Valk figure's do.