[Mordiganne]

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

With the parts supply starting to dwindle a tad I'm going to shift more towards knocking out new characters over new costumes. So to dwindle my list down faster, that has me combing for the obscure, the oddballs and the one off type characters that helped flush out the stories. It's often the tertiary character that make the "hero's journey" possible in some way or another. In comic news those that read these blurbs know I've been after the full run of "Acts of Vengeance" for years. Decades really. Well just this year they finally released a TBP that I picked up on Amazon. Finally that long hunt is over! However, before that came in I finished the collections of Stormwatch's End (the Ellis collections) and have started on the Authority's massive omnibus. I never reached the end of Stormwatch during its single-issue run, though I did start strong when it debuted way back when. Anyway, these volumes have some great writing. It's a nice change to read superhero stories where the events read not only as impactful to their world but long lasting. Almost forgot, also picked up the "Absolute WildCATS" book. Amazing book and well worth every penny, especially if you're a Jim Lee fan. Moving on, Rachel is there because I finally made a Hound head for the figure to go along with the regular and Phoenix fired portraits. Deadpool is there because I got a cast of the half masked head finally. Now that I've got it painted I like it a lot. I might take a pic of him with all the heads and everything once I'm finally done tinkering with this figure. Maybe. And Sharon Carter got a new head after ditching the Sue Storm set head I had on her initially. I also repainted the figure. It's just white paint so no big deal. So, anyway, onto the rest...


Diamondback - I decided to expand the Serpent Society a little bit and Diamondback was a natural selection. I went with the classic outfit from the few Captain America comics I had as a kid. She's a pretty simple custom. Just paint really. I snipped the hair a bit to vary it and to closer match the art style. I declined to sculpt little diamonds all over. At this scale there's little point and the materials I have are not conducive to it either. I wasn't aware Diamondback and Cutthroat were siblings when I started this batch. In fact I'd had both already picked to make because of the organizations they fell into - Serpent Society & Skull Crew respectively.

Cutthroat - While looking at new characters to add I ran across info on the Skull Crew and this character: Cutthroat. Once I saw the design I vaguely remembered seeing him in a Cap comic way back when. Ironically enough I had recently gotten a Boss Fight mage for the accessories and the head reminded me of the Cutthroat art I'd been looking at. I didn't use it though, I added facial hair to the Cloak head instead as I liked the aesthetic more. I did end up using the mage dagger with this guy. It works great with the character and I sculpted the leg bands into functional holders for the blades when not in his hands. I also sculpted the wrist bands, chest padding and whatever the thing on his cloak is supposed to be. I didn't go as bright with the colors as most art shows. They're obnoxious enough as it is. I can't believe I have a Cutthroat figure. How crazy is that!? I'm not sure if he's dead or alive in the comics at this point, but I'll think of a backstory for him later.

White Tiger - There's not much to say about this one. I only made her to stand along side the other male White Tiger. I went with a streamlined outfit since the designs that include that mask type are pretty bland. Speaking of, the head came from Plastic Curves. I did have to trim a bit off the hair to make it look right. It was angling the head way forward before the trimming. I sliced the blades off some X-23 hands and gave her a paint job. Another character off the list.

Captain Germany (Vormund) - I've had this character in mind for ages but never took the time to make him. I went on a search for nationalistic Marvel character and was surprised there weren't many "captains" out there. The Soviets had Red Guardian. England Captain Britain (though not really the same thing). And then there's Captain Germany. I never read anything with this character in it so he's another blank slate to fill in. He was pretty easy to make. He's basically a Cap figure with swapped lower legs that I added sculpt to. Oh, I did shave off the ears and sculpted over them and removed the A and smoothed out the forehead. After that a paint job to finish.

Cottonmouth - I've had the head for this guy on hand for about a year now. I finally finished painting it and put together a body for him. I'm trying to get the Serpent Society to at least half strength by the end of the year. We'll see how that goes. Cottonmouth is mostly paint with a little sculpt on the glove area. Assembling the parts sucked and was costly due to how Hasbro distributed this use of this buck. I have to admit, as a super villain I don't really know what his powers are or what he can do other than opening his mouth really wide. Which is really dumb now that I think about it.

Mockingbird - I never liked most of the Mockingbird hero designs and since I mostly keep the character in with SHIELD I wanted a different look for her than her traditional hero garb. I'll get to remaking her in hero attire later. After some research I found a modern design that I liked and made some slight tweaks. For her gear there's a pair of batons (they do split) along with a plug-in piece that I cut down which just sits in the top of the thigh holster. If I put the painted batons in the holster, taking them out again would destroy the paint job. Onto the baton holder I added an ammo pouch and on the opposite leg a holster & pistol. Added four pouches to the belt and sculpted the 'M' belt buckle. Lastly she has a staff in two versions: full extension and collapsed. Both can be kept on the figure's back where I added a clip to the belt - I wanted all of her gear to be able to be carried with her. To top off the figure I added a bit of sculpt to the hair. I don't know much about the Mockingbird character since she was "dead" for most of the Avengers runs I had as a kid, so my only real exposure came from the cartoon world. In taking a cue from A:EMH Mockingbird has risen through the ranks of SHIELD to become one of their top field agents. Due to her intelligence, tenacity and skill set she has tactical field command of most SHIELD ops, superceded only by the Black Widow. Unlike the Widow - and even though she is a part-time Avenger - Mockingbird's loyalties are to SHIELD first and foremost in every situation.

Jean Grey (Black Queen) - The Black Queen is an iconic look for Jean Grey, but she barely wore it. It's popularity is of course buoyed by coming as part of the overall Phoenix/Dark Phoenix Saga. So, given the look's relative importance in the X-Men mythos, I had to add her to the growing Hellfire Club section. I forget where I got the head. Maybe from Nomad when his shop was open. I finally painted it and got a body to put it on. I sculpted the corset and cleavage along with sculpting a rose onto the cloak. I need a whip to go along with the figure, but I'm not paying current prices for an I.J. figure to get one. I can wait. I'm pretty tired of making Jean Grey figures. Thankfully there's only 1 more after this one and I can put the character to rest..

Kymberly Taylor - I try to make more than 1 member of a team or organization when adding to the ranks. So when I made Mockingbird I wanted to add another SHIELD field agent. After some dithering, and a lack of immediate parts, I went with Kymberly. I first ran across this character a few years ago when looking for SHIELD agents to potentially make. As a 90s character there was some design elements that immediately had to go; the first being the knee rings. I have no idea what they were thinking when adding those. Completely impractical - if they even allowed knee bending, which I doubt - but then again, that was the 90s. I also opted against the boot and glove flared cuffs. I gave her some useful additions with pouches and pockets and ditched the boxy looking things they put all over her. I sculpted the shoulder harness entirely along with the straps for the arm pocket. The Enchantress head was as close to the character's ridiculous hair as I was going to get. I pried off the tiara and sculpted on the head gear and radio. This is another blank slate character. Apparently she only showed up in one issue of the Punisher because Marvel wanted to show him interacting more with the Marvel Universe. Not sure why they created a new character for that, though. In my MU Kymberly is an up and coming SHIELD field agent reporting to Mockingbird. She is highly intelligent and adept with computers. Although she's qualified in SHIELD hand-to-hand combat she is currently training with the Avengers to elevate her fighting skills.

Cloak & Dagger - I don't really consider these customs in my traditional sense. I made this setup because I got tired of the two figures, as Hasbro made them, being unable to stand properly in any fashion. The cape is too heavy for that skinny body and Dagger's legs just continually bend at awkward angles. It was maddening. So I drilled a hole into a stand and used an old sprue to hold up the cape and head and just ditched the body for now. That left room on the stand to use the foot pegs for Dagger since her legs won't stay straight. I did paint her hair and gave the head a spray to take off the plastic shine. While working on this I got some ideas for Dagger that I didn't care to work on right now, but I'll be revisiting her again later. Have to say, I wrote off the Dagger head at first as useless fodder, but with some tweaks and repaints it's actually become rather versatile. I think I might even get a few more uses out of it before it becomes stale.