Mirage TMNT Figures - Custom Pics

[TheCloneRanger]

http://www.dclarkco.com/images/mirage/leo.jpg http://www.dclarkco.com/images/mirage/mike.jpg
http://www.dclarkco.com/images/mirage/raph.jpg http://www.dclarkco.com/images/mirage/don.jpg
http://www.dclarkco.com/images/mirage/don_close.jpg
http://www.dclarkco.com/images/mirage/group.jpg

Playmates won't do it for us? Fine with me: I'll do it.

Classic black and white...tones of grey to simulate the comics. I thought having the red masks, in addition to being a tribute to the comic, gave them a very Sin City look.

Opinions?

[BigApple3AM]

I think the turtles look terrible in black and white as figures. For comics it's okay but if they ever did Mirage TMNT figures I wouldn't buy them if they were B&W, the covers were in color (from issue 5 and up) and so was volume 2, so I think having them green is fine.

I would have given you bounus points for this if you did it say a year ago, but I realized you're just copying the Sin City figures so there's no bouns or original points there.

Not knocking your customs I mean it's great there are people still doing TMNT customs when usually I only see GI Joe or Marvel Legends customs, but they're just not my cup of tea.

Take this as constructive criticism.

[TheCloneRanger]

I would have given you bounus points for this if you did it say a year ago, but I realized you're just copying the Sin City figures so there's no bouns or original points there.


How about a year and a half ago (http://www.thetechnodrome.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7309&highlight=comic) when the idea first surfaced and I said they should be in monochrome? Reading the first post, I was the one that broke the news on OTC (which later, obviously, turned out to be false...). I gave PM a while, then forgot about it all together, and remembered this weekend how much I wanted them.

As for the Sin City part...they made black and white figures for that? All I ever see pictures of are ones in color? I mean, B&W would make more sense, but I've never even seen them.

[LAXtitan99]

They look awesome. Very sin city esk but I'm not knocking them. They look awesome. What type of paints do you use on your customs?

Oh and for pics of both color and B&W sin city figures you can see them here SIN CITY TOYS (http://toynk.com/catalog/all_sin_city_toys_and_collectibles_189771_products .htm)

[VaughnMichael]

:sleep: sorry gonna be very honest here...I dislike them allot...the paint ap. is very sloppy....you should have used some sculpy or femo(sp) to sculpt over the sculpts playmates did to make them look more griddy like the turtles looked back then...man you did one thing by doing this make me want to start sculpting again....
sorry to you though I do find them to be quite bad...nice idea though
-Putrescent

[TheCloneRanger]

Edit:

You know, I thought better of it.

[BigApple3AM]

Now I feel bad, Putre just totally shat on your customs, they're not BAD, I just disliked them. They're pretty cool though I think I mostly didn't like them because I'm not used to the turtles toys not being in color. You did some decent work here, this should only mean that there's something better inside of you still waiting to come out so now you have something to look forward too, just keep doing customs don't stop no matter what any of us say about them!

[TheCloneRanger]

I have no problem with people not liking the idea. I wanted B&W TMNT figures, so I made B&W TMNT figures. Based on the reaction in the thread, I would say Playmates was very wise not to go down this path.

Quite honestly, I made these for myself, and I'm not worried too much what anybody else has to say about the artistic concept. :) I had the vision in my head, and these filled it perfectly. After coming to work and reading myself get torn a new one yesterday, I was pleasantly surprised when I went home and looked at them again last night. I have absolutely no hesitations.

I am curious, though, where the "sloppy" paint it. I went back over these time and time again, using brushes with barely a couple of bristles in them to get the smallest places. Looking at them in person, there is no misplaced paint, PERIOD. If I zoom in with my camera, then yes, I can see problems...problems that I CAN NOT see with the naked eye.

But when I look at any of mine side-by-side with a Playmates figure, their's looks like it was done by a monkey. :lol:

[tmntman]

I thought I would weigh in here for no better reason than I like to hear myself talk, or type as the case may be.

You have a decent start at a very difficult look to pull off successfully. But I would also agree that there is room for improvement. So here are a couple of suggestions.

-Lose the red bandanas. Once get the rest of the look down extremely well you can try it once again with colored bandanas. Right now they just confuse the look of the figures.

-You should try to be more consistent with colors (or shades of gray in this case) Mikey in particular is off compared to the other three since you switched from a lighter shade for the plastron shell and darker skin tone and did just the opposite. As a result he looks more like a photographic negative of the others. The choice of coloring for both Leonardo and Donatello seem pretty close to how I would expect them to look.

-The black highlights, practice some more. Washes are difficult to do right. Heck, the toy industry took several years to figure out how to do it and they still end up making the occassional figure that looks like it has a tread mark on it. Take more care to get the paint for a wash into the cracks and then you can feather it out from there according to your taste. (You might want to do a web search for some of the figure customizing sites that are out there for suggestion about techniques. I know there are quite a few listed at RTM, www.toymania.com)

-Tone down the random black marks on the legs, faces etc... It looks like you were going for a gritty look, either dirt or wounds. But you should probably tone it down quite a bit. Take a philosphy of less is more to start with. You can always add to it in the future if you wish. You might also want us a much thinner coat of paint for such marks to allow some of the base color show through.

Okay, that was more than I was intending to write. But I said I like to hear myself type ;) Like I sadi originally, you have a good start on a very difficult look to pull off, especially with Leo and Don. If you decide to give them another shot, I'd love to see the results.