Wes Custom: When teh ebil Shreddar attax!

[Sarah]

I wanted to wait until you were finished before I made a comment, but it looks like you wont be done before X-mas. I like what you've done so far, and it's a good idea to use the shin armour on his arms. I used the same method a few years ago on another Shredder custom that I made. and I thought your idea to place his chest armour on his back was damn brilliant. I probably would have cut the blades away from the chest piece and glued them to his shoulders. Im looking forward to you finishing him, so hopefully you actually get it done some time this year.

[Nelson]

Originally Posted by Wes

Blah blah excuses

It looks a lot better with that color, IMHO. And there's a rat WTF O_o

[raven6859]

This is shaping up to be one imposing looking Shredder.

[tOkKa]

-->> O' FK

[Wes]

Thanks for all of the encouragement, peeps!

So I went to the trouble of getting a Magneto body so I could swap in some more metallic legs... but now that I've done it, I see that Magneto's lower legs are a tad shorter than Wonder Man's. Lemme know what you think...


http://www.wesoteric.com/toyimg/shredwip/legcomp2.jpeg
http://www.wesoteric.com/toyimg/shredwip/legcomp3.jpeg


http://www.wesoteric.com/toyimg/shre...ightcomp2.jpeg

It's the height comparisons that really kill me -- granted, Wonder Man wasn't the tallest figure to begin with (and DCUC figures are generally taller than MLs), but still.

Would you guys stick it out, or go hunting for longer legs?

[Candy Kappa]

I think the height is nice

[Nelson]

I think it's nice, too.

[Jester]

I like the legs too. Height be damned!

EDIT: Wes, do you want a Wonderman to NECA TMNT size comparison shot?

[raven6859]

I think the height's fine. Whole thing's looking great.

That Nightwing figure looks huge! It's not a fair comparison.

[Wes]

Yeah, I suppose Nightwing isn't a fair comparison -- the DCUC figures are giants compared to MLs.

I guess this could work after all, then, particularly since the plan is to put him with the 2K3 figures:


http://www.wesoteric.com/toyimg/shre...sizecomp2.jpeg

And yes, Jester, please do share a size comparison of Wonder Man to the NECA Turtles!

Incidentally, there's been some discussion on another thread about whether the NECA Shredder will in fact be 6.25" or more along the lines of 7". Considering that this figure is 6" and will probably approach 6.25" with his helmet -- and assuming that the NECA figures are noticeably taller than the 2K3 Turtles -- I'm thinking 6.25" might be kinda undersized for that line.

[Jester]

Wondie with My NECA Benvenuto.

Should I enter Benny custom in the contest?

[Wes]

Thanks a bunch for posting that pic, Jester! The height doesn't look too off, though now I'm even more convinced that the NECA humans should be in a 7" scale -- Wonder Man himself cleared 6" before the leg swap, and that looks more like the height I'd want April to be.

This Shredder should still look great with 2K3 figures, though!

[Topsu]

Painting looks nice so far, can't wait to see the finished custom. Also, how'd you take of arms and legs? I'd need to do that myself to ML-fig for painting, but I haven't done that before...I think the brute force would just break it.

[Patraw]

Excellent painting job on Shredder so far; the purple dry-brush job looks really stellar at this point. I'm sure the finished piece is gonna rock!

The little fly is cool too. Personally, I felt the generic enemy choices in the original NES game were a bit on the odd side--kinda like the game started as something else and then Konami changed it into TMNT when they got the license.

[Wes]

Topsu: Boil 'n' pop! Or, rather, microwave 'n' pop. I microwave a tupperware container (you don't need the lid on it) of water for 3-4 minutes, then take it out and drop the figure into it. A few minutes later, I pull the figure out and voila -- the hot water has softened the plastic enough for me to pop off the limbs. Not all parts can be popped (with most figures, the hip/shoulder connections can't, since they're held in place by the front/back halves of the torso being glued together), but many can. Heads, too.

You can also use a hairdryer to heat up and soften the plastic -- I recommend this with parts you've painted, since the hot water might damage your paint job -- but sometimes only the water will work for me.

Patraw: Thank you for your faith! Though I'm not so sure given the results of my latest work.

I'd originally gotten an extra Feudal Shredder to use his helmet, figuring that it would work well for Wonder Man. Well, apparently I was wrong...





It does give him some welcome height, but I think it looks way too big. I don't know what to do now. I could try hollowing out Super Shredder's head... or I could try something else. I'm tempted to use Armorized Shredder's original helmet, but that would require me to cut it up and I'm not sure I want to do that. Decisions, decisions...

And yes, those TMNT1 enemies were odd, weren't they? I got a couple of fodder Human Torch figures to use as the Fire Freaks.

[Jester]

What about either Mutation Shredder's helmet?

[Wes]

Possibly! The old line Mutations Shredder helmet would've been really fun to try -- especially since he wears a mask kinda like that in the NES Tournament Fighters! Unfortunately, I've spent a bit of time pricing it on eBay and been unable to find it at a decent price. I'm betting the new MutaShredder would work too (I guess it's the same size as the Armorized Shredder's helmet, which seems more/less okay), but I haven't been able to find that figure cheap either.

[Doc_ock_4mugen]

If you're going with the 2k3 figs then the slightly shorter legs will keep him in scale.

[Wes]

Shredder's been stalled by the helmet concerns -- it's way too bloody big, as seen below:



Buuuuut I've done some work on my Foot ninja custom in the interim!







I'm going for an "animated" take on the design seen in Manhattan Missions, so I've sculpted oversized glove cuffs and poofy pantsleg bunches, a collar thingy for his vest, and a belt (mainly just to try my hand at sculpting). I've also added swivels to the glove and boot tops, since the Spectacular Spidey base figure lacked those.

Fun times!

[Patraw]

Foot Soldier custom looks good so far; any particular color/weapon you're shooting for, or are you just going for the generic purple variety?