Hellstorm was the second Defender I completed.

When I was a kid, I use to run around as Hellstorm, b/c I thought he was so cool back then. I’d dress up in a red towel, red pants, yellow rain boots, a pitchfork (form Halloween), and use my Mom’s lipstick to drawn the star on my chest. Bam, I was Hellstorm, and ran around like that for over a year. So, for my second Defender, you know I had to go with Daimon.

I use a Angel for the body and a FF movie Reed head. I sculpted the Hair, armbands, boots and legs first, (Angel has got some funky legs). Then I cut off the wing harness and sculpted over the holes.

Then I did the base coats, washes, and drybrush. The belt and boot points are made from clear vinyl.

The Trident is made from a MOTU weapon, and the cape is from BP.

He who has the most Toys when we die wins.

For my final Defender I went with Moon Dragon, b/c she’s sexy, bald, and baaaad. She makes the White Queen look like Jean Grey. I’ve always wanted to make her, so I saw my chance and took it.

Moon Dragon is made from an Elektra figure with Storm’s boots and gloves. The head and boobs are sculpted, and then applied base coats (freehand).

The points on the gloves and boots are made from clear vinyl. Applied wash, drybrush, and detail.

The cape is from a LOTR figure, and the collar is foam paper.

Group Shot

Thanks for looking, and I hope you enjoyed viewing them as much as I did making them.

L8R,
Rom

He who has the most Toys when we die wins.

Dam hellStorm turned out great, as dood MoonDragon.  Surfer looks great too, but his face is alittle wide or Chubby.

Great customs Rombado.

What paints do you use???

And the uh, enhancements, to Moon Dragon came out great. Neither is bigger than the other and they aren’t lopsided.

Thanks y’all for your comments, I really appreciate the kind words.

Roughneck, Thanks buddy, Hellstorm and Moon Dragon have been on my to do list for a while. I’m very pleased how they turned out also. The challenge w/ Surfer was to try and make a head that was smooth with slight features. Surfer is the first humanistic face I’ve sculpted, and I’m still not a 100% happy with how he turned out, either.

FEAR THE BAT, Thanks bud, I use Folk Art and Apple Barrel acrylic craft paints, they offer a large seltion of colors. I buy it from the craft section at Wal-Mart and they run about .60-$1.00 each. For my Flesh paints I only use Gamesworkshop flesh paints. I use many tricks, washes, and drybrushing, to make the paints smooth, clean, and realistic. You also need a good sealer when working w/ craft paints, I use Krylon, Crystal Clear, you can find it with the spray paint. For all my sculpting I use Apoxie Sculpt/Clay, http://www.avesstudio.com/Products/products.html For Moon Dragon’s boobs, lets just say that I’ve seen a lot of reference material The key to sculpting for me is I can usually mimic anything I see, so as long as I have a good pic I can do it.

Thanks again for your taking the time to post on my thread. If y’all have anymore question, please don’t hesitate to ask, b/c I love to help out where I can.

L8R,
Rom

He who has the most Toys when we die wins.

Great Job on all 3 !! I can tell your skills are getting better with each custom you do !

You are the man Rom!

Hey guys, thanks so much for taking the time to post.

Xavier, Thanks X, that means a lot coming from you my friend.

curvezilla, Thanks Chris, but you got that backwards. You the man, buddy.

Thanks again y’all, I really appreciate the kind words.

L8R,
Rom

He who has the most Toys when we die wins.

Next up is a commission piece of the character Grunge, from Gen13, but with a twist. The buyer wanted me to a more adult version of him, so he wanted me to use a wrestling figure for the base, so he could be displayed w/ his DCD. The costume is from the Superman/Gen13, mini series I think. I don’t really know this character or his power, except for what the buyer told me he wanted.

This is the only pic I had for reference, so I was to take this image and make him bigger.
http://img119.imageshack.us/img119/9651/grungepic6hg.th.jpg />

This is the base figure that was choosen, I thought he might be too big, but the buyer said it was what he had in mind.

The first thing I did was the sculpt work, it’s my favorite part of customizing. For the pants, first I sculpted on the legs, let that dry and then added the folds. The arm wraps are Apoxie rolled out thin, then cut into strips and wrapped around the arms and the POA.

Next I started to apply his base coats and drybrush.

Finished the drybrush on the skin. The tatto is draw onto the chest with a pencil, then painted and outlined.

Some pics outside so you can see him him in the day light.

Thanks for stopping by, and having a look. I’m really trying to increase my paint skills. I feel that some of my other stuff may be to light. I mean in person they look fine to me, but the camera doesn’t capture it. So, I went with a more aggressive style, please let me know what you think I can improve on. I want to be the best I can, and the only way to get there is trial and error. So, please feel free to post anything constructive.

Thanks again,
Rom

He who has the most Toys when we die wins.

Hey y’all, my next custom is of Strong Guy, SG is a commissioned piece for my buddy Robert, he’s the buyer that also bought Polaris and Syrin. For Strong Guy he wanted me to make him with a Juggernaut b/c he didn’t like the legs of SG’s comic depiction. He wanted him with meatier legs that showed his strength.

I pride myself on always giving the buyer what they want. So, I grabbed Juggs and started to strip him down, Dremel style! I hacked off his armbands, hair, collar, belt, boots, and feet, Rob still wanted him to have little feet.

Next, my favorite part of the craft, Sculpting. I had to start building ol’ Juggs back up. So, I begin with the plugging the holes from his collar. Then I went for the arms, abs, head, and legs.

I continued the sculpting process by completing the feet, head/face, gloves, belt buckle, chest/back X symbol, right arm band, crotch, and glasses. The only piece that’s not sculpted is his hair. I cheated and took a lock from Legolas. Hey, come on y’all my hands were hurting by this time.

After the sculpting was done it was time to base coat and stain the figure.

The rest is good old elbow grease and a lot of Drybrushing.

Thanks for looking, please feel free to leave any feedback b/c all comments are welcomed.

L8R,
Rom

He who has the most Toys when we die wins.

You amaze me with your paints and your sculpting is getting better every time!

Hey brother, I’ve already told you what I thought about your stuff, but let me reiterate. It was a blast looking through the last two pages and revisiting these guys. I’m *STILL* blown away by Tug Mug. The sculpting is top tier. Speaking of...your Strong Guy is your strongest (pun only partially intended) work to date, which is as it should be. You’re only getting better with each project, my man. The future holds great things!!!

JMH
http://www.jomihacustoms.com

Hey guys, I wanted to say thank you for your wonderful comments.

Curvezilla, Thanks Chris, your feedback always puts a big smile on my face. I always seek to better myself with each custom I do, and it’s really nice when you take the time to let me know what ya think.

JoMiHa, Thanks Joel, you are such an amazing artist yourself. I always appreciate your kind words and really value your opinions. Thanks so much for posting your inspiring comments on my humble thread.

Take care,
Rom

He who has the most Toys when we die wins.

Alright y’all, it’s time to switch gears, and show my new JLU figure, Parasite.

Parasite is a commissioned piece for my buddy Kevin, he has purchased most of my JLU customs, and is such a great guy to know.

I really enjoyed working on the 4” scale, after Strong Guy. The JLU figures are a great exercise in honing your detail work. They are great for speed drills too, plus their so much fun to work with. I suggest that everyone should try your hand on one of these guys to see what I’m talking about.

I started with a JLU figure (I forgot his name, but he has flame for hair). I ripped out the fire hair and cut off the ears. I then sculpted his head, harness, armbands, and leg straps.

Next, I applied a charcoal base coat and stained the figure using black ink wash.

I followed up with a lite drybrush of Lavender.

Outside shots of the finished product. Finished with 2 more DB coats, the harness is painted with Country Gray, and the eyes are metallic white.

Inside shots of Parasite.

Thanks for stopping by, and please let me know what you think of Parasite.

L8R,
Rom

He who has the most Toys when we die wins.

Hey y’all, next up is the second commissioned JLU custom for my buddy Kevin. This time he wanted to go “Old School” with a classic Toyman, from the Legion of Doom.

I started with the Atom, cut off his ears and then sculpted his head, vest, and belt.

Next, I sculpted his shoulder/collar. I use thin vinyl for the tips of his jesters cap, b/c I wanted ‘em to appear floppy. I then started to apply his base coats, and stains. Staining is a process of using a ink wash to bring out the details more, while at the same time staining the POA, to resist paint rub.

The rest was just a little attention to detail and smoothing out the rough edges.

Inside pics,

Outside pics,

Thanks for taking the time to checkout Toyman. Please feel free to post any opinions, b/c constructive criticism is the only way I can improve :D

L8R,
Rom

He who has the most Toys when we die wins.