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 It
was Banshee, not Forge, that started this collection of customs.
I had long wanted to make a Banshee, but hadn't found a suitable
head. One day I was rummaging through my SOTA Street Fighter
figures and happened to pick up the alternate head of Series 1
Ryu. That was all she wrote.
The Fantastic Four Movie
Series 2 Mr. Fantastic proved to be a useful base. With some
minor dremel work, the extra costume details were removed. I
didn't like the length of his thighs, so I shortened them.
I
realized early on that the recipe would work for other customs, and
when ML9 with Dr. Strange and Deathlok started showing up, I decided to
start on Forge. I finished him first, because it took me a long
time to decide how to do Banshee's wings.
I ended up using
cut vinyl, sprayed black with vinyl dye. I then masked and
sprayed with white vinyl dye, and then painted yellow. It's
attached by glue to the arms on the triceps and forearm, and to the
hips. I was lucky to get the yellow stripe to line up to the
thigh straps.
Speaking of straps, this set of customs got me
fed up with rubber bands. With straps on the boots, thighs,
forearms, and neck, I spent a lot of time cutting, painting, and
glueing on rubber bands. The clasp and loop details were sculpted
on later with Super Sculpey. In the earlier customs, I actually
sculpted strap ends, but with the deadline looming I stopped going that
extra mile.
Gambit was the last figure that I made. For
him, I was lucky enough not to have to do the straps, as I used the
gloves and legs of the XMC Cyclops. The plastic coat and upper
arms came from XMC Gambit, based on a great Gambit custom from
Industrial. The torso and head are ML Gambit, with the costume
details from the torso removed.
 I had intended to stop with just
Banshee and Forge, but ideas and fodder kept colliding. A while
back I had picked up a Bethany Bled from the Infernal Parade line as an
opportunistic fodder purchase (thanks carl!) Coupled with a
Fantastic Four Box Set Sue, I had a recipe for Storm. And once I
added Storm, I knew I had to keep going. Wolverine came from the
XMC Tiger Stripe Wolverine, with the ML Weapon X head.
Some
people have asked how I painted the yellow on these customs. I
started with a base coat of white, spray painted with vinyl dye where
possible (like on removable boots and gloves) or hand painted where it
wasn't. I then painted several layers of Apple Barrel Apricot -
this, coupled with the base coat, gives a nice yellow. I did
several more layers, to get the color closer to Apricot, and then
drybrushed on some Apple Barrel Yellow to give it some depth. My
camera doesn't really pick up yellows that well, and that's probably to
my benefit.
The blue (which no one asks about) is Americana True
Blue drybrushed over a black base coat. I started doing this
after seeing some awesome customs from Kraftywerks. I think it
resists paint rub better (especially if you can spray on black vinyl
dye) and gives the paint some character.
If I had more time,
smarts, and weren't so lazy, I'd have done more. First, I would
complete a Jubilee in this costume, just for completeness. Then,
I'd figure out a way to extend the yellow portions of the costume onto
points on the shoulders, as they appeared in the comics. I didn't
want to just paint it, because with the different types of shoulders
across the fodder, I wouldn't be able to keep the paint job clean with
the articulation. Since I've had my fill of blue, yellow, and a
ton of rubber bands, and because I remain a lazy SOB, I'll have to be
happy with these the way they are.
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