Head: ROC Repeater II
Arms: ROC Heavy Duty
Torso: 25A Croc Master
Legs: NS Shipwreck
Pistol: Chap-Mei

Design:

VENOM's thuggish Bruno Sheppard, presented as a "Now a Joe" character. With my MASK/VENOM customs, I'm not duplicating the original Kenner designs, but using them as starting points. This figure is fairly close, essentially just a 'roid muncher in a fitted shirt. The Croc Master torso and Heavy Duty arms supply the upper body bulk, and the NS Shipwreck legs give the figure some height. The legs didn't work well with the original NS Shipwreck they came with due to its poor proportions, but they round out the modern era parts nicely. Using NS parts is usually a challenge, but in this case the legs were a no-brainer.

I originally used a repainted ROC Heavy Duty head, but it just didn't work for the character. I switched over to the Repeater II head that was closer to the face sculpted on the Kenner figure.

My VENOM characters are a sort of "snap shot" of where the characters are before the formation of VENOM. This custom shows Bruno Sheppard as a Dreadnok who hasn't yet been recruited by Miles Mayhem.

Colors & Painting:

I starting using the colors of the Kenner figure. But after adding some texturing and wash to the pants, I ended up going with dark blue jeans to better show off the great sculpting. Not all of the sculpting on the NS era parts was great, so it was nice to have some good work to showcase. I considered adding the chain tattoo on the arm, but decided against it. With the alligator scales on the shirt I thought the design was already too busy.

To tried to add some realism to the milk skinned ginger. To make the very pale skin more believable, it's undercoated with a layer of blue. Then I added freckles. I've painted age spots before, but freckles are a bit different. Unlike age spots, freckles are more uniform in appearance and shape and tend be a uniform pink color. Age spots can be a variety of shapes and skin tones ranging from brown to grey to purple. I didn't just add freckles to the face, but also painted them along the outside of the arms and the shoulder tops and back.

Sculpting & Modifying:

I removed the Croc Master techno belt and replaced it with the Indiana Jones belt, adding the pants' belt loops. The swept back hair and the glove mouth are sculpted.

Articulation points, in my opinion, often ruin the flow of a sculpt. On this figure, I particularly didn't care for the elbow cuts that took away from the muscular sculpt of the arms. I glued the elbows in place and then filled in the articulation cuts.

The pistol was chopped up to fit the holster.

Thanks for looking.