great looking little frank!

_________________

Thank you dude!

He was a fun little lark for NJC #95. Looking forward to the next theme; hope it's something fun.

_________________

MAN-BAT



Batman: The Animated Series may have made me fall in love with the character of Man-Bat, but my first exposure to the concept was in The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told; a cool TPB my Mom picked up for me back in '89, at the height of Batmania.

The images seared themselves into my brain, but it took seeing the monster in motion to really appreciate it. After I saw Dr. Kirk Langstrom streak across the Gotham sky, I knew I needed to make one.



My first attempt at Man-Bat actually happened when I was 11-12. It was a miniature version I kitbashed together that I vaguely remember. What little I do remember is that it was awful, but the idea was ambitious: Mini diorama with Man-Bat and a tiny Batman trailing behind on a piece of wire meant to resemble a batrope. Better in concept than execution.

Mega Construx Man-Bat was planned as soon as I made Dianaut Batman... I just needed the right parts.

Work began in earnest when, hanging out with my Dave, BFF of 25+ years. I casually mentioned I wanted to build a Man-Bat as my next piece, but was stumped for parts in scale. His eyes lit up and he muttered, "Man-Bat... hmmm..." and headed for his gaming collection.

That's when he produced the Heroclix Man-Bat that completely made the custom work.



Got home and immediately started bashing the Heroclix parts onto the Mega Construx rough draft I had set aside, and it just worked. Once I pieced everything enough together to where it didn't fall apart, I hit it with primer and knew I had my Man-Bat.

Head & Wings: Heroclix Man-Bat
Torso & Arms: MC TMNT Foot Soldier
Waist & Upper Legs: MC Call of Duty
Lower Legs: Man-Bat PVC figurine (headless; wrong scale anyhow)

It was one of those projects that just came together so quickly, much faster than the photoshoot ideas. Man, that took forever, and in the end I improv-ed most of the shots anyway.



Very, very pleased with how this version of Man-Bat came out. Funnily enough, it's done before one I started to go with my Mega Bloks Batman ages ago. That one had 1:18 scale parts, and I'm pretty sure it's been swallowed by the fodder graveyard again. I doubt I'll revisit Dr. Langstrom anytime soon. This guy feels pretty definitive at the moment.



NEXT TIME: THE CLOWN PRINCE OF CRIME

...Been working on some very, very fun photoshoot ideas for this one...

_________________

very cool bash! looks production

_________________

Thank you, good sir!

Man-Bat was a labor of love. Bashing the wings onto the arms was a nightmare, and the primer I applied to the legs peeled right off, or was a sticky smudge. In the past, I would've quit. If it was a larger custom, I DEFINITELY would've quit, hahaha.

After 25 years, this had to be the successful attempt!

_________________

THE CLOWN PRINCE OF CRIME: DIANAUT JOKER



The gears began turning for Dianaut Joker as soon as I committed to Dianaut Batman... "Just how in the Hell am I going to build it? F___ that... HOW DO I PAINT IT?! I'll figure it out. I always do."

It took weeks to crack and a lot of experimentation.



Sculpt on top of a Dianaut?

Modify an existing micro figure, like I did for Batman?

Sculpt details from scratch?

The answer would be yes. To all of them.

Dianauts are extremely easy to customize, since, just like Mega Construx, they snap together. Modifying legs and arms wouldn't be too difficult, but where was I going to get a suit in this scale? Or a believable Joker head, for that matter?



After coming up empty-handed looking for a 1" Joker microfigure, the next logical step was gaming miniatures or Heroclix. Some research showed that the miniatures had the best sculpting, but they were also metal (not fun to deal with for me) and expensive.

I settled on a Heroclix figure that I almost immediately regretted purchasing, since it was laughably out-of-scale. I was screwed.



While I was pissed at myself for wasting money on fodder, I was also coming around to the idea that the head could be heavily resculpted and work. I'd have to Dremel it til there was just face, but screw it.

Once I got that far, I figured I may as well do the same to the torso. I left the front jacket & vest detail, and removed the majority of the original Heroclix piece. If it was ruined, what was there to lose? From there, I bashed the torso onto a Dianaut lower body, and glued Dianaut ball joints to the torso to attach the arms. Mr. J is all Dianaut & Heroclix, with some hair sculpted in with green stuff.

Painting was the next hurdle. I'd never tried to do detail paint (that had to look convincing) at such a small scale. Believe it or not, ALL of the detail paint was completed in first attempts. Even the grin.

Still have no idea how I didn't f___ THAT up.



"UP IN THE AIR! JUNIOR BIRDMAN! MISSED ME! HEEHEEHEEHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

I just flew into town, and boy, are my arms tired! Say, what kinda fly-by-night-operation is this? Will there be a movie on this flight? What about nuts? I'm chock full o' those!"

_________________

stunning! great job on that head and torso!! in a few pics he's a bit "hippy", but I think that is the nature of the base figure. i'd like to see him in a throne

_________________

Wow two more great customs. That joker is fantastic. It's good seeing some more Dia-Naut love coming out, too.

Yep! Great work right there

Thank you, sir! The torso I was sold on right away. I needed to be convinced about the head. And I was, once I removed half of it, hahaha.

The wide hips are what they are; and they don't bother me enough for me the change them. Knowing myself, in an attempt to do even the slightest change, I'll f___ it up catastrophically. I've got a bad track record, especially with finished pieces I love.

Definitely planning more photos with Joker. There were some set-ups that were a little too elaborate to do during the main shoot. It'll give me time to get something special together. Love the throne idea. Just might fit nicely with what I've got planned.





Thank you gents! Definitely labors of love! Man-Bat was long overdue and another one crossed off the bucket list of dream projects. Joker was inevitable, really. Just needed to figure out the recipe.

For about a week after finishing Joker, I asked myself, "Who do I make from here?" I don't really see myself making too many Dianaut rogues... Planning another run of larger characters made from Mega Construx, and that'll wrap up the tour of Gotham for a little while.

I DO have another Dianaut custom planned that I think will be a ton of fun, especially in a tiny scale.

After that, who knows? I'm open to requests...

_________________

YAASSSS! That manbat is PERFECTION! And the Joker looks great as well! you should be very pleased with how well they came out.

_________________

Thank you, sir!

For right now, I feel these are my definitive statement on these characters at this specific scale. Honestly kinda feel like trying to do better than these at the moment is a waste of time (until better fodder arrives). I've already moved onto my next Dianaut custom, and I'm psyched about the photoshoots this weekend.

Being more honest, it's nice to have left Gotham for a quick 2-day trip to work on this new, little dude, but while Dremel-ing the Dianaut, I realized these projects have to be special ones. I really can't see myself switching scales to something this small.

It's gotta be characters that scream to be made tiny.

_________________

And here I'm wanting even tinier...

For the collection, absolutely. The smallest plastic "figures" I own are 1:500 scale people used in architecture. Any smaller than that and they're usually etched in brass.

I wonder how much smaller they could go with articulated figures. Under 1"? .75"? .5"? At a certain point, you'd have to use tweezers!

For customizing, smaller than 1" and getting precision paint jobs makes my eyes water and my hands shake just thinking about it, hahaha.

_________________

those golam arcana beasts all have teeny tiny people riders/keepers.

_________________