Ok, here is Steeler, who I showed as a parts only WIP on page one. Steeler is the head of the new Armor division of EXCAL, and in my recent Covergirl post, was referenced as the one recruiting her to the team. And - as my favorite childhood Joe, I think he is deserving of the chance to work side by side with a Joe hottie (having struck out with Scarlett, way back in the day). Anyway, as with most of the Joes I am bringing over to EXCAL, I am going for a bit harder of a look than their traditional guises. So far, this means honing my 5 o'clock shadow painting skills more than anything else... lol:

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and crap - he really is not cross-eyed, but kind of looks it in these pics. I think I'll re-do the eyes - tried to get away with minimal painting on the eyes of this one, but will need to make them more visible.





and here he is with some of the other recnet new Joes I"ve brought over:

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That works. Where is the head from?

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Great job. I did not recognize the Matt Trackker head at first. I really like the older and harsher look that head gives the character.

Keep em coming.

Hell I'd even add that the head makes him look more like an officer. Do you have plans for a helmet/visor? I only ask because I'm very curious to see what you come up with.

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I will do something, but it may be quite a deviation from his original look. I say that in part because even as a kid I never cared a ton for that visor. So I doubt the end result will please traditionalists. the other consideration is that, like my Flint, the poofy hair on these head sculpts don't lend themselves to nice looking removable head gear. Flint's beret isn't happening unless I either mod a Quaid head to resemble that SW head, or I get a second SW head to mod and make swappable.

I'd say the same might be true here for Steeler. If the removable options are too bulky looking, I may end up waiting til I get another Trakker head (only took me a year to get this one! until HypnoHustler hooked me up), and making a swappable helmeted head mod.

Outside of that, if I go the removable route, I'm thinking of trying out some Star Wars gear as a base helmet, and modding it to fit my needs. Wish I had Greyryders styrene detailing skills.

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YO!!! dude those look tight my man.

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I really like him. The parts selection for the body really makes him recognizable as Steeler, and the gear is great. I'm also quite impressed with the five o'clock shadow. That couldn't have been easy to paint.

I do think he and Flint need something on their heads. Looking forward to whatever you come up with there.

It takes a lot to get me excited these days...a good, clean buffet, recently stocked BAD Star Wars figures, a new Monsterquest (that's not about frackin' sharks and bees), Stormavik in his Strawberry Shortcake PJs, ...

Customs are down on the list...seen so many. Some good...some...yeah... But every once in awhile a few will come along that make me log on and type versus crank messaging Stormavik's government phone or sending MacGyver pics of wackymac pasta. These are such customs.

I love it when customizers go beyond the norm and make a custom the way "they" want to (looking forward to that visor as you seem to be going there with that). I also love the older takes on the characters. A young Duke figure be it a custom or something Hasbro has done makes me want to hurl in an empty peanut butter pail. LOVE the older look here. The uniform is awesome. THANK YOU for not using that freakin' pistol that hangs around 25th Hawk's neck. Anyone got that figure? Go look at it ...stare at the awesome-ness that is the freakin' pistol that hangs around 25th Hawk's neck. I'll wait...

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Back? Irritated? Walk it off. And you made it a gold-ish pistol? You rule, man. While I may have toyed with a Uzi for his main weapon, what you used is cool. Different. Not bad. I am sure Stormavik will tell me what it is...he's off 6 days a week so he has time to surf porn AS WELL as military sites. With me it's just porn.

I know Flint was posted in another thread, but I'm here so I will comment here. Another great custom. Love that head. I will have to go back and check out the other thread. It was that good. Covergirl's boobs, as I remember they were a bit "generous". Since boobs are involved, I will go back and look. Where was I? Oh yeah...great Steeler custom.

That is pretty great. I like that head a lot. Great job painting it. Using the Crimson Twins chest for a set of coveralls was genius. It looks great.

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Love it. I'm a huge fan of the Trakker head anyway (painted black hair on one of mine for my Frank Castle), but seeing it in brown makes me want to go find a couple more.

Not a fan of Ace's lower arms - they always come up short for me.

Again, always impressed with the little details- the shoulder patch, the light on the pistol - awesome stuff.

And I was going to discretely PM you about the cross-eyed thing, but then I noticed that you already mentioned it, so nevermind

As a kid, I was totally enamored with Steeler's visor (even though I never had a Steeler - just the accessory packs) - but I used it as a Cyclops-esque laser thingy. Now as an adult (and an Army guy), I see how totally ridiculous it was/is. I've used BBI crew helmets for my various incarnations of Steeler, but sadly none of them seem to fit on Matt's melon head, so I'm at a loss for suggestions.

Great work as always!

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you know i like steeler, you made a perfect version of him, sure a helmet would be cool too, really like what ya are doing lately and I'll always be a fan

Because Officer's have flowing wavy, neatly parted coifures and stern dispositions?

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Yep

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And there I thought that was left to Sr NCOs and WOs?

I still love this take on Steeler. Your realistic take on characters is truly inspiring.

Ok, I fixed the eyes. Hopefully tonight I'll have a chance to take pics, and hopefully the fix shows up. Also have started on a helmet. Not sure about it, so it won't hurt my feelings to tell me it sucks. Until I get pics though I wanted to respond to your comments.



Possibly the most flattering post I've received. Plus it made me LOL. Very cool. You should post more often. I miss seeing commentary around here with this much life. And you know, I almost went with an Uzi, but as with the other details, I decided I wanted a certain look more than having to make it a certain way dictated by the toymakers of 1982-83. lol. Plus I had this cool gun (maybe Stormavik can tell ME what it is too...lol, and it had TR1ER's awesome sling on it, so I was sold. Looked to me like a gun a tank commander would have on hand and feel good about. The goldish pistol is from the POC Zartan figure, and it is molded in that color. My only paint was on the light attached to it.

LeeMrvin - you know what? Once you get the right shade for the stubble, it's easy as cake. or pie. whichever is easiest, I alwaays forget, because I don't bake.

Dan, yeah, not sure why the eyes do that in the pics. I think because they are squinty. Hopefully the fix doesn't make him look less mean. Oh, and no need to remind me of the Trakker head on your Punisher. Your use of the head is the single reason I've been trying to get an extra one for a custom for the past year or so. My initial plan was simply to copy yours, but as I started thinking about it, I realized I wanted my Steeler to be a bad ass. If his hair isn't regulation, so what - there are no regs in my verse. Besides, Steeler's hair in the comic was close to this than to his ARAH figure look.

Thanks for all the great feedback everybody

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