Ok, I told myself I'd limit my 25A customs to my all-time favorite characters (because I have customs of everyone already), so I was working on them and decided I'd go ahead and do an original 13 project, since most of them are in my all-time fave category anyway.
I still have a few more to do: Steeler, GrandSlam, Short-Fuse & Clutch (the latter 2 are on the WIP bench right now waiting on parts.) But so far here's what I have:
You've already seen Flash, Stalker & Grunt:
Updated Hawk (I didn't bother making him in '82 style because there's one coming out with the comic packs.)
Snake Eyes (v2 style, but I think I've almost got him where I want him.)
And here's the new/updated members:
My Rock & Roll wasn't doing it for me, so I went and sculpted him a collar, Dremeled down his forearms so that normal hands would fit (not the huge-ass RB hands) - the sanding job still looks a little rough - I'll have to go back and fix that. But I wanted him to look more like his original fig, so I used a darker green than most of my O13 customs (reminiscent of his '82 fig that had darker paint than the others.) And now he fits in better with the rest of the guys (trying to capture the spirit of the '82 figs if not the exact look.)
Scarlett, I chopped her legs down and sanded her crotch, then painted her in darker hues - almost like the Stars & Stripes fig. I like this look a lot better. Now that I see it in the pic, her skin is pretty pale, so I'll go back and fix that.
Then there's Zap - initially a no-brainer, until I decided to sculpt the harness on instead of making it removable (Short Fuse will be the same styled fig with different colors, naturally) I went with an OD green on his shirt, to give a nod to the fact that he wore a lighter green uniform than the rest of the OG13.
And my first Joe, and one of my all-time favorites, Breaker. The only problem I ever had with the great Larry Hama was when he killed off Breaker & Doc - the other guys I could give a rip about: Crankcase, BF2000, etc., but Breaker was such a great character in the early comics that I couldn't let him die. I tried to emulate what Invisible Wraith did with his Flint & Falcon by sanding down the forearms on SE. They worked ok, but not great. I need to take my time and do a better job when I go back & clean him up (gotta sculpt some bubble gum for his face).
Clutch will be a similar recipe -- still deciding whether to sculpt the holster/vest thing on Clutch.
Clutch head on the Breaker body:
And the "OG-9" as they stand now - I'll update as I finish the remaining 4 Joes:
Ok, and because I'm doing an all-time favorite project (should call it O-13 Plus), I did a couple of '83 Joes as well - Airborne & Torpedo.
I always loved Airborne -- the comic character, the figure, everything. I've been trying for years to find the perfect head for an Airborne custom and was never happy - I think this one works just fine. The next challenge was trying to replicate the color scheme without resorting to using "powder puff blue" on him. At first, he had an all tan uniform, like the original fig, and I painted his vest OD green, but that didn't look right - he looked too much like a desert trooper. So I gave him a muted blue shirt and I think it looks better now (just noticed that I have to go re-paint his crotch.)
Torpedo is one that only recently started growing on me. I guess that's because we was just a "frogman" when I was a kid - hell, one of the early comics had him fighting in the Treasury building wearing his flippers & regulator! But after re-reading his filecard and thinking more about how he's supposed to be the baddest dude next to SE, he's really become a favorite of mine. I went with the "black ops" look - still allowing for his dive gear, but mainly outfitted for a firefight (without the speargun
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Comments are welcome - criticisms will be ignored
Enjoy!
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