Not a GiJoe but I'm taking a little break from really involved customs for the time being.
I've been wanting figures from Star Trek II since I was 8 when the movie came out. It is nice to finally get them and all in all I'm very happy with what Diamond has done with the figure. I'd love articulated hips like the Battlestar Galactica figures have but besides that these figure are really perfect. I had one gripe though and that was the Kirk figure just seemed...off for some reason. I spent some time figuring out what I didn't like,changed it and then repainted the figure.
Anyway here are my a couple of very very quick shots of him. Some of the shots are a bit rougher then what I usually do but it gets the point across.
I like this one the fact that it almost looks "life-like". Really great sculpt underneath that was kind of shot due to the beak nose he was sculpted with and the bad paint application
As far as what I did. I realized that the headsculpt was pretty good except for one thing...It was the nose again, just like with Picard from Diamond. The sculpter sculpted a beak on Shatner that he never had. I took out my dentist dremel and pug nosed his nose to look more like Shatners did back when he made ST II and III.
After that was done I repainted the entire face a different and more realistic shade. Then I did multiple layers to add depth to his cheeks and wrinkled areas. Probably about 6 different passes of different shades going on with this head. I also looked at a lot of screen captures of Shatner during Wrath of Khan and Search for Spock (since that is quintessential movie Kirk for me). I also did a bunch of different shades to his hair until I got it at a shade I was happy with. I also painted some areas darker to convey more of a "curly hair" look, then highlighted other areas to get across the semi curly hair Shatner had for this movie.
The eyebrows were the biggest challenge, if I made them too dark or too thick they just ruined the rest of the face. What I did was make them as thick as Shatner's actual eyebrows were then I lightened up at the top areas and left only the area closer to his eye dark. Then I added a darker frame under that and it seemed to work.
All in all I'm pretty happy with it.
