Ok, apparently the digital camera can enhance flaws that I can't see even with 20/20 vision.

But here is my latest round of 25th anniversary customs.

First up in Major Bludd. I've always liked the character, but I didn't realize until today (after Chad posted the "Definitive Bludd Poll" that I'd never made a Bludd custom. The DTC version is just fine by me, but I wanted to give him the 25A treatment. I tried modding the DTC head onto the neck post, but it was way too big, so I sculpted some hair and an eyepatch on a VvV GungHo instead. He doesn't look sinister enough, IMO, but he'll do until I can find a more 'evil' head.



I decided that his "armor" should be a little banged-up. He's been a merc for a while now, so I gave him a bit of the Boba Fett look on his helmet and arm-thingy. I also grayed up his temples a bit.



I'm not too happy with how the brown paint job turned out. I need to get some Model Master instead of the cheap Americana crap I've been using - he'd look less sticky that way (even though I thinned the paint this time around.) Here he is "nekkid":



Spirit has always been a favorite, but I've never liked any of the figures - too stereotypical, IMO. I have a custom I'm happy with using a Nunchuk head, but I wanted to do something special with the 25A stuff. Just like with Bludd, the heads I planned to use didn't work - both the Nunchuk head and the DTC Spirit head were just way too small for the neck post. So I played around and finally came up with a modded DTC Salvo head. He's got that strong jaw and distant stare that I was looking for. Add some sculpted hair and a Dart pony-tail and we're in business:







Finally, inspired by Invisible Wraith's Flash custom, I started my own. I went a different direction, though. I wanted to catch the spirit of the original fig, but not necessarily the whole look. I left off the shoulder & thigh pads because I want him to be able to strip off the padding. Honestly, I always thought the padding was a little lame for a "Laser" guy, but he just wouldn't be Flash without at least the chest piece.



In my 'verse, Flash is still alive (duh) and he's the "Hi-Tech" of the team. He's the one who's always tinkering with stuff and building experimental weaponry. The idea of a "Laser-rifle Trooper" was always kinda lame to me, so now he's just the guy who plays around and invents crap in the lab, but can still kick ass on the battlefield when needed. So he's got a self-contained pulse carbine (no need for a power pack.)



And here he is stripped down so he can wear regular webgear and fight with normal equipment when necessary:



Apologies for the seemingly crappy paint jobs - they do look better in person, but that damn hi-res camera & flash really makes my stuff look like crap.

Enjoy!

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Spirit needs some black eyebrows to match his hair, man! Good choice of head though.

Also, if my memory serves, the original Major Bludd had a more "dressy" outfit under that armor. I think a Cobra Officer body would've worked better.

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Thanks Jay -

Actually, omitting Spirit's eyebrows was intentional. If you look at some pics of Native Americans through history, you'll see that a lot of them have very thin or no eyebrows, just like they rarely have facial hair. My Dad had a friend when I was little (named Charlie, coincidentally), up at the Blackfoot Reservation in Montana, who looked remarkably like this Spirit Custom. I remember I used to ask my Dad why Charlie didn't have any eyebrows, and Dad would give me a different story every time: "they were burned off in the Korean War", "he was drunk and lighting farts", etc. Turns out they were just so thin you couldn't really see them.

As for Bludd, I actually thought long & hard about using a Cobra Trooper/Officer shirt, but I haven't found but one Officer, and I'm not chopping up any of my Troopers, so I went with the SE torso for now. Since I'll have to repaint him anyway, I'll go back and re-do him with an Officer shirt when I find another one in the store. Good call, though - thanks!

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My favorite of these has got to be Spirit. Thats an inspired use of that head.

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Okay, but those blond eyebrows stick out like a sore thumb though, so the illusion of "thin to no eyebrows" is kinda lost...


Well, best of luck at finding another one. I still haven't seen zilch in terms of 25th stuff in my area.

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these look pretty good, you beat me to doing Spirit. I want to do spirit,kamakura and fix flint up but I need to find some more figures 1st. I think Flash looks the best in this bunch.The paintjobs don't look bad either but your other 25th stuff does look better than these ones I think.
Still good stuff and keep them coming.
Tim

Point taken - I guess in the darkness of the Man-Cave, they don't look quite as blonde (thought I painted over them).

How's this?

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DAAAAMN DAN, did you take some customizing vitamins or something? Your spittin out customs like there's nothing to it.
makin the rest of us look lazy.
Really nice work by the way.

What, you mean there are people out there who actually put EFFORT into their customs? (might explain why I'm still sittin' on zero votes in the NJC - I guess I should have put more than an hour's work into my Wolvie )

Thanks Joe! - getting compliments from my hero is quite the ego boost!

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Updated Spirit definitely looks better!

As for your NJC Wolvie, well.. I didn't vote for it because it lacked one of the bare essentials of a Wolverine custom.. the claws.

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Yeah, well, uh - that was Logan before the claws, when he was going through one of his dozen Ninja phases Actually - I think the figure looks pretty crappy because I put Roadblock arms on the GungHo torso and they just don't look right. I thought using all 25A-parts would be neat, but all I did was waste a Berserker Wolvie head (which is safe at home back on my DarkClaw custom.)

Yeah, I think the new 'brows on Spirit finally put this guy over the top - thanks for the suggestion!

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That pic of Spirit in front of the pile of parts fodder makes him seem like Chuck Norris.

Cool stuff, but I thought after the last batch you were done for a while

Good to see you can't stop, though. You're 25A customs are awesome.

Well, Chuck is half Cherokee, you know....


Ok, now I'm done - just because you had to give me the --hope you're happy now.....




Thanks Lev!

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I think he meant more in terms of "Chuck Norris leaving a trail of bodies behind him" than "He physically ressembles Chuck Norris".

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Yeah, I know - but maybe Chuck's killin' ability isn't from his Karate training, but from his Native American DNA.....

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