dvandom
30 Point Warrior
Joe Attacktix Contributor
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Posts: 455
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Post by dvandom on Jan 3, 2007 22:45:35 GMT -5
As mentioned in my trading thread before it got deleted I'm going to be out of town for most of next week, which means it'll be a while before I finish my next project. But to give you a hint, the base figure is Pyro...and the character is female. ---Dave
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dvandom
30 Point Warrior
Joe Attacktix Contributor
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Posts: 455
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Post by dvandom on Jan 4, 2007 11:47:44 GMT -5
I wasn't able to slim Pyro down as much as I'd have liked, but on the upside that made it take less time to finish the shaping. I'm going back and adding more hair to try to balance the fact that the head is a little bit too small (it's actually as big as the original Pyro head, but needs to be bigger to offset the bulkier-than-I-want body). I also still need to add the belt buckle and jacket buttons. MIGHT get this done before I leave, but given that much of tonight will be given over to comics, probably not. ---Dave
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dvandom
30 Point Warrior
Joe Attacktix Contributor
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Posts: 455
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Post by dvandom on Jan 5, 2007 20:47:40 GMT -5
Woot, I got it done before leaving! C.J. Brown is a pyrokinetic...like Pyro, she can control flames, but not create them. Normally one of the founding superhuman members of STRAFE (and the only one not drawn from the first "grad" class at the Academy), she was briefly the host to the telepathic hitchhiker Mr. Strings, becoming known for a time as the third Burnout. This was my most drastic Attacktix kitbash to date, involving as it did a gender reassignment surgery. I started by taking Pyro apart, so I could work on the pieces separately and not have to worry as much about a slip of the Dremel or file. I Dremeled down most of the muscles on the limbs, and narrowed the waist as much as I could without breaking through entirely (I filled the torso with putty as reinforcement, but joining issues limited how much I could remove). I set the head aside entirely, and used a head from a clearanced WinX figure as a base, inserting the neck into a styrene rod segment to act as the new collar. The head is not permanently attached to the body as a result, so I won't have to disassemble things if I find a better head to replace it with. I used Milliput to build up the jacket to match the Imperial Officer coats of the other STRAFE core team members, and the same styrene bits for buttons and shoulderpatch (plus a belt buckle). I made cuffs on the sleeves with more Milliput, and used Squadron putty to make the hair (adding more over and above the amount seen in the work in progress). All the poseability is retained, not that this is a sculpt made to look good with the arms moved at all. I suppose I could have gotten even more ambitious and sanded off the flamethrower hoses, then replaced them with flexible tubes, but I figured that was just asking for things to go horribly wrong. ---Dave, gonna spend the next six days in Seattle, or traveling to and from.
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dvandom
30 Point Warrior
Joe Attacktix Contributor
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Posts: 455
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Post by dvandom on Jan 14, 2007 23:17:11 GMT -5
Robert Coulter started out as a CyberNostra paraganger, but after seeing Supernaut (the biggest, baddest CyberNostra on the block) get his can handed to him, Coulter decided to retire from the life and became a reporter. This led him to, if anything, a MORE dangerous lifestyle, and he was eventually recruited into the Conclave of Super-Villains as Challenger (whose intended role was as one to challenge the leader and keep him honest). He soon retired from that and has ended up teaching at the Academy, but this figure shows him during the "Villain's Apprentice" arc of CSV. Strictly speaking, his jacket should be shorter, but I didn't want to hack up a nice trenchcoat. The build was fairly simple. I drilled a hole into his head so I could insert the cybereye piece, which is a 1/8" rod piece with a 1/16" rod segment filling in the hole in that and sticking out a bit as the optic. I glued two half-round rod pieces to the back of his hand after filing it flat, and used a file to make joint seams in the knuckles. Both of his hands are cybernetic, but the left hand is non-obvious. I cut away a bit of the distinctive gunbelt and glued a new belt buckle on top of it. To reduce the distinctiveness of the gun a little, I carved off the cone bit at the end. ---Dave, now to work more on Omega Supreme to Devastator/Destron Sixbuilder/whatever.
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dvandom
30 Point Warrior
Joe Attacktix Contributor
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Posts: 455
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Post by dvandom on Jan 15, 2007 22:49:44 GMT -5
Most of the construction details are in the image. This one started as a joke about how Hasbro would cheap out on series 2's Mega by just recoloring one of the Omegas, then someone quickly digibashed something together to extend the joke. I spotted a $4 clearanced Omega Supreme at Target and snagged one, but by then someone else had already done a decent job at a straight repaint. So, of course, I had to take it farther, and modified the figure in addition to repainting. I considered putting a magnet in the crane end, but decided not to gild the lily. ---Dave
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Post by Phoenix on Jan 16, 2007 11:34:50 GMT -5
Welcome back Dave! Awesome custom as usual and a much better repaint than Hasbro's.
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dvandom
30 Point Warrior
Joe Attacktix Contributor
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Posts: 455
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Post by dvandom on Jan 18, 2007 19:18:54 GMT -5
Jason Teller is a low-power, high-precision telekinetic who has trained extensively to use his power to aid in his shooting and throwing. Essentially he has Bullseye's ability plus a little extra, such as being able to make things turn in mid-flight. He can also guide things thrown by other people, such as his super-strong girlfriend Arc (in the first appearance of the AstroSpear, she threw it at Triton's flying base and Teller made sure it hit something vital). Now that Jen Kleinvogel (still not built, she's why I really want to get a Padme) has cut her hair, he has the longest hair of the core STRAFE team. Another Imperial Officer build, this time I used the brownish series 4 version with Battle Cry. I Dremeled off the hat and shaped the skull down, then trimmed the hair I took from the WinX head used on C.J. Brown so it'd fit properly on Jason's head. Of course, the hair was the wrong color, so I painted it. The rest of the build is pretty much the standard "Imperial officer outfit into STRAFE uniform" stuff. ---Dave
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dvandom
30 Point Warrior
Joe Attacktix Contributor
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Posts: 455
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Post by dvandom on Jan 20, 2007 2:13:55 GMT -5
As one of the exclusive toys for BotCon06, Crumplezone got a new head and was colored as a pre-Beast Wars Optimus Primal. I had a spare Crumplezone due to having bought the extra Omega Supreme for Devastator. After considering putting it in my trade pile, I decided to make it into the BotCon Primal (since Dark Crumplezone will be coming out officially). The head I chopped down some and added the ears with bits of styrene, but the fuzzy plastic used for the head made fine Dremel carving difficult. Otherwise, this was a straight up repaint. ---Dave Edit: dvandom.com's server has gone down, shortly after the admin left for a week. Sigh. I've notified him, but due to the time difference (server's in Australia) it might be a while before he even gets the note. Hopefully it's something upstream that will be fixed without him having to do anything.
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dvandom
30 Point Warrior
Joe Attacktix Contributor
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Posts: 455
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Post by dvandom on Jan 24, 2007 20:57:53 GMT -5
Where the Gold Troopers are the elite soldiers who generally stick to the high tech fortress that is the Citadel of Khadam, the White Troopers are the grunts that have to go down into the city of Ghat, to deal with the wretched hive of scum and villainy that the quasi-legal spaceport has become. Oh, and in addition to dealing with supervillains, fortune hunters and random alien weirdos, sometimes they get to deal with escapees from the Vivarium, genetic monstrosities often driven mad by the experiments conducted upon them. So the White Troopers will be excused for being less spit and polish, as shown by the grime and grit on the armor of this one. Armed with a Tsaran blaster pistol (which alternates between powerful short-ranged electron blasts and longer range but weaker focused Cerenkov rays), a wrist-mounted ultrasonic stunner for crowd control, and a backup pistol in the boot that fires a single 12 gauge shotgun shell (reloads kept in the pockets) for use against those Vivarium critters that eat energy. Their armor is similar to that of the Gold Troopers, but not as strong or all-covering. On the other hand, this lets them run away somewhat more quickly than Gold Trooper armor allows, which has meant the difference between becoming monster chow and getting promoted to fill the boots of the Gold Trooper who became monster chow. I built this from a speeder bike trooper, which to my annoyance has an essentially unremovable gun (it separates at the top of the handle, but is too well-glued for me to want to force it any more than I did). I carved away most of the front of the helmet and used putty to build up as close a copy as I could manage of the Gold Trooper helmet. Rather than making the shoulderpads purely out of putty as on the Gold Trooper, I Dremeled down the tops of the shoulders and glued 1/8" styrene sheet chunks on, then shaping them and filling in the gaps with putty. I Dremeled and filed the backpack into a new shape and added a new belt buckle with styrene sheet, plus filed down the abdomen flat. For painting, I carefully used white and three shades of gray, before obliterating most of my details with an ink wash and going back over with white to bring out highlights. Ah well. ---Dave
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dvandom
30 Point Warrior
Joe Attacktix Contributor
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Posts: 455
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Post by dvandom on Jan 27, 2007 19:30:50 GMT -5
The Green Troopers aren't even really soldiers. Their job is to scour the streets of Ghat and find people that no one will miss, then scoop them up and deliver them to the scientists in the Citadel for use in generic experiments. Because they're not supposed to be facing serious opposition, they get no protection other than their gasmask/helmet, and no weapons but carbines and gas grenades. The Green Troopers hate this. Because of the distinctive shape of their helmets and the color they wear on their uniforms, the Green Troopers have acquired the nickname "Frogs". The Green Troopers hate this. There's a rumor popular in Ghat that if you put up a good enough fight when the Frogs come for you, instead of getting turned into experimental subjects, you get recruited into the Green Trooper corps. This, of course, leads to people fighting back really hard when the Greens come for them. The Green Troopers hate this. The White Troopers look down on the Greens, calling them jumped-up dogcatchers. The chances of being promoted out of the Greens and into the Whites are slim, and the Whites do what they can to make the chances slimmer, preferring to recruit directly out of other talent pools. The Green Troopers hate this. Being a Green Trooper is not a fun job, so you'll understand if they tend to take their frustrations out on anyone weaker than they. So...don't look weak when you're in Khadam. This figure started life as an Endor Scout, SW02(4). A lot of the work I did is not obvious...I didn't like how things lined up between the top and bottom halves, so I did extensive cutting and puttying to make it work better. The figure now defaults to being turned about ten degrees to the left of where it originally did. I trimmed back the bill of the helmet and used putty to create the gasmask/searchlight combo. I left the Shootback power alone. ---Dave
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Post by YodaBreaker on Jan 27, 2007 23:01:07 GMT -5
As great as that custom is, I like the description even more - nicely written
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ebiljawa
20 Point Captain
The sarlacc found me somewhat... indigestible.~Boba Fett
Posts: 177
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Post by ebiljawa on Jan 28, 2007 8:33:53 GMT -5
Hey dvandom! This storyline is awesome! You should write a book or something! Possibly a graphic novel, using pics of your figs?
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dvandom
30 Point Warrior
Joe Attacktix Contributor
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Posts: 455
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Post by dvandom on Jan 28, 2007 11:30:10 GMT -5
Actually, if you go to this page, you'll find that I've written several books' worth by this point. Just finished ASH #77 last night, and in the process of editing Conclave of Super-Villains #27 (written by a friend of mine). Now, one reason I've put a bit more detail into describing the troopers is that they really don't have significant roles in the stories so far, so I can't just point to where they've appeared. ---Dave
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dvandom
30 Point Warrior
Joe Attacktix Contributor
????#???? ?????????????????????? ?
Posts: 455
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Post by dvandom on Jan 31, 2007 20:50:43 GMT -5
Jen Kleinvogel was part of the graduating class at The Academy that included Solar Max, Green Knight, Grind, Jay Teller and Tony Drake, among others. Hers is a more support-oriented power: stealthed flight. She creates an antigravity sheath that not only lets her fly, it also renders her hard to see (and lets her affect "ghosted" desolid people to some extent). As a member of STRAFE, she has trained extensively in using her mobility to best advantage in all forms of combat, and she has proven herself a good field leader. The base was Padme Amidala, SW06(1), about the only reasonably kitbashable female Attacktix launcher (Slave Leia might be, with a LOT of work). I replaced her pistol with one taken from an Imperial Officer and used putty to build up the uniform in a manner similar to my work on C.J. Brown. Probably the trickiest part was getting the high collar front made. I decided that Padme was overpriced (smaller base AND smaller missile than 20 point Grand Moff Tarkin, and her power isn't that much better than his), so I dropped the cost. And so, the core five original STRAFE superagents are now done. ---Dave
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dvandom
30 Point Warrior
Joe Attacktix Contributor
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Posts: 455
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Post by dvandom on Feb 12, 2007 0:54:11 GMT -5
Scirocco is a bit on the obscure side. Part of Righteous Flame, the main state-sponsored super-team of the Moslem Confederation, he's really only shown up in a few issues (#46-48 mainly). While smart enough to be publicly devout, he doesn't really believe in anything but money, and his teammates don't really like him much (especially the ones who ARE devout Moslems). Your basic subsonic speedster without many "Flash tricks", he carries a gun. The costume was designed by Joe Singleton based on a few notes from me for the cover I commissioned for ASH #50, and I tweaked it to fit the AT-ST driver base figure (and to make it a little more uniform-like and less spandexy). I'd initially thought I'd make him from a Death Star Gunner, but ended up head-modding an AT-ST Driver instead, using one of the leftover Rebel Trooper helmets I took off for an earlier project. While it doesn't really show in the pictures, I did sculpt the shirt to put the lines in it, they're not just painted. I was originally going to paint the base black, but I ended up deciding not to. I did paste a black special power label to the bottom, though. I replaced the almost useless "Recuit (Princess Leia)" with the equally useless "Recruit (Moslem Confederation)" power...he's the only MC faction member at the moment. Although, if I can get a striker Wookiee, Scirocco will get a teammate. ---Dave
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