Building a Better Dr. Manhattan

Watchmen. Loved the film, even though I could see the rough edges where valuable story info had been excised. Liked the figures as they truly captured the likenesses of the film counterparts. I thought they were all spectacular, even Ozymandias.

The only quibble i had with the figures is that Dr. Manhattan seemed rather "flat". I know that the translucent version of the figure was a little more dynamic, but not by much. My main problem is that Dr. M in the film had so much going on under the surface, and so much texture that his figure seemed a little monochromatic and dull:

So, as I am wont to do, I took it upon myself to jazz him up a little:


It didn't take much to bring him to the level that I wanted. Again Tim Bruckner's sculpt was awesome (albeit not quite Billy Crudup's face) and all it took was an application of some dark blue metal flake paint to really up the "grittiness" factor of the figure. From there is also redid the eyes to more closely match the film version. Basically he was originally just given white eyes and dark bags, but I added more of the stylized shadow from the film and did the eyes in silver, then added white corneas for effect. From a distance it looks like he just has white eyes, but up close, as in the movie, his eyes show definition.

Pretty pleased with the way this one turned out as he looks more like his filmic counterpart. Check out the gallery below for more detailed shots.

Building a Better Black Canary

DC Direct just released their Kevin Maguire inspired JLA figures with the first wave consisting of Batman, Ice, G'nort & Black Canary. The Black Canary figure is decked out in her feathered hair 80's crime fighting outfit, and for the most part it's spot on. What made me flabbergasted is her facial sculpt. Here she is straight from the package:

Now I consider Tim Bruckner to be a god when it comes to rendering these sculpts, but this seemed WAY off to me. She looks like the character in the movie Outland whose spacesuit springs a leak and he explodes from decompression. Her head seems to be in danger of popping!

Needless to say I wanted to set this right and came up with a solution. I separated her hair sculpt from the head and proceeded to heat and stretch it so that it framed the face a little more, reducing the bloated effect. From there I glued it into place and touched up the eyes a little for good measure. She now looks like this:

Definitely an improvement, and more like the BC I remember form the 80's. Amazing what a little plastic surgery can do.

Soap Box - (or How I Suck at Blogging)

Hi there,

If you've come back to the site after my long absence, welcome back. Thank you for your patience and dedication to my work. It is truly appreciated.

If you are a newcomer, thank you for joining! But I must warn you that I am notoriously negligent in updating the site. It doesn't mean that i have lost passion for my craft, but i think I should explain....

It seems as though the information revolution that began with blogs has become ever increasingly faster:

Blogs: Updated monthly or weekly, many people do it daily / hourly

Facebook: Let's people know how you feel RIGHT NOW and how all of your friends are doing at the same time.

Twitter: Let's people know what you are thinking THIS FREAKING SECOND!

Eventually we may all just have chips installed into our frontal lobe that just dictate our random thoughts on to the internet, and that will be it.

I've tried to keep on track with updating Facebook & Twitter and this blog and ultimately I have to ask myself, does anyone really care what I had for breakfast or if I am in a grumpy mood just that second?

Probably not, and I'm not going to fool myself into thinking that people visit Project:Custom for anything other than looking at the work I have completed recently. And it is for that reason that I don't update the site with drivel, but rather only bring it up to speed when I have something of merit to show.

I hope you gentle readers can appreciate that, and that I won't tax your valuable time with trivial musings. But also please don't take the inactivity on this site as an indication of a lack of passion for the art of creating action figures. On the contrary, when i have completed a major project for release, you will be the first to know.

*Steps down off soap box*

Thanks again for your patience and patronage. Please check out the newest offerings that will be posted on the site in the next few days.

Until then, you should know what I had for breakfast today: 4 sticks of Doublemint gum. Breakfast of Champions with Nice Breath.

Cheers.

Testing...testing..is this thing on?

*Blows dust off of blog*

Wow...almost a year. Wonder if my two fans are still paying attention....or are even alive. (Well, I know my Mom is.)

What have I been doing with my time? Trust me, I've been busy!

Stay tuned and watch the roll out over the next couple of days.

Cheers!