GeekSummit's CUSTOM NECA ROBOCOP | Removable Helmet

Chapter 2: The Helmet
  
So with NECA's Robocop, Battle Damaged Robocop, Glow Worm Robocop, and Spring Loaded Robocop... where do we go from here? HA.. Ha HAAA!!!!!!

TAKE THE MASK OFF!!!

Brilliant!!!

So How do we do it??

LET ME SHOW YOU!!!

So I've only been on this kick since I picked up the spring loaded Robocop and i LOVE THIS FIGURE... But, one stone remained left unturned. The helmet... The only iconic feature left to reveal was the man inside the suit... or the man whose face, brain and some vital organs were transplanted onto a suit.

I love starting with Mattel's WWE  figures. They can give you such a great start when you're needing to hit a likness but there are none around. There is such a variety of characters that if yo squint hard enough you can make out just about ANYBODY's face that you want to see. At Toys 'R' Us the other day I was struck by this new The Miz figure. The eyebrows beating down on these wide open eyes really beams out from the package. So I picked this guy up and just kinda stared at him for a second right in the eyes until I guess my mind built the rest out of periphery. Immediately I waltzed over to the NECA/Movie Junk Isle and I picked up a Robocop figure for scale assesment. They seemed to have similar enough proportions. I was sold but I didn't bite right away. At $20 a figure I thought I'd just let it marinate for minute.

On a coincidental trip to a K-Mart on my lunch break I look up and WWE figures @ $9.99 are buy one get one1/2 off and there were 2 The Miz sitting right out in front. So... at already %75 off just ONE figure from Toys'R'Us I made it happen... and I'm glad I did.

Here are some comparison shots of the original head next to what we have created.

 

It's immediately apparent that we have taken a lot of plastic off of our original model. The striking eyes are about all that will remain, that and the mouth which will be accentuated by thinning out the cheeks and jaws. 

On the right of course is the original The Miz head. On the left is my new sculpt "whittled" from this original head. I call this process MicroCephloplasty*... what, too heady? HAhahah

This is a process i have worked with several times before. I started doing this years ago when I tried to convert my first DC Super Heros Superman into a Christopher Reeve figure. You could say that MicroCephloplasty was my start in customizing... Itty Bitty plastic surgery.

Pretty striking resemblance yes?

Anyway back to Robocop. So I took this The Miz head and first knocked off all the hair with a combination of exacto and dremmel. smoothed it over and made it a nice clean bald head. Then I came back and knocked off the ears. I could have stopped there BUT the likeness was definitely pulled together. I couldn't let the eyes do all the work. 

I looked up some quick references on Peter Weller's face in and out of the Robocop context and saw that he has one of those damn pixie noses. Really thin and defined, so it was Whittlin' Time
 with a brand new exacto blade. Time to knock this honker down to a near resemblance of The man who is Part Machine, Part Man, All Cop.

As you can see the  head is well proportioned to the helmet, BUT of course the helmet is fitted for the faceless Robocop figure so it wont slip over the head. Grinding out the inside may be a little counter productive so if I do move to a fitted option that may require a couple back and forths with molding and casting. If it were to work it could be an exciting personal advancement.

The face itself is a very much thinned down version of The Miz with a Micro Rhinoplasty to taper that nose down to a more pointed look, the cheeks have been brought up using the dremmel and .75" buffing wheel. All in all, a nice likeness. The head will still have to be trimmed some to fit it into the now open socket where the original lower face once was.

For presentation purposes I went ahead and roughly trimmed the head out to fit in the open socket. Still we have some areas competing for space but we still have a very nice fit. and a great likness.

The top rear of the head will still need to be sculpted on some to give it that "Borg" look as the face meets the metal skull casing. there will be some additional details added once that process starts.

 I'm very excited about this project. I hope to take this into full mold & cast as I arrive at my ideal model. This has gone so well so far that I may only have to do it once... I LIKEY!!!

Thanks for looking, Creep!!!

GeekSummit's CUSTOM NECA ROBOCOP w/ SPRING LOADED HOLSTER

Chapter 1: The Paint

I have been keeping an eye out for the long awaited Spring Holster Robocop. I pre-ordered on online super cheap but then I ran into a couple SUPER CHEAP at a local shop. I wish they had done this the first time. Also since the last round of Robocop figures that nose issue has been fixed. It was an odd piece to leave hanging.

The holster mechanism on this guyis impressive. The inside is not showy but the closure on these things is amazing. Every line disappears when the leg is deactivated. It's pretty impressive. That being said, this feature and the fixed nose is what we wanted and its what we got. Definitely a nice score.

Anyway, the reason I'm posting this figure is because I have taken the awesome figure that NECA gave us and pushed it up a notch. With all the new detail we got on Battle Damaged Robocop you figure we'd get a little something new with this figure as far as appearance. I really wanted to bring up the detail of this already awesome sculpt.

It was a really simple process. I took a 1/2" flat brush and black acrylic and liberally painted it onto every surface. Then I'd take a paper towel and wipe the surface build-up off while leaving detail "Deposits" on the underside of the more indented contours. I repeated the process over every side of every limb and here we are. The Robocop we deserve.

GeekSummit | Superman Movie Masters Video Tutorials

Here we go guys, this is a 6 part series plus intro on the making of the GeekSummit Movie Masters Superman figure. I do plan on posting the "PullThrough" cape demo as well in this post.

The Intro: The unknown History of the GeekSummit Movie Masters Superman figure.

Little is known about the Secret Origins of the GeekSummit Superman Movie Masters. And for good reason… nobody's ever asked.

Part 1: Parts Selection and Figure Prep

Part 2: Tools Tips & Tricks

Part 3: Assembled Body • Casting versus Direct Parts

Part 4: Two Heads ARE Better Than one… and Cheaper!!!

Part 5:  Body Makeover

Part 6: Paints, Paints and 'Mo Paints

Part 7: Final Presentation

For another simple Recipe Check out 

DIY Superman Movie Masters

DIY Christopher Reeve Superman Movie Masters Custom Action Figure Recipe

What's going on everybody!! I've done several Christopher Reeve Movie Masters over the years but I thought I'd pass on this nifty simple recipe along with a point for point paint scheme.

Let's get started!!!

You'll need:

• 1 Slim bodied WWE Elite figure (Rowdy Roddy Piper used here )
• 1 Dc Direct New Krypton Superman Head (Reeve Likeness)
• Aves Apoxie Sculpt or suitable subsitute air dry polymer clay
• A Dremel (For general smoothing and establishing your cape plaement)
• Acrylic paints: White | Black | Bright Blue | Bright Red | Bright Yellow
• Hobby Vinyl (for Superman emblem on chest)

Lets take a look at our unpainted model to see what we've done here:

• Head is actually a custom casting. The New Krypton head had a more breezy look to it and it didnt really fit with the Reeve films hairdo.

• Emblem is a custom cut vinyl from a sign shop I used to work at BUT you can achieve this same result from using an exacto and sharpie finepoint marker with hobby vinyl (for gas powered RC Cars)

• The belt has been sculpted on the mid torso section above the briefs. That elongates the lower torso.

The lower legs have actually been dremelled down to thin out the calves and then sculpted over with Aves Apoxie Sculpt. I took a plastic spru and dremmeled a hole in the backs of the legs to keep the swivel joint in place so there's no break in the shin.

 On to the Paints

Yellow

I work from light to dark out of practicality for this 

character. I start with my yellow to get the entire emblem (or just the insets as pictured) and the exposed sections of belt. It will take a few layers to get it at full saturation depending on what color primer you use. I've always used gray... could probably stand to use white really.

 

Red

Then move on the the reds. I use a mix of 90% red and 10%  Yellow. That takes your already bright red just a hare over into a hot red (deep deep orange). I go over the emblem a few tmes with a fine point brush and trunks and boots.

This is also a good time to put the whites in the eyes before you move on to your flesh tone.

Flesh Tone

On to the flesh tones. I create my flesh tone from red/yellow/white. Its a cheap way to get your own tone and you can always mix up and down to nail an existing tone as well.















Blue

Now its onto the major coverage... All that blue...
I use a mix of cobalt blue and white. It lets me control the brightness of that Reeve/Donner blue. I find it works nicely to go ahead and knock that hair out with blue as well. It gives it a natural shine there where some black may thin out. It makes for nice highlights.









Black

Don't forget your eyes. I actually take a dental pick and press into the sockets where I want my pupils. I press enough to make a pinhole in the eye. Then you can take that same pick with a dot of blue and drop your perfectly round irises in place. With the indention in the eye  you wont even have to dot the pupils, they create their own light/shadow. You CAN however take that same pick/fine pointed tool and dip it in white and give the eyes that tiny sparkle that REALLY bumps the scale believability WAY UP...







The Cape... Oh boy the Cape...

I don't have much faith in glues or tapes when it comes to attaching fabric to plastic much less with a layer of paint in between. So I came up with the "PullThrough" cape setup.
These are inserted into the body and tied off in the back

You'll need:
• Pack of ornament hooks (longer the better)
• Scotch Double Stick Tape (1/4" - 1/2")
• Cut fabric 6" x 6" 
• Dental pick (fine pointed tool)
• Dremel (to make tie off points in the back)
• Needle Nose Pliers 
• Hot Glue Gun 

 

 I take my square tailored for the scale of figure I'm using and roll the outside edges in just a little (about the width of a square of scotch double sided tape) and place the tape there in the topmost corner. Fold into position and press to establish the adhesive. This creates a reinforcement for the ornament hooks to pull the cape into the body. *Without the tape the wire will rip right through the fabric.

Then I take that same trusty dental pick and poke a hole into the center of both squares of tape with the fabric attached. this is where you will insert your ornament hooks to start to gather up the fabric to pull through. 

Simply make a candy cane shape of each hook and loop them through the holes you've poked through the fabric and tape.

Twist the wire until it can be twisted no more(it helps to use the needle nose pliers for that). 

Insert both ends into the two holes in the front of the figure and push them through the exit point in the back.  Make sure the cape is clear of the head before you pull the fabric comlpetely through. Twist them together in the back with the pliers and cut off the excess wire that is NOT attached to the cape. 

Once your cape has been pulled through and it looks good form the front... You Have Done IT!!!

Fill the exit cavity with hot glue and Voila!!! you are done. You can at this time press the cape into the hot glue to hold it in place OR leave it free to blow around either way once your to this point, it looks F'ing Aweome...

So there it is!! 

Thanks for looking!!!   

Be Sure and Check out my Deluxe Christopher Reeve Tutorials

Watch them Here!!

Vintage Kenner 12" Stormtrooper Restoration

So I picked up a Vintage 12" Stormtrooper on ebay this week. It was Buy It Now $15 total,  I had to bite.

Of course it was in the standard condition of massive yellowing but also had that brown joint action going on as well. I figured it would make a nice restoration piece. At $15 invested I figured this could be a nice no loss venture. There was no major damage to the figure itself so that would make for an awesome base. It just happened to be that ugly mucussy range of funky white. The hands are ball-jointed rubber so I just popped them out and set them to the side. Those will be an easy sharpie touch-up. I removed the screws and laid everything out on a custom rigged frame to suspend all the parts for painting.

Being the stormtrooper is a black and white figure, it was going to make for a pretty simple project. I just disassembled the figure to its simplest parts and sprayed with a Satin Finish Rustoleum white. While I had it disassembled I went ahead and took the screws along with my dremel and brought those back to life as well and knocked off all the attic/residue rust. They are now gleaming.

And... Faboom!! Bright white and re-assembled. I used photo references from the same auction photos to bring all the details back to their original  states. The one liberty I did take was in the breathing vent up top. Instead of painting each individual grate I went ahead and just filled it in. Other than that all the original details were honored. Now I have a very nice shelf piece I've always wanted to own but could never afford. Thank you ebay!!!