Nathan Struk
8/25/2006

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Before I start today I'd like to make it clear that I am in no way a professional sculptor or painter. If you think my samples totally stink, then feel free to tell me in a fit of rage and sarcasm on the forums, but know that I don't pretend to be anything but an experimentalist and a fan.

Okay, got that out of the way, now I can get to the good stuff. I've always wanted to paint my own figures or generate my own sculpts or dials since I first picked the game up. I think all of us in someway want to do the same. There's always one character out there in the world of pop culture and media that we'd love to see represented on the game table, side-by-side with the likes of Hellboy and Invincible. I know I'd totally geek-out if we could finally get a Ninja Turtles Indy collector's set out one of these days. Back in 2004 though, when I first got into the game, I had a few problems: firstly, I didn't have any way of making the figures so that they would look anything near as representable as I would like them. I mean, I figured I could get some moulding clay and maybe add some things to the figures, but I couldn't change the stat wheels or the base itself without it looking horrifically amateurish. To this day, I still can't do the latter two. Well, that's not entirely true. I know how to customise the base and the stat wheel; I just don't care to do it. I figure you should know that there is a part of me that doesn't care to go off into the entirely eclipsed world of full customisations. My style leans more towards keeping my figures as close to official Wizkids virgin purity as I can make them, so for those of you looking for an article about building an entirely new figure from the bottom up- you're probably not going to find it all here. What I will do is go over how I have progressed as far as I have, and some of the things I have learned along the way. I will however, touch on the bases and dials quickly:

Anyone searching for information about generating their own ‘clix stats, kindly refer to the following website: http://www.aduckwhat.com/robert/hero...stoms_view.cfm

Sundown was generous enough to provide the site with this link on the Custom Dial/Base Maker, Random Heroclix section of the forums. I don't know how long this link will be live so its quite possible that people reading this article sometime down the road will be cursing my name (or possibly Sundown's) but I'm sure if you look hard enough or make enough contacts elsewhere, you'll be able to find a similar stat wheel generator on the internet. The site is useful because not only does it let you create your own character and so forth, it will even let you print your wheel out on whatever paper you choose, thus allowing you to slip it into a character base for hours of fun.

I have only seen one decent piece of work when it comes to custom base making and that is from a chap on eBay. I know that doesn't do anyone any good, but I mention this because he didn't try the obvious (and most flawed) technique of painting the ring/letters on the base himself. Instead, he had designed a template on his computer, which allowed him to type or paste in any name, number of targets, and range, ring or team ability onto a blank base. He would then print that out onto sticker paper and cut out the “L” shape where the stats appear in the ‘clix window and finally stuck or glued it down onto any base of his choosing. I purchased one such dial from him for a custom Silver Surfer I was attempting and the results exceeded my expectations. I didn't like how most customs had the creator paint off the original names and numbers before attempting to paint the new ones back in. It looks sloppy and rarely works (if ever) with team abilities.

This leads to my reasons from staying away from full-out customs. First of all, I want to be able to play with my pieces. I want to be able to use them in tournaments just as much as I want quality sculpts. The rules for using custom figures are stated on the Heroclix website, but the basics behind them are as follows: you need to have an official and original Wizkids base/dial and the person you are playing must agree to your use of the figure in addition to receiving the permission of the ruling Envoy. What happens if someone at the tournament wants to be a jerk and won't let you use that repaint of the Joker? Nothing. You won't be able to sue him, so I'd suggest having a back up in tow if you're going to try this.

Magneto:
I first began altering my pieces when I started playing at a model/miniatures shop named Crossed Swords here in Toronto. They had supplies that I could use and so I figured I'd try giving certain characters alternate costumes. For example, the new Armor Wars Magneto was being released with a hovering Magnus in a chair. I couldn't (and still can't) believe how lame that looked and so I set out to give my IC Magneto the same costume as is depicted in the X-Men Legends 2 game.


Nimrod:
This turned out pretty well so then I looked over my Nimrod and realized I had had enough of the pink! If you take a look at the poster that displays all of the figures for the Fantastic Forces set, you can see the prototype for Nimrod. He was originally crafted with clear white plastic! He looked excellent. I wanted one like that, yet when I tried to remove the pink paint, I realised I would probably end up damaging the entire piece in the process. Instead I did the next best thing. After thoroughly researching pictures of the future Sentinel on Google, I realised that there was a second depiction from the comics: white with pink highlights. My paint at the time was pretty cruddy and the initial coats wouldn't stick to the surface of the figure so I taped up the base, all around his feet with masking tape. I then sprayed him down with black primer (in retrospect it would have been better to have used white primer) and began the first of many white coats of paint. After I took the tape off, I started to realise I was onto something. While I don't use it for any of my human clix (I find it makes them look ridiculous), I decided he needed some hardener/gloss to give him a finished look and to protect him from getting scratched in my uniques box. Here's a look.


Archangel (Death):
I decided I had to move it up a notch. I kept looking at my exp Archangel and wishing they had made him with metal wings. After all, his stat depicted the juncture in his career where he flew around firing metal feather-falchions at enemies, from the organic metal wings that Apocalypse had given him, making him into the Horseman of Death. I kept looking at the Heroclix figure and at what I needed to do to make him become that Horseman. I realised the yellow cords that were wrapped around him had to be cut off. His hair needed to be shaved off and his wings needed to be replaced. So I set about my task with an exacto-knife and sandpaper. I'd carve the rough or protruding areas of his costume off, then sand them down. Eventually I switched to Citadel paints (under the advisement of one of the store clerks), which were far better, smoother and quick drying. After I copied his costume exactly from the comics, I traced the pattern I wanted for the wings onto some flattened aluminium from a sardine can. I then cut out the desired shapes and stamped them to give the appearance of 3-D feathers. After I had coated them in silver paint, I painted a darker grey through the indent marks to create a greater feeling of depth. Once that was finished I glued the metal wings into the hole that had been left when I ripped out his original wings with some super glue and he still stands today. He is of course on his experienced dial so I've attempted to make him comic accurate, yet still playable in a tournament (if desired).


Goliath (Masters of Evil):
Because of what I felt was a success with Archangel, people kept telling me to do more. In addition to painting more appropriate (like rookie Quicksilver in his brotherhood costume) or alternate costumes on my figures I started to do more “carving”. Instead of creating an entirely new sculpt, I wanted to use the original but change it into something new by cutting away and then sanding down. Obviously this is only possible with certain figures but I did my best on what I could. Atlas was a huge endeavour since I had to take away most of his costume (including the giant “A” on his chest) and then sculpt in muscles for his Masters of Evil costume. I know the picture quality might not be the best, but I think you can see what I was trying to achieve here. You can still see the definition in the pectoral muscles and the “fake” set of upper abs I had to cut into him in areas where the “A” had left nothing but flat plastic.


His head is quite different; I even cut his jaw line away to make him seem like a different person (in the comics Eric Josten had plastic surgery before he posed as a new costumed “hero” in the Thunderbolts). His boots needed to be turned into cavalier boots and everything else had to be smoothed down with lots of time spent sanding the rough spots down. It was after Archangel that I decided I didn't really need to prime every time I painted. Primer is only useful when the paint doesn't stick or when you're going for a “rough” look to your figures. Heroclix are painted very smooth and tight now. In the original sets its obvious there was a black base that the creators' were painting from thus giving Dr. Doom or Doctor Octopus for example, a gritty metal look. After Fantastic Forces however, the pieces have had no “gaps” in the paint and I wanted to emulate that change of style. Usually rough painting works if you have no time to paint (like in Warhammer where you're trying to paint so many hundreds of army figures before Saturday's tournament) or if you aren't a very good painter. I also found that the Citadel paints would stick to any of the plastic surfaces of the figures as long as you give it at least two coats (in problematic situations such as doing a light colour over a substantially darker one).

Wonder Man (Masters of Evil):
Wonder Man followed much in the same way. I cut out notches in his belt, shaved off his hair and sanded him down. The hardest part here was the squiggly interlocking lines on his abdomen. I think I fluked out on this one ‘cause I got them right after the second try.


Cage:
With Luke Cage, I started to get a little ghetto. First of all, I hate his 70's blaxploitation costume. The yellow silk shirt, yellow booties, tiara, ‘fro and motorcycle chain for a belt just didn't cut it in the modern era. Luke has been establishing a name for himself in the Marvel Universe and he certainly has updated his look in all of his more recent appearances. Now a member of the Avengers, I felt his veteran would do nicely seeing as how his Wildcard team could be paired with any Avengers group and he would be able to fit in. Luke wears street clothes in the New Avengers. I decided I had to give him a ‘click that would look as cool as Cage really ought to be. After I shaved off his hair, belt and boots I knew I had to add some space to his pants. The skin-tight look wouldn't go well with jeans, so I resigned myself to have to invest in sculpting putty in order to pull this off. My fiancé, Amber suggested I use white glue, since I wouldn't really need a lot of it and once it sets, it stays pretty hard.

So I tried it out. I think I might still be one coat off from perfection, you can see he has pants that look a little more baggy and relaxed. I've painted a white bandana on his head, trimmed the opening of his shirt and painted over his chest to make it look like solid clothing; I've even given him an earring and a gold chain around his neck with a thin line of gold paint.

Shadowcat (Astonishing):
More recently I took up the challenge of giving the new Shadowcat figure her current costume as seen in Astonishing X-Men, written by Joss Whedon and drawn/designed by John Cassady. Amber wanted to have one and I personally prefer the costume. Again, I picked the veteran because it's the most appropriate figure. For some reason I don't like seeing the wrong costume on the wrong version of the REV (which is why I'm so happy with the new Daredevil REV). I set to work on Kitty much the same way as the others but she presented a particular problem. I had to carve away the mask from her face without destroying the details of her lips, nose and eyes. I started by cutting off her belt and then shaving down the puffy sleeves to make thin skin tight sleeves for her Astonishing costume. I left some plastic on her shoulders to carve the points in the costume and began shaving any protruding ruffles in the main body of the costume down. Thankfully, I was successful in removing the protruding plastic from her face and I was able to paint eyes, eyebrows and lips on her once more.
I'm going to take a step back here and talk about some technique. Faces are the most difficult things to paint. I think that's pretty obvious and I have seen a lot of screw-ups on the eyes in particular. What you need is a thin brush and a steady hand, but I have found that for female eyes, if you want them to look particularly feminine you'll probably want to try this technique. Start with black. I wouldn't recommend starting the eyes until you've given them their base flesh tone. It's easier to paint the eyes onto the skin than to pain the skin around the eyes. The black outline should fit into the socket space but shape them so that there is a slight point at the ends of the circles -kind of like teardrops- on the outer ends. This will be your base for eyelashes/eyeliner. If you very carefully follow this up with a slightly smaller white eye/oval shape within the black making sure that the black that shows is almost exclusively on the top, then you can give her the appearance of make-up or elongated eyelashes. Its not always a good idea to have the white entirely surrounded by the black, otherwise the character might look a little racoon-like. Once you've established the whites of the eyes (make sure the black has dried before you try this or you'll get murky eyes) you'll be able to make the difficult attempt of getting the pupil in the centre of the eye. Take a little bit of paint on your brush. If you take too little, you'll make a little scratch on the white, and if your paint is condensed as a droplet on the end of the brush –you're going to get a big black dot. Try practicing on white paper first. It also isn't always necessary to make a stabbing gesture at the target. If you carefully look at the new characters you'll notice their eyes are basically slits in between the whites of their eyes. Try a slight stroking motion when you go to make the dot. You don't want an exactly line, more of a stroke. If you don't get it quite right, sometimes you can go again with a little more paint and try to fix it.

If all of this fails, try to white over it, or, if need be, clean the slate and put your skin colour over the eyes and start from the bottom. This is also why it is important to have quality paints, as if you make a mistake you want to be able to apply more paint without a cheap thick paint covering up all of the details of the sculpture.

Eyebrows should be fairly thin as well. I don't care if you're doing man, woman or alien, no one wants to see a uni-brow (unless you're doing the Mole Man, that's acceptable). In order to keep paint from clumping you may need to water it down. Even a little bit of water will go a long way. Get as close as you dare to the eyes and try giving the line of the brow a slight arc. If you do them too straight they will look weird. You can do them on a diagonal if you want them to look angry, just be careful of how far away they are from the actual eye.

Lips aren't usually required painting for men but if you feel it is necessary, use a very light pink mixed with some of the skin tone. Women can have a variety of lip choices but if you're going to do them don't do anything too deep red. The only exception I can think to this idea would be on the Con Artist, since she's supposed to look like a prostitute anyway. The line of the top lip for women can be slightly longer and thinner than the bottom. This means the bottom should be a little thicker and stouter. The idea is you want realistically sized lips, but with some “pout” to them.

Northstar (Alpha Flight) & USAgent:
Layering your steps will help you immensely to reduce the amount of time you spend on mistakes. Find your base coat (for example, with Northstar that was obviously black) and work on top of that. That way, if you make a mistake on the detailing such as the white lines on Northstar's costume, you can always go back over it with black and sharpen up the lines or shape them to perfection.
In the case of USAgent, I did the black background, then painted a white square on his chest; inserted the red lines, slowly and with little bits of paint at a time. After I had completed that I took black again and painted in the star on the upper right part of his chest.
Fixer (Masters of Evil):
I read in Inquest gamer a little while ago about people who do full custom pieces. They had an example of the Winter Soldier who had been cannibalised from a bunch of different figures. I assumed I could never do that correctly and would just go about carving up my existing pieces to give them the looks I wanted. Everything was fine with that plan until Fixer was released in June 2006. Fixer had also undergone plastic surgery when he joined the Thunderbolts but unlike Goliath his sculpt was totally at odds with my style of alterations. For the life of me I couldn't figure out how to make him look like the rookie Fixer (who belonged to the Master of Evil) actually should. I realised I would have to add too much to the model to make it work, so I undertook my first full construction project. After studying the pictures carefully I began going through the character libraries looking for the right components. Eventually I was able to start assembling my Frankenstein-like creation with glue and the odd dab of white glue to fill in the gaps (told you I was ghetto).

What you see is a combination of Kang's head, Beetle's torso, Trapster's legs, Deathlok's backpack, Paladin's gun and a flight stand from the Hypertime Hawkman.

Well, I suppose this article is long enough as it is. By now you've been given a pretty good idea of how I've developed into this new hobby. I absolutely love painting these things now and find I can do better jobs in less time. I hope we can have some constructive discussions about more ideas on how to customise your Heroclix in the forums and I look forward to hearing feedback from the rest of you. I also hope I've been able to give someone an idea or at least encouraged creativity among you. Enjoy some more pictures of random other customs I've done just below the article.

Next week I'll return to another batch of Mugshots, where I'll review the new Hydra REV before moving onto members of the Frightful Four!

-Nathan Struk
marvel_maniac