Action Figure Customization - Mighty Minis Blindbag Conversion

After last month's 31 Days of Customs, my plan for this month is to mostly focus on my writing projects and limit my crafting time to little quickie projects like this one as well as possibly wrapping up at least one of the many projects that I've already started. Between the novels I’ve been on-and-off plugging away at over the course of this year, work, and the holiday season, I probably won’t be doing anything on the scale of my two previous projects until a little bit later. That’s not to say that I don’t have an entire month’s worth of projects on the verge of completion that will hopefully see the light of day in the weeks to come, but I digress.

This project started life as a whole mess of DCEU Mighty Mini blind bags that I bought for cheap on ebay (about a dollar or so each on average). I picked up two Batman V Superman Mighty Minis and four Justice League 2017 ones. I ended up with one Superman, one Lex Luthor in a mech suit (which I’m guessing was omitted from the BvS theatrical cut), one Cyborg, and three Aquamans. Since Mighty Minis are built ona  peg system that encourages you to swap out the parts, I took the blaster arm and legs from Mech Luthor and stuck them on the Superman, who I already stated sanding down before I realized that I hadn't taken a picture yet.

It was at that point that I came up with the idea to make my own homage to all the crazy bootleg He-Man figures that came out at the height of MOTU's popularity (Galaxy Warriors, Galactic Gladiators, etc) that consisted of "original" characters using off-model He-Man parts that looked just enough like the MOTU characters to fool parents and grandparents. The MOTU character I wanted to base my bootleg on would be none other than Trap Jaw (arguably the most popular of Skeletor's evil henchmen).

After sanding and washing the Mighty Minis, I sculpted a helmet out of Green Stuff. Since the Lex Luthor waist was quite a bit bigger than Superman's torso, I pared it down with my dremel. 

After that, I made him a chest plate and arm strap out of worbla before I sculpted him a jaw and helmet ridge out of Green Stuff. I should note here that I gave his helmet time to cure before I started adding additional details onto it. I didn't really know how to sculpt jagged monster teeth, so I just pressed little indentations around the the top of the jaw with a wet hobby knife. It worked out...not that great, but quickie projects like this are just me free-balling it and whatever happens isn't going to bug me like it would on a more involved action figure customization project. I was having fun and that's all that really mattered to me here.

The last few details I added were a big wrestler/barbarian-style belt (as well as an additional strap across the back) that I made out of worbla and some He-Man style furry jocks/loincloth bits sculpted from leftover Green Stuff. I forgot to take a picture after I was done with those.

Once everything was hardened, I primed the figure with Bulldog adhesion promoter and started laying down my basecoat. As someone who loves the color green, I knew I wanted to give the figure light green skin like Trap Jaw's debut comic book appearance instead of the more iconic color scheme that he had in the cartoon. For his robo bits, I wanted to try out the Vallejo metallic gunmetal gray that I received in the mail (I'm glad I bought it, by the way. It's one of those colors that I could never successfully mix on my own). 

Full list of paints used:

• Skin - Mix of Citadel Death World Forest and Reaper Candlelight Yellow
• Helmet and Fur - Citadel Mephiston Red
• Belt - Citadel Retributor Armor
• Metal and Robot Parts - Vallejo Gunmetal Gray (base), Citadel Runefang Steel (highlights)
• Straps and Wrist Band - Citadel Abbadon Black
• Wash - Citadel Nuln Oil
• Thinner - Vallejo Thinner Medium (I sometimes forget to list this, but I use it in everything)

Once the basecoat dried, I went over the entire figure in a Nuln Oil wash, being extra careful to wipe off the excess this time to make adding highlights easier. I also painted the chest and an area on the upper back gunmetal because they just didn't look right when I left them the light green skin color (I didn't want to sculpt a new pectoral on the Superman figure).

Using my new Army Painter dry-brush I highlighted the skin and muscles with the light green basecoat and highlighted the gunmetal with Runefang Steel.

After dry-brushing, highlighting, and giving the figure a protective clearcoat (using a flat matte clearcoat this time instead of a glossy one), I decided that I wasn't at all happy with how the sculpted fur and wrestler belt turned out. Maybe I just didn't take the time I needed to fully sculpt these parts in worbla and green stuff (respectively), but the texture just ended up looking blobby to me. There wasn't much I could do about the red fur at this point, but I did cut out a new center plate for the belt that worked a little better but I'm still not thrilled with it.

I also made a few more touch-ups with the paint to try and clean up the lines a bit more. It should surprise no one that brush control/neatness is still something I'm working on. I'll get there eventually.

Once the finishing touches were added, all that remained was to make my obligatory before-and-after picture and call it a day. I don't have solid plans for the four remaining blind bags miniatures (as well as the leftover Superman and Lex Luthor parts) as of yet, but I'm sure something will come to me in the days to follow. I might want to continue on the MOTU bootleg path given how much fun I had on this project.