What’s On My Desk (and Plans for 2022) – 12/21/21

This edition of What’s On My Desk is going to be a little different than the previous ones since I’m not going to lay out my current projects as well as the projects that I started a while back and still intend to finish. Starting tomorrow, I’ll be away from my home (and crafting supplies) for the Holidays and I won’t return until the new year, so this will most likely be my last post of 2021.

But when I do get back from spending time with the family, I definitely want to hit the ground running and wrap up all or most of the works-in-progress shown here by the end of Q1 2022…as long as life, work, novel writing, and yet more spur-of-the-moment project ideas don’t keep getting in the way. Here’s hoping, because my secondary crafting goal for 2022 is to clear out some space in my plastic bits bin, which is overflowing with cheap plastic figures, miniatures, and vehicles that I’m itching to upcycle into new customization project. I also want to dedicate an entire month to just painting miniatures (that I didn’t kitbash or convert myself), since I haven’t done that in a while and I could certainly use the practice.

With all that said, here’s what’s currently on my desk:

From left to right we have:

• Final Fantasy Red Mage (w/Gold Chocobo) – As I alluded to in the write-up for my Black Mage build, I’ve started building my Red Mage and his fine feathered friend using some 2” Spin Master Batman miniatures (the Joker’s body and Robin’s head, specifically). Much like the Moogle from my Black Mage project, the baby Chocobo who will accompany him is also starting out as a bead “snowman”.
• Legend of Mana-inspired Dragoon – I’ve been playing the PC remaster of Legend of Mana (one of my all-time favorite Playstation games and it holds up amazingly well after over two decades) and got the idea to create a custom miniature that was heavily inspired by Larc, the werewolf/dragon-man hybrid that you encounter the game. I’m well into the painting stage for this project and I’m definitely expecting this to be one of my first pieces to come out of the gate in 2022.
• Sun Wukong/Monkey King Custom Miniature – Using the body from the aforementioned Spin Master Robin miniature (whose head I donated to my Red Mage build), I glued on a monkey head and tail that I cut from a Dollar Tree pack of plastic animal figures and repositioned his arm to form the basis of my Monkey King figurine from Chinese Mythology (Journey to the West to be specific). Really excited about this one because I enjoy sculpting fur and making robes and whatnot out of worbla.
• Custom Barbarian from a He-Man Resin Cast – I mentioned in my last crafting experiment article that I planned to take my less-than-perfect recasts of the He-Man Eternia Mini into custom miniatures. For this sapphire blue recast in particular, I’m considering turning him into a jungle barbarian type character inspired by Savage He-Man/200X Jungle Attack He-Man/Marvel’s Ka-Zar but as of this writing, I’ve mostly just replaced his fists with spares I created using a Blue Stuff mold and some excess resin from the initial pour and filled in the air-bubble holes with Green Stuff. Still very much in the early stages with this guy.
• Zilla Repaint – Last seen in my 11/16/21 edition of What’s On My Desk, I’ve been dry-brushing on some more shades of blue and purple after basecoating the figure in Macragge Blue. This isn’t really a “serious” project, just something I mess with from time to time when I’m painting other projects. He’ll get there eventually.
• Desert Planet Mercenary Robot – In the back, there’s yet another action figure customization project that utilized Dollar Tree Final Faction figures and accessories. This coincides with a Desert Planet Mercenary Trooper figure I made with Final Faction parts leftover from my Corporate Security Android build. That figure is already done (and has been for a few weeks now), but I’ve been holding off on giving him a write-up until I finish his robot partner. Much like my Dragoon miniature, this is another project that’s well into the painting stage and (fingers crossed) I expect to finish it in short order once I return from the holidays.

For the works-in-progress that I started months ago (I guess you could subtitle this What’s On My Kitchen Floor) and have only sporadically worked on since:

Starting from the guy down in front and then going from left to right, we have…

• Motorcycle Cyberpunk Ninja –  This Ghostrunner-inspired cyberpunk ninja is one that I started kitbashing mostly from random Star Wars figures and it’s coming along, albeit very slowly. I’m still very much in the building stage and decided to give him this sleek motorcycle that came with a set of Corps! figures. I also plan to redeco his bike and hopefully make even more futuristic looking, like something akin to Kaneda’s bike in Akira. A lot still left to do on this guy, but I think sculpting his face was the major threshold and I’m quite happy with how it turned out.
• Cyber Shadow-Inspired Robo Ninja – After kitbashing a Spin Master Cyborg figure with a Spin Master Batman figure and giving him a ninja hood/mask that I ordered from Marauder Inc (along with a bunch of other 3.75" scale accessories) earlier this year, I have a solid basis for a Cyber Shadow styled robot ninja character, I marked some places where I plan to add some additional detailing with a fine-tipped marker and I've been continuing to pare down and prep the figure's joints for the eventual paint job. But before that, there's still some building left to be done.
• Ninja Hunter – Last seen in my 10/14/21 edition of What’s On My Desk, I pretty much only need to finish the detailing on his legs (some Ninja leg armor, maybe some added Milliput to make it seem like he's wearing baggy-ish pants) before he's finally ready for paint.
• Rockabilly Frankenstein – Back in late October, I had a tiny bit of Milliput left over, so I decided to give a random Hulk figure a gravity-defying pompadour and some sideburns with the intention of converting him into Rockabilly Frankenstein monster. I haven’t done anything with him since then but I have ideas.
• Blue Dragon Ninja – Another WIP ninja that hasn’t been seen since last seen in my 10/14/21 edition of What’s On My Desk. I still haven’t done much with this Ryu Hayabusa-inspired Fortnite Figure kitbash except come up with the idea to maybe glue his joints into a fixed pose, add some additional sculpting, and make him a statue/staction figure (complete with a fancy diorama-style base, maybe with some Ninpo fire/magic effects). I think that’s the way to go for this and it’s something I’ve been wanting to try for a while now.

So yeah, in terms of my weird outsider art, this is what I have waiting for me when I return home from the holidays and this doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of all the projects that I have planned in my crafting ideas notebook. I feel like I’ve made a lot and learned a lot in a relatively short amount of time this year and I hope keep improving and having even more fun crafting in 2022.