Custom Miniature – Saurian Plunderer (He-Man Mini Resin Recast)

Hot off the heels of my Ax Battler custom resin miniature comes the third entry in my Barbarian series, the Saurian Plunderer. Unlike Ax Battler, this barbarian is an original character though it too started off as a resin casting created from the same silicone mold of an Eternia Minis He-Man figure. This one in particular was cast in epoxy resin dyed a transparent blue.

The head on this miniature didn’t quite come out, so I swapped it with that of a Jurassic Park tyrannosaurus rex mini figurine that I found at the Dollar Tree since I had it lying around and its cartoony style meshed well with the exaggerated look of the Eternia Minis base body. I then exchanged the He-Man feet with the t-rex's feet and gave him its tiny tail as well. And like many of my customized resin figures, I glued it to a G.I. Joe stand (that I also duplicated with epoxy resin).

For the weapons, I wanted to go with a more sci-fi fantasy theme for this character, so I gave him a blaster that I think might have come from either a random Iron Man or Star Wars figure as well as a futuristic-looking shield. It’s another duplicated piece, this time a urethane resin cast of a shield that came with an Armored Puppet Ryuen model kit. I made a mold of that piece in particular because you can never have too many cool-looking shields.

I must have prematurely thrown out the t-rex figure from which I removed the head, tail, and feet because the extra set of hands came from a different Dollar Tree Jurassic Park figurine. On the back side, I used some Green Stuff to add some additional ridges that kinda-sorta matched the preexisting ones on the head. I also used Green Stuff to bulk out the neck and make it less obvious that the head was super-glued on.

I started making his armor by gluing to his chest another resin-casted shield, this one I duplicated from a He-Man Megaconstrux figure. As you’ll eventually see in later projects, this Megaconstrux shield would quickly become something akin to my own version of the Universal Greeblie. From the chest armor, I used milliput to sculpt its straps and pauldrons. Once the milliput was cured, I sculpted on some shoulder spikes, mostly to cover up at least some of the texture I poked into to the pauldrons and ended up hating after the fact.

The final piece in the kitbashing stage came in the form of a tiny resin-casted axe, which was also duplicated from the same He-Man Megaconstrux where I got the shield. I made a sheathe out of Green Stuff and stuck it to the figure’s back, which helped to cover up the shoddy job I did making the harness’s back straps.

Onto the painting stage, I primed the figure with Duplicolor adhesion promoter before spraying it with Rustolem Flat Gray primer.

I wanted to go bright with the basecoat, utilizing the following:

• Skin – Citadel Orruk Flesh
• Armor, wrist bands, belt, axe details – Vallejo Bright Bronze
• Blaster – Citadel Phoenician Purple lightened with a few drops of Vallejo White
• Loincloth, shoulder pads, axe scabbard – Vallejo English Uniform
• Armor harness straps – Vallejo Flat Earth and Reaper Harvest Brown (if I recall correctly)
• Teeth, eyes – Vallejo White and (I think) Citadel Castellan Green for the iris.
• Spikes, axe, scabbard details – Citadel Runefang Silver
• Shield – Citadel Leadbelcher
• Base – Standard Mechanicus Grey

I flocked the base with some Mod Podge and fake grass, but it was a little premature and most of it would end up falling off during the wash and clearcoat stages.

For the wash, I think I used Citadel Nuln Oil on everything save for the base, which I tried to dab with Agrax Earthshade but ended up knocking off most of the flocking.

After the washes dried, I dry brushed back over the figure using the basecoat colors with a few drops of white paint mixed in to brighten them up. I might have also added a Vallejo dark rust wash to the shoulder spikes and shield as well. After dry brushing on my highlights, I applied a light wash using Citadel Athonian Camoshade on a few choice areas of the skin (particularly the head) to bring out even more of that nice bright green. Once I finished the last of the paint job, I sprayed the entire figure with a protective clearcoat using Krylon Crystal Clear (glossy finish).

That’s the creative process behind the Saurian Plunderer in a nutshell and a third figure in my Barbarian series in the bag. It wasn't as heavy on the sculpting as my two previous barbarians but I'm still happy with how everything turned out.

Despite what I might have previously said about having only one left (the one I’m currently customizing as Hercules), I actually have two resin recasts of the Eternia Minis He-Man remaining as well as two Eternia Mini Skeletors that I recently casted that may or may not be used for this series (as they aren’t quite as immediately customizable as the He-Man figure).

In the meantime, I leave you with yet another before and after shot: