Custom Resin Figure – Deathknight (Papo Knight Recast)

Last seen in my What’s On My Desk update from the beginning of March, I’ve had this one done for quite a while and I’ve finally gotten around to giving it a write-up.

As I mentioned previously, this is a urethane resin casting of a Germanic Knight figurine from Papo. I can’t remember what style of mold I used to create my recast (if it was a two-part “clay up” mold or a one-part cut mold), just that I made it using Composimold as a test to see if Smooth-On Smoothcast resin would work with Composmold and not overheat to the point where it would warp the thermoplastic material. Thankfully, it did not (but it did leave a bunch of crusty white resin chips that was a pain to sift out, even with a wire strainer). And aside from the fact that its shield and horns/wings/whatever on its helmet broke off as I was de-molding it, this was one of my better castings using Composimold as its surface was nice and smooth. Free off all the unsightly warts, bumps, and other “artifacts” that have plagued so many of my Composimold castings. Had I known how lucky I got with this one casting, I probably would have made made a few more copies from that same mold.

Here’s the resin recast side by side with the original figure. I gave it a different shield, which is another resin duplicate (this time of a shield that came with a Mexican bootleg Skeletor figure).

I dremeled a hole in the lower half of the face and inserted a skeletal mouth and jaw that I cut from a hard plastic skull bead. To decorate his shield, I used a plastic bat from a cheap Halloween party favor ring. The sword isn’t a resin casting, but rather a Milliput copy of a G.I. Joe Snake Eyes sword that I made a long time ago with Oyumaru Blue Stuff. I sanded the tip of the sword to look more like a medieval double-sided “thrusting” blade rather than the katana sword that it was originally. The horns were clipped from a random model sprue that I would later wrap with Green Stuff to look more pointed less flat.

Glued the figure onto a base that keen-eyed readers might recognize as being similar to the one I used for my Sunset Overdrive OD Mutant custom. That’s because it’s yet another copy of that same Bossfight Studios zombie figure base that I duplicated with ImPressive Putty and cast in exposy resin. Here, I just used my dremel to sand off the manhole cover.

In addition to fleshing out the horns, I used Green Stuff to add some extra detail to the helmet as well as give him a wrist-strap for his shield. The major problem I had with this casting is how flat and almost invisible a lot of the helmet details looked. This is why I would later circle back and add additional Green Stuff to add some extra dimension to the visor/eye-slots.

When I THOUGHT I was done adding details to the figure, I primed it with either Duplicolor adhesion promoter and coated it with Rustoem Flat Black primer.

From there, most of my painting was just a controlled dry brush using Citadel Leadbelcher for the metallic parts and a mix of Citadel Orruk Flesh for its mouth because it works so well as an undead green color. I didn’t go super in-depth with the paint apps because I wanted the black undercoat to do most of the work here (hence my reliance on dry brushing here). I mixed a drop or two of Orruk Flesh with some Vallejo White and dry brushed that over the teeth before I painted on an occult cross using Citadel Mephiston Red. I thought that might be a neat contrast to the original figure and would give off some “evil counterpart” vibes for when I’d eventually post the figures side-by-side.

But, as I mentioned before, I was finished with it quite yet. Part way through painting, I realized that the helmet visor wasn’t standing out enough, so I bulked it out a little bit by sculpting a new visor over top of the old one with Green Stuff.

It’s a little hard to tell from the picture, but I applied a Nuln Oil wash to most of the figure as well as a Vallejo Dark Rust wash to the sword and other metallic areas. I might have also used some Athonian Camoshade on the mouth. For his base, I mixed some Citadel Standard Mechanicus Gray with some white to create a light, stony gray that I dry brushed on.

From there, I touched up the paint where it needed it using Citadel Abbadon Black and did a bit more dry brushing (Leadbelcher and Runefang steel) over the shield, horns, and chainmail. I finished things off with a protective clear coat. I used Krylon Crystal Clear with a glossy finish, mostly because I prime and clear coat my projects in batches and that was what I decided to go with for whatever else was getting clear coated alongside it.

While not as involved as many of my other crafting projects (past, present, and future), this was still a fun little one-off and I don’t think it came out looking too bad. Not much else to really say about it, so here’s a side-by-side shot with the original Papo knight figure from which he was duplicated.