Shop Log 10/9/22 – 31 Days of Progress Week 1

This time last year, I gave myself a challenge (well, more like a general theme) dubbed 31 Days of Customs. This year, I want to instead challenge myself to make as much progress as I can on what I consider my highest priority projects and see where I’m at with them by October 31. I decided to go with 31 Days of Progress because I feel like I’ve been spinning my wheels with the projects and I’m hoping I can overcome that this month. But on to the projects and what I’ve been able to accomplish in week one.

Up first we have some Mexican bootleg MOTU figures that I recently picked up on ebay. Given the simple articulation scheme, I wanted to not only make some molds of these first but also to modify these figures to add head/neck articulation (and to allow for swappable heads) as well as replace the skinny peg articulation in the waist with a superior ball and socket joint.

Step one was to make molds of the arms (which are the same for both figures), the legs (which are also identical for both figures) , and the torsos/heads for the He-Man and Skeletor bootlegs. This was easier said than done, since the type of plastic used to make these figures was very resistant to the super glue needed to attach the funnels and air vents to parts, but eventually I was able to pull it off. From those initial molds, I made castings of the legs and torsos/heads in hard urethane resin so that I could saw off the heads, drill out the holes for the eventual sockets, and glue on the ball joints intened for the neck and waist artiulcation (which were also taken from urethane resin castings from existing molds of other figures).

I did make some Monster Clay copies from these molds, but I’m still gaining familiarity with that material and for this project, I just felt more comfortable working with the resin copies.

Unfortunately, I drilled a little too far and needed to fix my mistakes with some Milliput. Which was a quick and easy fix, so no harm done. I also added some Milliput to the bottoms of the feet, since the “original” figures tended to tip backwards when trying to make them stand up. Knowing that this problem would only get worse when I made my modified versions in the considerably lighter weight Flex-It 90 resin, I added the Milliput to the balls of the feet to lean the figures forward ever so slightly to hopefully alleviate the weight distribution and balance issues that are so common in MOTU bootlegs and knockoffs.

And here’s the urethane resin models that will serve as the “master” parts for my modified molds. Since I wanted to give the Skeletor mold its own unique set of legs, I took the belt accessory that came with the figure and put it on a copy of the legs so that it would be molded as a permanent part of the Skeletor legs, along with the added ball joint.

The first mold I made for my modified parts was the He-Man legs. I made a test castings in Flex-It 90 (pigmented in tan just because) and created the socket for the ball joint using the eternally vindicated hot glue/petroleum jelly method. That is, drill out a hole considerably larger than the ball joint, slather the ball joint with a thin coating of petroleum jelly to prevent it from sticking (I use one of my extra paint brushes for this but you could easily use a q-tip or your own fingers), and then fill the hole with hot glue. While the glue is still molten, jam the ball joint into it and hold both parts together until the glue cures, occasionally rotating the parts like you would to not only squeeze out any excess but also help ensure you get a uniform socket that allows for a full range of motion. I usually give it about five or six minutes. After the hot glue is fully cured and all the excess glue that might have been squeezed out is trimmed off, you should be left with the perfect socket for your ball joint.

I waited to make the mold and first casting of the modified legs before I made the socket because I was worried that I might snap off the ball joint superglued to the hard resin master model if I tried to do the hot glue/petroleum jelly technique using both urethane masters. With a Flex it-90 casting, I don’t have to worry about it because the ball joint is a permanent part of the piece and won’t break off. This is also why I’m going to wait until I made the molds and initial castings of the torso molds before I fit the sockets in the heads to the ball joints on the necks.

After making the mold and initial casting of the Skeletor legs (pigmented blue), I repeated the hot glue/petroleum jelly technique to fit the legs to the Skeletor torso. I also made a test casting of the arms just to see how they fit. You’ll probably notice that the initial casting of the Skeletor legs looks kind of gross and well, there’s a reason why the first casting of from a fresh mold is often called a “clean-out casting”. I had some Monster Clay that I used to fill in any gaps between the torso and the belt that I added to the urethane resin master model, since leaving these gaps in might tear up the silicone with every successive casting. But I think this first casting got all the Monster Clay and other gunk out.

With the waist articulation sockets now in place, I can make the molds for the respective He-Man and Skeletor torsos. Haven’t gotten around to that yet but I’ll probably (hopefully) have these molds wrapped up tomorrow. And the real project in all of this is to make a special, limited-run Halloween variant Skeletor figure in orange and black (and possibly with a Havok Staff where the ram’s head is replaced with a Jack-O-Lantern). I have other plans for these molds as well, but Halloween Skeletor is the one I’ll focus on this month.

The second major project I want to tackle this month is my ongoing attempt to create a Mecha Burger figure inspired by the fake mascot in the new Saints Row game. I tried making a rough sculpt of the arm in Monster Clay, but as I mentioned before, I’m not fully comfortable working with it just yet. My next attempt, I think I’ll use the shoulder piece from the same Titan Warrior Soundwave figure that I’ve molded but instead of Monster Clay, I’m going to cast it in urethane resin, attach an armature, and sculpt each part of the arm separately in polymer clay (I’m thinking Super Sculpey Firm). I still want to keep the Mecha Burger arm in scale with the Soundwave arm that I intended to use as a base, but trying to turn the entire arm into what I need it to be just isn’t working out like I’d hoped.

I’d encountered the same problem with the legs. While these are a hard urethane resin casting (this time of the legs from an Optimus Prime Titan Warrior figure), I’ve attempted to kitbash on the parts like the ball joint for the waist articulation and some plasticard cut-outs to start me off, but it didn’t take me long to realize that once again, the overall shape just wasn’t right. I tried to take a shortcut here, but that isn’t going to cut it here because I want to stay as true as possible to the design/reference image that I took in the game (which I posted here). It feels like I’ve been planning and conceptualizing this project for what feels like over a month now and it would be such a relief to get at least a few of the parts fully sculpted by the end of the month.

What I’m thinking here is to keep the waist and ball joint (since I’ll be sculpting a tomato slice over that part), but cut off the legs, attach some armature wires, break the overall design of the legs down into individual sections, and sculpt them piece by piece in polymer clay. To start me down this new path, I actually took the liberty to print out a reference image to make sure I keep everything in scale (and to keep me from having to glance at the one on my phone every couple of minutes).

Major project number three is, of course, the long in development wearable accessories for my Mr. Boneface series of action figures. Not much has really been done since my last update, leaving me with the same Worbla “foundations” that I still need to sculpt and glue the details onto (and redo the one cowl because I didn’t do the best job of cutting it out). I would at least like to get these done and molded by the end of the month, but of all my major projects, Mr. Boneface is the one that I want to work on the least right now. Moving right along…

Work on a stylized, cartoony figure of a Japanese Oni is underway. Using the mold for the set of Simba pirate figure legs that I used as an example in my article about one-part cut molds, I created a copy from Monster Clay and modified it to add a loincloth and rope belt. I also made the armature for one of the arms and did some initial sculpts with Super Sculpey Premo, but I’m still practicing at this stage and haven’t hit on anything I want to finalize just yet. But more on that in a bit.

I did end up making a silicone mold and an initial casting of the legs/lower body in Flex-It 90 resin because I wanted to see how it fit with the torso (or rather, one of the urethane resin copies I have of it) and how well something crafted in Monster Clay molded in silicone. I’m kind of having second thoughts about it though, as I’m wondering if maybe I should pare down the width of the rope belt some and maybe sculpt on a piece of cloth that goes around the waist and folds over the belt. I haven’t decided on if I want to modify and remold the lower body and I’ll probably wait until I craft the arms, feet, and head before I circle back to the legs and see if I feel like I need to retool them.

I hate to waste the silicone on a mold that I probably shouldn't have jumped the gun and made, but that's kind of where the trial and error part of this process rears its ugly head and some things, you never really know how they'll turn out until you make that mold and its initial resin casting. But at least the mold for the legs is a small one.

Speaking of sculpting the arms, I want to pattern their style and proportions off the Eternia Minis figures but I just have rough sculpts so far. Ideally, I want to have a final sculpt of the arms or at least one of them (and just mirror the other by copying it in Monster Clay, then chopping off and reversing the shoulder section with the socket in it) by the end of next week. I still haven't decided whether or not I want to sculpt the hands as part of the arms like the Eternia Minis or give the Oni rotational articulation on the wrists.

And while the Oni, the Mecha Burger, Mr. Boneface, and the Mexican MOTU Bootleg molds/Halloween Skeletor are the projects that I’ll be focusing on getting the most done, I am not without my little side projects. Though I’ve narrowed the side projects down to my custom Toxie figurine and that custom Wundar that I started on a while back. I haven’t had a ton of time to circle back to these since my last updates on them in previous Shop Logs, but I did start to add a heavy Reikland Fleshshade wash to the Wundar (that I need to clean up and add dry-brushing and highlights before I figure out how his armor is going to fit) and added a few more details to the Toxie (particularly a few more bumps and boils as well as his iconic tutu sculpted in Milliput).

I have more to say but I think I’ll cut things off here. It’s my hope that I’ll make double the progress to report for next week’s update.