Shop Log – 5/21/23

I haven’t blogged in a while, but what else is new? While work has taken up a lot of my time and energy this year, I’ve still been making the most of what hobby time I have (or trying to at least) so here’s a look at a handful of projects that I have in the works. Since I go a 3D printer last month, it’s helped a lot in rapid prototyping and just printing base parts for my various projects that would have taken an ungodly amount of time to fabricate myself and I’m excited to share exactly how I integrate 3D printing within my usual creative process in future articles.

If you’ve been following the blog, you probably noticed that Project OAF stalled out after the last article. The truth is, I still wasn’t happy with how the articulation turned out and while I did try to take a step back and modify the sculpt in a vain attempt to get rid of the gaps between the parts (particularly between the hands and wrists and the arms and torso) but it just wasn’t working. But my 3D printer has given new life to this project, as well as a new base template body. Since Project OAF was heavily inspired by the design and aesthetics of the Eternia Minis subline of Masters of the Universe figures (except scaled up to a 5-6” scale), I figured that my new starting point would just be a 3D printed unofficial Eternia Minis figure that I downloaded and scaled way up in my slicer program.

Pictured below is a FlexIt90 resin casting of said scaled up Eternia Minis body made to test out the articulation and upon receiving confirmation that the articulation worked, I used those same molds that I made of the 3D printed parts to make PerfectCast plaster copies that I will soon modify with polymer clay to create the buck system body that I had originally set out to create with my previous efforts (and with a fraction of the trial, error, and wasted materials).

My other major action figure project at the moment is a three-way parody mash-up figure combining Friday the 13^th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and (of course) Masters of the Universe using a vintage MOTU Two-Bad figure that I 3D printed as a base for a two-headed Freddy and Jason. I started out by modifying the Two Bad torso in my slicer program and Microsoft Build 3D to space the neck pegs further apart so that when you rotate either one of the heads, the brim of Freddy’s hat doesn’t brush up against the Jason head. I also took the arm pegs and placed them on the sides of the torso rather than the perpetual bear-hugging position seen in the original Two Bad figure.

I made some initial 3D prints of the modified FreddyXJason torso to gauge the distance between the neck pegs as well as test fit the arms and some placeholder Freddy and Jason heads. Again, I stress that the heads pictured below are just placeholders that I downloaded and I plan to sculpt my own from scratch to not only be a tad bit smaller, but more cartoony and stylistically representative of what I want for this mashup figure.

I’ve also been printing out some random action figure heads that I want to use for some one-off/OOAK (one of a kind) customs to use up at least some of the wrestling figures that I’ve accumulated at various thrift stores, yard sales, Goodwills, and Amazon Warehouse clearance sales over the past two years to clear up some much needed space in my custom fodder bin. I won’t go into what these are just yet (if you can’t already at least tell that I’m turning a John Cena into Rick from Splatterhouse), but the process will be similar to my recent custom Cyberpunk Robin Hood figure where I’ll be taking the 3D printed heads, modifying them to fit their respective neck pegs, and making a separate mold of each one so that I can cast the heads in flexible resin. Reason being, I’ve been printing everything in PLA filament and I don’t really trust that material to hold up over time. But for rapid prototyping for parts that I intend to mold and cast in a much sturdier material, I have no complaints with PLA since all I need it to be is easy to use in my printer and relatively cost-effective.

A good example of this customization process, and one that I’ll have an article out for very soon, is Grapp-Lorr here. Grapp-Lorr is an original MOTU character I came up with on a whim after finding a Masters of the Universe Origins Sun Man on clearance for less than $7 and finding 3D files for a luchador head, boots, and knee pads that I printed out, sanded, modified to fit an Origins figure, and subsequently molded and recasted. All that’s really left for this project is to add the paint apps to his head, boots, belt/trunks, and gauntlets.

Oh and here’s two more figures from my fodder bin that I’ve finally decided to put to use after stumbling upon some more 3D printed heads. So stay tuned for articles on these as well.

I’ve also been working on custom miniatures, like this Dollar Tree He-Man that I’m painting up as He-Skeletor as well as a kitbashed Heroclix mini that I further modified with some details sculpted in epoxy clay.

I’ve also been working on a MOTU bootleg figure and homage to the late Mark Taylor, who is often credited with helping create He-Man (though his highly publicized disputes over this claim with Roger Sweet—a lead designer at Mattel at the time who is also credited with the creation of He-Man—is the stuff of toy collector legend) and has cited the illustration he made of a character named Torak: Hero of Prehistory as a kind of forerunner to what would eventually become He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. Whatever the truth may be, I always thought Torak looked cool and would make for a fun action figure. So I decided to use a pre-existing set of MOTU bootleg figure molds and created some PerfectCast plaster copies of the torso and legs on which I can add my own sculpting with polymer clay. PerfectCast is too brittle for casting fingers and hands, so I went with hard resin for those.

Like my FreddyXJason project, I plan to give this project an original head sculpt and like some of the other projects I’ve mentioned here, I used the magic of 3D printing to create the ornate details on Torak’s amulet, belt buckle, and gauntlet. Since Mark Taylor’s one illustration is really the only official reference, I feel that I have some creative latitude with the character but I want to keep it as on-model as possible for the small handful of MOTU fans and historians who might actually be able to recognize this character.

I also have some more custom Glyos figures in the works, particularly a Michael Myers, a Jason Voorhees, and a Brad Fang from Contra: Hard Corps, but I’ll talk more about those later since they keep sliding down my list of priorities as I continue work on what I consider my major projects at the moment. Before I end this Shop Log, I do want to say that I’m at least hopeful that I’ll be able to have at least one finished project article up before the end of the month. Though with my work flow (or lack thereof), there’s no telling which project that might be.