Flashback: Kamandi, “The Flash: Rebirth” Wally West, “Outsiders” Grace, Katana, Damage

We’re back to a mixed bag of DC favorites, with some individuals and some new team members.

 

KAMANDI
This started out as a simple idea – parts-swapping galore, with an Ultimate Sabretooth hairpiece, some acetoned-down fleshtone arms, a fleshtone torso and Stargirl legs. Actually acetoning the yellow sleeves off the fleshtone arms proved to be more annoying than I’d anticipated. Nevertheless, with these parts and a repainted Daredevil belt, I now had the Last Boy added to the lineup (an Anthro custom should really follow someday).

WALLY WEST (“THE FLASH: REBIRTH”)
Flash customs tended to be easy at the time thanks to the glut of C3 Flashes spilling out of China and Hong Kong seller stores at the time (a glut I dearly miss now, since that mask is a unique piece that is hard to find otherwise). Add the availability of fodder to the strong desire to make a Wally West thanks to DC’s alternating abandonment/mishandling of him, and this was a gimme. Wally changed his costume slightly when Barry Allen’s Speed Force effect rebuilt all their battle-damaged costumes, which was a nice way to give him a costume that was still “The Flash” but more distinct from Barry’s — it used to just be the shape of the chest symbol and lightning-bolt belt, but now everything from the color (a metallic, more oxblood shade of red to Barry’s classic true red) to the mask shape (now a more Batman-style nose-covering mask than  the old “W” shaped Captain America-style mask). Easy enough to approximate with some sculpting.

GRACE CHOI
This was a slightly confusing one to put together. Grace, the burly bouncer-type brawler of the 2000s Outsiders, was sometimes depicted as being almost Amazonian in height, which was hard to approximate in Minimate form. Additionally, this depiction was somewhat artist-dependent and inconsistent. As such, I tried to meet the depictions in the middle and make her only sliughtly taller, thanks to an inverted belt and some Juggernaut boots. Drew the tattoos on her arm with a marker; I’m almost certainly going to have to redo those.

KATANA
The first of two Katanas I’d eventually end up making, this one just happened to be more parts-friendly (you’ll know why when you see the other one). Repurposed a Gwen Stacey jacket and Darkstalkers Morrigan hair, a fairly bad combination that didn’t work together with some modding to fit. Got her look down well enough (this was one of the chracter’s two better looks), and this was one more Outsider that could stand with the team.

DAMAGE
Finally got around to this guy, and I decided to go with his more current and more purposefully-used JSA form instead of his older Titans iteration. Quickly ran into the same dilemma I had with Grace Choi: Wasn’t sure how to approach the character, as he was depicted as a fairly beefy post-adolescent — do I go full-on 2.5″ body, or something slightly smaller? In the end I decided on the latter, and gave him a slightly bigger torso (thanks to the Powerhouse chest cap) and head (thanks to the slip-on mask). First time working with the contoured muscle-y chest cap instead of the traditionally blocky Powerhouse chest cap, which resulted in some fiddling with the decal.

 

Back in 7!

Flashback: Ice, Fire, Doctor Mid-Nite II, Justice Lords Martian Manhunter

Soon I was getting a bit bolder with these, still putting decal designs together in Photoshop based on outfits or looks that I favored and inspired by ideas from fellow customizers and even other official releases. It would take some time, though, before teams could be completed.

 

ICE
Continuing to build the Justice League, as well as explore a variety of eras and costumes, I took to mining the Justice League Unlimited cartoon for designs. The show had a way of updating older looks, or distilling sometimes-disparate ones, to come up with definitive and memorable looks for the characters. Aside from some added boots, Ice is mostly based on her JLU look — a simple but effective one that only really needed a unique hairpiece and torso decal.

FIRE
Fire also benefits from a JLU adaptation that simplifies her many often-rather-80s looks — the big hair, from a Marvel Minimates Rogue, is a remnant of that inspired by fellow customizer bobafett’s designs.

DOCTOR MID-NITE II [PIETER CROSS]
Chalking one more up for the Justice Society of America is the modern Dr. Mid-Nite. Years down the line the Captain America movie Minimates would include a movie Hydra Soldier with a mask that was a much better match, but for this one an X-Factor Beast mask worked with the same eye-painting trick used for Red Robin.

MARTIAN MANHUNTER [JUSTICE LORDS]
This was a tricky custom largely due to parts availability, but a deal had landed me a spare Martian Manhunter head — which turned out to be all I needed to make an alternate version of him. And what better alternate version than the Justice League cartoon’s Justice Lords? He went nicely with the official Justice Lords Superman, and my loosecollector-made Justice Lords Batman custom. Ended up having to redo the cape from a modified Drax cape [also pictured] to a modified Red Tornado cape that got the look down better.

Next week: I hope you like the color green…

Flashback: Hourman II, Liberty Belle II, Atom Smasher, Plastic Man, Iron Man mk1

The Flashback train rolls on, with more early customs that demonstrate a curious character selection process and a maximization of parts where possible. This set is interestingly pretty JSA-heavy, except for that last couple of guys.

 

HOURMAN
I think it was around this time that I started getting more deliberate about character selection, looking for teams to build and complete. The Justice Society of America seemed to be gaining ground in the comics at the time, and it seemed a good idea to have them be better-represented as well. Hourman was also a chance to experiment with a different base/primer for yellow [Tau Sept Ochre instead of Space Wolves Grey, which worked all right], different parts [Spectre hood and Magdalena gauntlets] and even a different finish [a gloss clearcoat instead of the usual matte].

LIBERTY BELLE
One more female, a JSA member, and a perfect partner for the Hourman custom? No question about it, Liberty Belle [who you’ll also see later on as Jesse Quick] was a good candidate to be next. In these pre-decal days, that torso design had to be hand-painted, with… okay results. That face isn’t the last one she would get — i later went back and tried out a decal, because thethe handpainted domino mask didn’t turn out as nicely as the chest logo did.

ATOM SMASHER
More JSA representation, and this one’s a pretty unique-looking character. First  full use of Burnished Gold [I’d had the rest of him painted up for a day or two by the time I got it], and on a belt that’s painted on instead of sculpted on or at least built onto the base.

PLASTIC MAN
How do you not love this guy, right? While it would’ve theoretically been easy to paint anything his colors or reuse an accessory and call it a day — thus avoiding the challenge of depicting his powers in toy form — it wouldn’t have been enough. For an old favorite, especially since reading a great story with him in Waid’s The Kingdom, it had to be good — and it turned out to be a great way to reuse a SM3 sand-form Sandman base, giant fists and all. At the time this was the most fleshtone I’d put on anything. Handpainted shades and torso detail!

IRON MAN MK I [GOLD]
Another Iron Man palate cleanser after a bunch of DC guys? Sure, why not. Fits the usual fondness for alternate and concept costumes, in any case. I forget how I ended up with a spare Mark I — I think I may have bought it to make a separate “Captive” Tony Stark from the interior parts. First fully metallic project, and I did make the most of the Burnished Gold. Love that metallic sheen.

Come back next week for more Flashback — and the arrival of the age of decals!