Head: The Hard Master
Torso, arms: Ninja Apprentice Snake-Eyes
Legs: Quick Kick

Design:

Hasbro's Hard Master figure provided collectors with a great head sculpt on a lousy body. I wanted to salvage the head on a custom and make it a companion piece to my Soft Master custom. I chose not to rework it to look exactly like the comic book, but rather follow what was already there and roll with it. For example, I left the neck as being wrapped in cloth instead of making it a flesh neck.

In the Marvel run, The Hard Master (via flashbacks) appears to be about 60 or so in what would have been the mid 1970's. The head is a bit younger in appearance, so this would probably be the character circa 1955 or so. This mirrors the head I made for my Soft Master custom, which also is younger than when the character was introduced.

Colors & paints :

As with the Soft Master, the colors are taken from the comic book. The hands' flesh tone was matched to the head. I left the belt white to match the comic book. The hand wraps and neck could have been white, but are grey to keep there from being too much white in the design.

Sculpting & modifying:

I added the sleeves, replaced the gi, and changed the belt to match the style of the Soft Master custom. The gi and belt are made of masking tape.

My Soft Master figure is one of my personal favorites, but I wanted to improve on its look with this figure by hiding the seams of the masking tape. To blend the tape with the figure more seamlessly, I glopped paint over the edges of the tape where it was atop plastic. This worked like "mud and tape", for those of you who have ever drywalled, and blended the edges. For more design continuity with the Soft Master figure, I filled/covered the torso gap to eliminate the articulation line.

Thanks for looking.