I started posting my customs on the O-Ring Warriors site last year, but never got around to showing them here. So this thread is going to do some catching-up, showing all the customs I've posted to date elsewhere.

First up is Duke, done two ways.

These were the first customs I ever posted publicly. A while ago I got a handful of Joe-like figures in a lot of fodder I bought, and was able to figure out that they are Unifighters from Galoob. See link:

http://collectorgene.com/2012/04/unifighters/

Anyway one of the heads just screamed Duke at me: blond and square-jawed, and fortunately not smiling like a doofus like the original Duke was. So I knew I had to make a Duke out of it. Actually, since I had two of that head, I decided to make two Dukes. Unifighters are very slightly larger than your typical Joe, but Joes often have slightly large heads for their bodies so there's no problem there. But Unifighters do have a significantly larger ball joint for their neck than Joes do. So for one Duke, I used the Unifighter torso, and for the other I trimmed down the ball joint to fit a Joe torso. I did have to trim down the shoulders on the Unifighter torso, otherwise it would have looked pretty goony with ARAH arms.

The one on the left uses Crank Case arms and Lift-Ticket waist and legs, fully painted, while the one on the right uses Crank Case torso, waist and legs, and Beachhead arms, with only a few details painted. The upper arms actually match the colour of the shirt better in real life, the flash really accentuates the difference in these pics.

_________________

This is just Recondo with a few extra details painted, mostly on his gear.

_________________

This is an arctic Stalker, with Stalker v2 head, Iceberg torso and waist, Frostbite arms and lower legs, and Snow Job upper legs. The main deal here is the backpack. I combined a Dusty and a Roadblock v1 pack together, to give him a substantial ruck and to provide a bar for the Manta machine gun to attach to. I also trimmed down the handle of the gun to fit in his hand.

_________________

This is my version of the convention-exclusive Dreadnok Crusher from 2004. I have lots of Street Fighter figure parts, so I decided to whip up my own in colours that didn't match Gnawgahyde. Parts are Zangief top and Bazooka bottom, with a few details painted. I also did a version of Demolishor but I don't have pics at the moment.

_________________

After making Crusher and Demolishor, I decided to expand on Street Fighter heads being used to make new Dreadnoks, which resulted in Chopper here. He uses a Balrog head and arms, Heavy Duty torso and Ripper bottom half. I figure the Dhalsim and Ken Masters heads could also make good Dreadnoks, but haven’t done anything with them yet.

_________________

For this one, I can't decide whether it should be a Tiger Force figure or just a mountaineer version of Snake Eyes. The arms, legs and waist are Nunchuk, the torso is 1988 Storm Shadow, and the head is 1985 Snake Eyes of course. The torso is the only thing that needed any paint. I really like how this one turned out, I think the parts really work well together.

_________________

One of the best things to come out of the Devil's Due GI Joe series was the new look for Shipwreck. So here's my ARAH version of that look. That's a Frostbite head, Roadblock torso, Skidmark arms and Shipwreck lower half. The colours aren't the same as in the comic, since I wanted to keep his original pants so I went with a green top instead of blue, and besides that let me get away with not having to paint the arms. The shade of green paint is actually called Hauser Dark Green, and I use it along with Hauser Light Green as much as I can on Joes for the serendipity. It happens to match the arms extremely well.

_________________

1984 is probably my favourite year for Joes. That year Cobra got the Baroness, Copperhead, Zartan, Scrap-Iron, Firefly and Storm Shadow, all in the same year for crying out loud. And with the Joes were Recondo (still probably my favourite single figure after all these years), and Mutt and Spirit and Roadblock. I love Roadblock as a character, but his original figure leaves a little something to be desired. Specifically, muscle. He's supposed to be a human roadblock, but his arms are thinner than the Baroness' and his legs are pretty slim too. So this custom is intended to fix that. It takes the base of his 1984 figure and bulks him up appropriately. The torso and head are original Roadblock, the arms are Heavy Duty, the legs are Chuckles and the waist is Shockwave. I decided to go with a more military colour for his pants as well. The skin tones of Roadblock and Heavy Duty don't match, so there was quite a lot of painting with this one.

_________________

In the 80s, Hasbro basically used "Navy SEAL" as a synonym for "combat diver" when releasing figures. But of course SEALs are far more than just divers, so our vintage divers Torpedo and Wet-Suit need land versions as well. Larry Hama understood what SEALs are capable of, and in issue #49 of the comic (the invasion of Springfield), Torpedo was included in the Assault Team along with the likes of Stalker, Snake-Eyes and Beachhead because they were "the fastest, the sneakiest and fight the dirtiest!" Torpedo was shown in generic battle dress. Wet-Suit missed out on the invasion, he must have been on leave after the events on Cobra Island. (Yes, I'm a giant GI Joe comics nerd.)

Torpedo uses Airborne's head, Ripcord's upper half and Sgt. Slaughter's lower half. The colours and camo patterns match extremely well, so the only painting I did was the gloves and boots. The boonie hat is from Crosshair (2003), and is so identifiable with SEALs that I used the same thing for Wet-Suit as well. Wet-Suit has his own 1992/93 head, Muskrat torso and Beachhead arms (colours match, no painting needed, though I did paint some details), and Mutt lower half.

_________________

Here's an original character I created, Frontline, an Air Force Forward Air Controller. I used Nunchuk parts for the Snake-Eyes I posted earlier, so I had a head left over and figured it could be used for someone equipped for the desert. Besides the Nunchuk head, the upper half is Bullet-Proof and the lower half is Crankcase. You can probably see I've got a bit of a paint issue on the lower neck. Sometimes you don't even notice these things until you take a picture; the camera isn't as forgiving as the naked eye I guess. I also did up a filecard for him.

_________________

I wanted to share one of my favourite customs I've done to date. It was in fact one of the very first ones I did, and it has special meaning to me. I'm very into the Marvel GI Joe comics, and the first issue I ever read was #36 when I was 8 years old. I still remember that day, buying the issue at the corner store. I must have read it a dozen times that day and I still know every page in detail. I have included an image from the opening splash page below, and that was awesome, because instead of a clunky "action" figure in a big hunk of a plastic suit, there was Deep Six actually being useful!

The ship (the Jane) was attacked by two Sea Rattlers and ends up burning pretty bad until Deep Six opens the crate on the deck - revealing the Mobile Missile System which blasts the Cobras out of the air. So anyway, this is a custom I wanted to do for a long time, so when I finally started customizing this was one of the first I did. The head is 1993 Bazooka. The camera reveals that the paint around where the hat meets the head is a bit rough, so I might work on that when I get a chance. The torso is Topside, the arms are Skidmark, the legs are Cutter and I don't remember whose waist that is, but I don't think it's Cutter. I gave him accessories appropriate to issue 36 - a fire extinguisher and an axe.

_________________

This is an ARAH "update" of a modern era figure, Depth Charge. Now, Depth Charge is a pretty good figure for its time, the proportions aren't as wonky as many contemporary figures, but ARAH is still better. I used the Depth Charge head, and needed one or more divers for the rest. Luckily the 1985 Eel works really well here, giving me everything I was looking for: a knife strapped to the left shin, things around the wrists, and the shoulder things on the Eel replace the shoulder accessory that came with the original figure. I had to do a small amount of modding on the inside of the torso for the head to fit, but it now fits really well and functions perfectly. I also used the accessory pack Eel accessories (the dark blue ones) for the fins and pack, and added a bit of colour to them. I kept the original Depth Charge helmet, it fits the head and looks pretty cool.

The gun that came with Depth Charge is listed on yojoe.com as a spear gun, but it's actually based on the Soviet APS underwater rifle. I did a custom version of this rifle using some Marauder Inc. parts, but I'm not going to give a Soviet rifle to a Joe, so I'm saving that for a Cobra or October Guard custom. So I just gave Depth Charge a fodder rifle that had something of the same look, and a combat knife as well. I'm actually quite proud of the waist on this figure. The Eel legs are very bulky, so it really wasn't an option to use another waist piece. But the Eel waist has some business on the front that I didn't want. So I skimmed that off with a knife, and then used just a knife and some sandpaper to create some new creases along the front of the waist to match the ones on the sides. It's a bit hard to see in these pics, but I was really happy with how it turned out, you can't tell it's been customized at all.

_________________

Here's another of the very first customs I completed, it's a version of the Argentina figure TNT, which is a Blowtorch repaint. Unlike the original figure, I painted the thigh pads blue to be more consistent with the rest of the figure. I gave him the same gun as the original, but gave him Firefly's backpack instead of Blowtorch's because he's a bomb deactivator. And the helmet is silver and looks cool.

_________________

I haven't had much time for painting recently, so I thought I could at least post some of my completed customs. Here is a Zartan family pic, with Zandar and Zarana in Zartan's colours. I figure they're a circus family, and their outfits come from their performance clothes.

_________________

Here's my take on G.I. Joe himself, back in his adventuring days.

_________________