Here is my first completed custom of 2017. I previously did a repaint of Skidmark, inspired by his appearance in issue #72 of the comic, ridding the figure of its garish orange. Windmill also made his first appearance in that issue, and if there was ever a GI Joe figure in need of a repaint, it would have to be the bright orange and neon green pilot of the Skystorm.

I think you can see here that this is another example of a pretty nice sculpt hidden beneath terrible colours. Give him some nice reserved blue and brown, and he makes a perfectly acceptable Joe figure. I did switch out the head (modified 1992 Wild Bill), again to better match his comic appearance. His original head is, let's face it, pretty goony thanks to a ridiculous-looking helmet.

In the second pic I also include the Funskool version of the figure for comparison. Windmill must be the only figure for which Funskool actually did more paint apps than Hasbro, and used much better colours as well.

_________________

I've been working on this one for some time, and finally found the time to finish her up. The head, torso and waist of this figure are sculpted by Krexx Radek. The arms and upper legs are from Lady Jaye, and the lower legs are Sci-Fi v3. The Dragunov rifle is from Marauder Inc. I went with the desert camo, I think that's the most iconic version of the character from the Marvel comics (at least the most iconic version that's fully dressed.)

_________________

Here is the mighty Kwinn, who made his first appearance in G.I.Joe #2 in 1982. If you've never read it, do yourself a favour and do so, it was the issue that Larry Hama showed he wasn't just writing some throwaway toy comic. This figure is made of a head, torso and waist sculpted by Krexx Radek, arms from Sgt. Savage v1 (1995), and legs from the Retaliation Kwinn figure from 2013 (as well as accessories from that figure). The modern era legs help give him the extra height he really needs (see pic with his buddy Snake-Eyes for height comparison), and since the leg construction is essentially the same as ARAH style (just with extra articulation at the knees and ankles), I think it fits just fine. The Sgt. Savage figures are in a slightly larger scale, so that gives arms that reflect his height and bulk. I actually had to buy a larger size of o-ring for this figure, the normal size is a little too small.

_________________

Those are really cool.

Great job bringing that Daina to life.

_________________

really great looking customs!

_________________

Ditto. Seriously, word for word. They are all good, but Daina is perfection.

_________________

Those are amazing especially Diana.

_________________

Yup, another high praise for your custom Diana!

Please add it to the Gallery, I dare to make a bet it will have a big chance ending up in either "Best Female Custom" or "Best O-ring Custom" next year in the JCA's.

Wow, high praise indeed. I have quite a few customs I'm planning on submitting to the gallery. I just want each one to also have a custom filecard, and the filecards I'm working on aren't quite ready for prime time yet. A little more work on those and then I'll have a bunch of customs to submit.

_________________

the Daina is absolutely top notch, and would sell by the hundreds, likely, if mass produced! But what really impresses me is your part selection and combining for Kwinn! the scale is perfect, and the parts "fit"!

_________________

Finished the custom filecards, and Daina and Kwinn have both been submitted to the gallery. I'll be submitting a whole lot more in the next while to get caught up.

_________________

I have a question for you Kwinn, why do your paint apps look so factory? I have seen a lot of impressive stuff in my years lurking here, but your paint just looks "factory" compared to everything else, I have seen.

_________________

Wow, thanks, I take that as quite a compliment. Not all my customs look quite this good, I can assure you. These are definitely some of my better efforts. As much as possible, I use spray paint for the base coat and then hand-paint the details with acrylics. Windmill in this thread, and Daina both have spray-painted base colours. Kwinn is entirely hand-painted though. I do apply a coat of varnish, maybe that's what makes the difference. It ensures that everything has the same level of gloss, so I can mix glossy and matte paints when painting, and still get the same finish in the end.

I don't even always use high-quality acrylics either. I do use a lot of Tamiya paints, but then I also use some basic craft-store acrylic paints for some basic colours. So I would guess it's the varnish that gives the factory-painted look.

_________________

Do you mind if I ask the brand and product name of that varnish? I think it puts your customs on a whole other level than most. Anything i have ever painted has some original parts and some custom, and i don't like how you can tell all the factory parts, at a glance, on mine!

PS your Kwinn is inspiring me to do the same! I already have every part needed in the recipe! I was also thinking of going a similar route for a Nemesis Enforcer custom... for the same reason you did this: more accurate scale.

_________________

Sure thing, the brand is called "J.W. etc." and the product is Right-Step Satin. I just kind of stumbled on it, my mother gave me a bunch of her old acrylic paints and it included this bottle of varnish designed to go over paint, so I tried it and liked the results. It dries quite quickly, the only thing is that if you varnish two parts that are in constant contact with each other, they can stick a little bit. So I apply the varnish to the bottom of the torso, but I don't varnish the inner top part of the waist piece, to prevent them from sticking together.

I'm also hoping to be able to do something similar in scale to Kwinn for Horrow-Show. And yeah I'd love to see a Nemesis Enforcer done the same way.

_________________