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*** Head on over to my Ebay Auctions to see what’s available this week, or commission me if you’d like your very own custom action figure like this one. ***
X-Men First Class was a great film, that definitely deserved its own line of figures. Sadly, we didn’t get any official product from the movie. So when I was asked to make some characters from the movie, I jumped at the chance. Charles Xavier was one, and Magneto was the other. Magneto here is made using the body from an X2 Cyclops figure, the head from a Hasbro ML unmasked Ronin (Clint Barton), the neck from a movie Punisher, the straps come from a movie masters survival suit Bruce Wayne, and the helmet comes from an X-Men Classics Magneto.
I had to use a new neck, because the X2 Cyclops head and neck were one piece, to accomodate the light-up feature in his visor. I completely sanded down all the detail on the front of torso. Anything that had an “X” or had to with X-Men I got rid of, including the detail on his collar too. Then I added a thin layer of Aves Apoxie Sculpt and used the handle of my X-Acto knife and rolled it across to get the texture into it. I used thin styrene rods for the zipper lining, and the hose ports and belt buckle were sculpted on with Apoxie. I had to take apart and cut up the straps from the Survival Suit Bruce Wayne figure and reattach them strategically to the body of the figure to match the movie, and used Apoxie to fill in any gaps.Then I painted the entire body with Testors Model Masters acrylics, matching the color scheme of the movie costume, even adding zippers on the thighs and forerarms.
For the head, I had to sand down the hair completely, including the bangs sculpted onto the forehead and resculpt it entirely. I gave him a brand new hair-do, and resculpted his forehead, making sure to add in the wrinkles. After a paint job, the head was complete. For the helmet, I just painted it dark grey, then added a glossy clear coat to it, and took some Citadel Mithril Silver and painted the detail and lining around the helmet. After attaching the head to the body, Magneto was complete and ready to fight for Mutant equality (or superiority, as the case may be).
NICE!!!!!!!! How much would it cost for you to make me one (magneto) exactly like that on commission?
Great work and site. Just curious what your base figure is and if you have any advice on where to get decent deals on some base figures for customizing or where you get your head sculpts from. I’ve seen different sites online for 3.75″ head sculpts but I haven’t come across some of the ones you have. Was curious to check it out. I do a bit of customizing myself and and am always intrigued by sites like yours. Good work on everything! 🙂
Thank you for the kind words. I get my base figures on eBay and local toy shops looking for loose figures. There’s also lots of great sites out there like Casting Cave that sell really awesome casts of figure heads and parts in all kinds of scales.