Custom LJN's - Series 8 - Demolition, Piper, Snuka, Hall

nice custom work

Nice work. They both came out great. I love the detail on how you painted the Sheik's boots.

Since I like to swap a lot of parts, I thought I'd share a quick tip on how I use my Dremel tool. Sometimes I'll mix hair from one guy, a face from another, and put them both on the head/neck of a third. I purchased a multi-speed Dremel tool years ago and it comes in handy for this. Using a sandpaper attachment, I drill out the hair getting as close as I need it. I slice off the face I need, and do the same to remove the face I don't need. Then I simply put them all together and use modeling glue to keep them together, and fill in the spaces with epoxy putty. Below are some pics for a head I'm working on. It will take some time to get good with the Dremel, but it can also be pretty fun to use. Just make sure you use good eye protection that covers your eyes completely. The last thing you want is a tiny piece of hot rubber flying into your eye socket. I'll probably end up getting a full clear face cover just to be extra safe.

*mesteve.....

I wish I had access to a dremel tool years ago for my customs. I have many scars on my hands and fingers from carving out pieces with an exact-o.......lol

Thanks for the kind words CincyLJN.

I guess you could say i'm semi retired. Just don't have the time or the figures to make them anymore. I do miss making them though.

Even as a kid I made customs. I was tired of only having Ax of Demolition so I bought a used Ax off a friend, broke out the white-out and sharpie markers and made myself a Smash.

I don't really have any tips to share. Before I would make a custom I would use microsoft paint to do a mock up of what the figure would look like before I cut or painted the actual figure.

you really improved on the thickness/paterns of your details on the savage. really nice

For the sake of what has been a pretty slow Customs board lately, I thought I would add another WIP pic. I was never a big fan of the character, but I thought I would take a stab at an LJN Giant Gonzalez. I had a beat up Andre The Giant figure that I straightened the legs on to add extra height and padded them out a little more to add some gerth. I'm going to model the look predominantly off the Hasbro figure, not the "airbrushed" look that Gonzalez evolved into. 

Also, not sure what happened to this figure's nipples! LOL

FIGURE: Brooklyn Brawler
MADE FROM: Magnificent Don Muraco

Althought I was never a big Brooklyn Brawler fan you still have to acknowledge that he played a major role in the "LJN era" of the WWF. That said, his role as a jobber didn't allow him to rise up the ranks to the point of deserving a figure. This custom was a pretty simple transition from the Muraco figure. Took a somewhat "sloppy" approach with Sculpey Premo to emulate the look of Brawler's jeans. Also used Sculpey to add an elbow pad and facial hair.

The t-shirt was my first crack at using decals. I designed the logo using vector files in Adobe Illustrator. Vector files are extremely high res and provide a much better image than PNG or JPG. I printed the logo using a laser jet printer and clear waterslide decal paper. Application was very easy and it dried quickly. I opted not to seal it at this point. I liked using the decals and might use them a little bit moving forward. However, the charm of LJN's was always their "simple", cartoonish look. Going overboard on decals might give them too much of a modern feel.

very cool. Can't wait to see how they come out. What others are you working on at the moment? The decal looks great too. I might have to try that if I ever get to a project involving someone with a shirt logo or tattoos. I'm actually about to start bushwhackers sometime soon so I'll probably have to do some research on the customs board to see if anyone has those already.

I like that sabu!