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Anybody ever think to sculpt character figures?


VF-1James

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I think sculpting and then recasting bodies is going to cost way too much. The body for Roy is about $30, and so is the body that I stole the leg parts from (which I should probably also get recast, to save everyone the hassle of buying two bodies). The body I had in mind for Hikaru and Max was between two of them, and that body is only $15 a piece (roughly). I'll PM you about it a bit later, and I'll try and take some pictures of a size comparison soon with the Roy body as well.

I am pretty interested if you're going to recast the "armor" parts of the DYRL flight suits. The boots, the arms, the chest piece, and the helmet are all a bitch to do I think. However, if you were going to sculpt those yourself, then all we'd have to do is make the fabric part of the uniform, paint the sculpted pieces, and attach them, that would be really sweet! I didn't want to do this version, because I thought it would be a total hassle, but if you recast pieces of it, then it's totally possible I think. But before you start to actually try and sculpt the parts to fit the bodies, let me take pictures of the bodies I was thinking about for you, since I think they'll work just great for this.

BTW- You said "take it to the recaster", but what do you mean by that? Do you mean a person on these boards, or do you actually mean a service available in your city or something? I haven't talked to anyone about recasting the Roy head I'm sculpting yet, as I want to finish it first. I really do want to get it recast (to have a sturdy version of the sculpt that won't break so easily, and so everyone that wants one can have it).

Edit- I just thought of something, and that's you should use the CM's figure of Hikaru or Roy to base your sculpt on. They seem pretty good, and I just ordered a set of series 2, so I should get them soon. If you want, I can take detailed pictures of it for you, but it might help you even more to have it in front of you when sculpting. If you don't have it, and don't plan on getting one, I could always ship the Roy to you to help you out with the process. Let me know.

Edited by VF-1James
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I have the CMs, while they're nice figures I don't like the faces on some of them. Hikarus and Roy's are not that great. I'm gonna go strictly off lineart.

As for the recasters, someone listed a couple of recasters in the beginning of this thread. Try contacting any of them and you should be able to get someone.

Send me those pics soon! TNX.

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Here's a bit of a Roy update, so everyone can see how he's progressing. He's still really rough, but he's coming along. My biggest problem right now is that I can't seem to find any sand paper that is fine enough to use on him where I live. It's hard to believe, but I have gone to three home supply stores, and I haven't found any sandpapers that have a grit above 400. I'm going to see if I can special order some though, but it's still annoying. So, here is Roy, without me being able to really fine tune him yet.

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Another shot of Roy; notice that the eyebrow isn't very nice, and I just put it on there for the picture, to give people an idea of the expression I'm going for. The eyebrows will be the second to last things I put on probably, the last being the front of his hair (I broke it off, since I decided to try and redo his eyes, and I had to get in there :D ).

post-4-1113093514_thumb.jpg

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And finally for tonight, a size comparison shot for EXO, since he wanted to see the bodies next to each other. Roy is modified to be a bit taller, but I guess it's not by that much. The skinny body is the same size as the one I want to use for Hikaru, so we'll have to see about making it even shorter I guess. Let me know if you have any ideas about it, EXO.

post-4-1113093893_thumb.jpg

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You can find fine grit sandpaper at an autobody shop. Nice work! :)

Thanks for the tip! Actually, I ordered some steel wool (thanks to EXO's advice), and it's doing a damn fine job of cleaning him up. He's photographing well now, seeing as how the steel wool has made him nice and smooth (no residue anymore, yea!!!). Not sure when he'll be done though, but when I finish him, I'll post some more pics. Oh yeah, and thanks for the kind words, they're always welcome. :D

Edited by VF-1James
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  • 2 weeks later...

An update about the Roy, finally!

I sent the body off to Hong Kong so the suits can be made, but not everything is going as I would have liked. First off, the guy said he doesn't want to sculpt new legs for the body, since it would take time and a lot of labor costs :angry: . Still, we'll see... His idea it to make the leg armor of the flightsuit really tight, so the leg doesn't fit all the way in to it, and thus make the figure taller. However, that won't work, since my other Roys wouldn't be the same size then.

Secondly, I think I'm going with his headsculpts. I really like parts of it, but there are sure parts I don't like as well (face too realistic, the hair isn't that cool). However, he says the hair comes off, so you can attach the helment! When I think about it, I would swear that he just got ahold of the CM's figures, since the heads look so simalar to them. Anyway, take a look at the pics, and let me know what you think. I hope to bring the finished figure to Macross World Con 5, but we'll see. Hope to have the hair changed as well as the face a bit too, but we'll see if he's willing to do that. Let me know if you're interested in this project too, just to see if the interest is high or not. Thanks, and take a look!

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Well, it sure does look like the CM figures.

Definatly ditch the hair. I like yours better, with the smirk too, VF-1James.

As for Hikaru, something looks off, but I can't tell what yet.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Here is a new development in the 1/6 scale figures, the helment! Take a look; it's not perfect, but I'm asking him to add some things to it, based on the line art. I'll have a lot more to show soon I think.

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Not perfect is an understatement.

If the line below the helmet is the pilot's chin, then he needs to change it quite a bit. The helmet is supposed to cover all the way down to the neck.

Can't wait to see the finished product, and keep us aprised if there is hope for recasts!!

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Please tell the sculptor the DYRL helmets are way bigger than the TV style. Like Mechamaniac says, it should cover down to the neck, and the visor should be a couple times bigger.

Good on you for taking on this task though, VF1James.

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There certainly WILL be recasts, you can bet on that ;) ! My goal was originally just to get one for me, but since some of you guys were interested, the plans changed. Now he's doing a limited quantity of them, so you should be able to get one fairly easily I should think.

Yes, we are going to redo the legs on Roy as well (even though it will make him more expensive, it's totally worth it to make him in scale with Hikaru and Max). Can't wait to see them together, finished.

I'm a bit stressed over all the minor details in the suit, since there are so many things I disagree with on the CM's figure when checking the line art. It's hard to communicate them all to somebody that doesn't speak English as their native language; however, I'll see it through, one way or another.

About the heads, I am purchasing them from him, and then I'm going to redo parts of them, to make them look more like the Roy head that I did originally. It's just a way better idea to have the hair removable like he has it, so we can attach the helments. I may need help from somebody with experience though, since I'm not sure I'm good enough to sculpt the hair, and then make it detachable... I'm guessing somebody like EXO would be the best man for the job, so I'll probably ask him later, once I get the heads.

What else can I say, other than the fact that I'm totally stoked to be able to own figures of these characters after soooo many years.

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About the heads, I am purchasing them from him, and then I'm going to redo parts of them, to make them look more like the Roy head that I did originally. It's just a way better idea to have the hair removable like he has it, so we can attach the helments. I may need help from somebody with experience though, since I'm not sure I'm good enough to sculpt the hair, and then make it detachable... I'm guessing somebody like EXO would be the best man for the job, so I'll probably ask him later, once I get the heads.

Cool, I'm glad you are getting the parts from him, and having someone here do the scuplt, casting, and ultimately reselling.

I was worried when you said "limited quantity" that the guy doing the work for you would be hocking the limited quantity on Ebay for unscrupulous amounts of cash.

Another question though...

Will you be doing all parts of all three figures?, or will just the heads be available?.

I for one, would love to have 12" (or to scale given that Focker is well, one big Focker!) versions of Max, Hikaru, and Roy.

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First, I'm not sure about Max yet.... We still have no head for him, but we will have movie armor parts, so it makes sense to get him done at the same time.

Second, I do plan on having the guy in Hong Kong pretty much make full figures, and not just offer parts. Think about it, it might be a bit more, but they'll be made by a pro, and come ready to display. That's my idea of sweet!

I'm just inspired by Medicom's Lupin III figures that I also buy, since they're amazing, and come ready to display. That's what I want, only with Macross characters. So that's the general idea of where I want this project to go.

So if we have him finish the figures on his end, they will be all done when we get them, and painted by somebody who has experience, instead of those of us who can't paint either having to hire somebody, or try it ourselves. It just makes sense to do everything at once.

So basically, I haven't asked if just the heads will be available by themselves, but at least the whole figures will be anyway. I'll retool the faces, and then maybe somebody else can fix the hair. Then I'll send them back to him to make recasts of those, and we can get everything together.

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  • 2 weeks later...

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