Angel was
built from a GI Joe 25th Aniversary Scarlett action figure. The height
difference is caused by the changes to the feet. It's hard to tell in
the pictures, but I angled the neck back, and modified the mid torso
joint to stand up straighter.
Early resculpting involved removing
material from the
chest, neck, shoulders, and the gloves. I also cut the neck off, and
angled it back. I drilled holes into the neck, and the large internal
block in the chest, that provides friction for the shoulders and torso
joint, for a pin made from brass rod. This kept the glue structurally
strong. Then, I could add the fur, wrist brace, and halter details. I
also added some definition to her neck and collarbones.
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The legs required the boot detail to be
removed. I only had to worry about smoothing out the shins, since the
calves were covered with Kneadatite, to represent the feathers (long
fur) on her calves.
I had to cut off the fronts and bottoms of her feet, to get a base for
proper bare feet. They were one of the first thingsI tried to sculpt
(ever), and I was pretty happy with how they turned out. They're far
from perfect, but not bad, for some with my toal lack of experience.
I drilled new peg holes, so I can use figure stand on her. The holes
are just slightly smaller than the peg holes used on modern Joe and
Star Wars figures, the flexible nature of the materials that make her
feet stretch enough to let her use existing figure stands. The extra
tightness isn't nessecarily a bad thing, since the holes are also more
shallow than the ones on most production action figures. She also works
great on the stands I've been making, with styrene sheet and tubing.
The tubes can be a little loose, in most figures' feet. |
I made the straps on wrist brace in such a way that the
ends actually stick out a little, similar to how I draw it in the
comic. The joint that allows the wrist to rotate is just below the
upper most strap on the brace. The hand strap, while thinner than the
others where it crosses the palm, drastically improved her grip on most
accesories. Scarlett could have used this, as she can't even hold the
pistol and crossbow she comes with. Her left hand does seem to be a
little bit better, in that respect. |
The gauntlet is made from a piece of 1/4 OD inch
styrene tubing, and a lot of Kneadatite. The flat circular piece at the
front was made by using a peice of the same tubing the gauntlet
is made from like a cookie cutter, in a flattened out chunk of the
Green Stuff. It was superglued to the tubing at the angle I wanted,
then bolstered up with more Green Stuff.
The glove on this arm was carved down just far enough to fit snuggly
into the tubing. Once the Gauntlet was finished and painted, the arm
section (also painted) was glued in place. This picture is long begore
the the final assembly. |
Scarlett's hair was a seperate piece, that was glued in
place. Once I had that pried off, I was free to start sculpting Angel's
hair. The Green Stuff is great for this, because of it's flexibility. I
can have long thin pieces that aren't fragile, and will move out of the
way, for posing. The ribboned off lock of hair was made by twisting the
Kneadatite.
Before I could mold in the new nose, I had to take a bit off the
original. I also carved out the cleft in the lip, but otherwise left
the lips intact.
The chest flare wound up being a little harder to make, than you would
think. The piece kept trying to lean over, when I tried to put the
detail in. I also had trouble getting it smoothed into the rest of her
chest.
The rings in Angel's halter were put in place, before the fabric parts.
This let me mold the fabric around them, without fear of flattening out
the rings. I let the first side I molded dry, before I did the second.
Otherwise, I would have just screwed up one, working on the other. |
I
had a single bottle of Testors pink paint. This bottle was over ten
years old. It actually had a Pactra label on it, which tells you
something, about its age. I'd opened it once, a few years to match up
the paint on a Transformers Arcee kitbash. As I recall, I wound up
painting that part black.... The paint was fine then, but had since
dried up. I wound up raiding the crafts paints, downstairs. One shade
of pink was perfect for Angel's nose and ears, but the only other shade
of pink, was metallic. The hue is great for Angel's clothes, if a bit
shiny. I love the look on her ribbon, but I'm not sure about it, on the
rest of her clothes.
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The Gauntlet's force field emitter was made from yet
more green Kneadatite.
The black triangle is .010"(.25mm) thick black sheet styrene. It
represents a holographic display/interface. This is based on a redesign
I'm planning for the comic. Small grooves were engraved to represent
the slots that the blades come out of, but they're hard to see in
person, and near invisible in photos. |
The skirt is made from a piece of an
old T shirt. (yes it was clean)
I'd originally planned to make it a lot looser, to better portray how
it's supposed to be in the comic, but fabric and gravity don't really
scale well, and it ended up looking like a tent, around her waist. The
inherent stretch in the fabric makes up for it.
Her tail's made from a piece of white patch cord. It's actually just
hte insulation, with a couple of wires from a cat5E cable inside it,
for stiffness. There's a bit of Green Stuff sculpted to be the tip.
Most of it isn't painted, because the paint would just flake off, from
the flexing. the difference in color isn't as noticable in person, as
these pictures might make it out to be.
This picture also highlights the blue wash I used on her, to bring out
the shadow tones I use in the comic. This picture makes the wash look
overly bright.
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The same wash was used on her hair. There's a doll house
hinge linking the two pieces. It gives a little more room for posing,
without getting stopped by her sword or scabbard. Otherwise, her hair
would stick out all the time, like she was in a wind tunnel.
I had orginally made the hair a single piece. I started with just the
basic shape, and let that cure, before I started adding the hair
detail. The hinge was added after I realized that the hair wasn't going
to be flexible enough, on its own.
Thankfully, the bangs and ribboned lock of hair are still flexible
enough to move out of the way.
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The belts and pouch are made from cloth backed vinyl.
There's a piece of sheet styrene inside the pouch, to not only give it
more bulk, but also to provide an anchor for the small brass nail (one
from the doll house hinges) that holds the belt closed. The buckle on
the front is just some piano wire, bent and glued into place.
The shoulder strap goes through another piano wire loop n the shoulder.
The loop's main purpose is to keep the strap from slipping down her
arm. In the comic, Angel has a black leather epelet on her shoulder,
that does the same thing. Just down from that, is a small piece of
piano wire that holds the whole strap in place. I wasn't able to do a
proper fake buckle, here.
I made sure that this was all removeable, so that I can still fit her
into a vehicle. I figure that the tail will cause enough trouble trying
to fit her into a seat, her scabbards might make it impossible. I won't
really know, untill I get something for the team to ride around in.
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I've been rather surprised by how stable she is in
poses. Especially, considering who made the feet.
Tooth and Nail were made from sheet styrene of various thiknesses, two
sizes of styrene tubing, and some Green Stuff for the detail bits and
pommels.
The scabbards are made from more of the brown vinyl. I've been wanting
to dress up the scabbards in the comic, and decided to go ahead and add
metal bands at the opeing of both, on this figure. they're made of the
same thin styrene I used as the display, on the gauntlet.
More angles of the same pose can be seen here,
and here. They show some of the Mr. Surfacer
I used to smooth out imperfections. You can also see where
I used Green Stuff to fill in where I made the slot in Tooth's blade
too long.
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Everything's painted, here. Not easily visible, is
the black thread I wrapped around the handles of Tooth and Nail.
The small stand is the very first thing I made with the Kneadatite. It
was really only made to give me an idea of how the stuff worked. The
stand itself is reall too small to actually hold up a figure, unless
it's already pretty close to being bablanced.
Same pose front and back.
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Better shots of the scabbards, and how
they normally hang on the figure. The strap for Tooth's scabbard has
extra slack in it, to let it move out of the way of the hair, for
posing.
This also shows the thread wrapped around the handles, to duplicate the
wire wrapped look from the comic.
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Better view of Nail's scabbard. I used silver elastic
thread as a decorative chain for it to hang from. It also allows for
some give, in case I get hamfisted. I need all the help I can get, to
keep me from breaking things. The frog that holds the chain to the belt
is more of the thin sheet styrene. I was surprised at just how well the
paint I used on it matched the vinyl.
I didn't glue it place, so that it can be moved into different
positions.
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These pictures were taken after some reworking, of Angel's gear. The
most noteable differences are the smaller pouch, that's now made from
styrene plastic, and the buckle on the shoulder strap. I also added the
missing piece from the belt buckle, and made a new shoulder epilet from
styrene. The belts and scabbards can longer be removed. I decided that
the removeable gear just wasn't worth the details that had to
sacrificed, especially considering how difficult it could be to fasten
them on, and the way the belt kept riding up her hips. Not really
visible here, is the completely reworked tail.
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I made new tails out of styrene
tubing, heated with a candle, to bend them. More Green Stuff was used
to make the tips. They fasten onto a ball joint, taken from a Minicon
class Transformer. I still have the original bendy tail, modified to
work with the new mount, but I'm hoing that the four rigid tails I've
made, will be suitable for any poses I want to put her in.
The tightly S-curved tail, is for dynamic action poses, and was used in
the crouch pose, above. The nearly straight tail is for poses that need
to impart speed (or if I have her riding an open vehicle). The loosely
curved tail is meant to be a default, though I may adjust its curve, at
some point. The curled tail that's shown attached is meant to be for a
neutral standing pose.
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Angelline Jessica "Angel" DuPree
Forward
Scout
Primary Weapon: Mystical Short Sword
"Tooth"
Secondary Weapon: Mystical Dagger
"Nail"
Backup Weapon: Retractable silver
plated bades in her gauntlet
Other Weapons: Sharp Teeth and
Claws, Limited Elemental Magic
Angel lost her parents when she was very young. Young enough, that she
doesn't remember them. While she somehow survived the car crash that
killed her parents, her lungs were burnt from the hot air of the
resulting fire, and later became infected. She grew up with chronic
respiratory problems, while being bounced from one foster home to
another. At age 12, she found herself in an abusive home. One final
beating, left her crippled, and blind in one eye. Worse, her best
friend tried to protect, and was killed, for his trouble. Angel watched
him die, but his dialing emergency services, before he was attacked is
what ultimately saved Angel's life.
When the Travellers came to her Earth, and started abducting and
altering people for slave labor, they discovered Angel's inate ability
to understand and master new technologies. This made her perfect for
repairing their electronic systems. She, and few other of the
Traveller's slaves were finally able to escape, when the Traveller
compound was attacked by Technothropes.
Angel has become the team's forward scout. She can send video of
everything she sees, directly from her visor, along with exact
cooridinates, even when operating on planets without global
postitioning sattelites. The information this provides on not only
enemy postion, but also intervening terrain is invaluable.
It's unclear when she she came into posession of her mystically
enhanced sword and dagger, but they've repeatedly proven their
usefullness against Technothropes, and the other creatures the team
sometimes runs across.
Since joining the team, there's been some awkwardness betwenn Angel,
and Toby. The friend that died trying to save her, was her universe's
version of Toby.
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