Kwinn_Lives' customs

Indeed excellent custom! Love the colors combination and that helmet is nice.

Here's another of the very first customs I completed, it's a version of the Argentina figure TNT, which is a Blowtorch repaint.



Unlike the original figure, I painted the thigh pads blue to be more consistent with the rest of the figure. I gave him the same gun as the original, but gave him Firefly's backpack instead of Blowtorch's because he's a bomb deactivator. And the helmet is silver and looks cool.

Awesome! I really like the silver, it is a great re-creation in the vein of the original release.

That TNT look super tight! Well done, man!

Time to get caught up on some complete customs from last year. I haven't had much time for painting recently, so I thought I could at least post some of my completed customs. Here is a Zartan family pic, with Zandar and Zarana in Zartan's colours. I figure they're a circus family, and their outfits come from their performance clothes.

Here's my take on G.I. Joe himself, back in his adventuring days.

Here's an original character: Spook, a CIA liaison to the GI Joe team. He's made with a Johnny Cage head, Skidmark arms and torso, and 1990 Tunnel Rat waist and legs. Filecard included.

It's a repaint of Gung-Ho, using colours inspired by how he appeared in the comics for a number of issues in the #30-40 range IIRC. More realistic colours, though he's still not wearing a shirt under that vest! I also painted some details on the accessories. I added more muscular arms than the original, to better fit the character. And those are Hardball's legs, now that I'm thinking about it.

Here is an ARAH version of a Sigma Six figure. Boulder is G.I. Joe's mountain scout. I haven't done a full filecard for him, but do have the following:

File name - Donahue, Greg M.
Grade - E5
PMOS - Military Mountaineer
SMOS - Special Reconnaisance
Graduated - Special Forces Qualification Course, Mountain Warfare School, Sniper School

I love me some Skidmark arms. I've used them in numerous customs already. This figure actually uses front and back torso pieces from two different figures. It was a while ago, but I think what happened was the screw hole cracked in the back piece, but I really wanted to use the front, so I found another back that fit relatively well and then trimmed it down as needed.

This is Ruslan, a member of the Oktober Guard. I took the name from the Devil's Due comics, but the design and character are original. I figure he's Ukrainian and a member of the VDV, Soviet airborne troops who wear blue berets (Belarus and Ukraine both had a division of airborne troops). I'm particularly pleased with how the camo on this one turned out, I based it on a Soviet pattern I found online somewhere.

This one's mostly LBC, though I did paint a couple of small details. It's Deep Six as a combat diver, using a Deep Six head and parts from the two different versions of the Action Sailor figure, plus various accessories.

This is a reproduction of the Indian Funskool figure, using the same body parts (Crazylegs head on Beachhead body). I made the paint scheme more like Tiger Force (there are also tiger stripes on his helmet which you can’t see in this pic), and I have him a moustache as well, to differentiate his face more from Crazylegs. It looks a bit like a porn stache, but given the description of this character, he sounds like the type to wear a porn stache.

"Sky Diver is the commander of the newly inducted paratrooper regiment of Joes. He was specifally recruited for his impeccable record. He has been very useful as he rescued Joes from many a tight spot. He is known for his bravery and single minded pursuit of enemy cobra forces. His favourite words are "I shall finish them". He is so courageous, the he lands up with just one machine gun and often alone even at cobra headquarters. He has always come out victorious."

This is a simple paint job, inspired by the character’s colouring in his first comic appearance in #72. It’s much more pleasing that the garish orange the figure actually has. I’m also working on a repaint of Windmill, who made his first appearance in the same issue, and also had much more realistic colouring than the figure ended up with. Heck, the same thing applies to Wildcard as well, who also made his first appearance in #72, so I should probably do him as well.

This figure came about because I noticed the 2002 Stalker head (new sculpt) was pretty decent, even if the rest of the figure wasn’t. So I developed a mountaineer version of Stalker, knowing that Rangers undergo mountain training. One of my works in progress is a custom Alpine to go along with him.

This is a repaint of 1990 Tunnel Rat in colours inspired by the European exclusive Tiger Force version.

This figure is inspired by the 2005 figure of the same name. I matched the top half of the original figure quite well, and figured that with a name like Tiger Claw, I could take some license on the lower half, especially since the original does have some orange on him, and used the Night Creeper Leader waist and legs. I think it works.

This is one of my favourite customs that I’ve done so far. This is Storm Shadow during the Vietnam War, based on his appearance in various comics, the first being in #26. I have included Hasbro’s comic pack version of this figure for comparison. I think mine is just a better figure overall (the comic pack version’s proportions are wonky, and the hands are too small to really hold anything), and it’s more comic-accurate to boot. I like the comic pack Snake Eyes and Stalker that came with this figure, but the Storm Shadow one has to be one of the worst ARAH-style figures that Hasbro produced.

This is an original character, made of a Galoob Unifighter head and torso, and Keel-Haul for the rest of the parts. Here’s his filecard information:

BROADSIDE
Naval Intelligence

File Name: Martin, William E.
Service Branch: Navy
Grade: E-6 (PO1)
Birthplace: New York, NY, USA
PMOS: Intelligence Specialist
SMOS: Special Warfare Boat Operator

Broadside displays an unmatched zest for his job. He loves the open water and the thrill of an amphibious landing under cover of the darkness of a moonless night. His assets are his intelligence and especially his persistence, which is beyond compare.

“Be unyielding as the ocean waves and your enemies will fall. That’s what my old CO used to say. Of course, the Chief used to say to just get your ass out there and do it. I think both approaches have merit.”

A trio of repaints here (well, mostly), inspired by various international and convention Tiger Force types. Airtight is based on Brazil’s Ar Puro, Beachhead on the 2004 convention exclusive figure, and Falcon on the Chinese Tiger Force Flint. I call him Falcon since he uses Falcon’s head, and there’s already a Tiger Force Flint figure.

This custom is based on the 2004 new sculpt Alpine figure. It’s a good concept but we need it in ARAH form to make it perfect. He’s ready to take a trip up a sheer cliff with the mountaineer Stalker I posted before. The legs are from a Corps construction worker figure named Hot Wire.

ARAH-style figures are of course the pinnacle of all action figures, and later styles of Joes simply pale in comparison. That’s not to say that there aren’t some interesting body parts that can be culled from the new sculpt figures. The head and torso of this figure come from the 2007 Collector’s Club figure, as do the accessories, while the rest of the figure is from the original Copperhead. No painting required. This is another one of my favourites.