The first thing I do when looking to make an action figure is to take several pictures of the character I wish to make. Usually, I simply scan several different poses of the the character into the computer and then print them out. In this article, that character is Pitt from a Marvel trade paperback called Hulk/Pitt. In this case, I made a scan of the cover and a couple of shots from the interior. I do this mostly so I don't spill water or paint on a comic! Once I have a printout of this, I don't have to keep running back to the comic for details and I don't have to worry about the comic itself getting ruined. If it's a character of my own creation, or one from a novel, I make several detailed sketches of what I want the figure to look like.

The next step is to look for a base figure that is a good match for the character. I want it to be the right size and general shape as the character I'm making. In the case of Pitt, a friend wanted the character made and gave me the parts he wanted used. Some customizers will cannibalize parts from many different places before coming up with a "recipe" to begin. In the case of Pitt, I have a Doomsday figure and a Hulk 2099 figure. Doomsday is the right size scale for the Pitt that my friend wants and he likes the head of Hulk 2099 for Pitt. Some people will use the torso from one figure, an arm from another, the other arm and legs from yet a third figure and pull the head off a fourth figure! How complicated you want to get depends on you and your vision of the character you want (not to mention the size of your wallet!).

When you need to make a head swap or swap out arms or legs, the first step is to boil water. My partner teases me that I use the kitchen more for action figures than for cooking! (Which is correct, too. I hate cooking.) Boil water and then stick the action figure in the water. I usually hold it in the water as I normally work with Kenner's Batman lines which have a rubbery plastic that might melt on the edges of the pan. You can use a set of tongs to dangle the figure without burning your fingers. Hold the figure in the water for about a minute or two. Then, you can usually pull the head off the body or the arm out of its socket. You should be careful, though, generally the torso takes in some of that boiling water and you want to make sure that you don't splatter it all over yourself as you work.

As you gently pry the limb you need out of the figure, watch the peg carefully. You want to keep that part of the limb that's currently in the figure intact. If the plastic looks like it's starting to tear or break, stop, boil the figure some more and try again as the plastic softens more.

Sometimes the "boil and pop" method just won't work. It might be an odd construction, such as a ball joint for added articulation, or it may be that the plastic is just too hard to be softened up by boiling. The easiest method in this case is to crack open the torso. Take an X-Acto knife and begin running it up and down the seam at the sides of the figure. Work the blade into the torso on both sides and the "crotch" of the figure. (Eventually you stop wincing when you do this. Sort of.) Once you have the seam opened all the way around the torso, you'll usually still find that the torso won't open. Inside the torso, the figure also has several pegs that not only fit into each other where you can't see them, but they're glued together as well. Patience is the key here. Keep sawing away at the inside and wedging your blade up into the figure. Eventually you'll be able to pry the torso at least partway open. Sometimes that's enough to remove the limb you need, sometimes you need to keep forcing it until the whole torso opens up. In the case of opening up an original Mr. Freeze (or the DuoForce variation), you have to pop the torso in this manner. It takes a little patience (and in this case I got all of the limbs out before I could get the head off, which, of course, was the only piece I really needed).

Once you have all the pieces you'll need for your figure, you can really get started. You may have to trim the pegs, widen torso holes and so forth to get the figure put back together using all the various limbs you want. Superglue works well at putting the torso back together again once you have your limbs arranged, but be careful not to drip any on the pegs of the limbs themselves!

The Doomsday figure and the head from Hulk 2099 before I begin work.

Once the figure is put back together, it's time to look at those reference pictures again. What details are sculpted into the plastic that you don't want? At this point, you're only looking at what extraneous plastic you want to take away from the figure. In the case of the above Doomsday, I need to get rid of the silver extensions on the knees, the back, the shoulders, the center of the chest and the backs of his hands. I'd also like to smooth out the boot line on his legs, but I think I can leave the silver bands across the bottoms of his shorts. For the head, all I need to do is yank out his tongue and attach the head to Doomsday's body. Since I have so much work to do with the Dremel, I'm going to take off the Doomsday head by boiling him in water, but I'm not going to put Hulk 2099's head on him until after I'm finished with the Dremel and sandpaper. Otherwise, the Dremel might get away from me and ruin the head by shaving off a detail I want. (Like a nose or some of those teeth.)

What is a Dremel? A Dremel is one brand of rotary tool. The attachments are for many, many things. You can sand, you can sharpen blades, you can engrave, you can cut metal (like cutting off a screw that's sticking out) and a myriad of other things. For customizing any figure made from the harder plastics (most Toy Biz figures, for example, and most torsos), you really need a Dremel. Sears makes a version of it and I believe that Black and Decker calls theirs the Wizard. You need one that is multi-speed and they generally sell for about $50 to $60 at hardware stores. I got mine during the holiday season and it came with a nice case and a myriad of different bits. Some people prefer to use the battery operated ones, but I've not found being tied down to the cord any inconvenience. These tools also have an accessory called a flex shaft which allows you to hold the tool more like a pencil and use it with more precision. While I don't have one, I've heard good things about them. I've found that I actually have enough control of the tool just as it is. Using a Dremel is a bit like using a chainsaw to sculpt. While some people can create wonderful art with a Dremel or a chainsaw, most people use it to "rough out" the general shape they want to sculpt.

When working on Pitt, I first used a razor blade to cut away some of the extraneous plastic that was hanging off the knees and the shoulders. That plastic was soft and rubbery and the razor cut through it cleanly and easily. Once some of the gross chunks were removed, I brought out the Dremel with a sanding tool and began sanding away the rest of the plastic I didn't want. I didn't even attempt to use the razor on the torso since that is a much harder plastic -- that's what the Dremel is for.

WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING
WEAR SAFETY GOGGLES WHEN USING A ROTARY TOOL!
Trust me, you do not want molten plastic in your eyes. The tool will kick up lots of melted plastic all over the place, especially all over you. It'll be in your hair and all over your work area. And it stinks like, well, like molten plastic. I don't recommend using it when your roommates or significant others are home. They tend to get really cranky and tell you to go outside with your little toys.

It's best to experiment on a figure you're not very attached to the first time you use a rotary tool. That way you can get used to what speed you work best at, how much kick the tool has the first time you hit an odd dip in the plastic and so forth. Eventually, you should be able to even use your tool to carve muscle tone and other such details into the plastic with the various tools.

If you have much detail to take off, you should not worry or be surprised if you actually take so much plastic away that you have a hole in the torso. The torsos are hollow and it's not very hard to go too far. However, if the hole is small, it's very easy to repair with sculpting compound. For an Americomics figure called Ms. Victory, I had to take away almost her entire back, including the back of her head and then rebuilt her with Sculpey. So, it's not a major catastrophe if you make a hole, or even if you simply sand off a bit more than you intended. It's fixable.

Once you've used the Dremel to remove the excess plastic, you should "clean up" the figure with sandpaper. I've found that plumber's sandpaper works wonderfully if you can find it in a fine grit. The sandpaper is more of a cloth and the grit doesn't flake off the way it does on regular sandpaper. This usually means that you can flick the back with your finger and "dust" it off when it begins to fill with plastic and get a lot more life out of the sandpaper.

Use the sandpaper in varying grits to make the plastic smooth again. Testor's sells some plastic sandpaper in very fine grits for model work and it works very nice in buffing out a figure for the finishing touches. If the plastic is very rubbery, you probably also want to keep an X-Acto or razor blade handy to help peel away some of the plastic.

Here's Pitt after the Dremeling and most of the sandpaper. The leg and arm on the right have been gone over with the Dremel tool using one of the sanding tools. The leg and arm on the left are more smooth because I followed the Dremel with some regular sandpaper in a fine grain. (The knees were made from a rubbery plastic and that's why they're tan in this picture.)

The next step is to compare your base figure to the pictures again. What details do you need to add to the figure now? We're not talking about any details that can be painted on, just details that will protrude in some way. Also, what holes from the Dremel do you have to fill or what areas need to be built back up again?

There are a myriad of sculpting compounds and you'll just have to experiment with several to see what you prefer. A list follows below with some of the most common compounds used by members of the Customize listserv.

I generally use one of the Sculpey products and have found them easy to work with. When I'm ready to begin sculpting, I start with filling in any holes first. I take a smallish blob of Sculpey and smooth it over the area I'm covering. Using my fingers, I'll try to smooth it out as much as possible so that there's no seam. Sculpey smoothes nicely and I can usually smooth it out thin enough that there's no seam visible after the primer coat and the paint job.

Next, I begin sculpting the details. This is mostly experimentation. The Sculpey I use is fairly soft, so once I have a detail done, I have to be very careful not to touch the Sculpey in that area or I run the risk of a fingerprint or flattening the detail. I mostly use my fingers in sculpting, along with fingernails, toothpicks, razor blades and X-Acto knives for details. If you're sculpting larger pieces/areas, there's a myriad of sculpting tools you can use. Some sets of Sculpey even come with some of these tools. Because Sculpey has no drying time, I find that I'll simply keep trying until I get the look I want, so I have no fancy tips for sculpting. It's a lot of practice and trial and error.

When working on Ms. Victory, an Americomics character, I baked the figure in between each session of sculpting. That is, I sculpted the back of the figure first (she's the one where I Dremeled away the entire back), then I sculpted her hair and last her skirt. On the last trip to the oven, the Sculpey cracked away from the plastic of the figure and I pretty much had to begin the sculpting job all over. If you can sculpt everything first and then cook the figure, you're in much better shape.

When using Sculpey, I've found two ways to cure the modeling compound. The first, for small areas only, is to use a hair dryer or a heat gun. If you use a heat gun, be aware that if you leave it on the figure more than a quick pass (don't hold it still even for "just a few seconds") you're likely to melt the plastic of your base figure. Using a hair dryer takes longer, but works well for drying small details.

The second way to cure Sculpey is to cook the figure in the oven. Sounds scary -- it's awfully easy to forget and come back to a mess of molten plastic! If you put the figure in for about 5-10 minutes on low heat, however, larger amounts of Sculpey cures best this way. So long as you continually watch it, you shouldn't see any damage to the plastic base figure. It probably took two years before I was willing to try this method, but it really does work best.

Once you have the modeling compound hardened, you can sand it down to smooth it out and then you're ready to primer the figure! Finally, this is the last step before you begin painting.

I use Krylon white sandable primer. Use it on a day that's relatively warm and not too humid for best drying times. Don't spray paint in the house. Again, roommies and S.O.s tend to get fussy about the smell. (Especially when you're spraypainting next to the chocolates being made for Christmas presents. Something about the smell of paint just seeps into the chocolate and changes the taste. *sigh*)

It's best to spray light coats over a period of time. The Krylon primer is very inexpensive for a large can and dries quite quickly. I can usually spray a coat, go inside for a few minutes and 15 minutes to half an hour later, I'm ready to try another coat. It usually takes several coats to completely cover the figure, front and back.

Many people prefer to not use a primer coat, but I've found that it helps the paint stay brighter, more true and the paint sticks to the figure much more readily. Especially if you're going to use any light colors (like yellow!), you really should use a coat of primer before beginning.

Here's Pitt after finsihing the sculpting and primering him. In this case, I added Sculpey to his legs to make the appearance of his torn up blue jeans.

This figure needed some chains across the torso, the ankles and the wrists. I used various bits of chain from various action figures -- I couldn't even tell you where all they came from. I used superglue to attach them before painting even though this is going to make the painting in between links very difficult because superglue and most paints just don't react well to each other. The ankle chains were very rubbery and I probably would have had no problems with the superglue sticking to the paint, but the chains on his right wrist (not the manacle to the left) were a much harder plastic from an S:MOS figure. The chain didn't want to bend very much and I wound up using a ton of superglue to ensure that the chain would stay attached. However, I can see on the figure where the superglue and the pull of the plastic chain pulled off some of the primer and the factory paint as the plastic rejected bending like that. I should be able to cut some of the excess away with my X-Axcto and touch all of that up with paint.

I tend to use very small brushes from art supply stores. I usually use 18/0 or 10/0 brushes for detail work. For painting larger areas, I use a brush from Testor's with a larger brush area, but it's shaped at one side to allow some detail work (if the area is relatively large). The Testor's brush is basically made from plastic and is very easy to clean. The other brushes depend on the brand you buy. I find that the brushes I like best generally run about $4 a piece.

You need at least three detail brushes. One for light colors, one for reds and one for dark colors. You should, if you rely on the very small tips, also have at least one backup brush handy at all times. There's nothing more frustrating than having your brush tip fail at midnight, hours before you're ready to give up for the night and well after the hobby and art stores have closed for the night. Eventually, the tip of all brushes will spread out, making detail work impossible.

For paints, I use Citadel Colours. They're available in most gaming stores and come in small bottles for about $2 a bottle. They have a nice variety of colors, they're smooth to use and they wash up with water.

Other customizers use Apple Barrel paints and other craft paints from places like Michael's and Hobby Lobby because they're inexpensive (about 4x the amount of paint for roughly the same price as the Citadel paints) and easily obtained. Other folks prefer Testor's enamels which "stick" really well to the plastic but require paint thinner to clean. Testor's also makes Pactra paints which are the water-based version of their regular enamels. Personally, I dislike using anything but water based paints and the Pactra paints simply didn't cover well, requiring several coats of paint even over the primer. I also had problems with the drying time. The craft paints work well, but often need to be mixed with water to get a good consistency and, frankly, I just have a difficult time getting the consistency just right. If the paint is too thick, it's easy to see brush strokes. Too thin and it will run into other areas and/or take multiple coats to cover the area.

I generally paint a first coat of the colors that will cover a large area first -- not for detailed edges, just roughing it in. Then I go in and paint the details. If, however, the details are very intricate, I'll rough them on the figure using a pencil first. This is one of the definite benefits of using primer. When I have the details sketched the way I want them, I go in with a fine brush and paint the details in. If you make a mistake, don't panic. Use a bit of tissue or paper towel and try to wipe the paint off. If that doesn't work, you can try to gently scrape the dried paint off with your knife blade. If all else fails, use multiple layers of paint to cover up the error!

Another reason that I like using the fantasy gaming paints is that they come in a really nice variety of colors. I try to avoid mixing my own colors at all costs. If you mix your own colors, then if you ever need to "touch up" that paint, you won't have the paint on hand and when you try to mix it again, you'll never get exactly the same color. I have, however had a hellacious time trying to find a flesh tone that closely matches the color of flesh plastic. I finally mixed a bottle of Citadel Colours "Elf Flesh" which was about 3/4 full with some "Skull White." I have also tried "Pallid Flesh" and found it to be pretty close as well. Other people prefer Apple Barrel's "Peach."

When painting details, you should also keep a few toothpicks on hand. Many people sharpen the tip of the toothpick and use it to paint very small details (like the eyes, eyelids, pupils, et cetera). This gives you a lot better control over exactly where the paint is going, but you also need to keep a very close eye on how much paint is on the tip and be very patient. The tip doesn't hold much paint nor hold it the same way as the brush.

If you need to paint very rubbery plastic such as capes, jackets, or vests, you should experiment a little with the paint and the material. Some of the rubbery plastic used in these accessories won't really take regular paint very well. I found while working on Ms. Victory that my white primer stuck very well to her cape. However, while working on an Animated version of Aquaman, the primer wouldn't stick well at all to the rubbery plastic from an S:MOS trenchcoat. It took three or four times as long for the paint to dry and took multiple coats. The paint seemed a bit tacky even after it was dry (which pretty much means that it wasn't completely dry). Usually a sealer coat will fix this problem, but be aware of it and be ready to experiment.

Just remember when painting, don't be afraid to make mistakes, be patient with yourself and allow plenty of drying time. (Which is why I usually work on two or more figures at a time -- I can work on one while the paint dries on another. Then again, maybe it's just my ADHD.)

Roughing in the paint.

Once you've finished the painting, you should put a protective coat on the figure. I like to use a glossy coat on mine because I normally work with animated style figures and the high gloss just seems to match both the original toy lines and the cartoon series themselves. Other people prefer a matte coat to dull the paint job a little bit. One of the drawbacks to a matte coat is that it makes the figures show dust more and makes them harder to clean. I use Testor's gloss coat on mine.

Why use a gloss or matte coat at all? To help protect the paint job from chips and scratches. It won't do much if your figure falls from the top of the bookcase to the hardwood floor, but it will help protect it against normal handling and perhaps minor scratching. I use the gloss coat much as the primer. A few light coats until the figure is completely covered and shining. I pay special attention to the feet which often get scraped as you position them in stands or dioramas.

I've also made a few stands for my figures by taking a blob of Sculpey and pressing the figures feet into it deeply and then carefully removing the figure and baking the Sculpey. When I make these stands, I paint them in a way that looks like floor or the ground outdoors, sometimes even using various hobby materials to make it look like grass or dirt. (Train stores have these in abundance.) Especially when I make these stands, I gloss the feet of the figure pretty thickly to help prevent them from scratching as I take the figure in and out of the stand.

The figure's progression from base pieces through sanding, painting and finishing details.