DalaGStanator's Customs, Mods and Experiments

For Eddie, I chose not to try casting the "farmer-turned-Topham"'s head again and replaced the paper head with a lump of hot glue in a decent size (though I did reuse the hat). Neither of them look much like Bob Hoskins, but it's still an improvement. I left him faceless in keeping with my existing figures, which never had painted features even if they were moulded. Also added a thin paper layer to the back of his coat (not pictured).



Although I initially disliked Jessica due to her grotesque design - even that one time I watched the film around 2015 - she's too iconic to be left out of something like this; like the equivalent of Aladdin without Jasmine. I made her as a separate figure, in part because she likely wouldn't fit next to Eddie without looking squashed or too small. Like Roger's head, her body was made of cardboard layers glued together and smoothened with correction fluid. The arms, legs and neck were my usual paper tubes, with cardboard for the slippers. No progress photos, because the body was painted before making the dress and already had an accurate bosom. The arms were painted before gluing to ensure the gloves were fully painted. Getting a good shade for them was a bit hard, but this is more fitting than purple or pink markers. It's actually my second attempt at her, since V1 looked so bad I threw it out and only reused the head; it wasn't "just sculpted that way".



To make the dress tight and thin enough, it was made of two pieces of paper painted with a red marker and strengthened with liquid silicone and superglue. I also took advantage of how these markers change shades when reacting with the adhesives to get a glossier finish like it has in her first scenes in the film; until it becomes matt for the rest of it. My original idea was to use anti-slip mat pieces dyed with the same red marker to get a metallic and "sequinned" look, but they weren't as tight-fitting or flexible and looked more like metal diamond plates. The slits were marked along the sides of the skirt while holding it against her before they were cut out, resulting in kind of an "M" shape that was glued over itself.



She's also my first custom fig with a base, which I made from the same clear plastic I use for glass. Just the right shape to help her stand up without being too visible, unlike average opaque bases (like the black ones the Fire Duo have). Here she is recreating the same poster with the other three:



While it looks very much like her from behind, the front kind of "falls apart" and it seems her hair could do with some more layers. I tried giving her a face and even managed to paint an eye at that scale, but the angle was wrong and I left her with lips only. Other than that, it's a lovely result for my first fig like this and I'll be happy to make this my "Year of the Custom Figures". With how good she looks, I might redesign Roger as well to look more like his counterpart; maybe also give him detachable legs to make him fit on a base or in Benny.

Update:



Only had to add one extra layer from front to back (outlined in yellow), and it already looks more complete. Still a bit short to fully cover half her face, but I'm not adding another "patch" in case it wouldn't blend in. The other half does (nearly) show her forehead, so that makes it good enough.



I then remembered I still have coloured glitter - including red - and thought it would make the dress look even more accurate. It was applied with PVA and three drops of superglue, which made it stick well even without sanding the dried liquid silicone beforehand. She's not all that messy to handle if picked up from the shoulders, but the nature of that material means some of it (inevitably) rubs off. Would've come up with this when I made the dress if I'd remembered the glitter and had the confidence to try it. The gloves were a bit longer than they should be, so I made them elbow-length by painting over the excess.



One very obvious detail I got wrong was the size and shape of her hips, which I thought were going to look right while sculpting the body and couldn't tell how undersized they were. To correct them, I simply added new layers and repeated the same process I used for the dress to cover up any seams. Dripping the superglue over the glitter was a mistake because it ruined the look when it dried, so I added more glitter and made sure not to do that again. Although they're slightly too high, it still captures her build more faithfully. Could've also cut the legs off and reglued them a bit further apart. While not pictured, the slits were also cut deeper and the waist sanded down a bit.