DalaGStanator's Customs, Mods and Experiments

Kind of a disappointing End of Year....

You had fun, that's all that matters.

Took that out of context, I'm afraid. I was strictly referring to the amount of customs left for the annual group shot (or lack thereof) compared to the first three years in the thread.

After seeing the cardboard wheels worked fine on the Ecto-1, I revisited the Noddy Cab from 2022 and (finally) got rid of the poorly-made hot glue wheels I made for it; excluding the spare wheel, which didn't have to be replaced. Only had to make wider bearings to help it roll straight, since the hot glue wheels were thicker, inconsistent and rubbed against the shell too often. But that wasn't why I wanted to give it a "second chance".

The other major reason why I didn't like it too much was due to its hit-and-miss proportions, mainly the doors being too close together and the bonnet not being curved enough at the sides. I then remembered a famous toon taxi with a very similar design but different colours and a face, who I knew would lend himself better to these proportions - Benny the Cab from Who Framed Roger Rabbit.



A simple repaint wouldn't be enough and it had the wrong shade of yellow for him, so I started by reshaping the front using layers of cardboard, paper and superglue. The doors, headlights, grille and all other details were torn off and removed before priming, in part to allow spacing the doors out a bit further to accommodate two figures. All that time, I thought the whole body wasn't wide enough when the problem was much easier to figure out.



Painted in a specially-mixed amber and fully detailed, prior to adding the dashboard and steering wheel. The silver hubcaps were a bit tricky to get right since the wheel holes were partially off-centred, and trying to add the yellow rims only made the tyres look worse. Thin strips of paper were added to get the white trim in the middle. Because I wrote it on correction fluid, the name on the number plate faded and was later covered with a paper one to make it stay red (not pictured). For the face, I initially planned to use googly eyes but felt their pupils were too big, so the headlights are made of cardboard with the eyes painted on. The mouth is simply another piece with the teeth drawn on it, wedged between the bumper and bonnet. Noddy will be replaced with Roger Rabbit and Eddie Valiant, who will both likely be sculpted in a combination of cardboard, paper and PLA.

According to an official style guide:

Many artists draw Roger shoulder-high or chest-high to an adult human. He actually is about three feet high, and the top of his head reaches the hips of an adult human.

With that in mind, I traced one of the FFs and drew a potential design for him next to the silhouette before trying to sculpt him to get an idea of his proper height (and see whether it was feasible for me at this scale). In case it would be too hard to trace via 3D pen - which it was - I made sure to prepare a slightly bigger alternative.



For the other option, I put together a sheet with his head, one hand and half of the torso for 3D penning like I did for the Ecto-1's roof rack sections. While no longer in scale, I knew the more accurate head would look better than how the first option turned out. The arms and legs were planned to be made of paper tubes, wires or unheated filament snippets, hence why they weren't on the sheet. Even then, I still didn't like any of the results and gave up trying to 3D pen him after several attempts.




Ultimately, I cut out the new head and traced it on cardboard, adding layers to it like how BumBin made the faces for their Thomas characters. Only the hands don't look right and I should've painted his overalls in acrylic before adding the arms, but he did turn out pretty good for what he is. Another advantage is it makes his ears bendable to an extent, which wouldn't be possible in PLA. Unlike Noddy before him, he has proper sitting legs that can actually be seen from above.



Eddie's body was 3D penned to look more "natural" since he's live action, with some paper layers to make his coat a little more pronounced. The sleeves were sanded before painting, and he can actually fit next to Roger while still looking (nearly) realistic. The head and hat are tiny lumps of paper with cardboard for the brim, but they obviously won't be there much longer. Apart from the size/shape of his hands, the current head is the worst detail on him. It's my first try at 3D penning a custom figure, so there will be a long way to go. For some reason, the "Add Sticker" feature ignored Roger and Jessica on the film poster and took Eddie and Benny without them.



About 13 years ago, I (unwisely) repainted this realistic farmer to make a Fat Controller thinking his fedora - not a straw hat - looked sufficiently similar to a top hat. Despite being larger in scale, his head seems to be the right size to make Eddie look better tenfold. Problem is, I really don't want to cut it off and would much rather cast it to avoid doing so. I did the opposite of what I used to do with hot glue and clay, but the cast crumbled as soon as I tried to release it (though it did fill the mould properly).

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.

In recent years, a local company named Dan As (דן אס) began distributing a small range of nice, imported miniature accessories branded Building a Model (בונים מודל) at select variety stores. I've only seen them available at two chains where I live, though it might be different in other cities. In addition to things like trees, benches and (fake-wheeled) micro vehicles, they offer at least two different sizes of realistic hand-painted figures available throughout the world under numerous other brands. According to the info on the cards, they're made by Superier [sic] Traders International. Here, these 1:50 scale figs are sold randomly in bags of seven for ₪10 each; only about $2 USD at the time of writing. Last Tuesday, I bought two bags to try them out with my models and use them as references for future custom figs. With how cheap they are, I find them surprisingly well-painted and sculpted and the variety is also quite good. Even the repainted duplicates look distinct from each other despite sharing the same moulds.



While they (unfortunately) don't have bases and therefore can't stand on their own, I did manage to fit two between the studs of a LEGO baseplate. They scale perfectly with the Fire Duo, though most are a bit taller when not counting the FFs' bases. One good thing is it will surely make them easier to trace when making figs, animals, plants or certain objects (e.g. tools and appliances). I won't glue bases to them since none are planned to be modded or customised. Below are example uses with some of my current scratchbuilds.

As passengers or workmen:



Being the same size as the FFs, every build that was scaled for those will (naturally) work for them as well. Of all these 14, only two of them are seated - a boy in green and a girl in a red dress. The girl is either mismatched or supposed to be a child, but the boy fits better with the rest. Would've liked if they had some with hands in "steering wheel" positions for vehicles, which I have yet to see if there are. It's clear I didn't have figs like these when I made the seats, because they're too short for either of the sitting ones (except in the teal Stroudley-like coaches). Nevertheless, I'm happy all this public transport will finally have a purpose even with the lack of seated figs.

In the cab of 69420:



Had to Blu-Tack these two to the footplate since only one stood up without it, and their suits looked more appropriate for a modern crew than a driver and fireman.

As stand-ins for the Ghostbusters:



These four happened to be painted in suitable colours to look like the "flight" suits worn by the GBs, even though they weren't "loose-fitting" and only looked right from the back. The proton packs, badges and Winston's skin were digitally edited. Hoping to sculpt them more accurately for use with the Ecto-1, along with Dana, Louis, Janine, Slimer and (maybe) Stay Puft.

Apart from the sitting girl in the red dress, they're (most likely) too big for Plarail despite being smaller than Plakids; won't stop me from showing them at stations or other areas with Blue Tracks, though.

[Super]

They do look a perfect fit for your models LaG.