Guide
#1 -FIRST THINGS FIRST!
Welcome to Alex11 Customs! Today I'll post my first
lesson on the blog, so keep an eye for
the tips!
As my first lesson, I´ll show the tools required to
customize your action figures, as well as the tips necessary to ensure safety, quality
and fun!
WARNING! If you're under 18, ask for your parents to
do the work with the sharp tools, or simply do it under their supervision or
permission. I will not take responsibility on your actions, so be careful at
all times to prevent accidents!
Fig01. -The Equipment.
Always remember: "SAFETY FIRST!" These
equipments will provide cover from unwanted situations, so keep in mind that
the safety and quality depends exclusively on you and your equipment.
A01 - I use a
heavy-duty fabric shirt to prevent my clothes to get glued down or painted, so
try to wear something like it during your own customizing sessions, it'll come
in handy!
A02 - The protection glasses are important when you're
sawing or sanding something, it prevents your eyes from getting sored and dry.
A03 - A doctor's/dentist's mask is also good to
prevents the dirt resulting from the sanding/sawing procedures to get inside
your precious nose.
A04 - The same thing above, but more powerful in the
dirt-prevention arena.
Fig.02 - The Drill and accessories.
Be extremely careful when handling these! The drill
will 'try to escape' from your hands, especially when it's an old geezer like
mine.
A01 - Accessories and drills. Keep a reasonable amount
of these, you'll need quite a few, varying on the diameter of the hole you want
to create. If possible, don't let them get all rusty and weathered like mine,
store them in a dry and closed box.
A02 - The drill machine. Maintenance is the key here.
My drill is old, veeeeeery old. Try to maintain it by cleaning and storing in a
dry, good spot.
Fig.03 - The Tools.
Don´t worry if you don´t have all those. You'll need
some to do the trick, but the amount of tools you will use depends on your
skill and needs, varying from custom to custom.
A01 - The Saw. Handle with caution, and be careful not
to pierce through the surface you're working on.
A02 - Scissors. They will do the job on cutting down
the fabrics and some pieces. You'll need some sharp blades to cut through
fabric, so try to obtain a hair-stylist-kind-a-scissor.
A03 - I don't kwon the English name for this, but here
in Brazil we call it "sargento", which means sergeant! This grappling
tool will do wonders when it comes to holding your action figures in place.
Remember to always cover the pieces you want to hold with soft rubber or foam
to prevent damage on their surfaces. I personally recommend to hold them
against tables or table-like surfaces, which allows you to grip both ends.
A04 - The X-acto knife. It will cut with precision as
long as it's blade is sharp, so be extra careful while handling it. It´s great
for splitting soft rubber limbs apart.
A05 - The grappling tools. Again, don´t know their
precise name in English, but here we call them "alicates". Great for
holding down action figures, popping things apart and 'excavating' the interior
of your action figure. I use them a lot to crack torsos open, to produce parts
as well. You see it's usage as soon as you posses them. Keep an eye out for at
least one 'grappler' and one 'cable-cutter', like Sir Charles Darwin, you´ll
observe the difference and infer the function from the 'bird's beak'.
A06 - The sand papers. I have 'nail-sanders' because I
think they're more precise than sand papers. These guys are great at reducing
hard-plastic shapes and body parts.
A07 - Screwdrivers. Again, very useful! To unscrew
G.I. Joes, crack bodies open, give your sloppy painting some detailing and
another ton of functions. Keep a set of them, you´ll never know how many you're
going to need.
A08 - 'Metric band'. Again, don´t know the precise
name for it, but it measures stuff! Indicated for precise measure cuts and
everything that´s based on length. Is a good way to track and prevent your
figure form 'growing' from 3,75" to 4" scale when your adding new
legs to a torso.
A09 - Mini tools bag. Handy, for precision and
accurate procedures.
Fig.04 - Construction Materials. When you're building stuff
from scrap you need materials to work with. I use 'garbage'.
A01 - In other
words I take pieces from broken things and try to recycle them, creating new
objects.
A02 - Soft rubber or foam that helps you to create
layers of materials to fill gaps an create sculpts. I use it to prevent damage
while grappling my action figures with the "sergeant".
A03 - I use Durepoxi, a two-part epoxy compound that
allows you to sculpt some nice parts. Also very important is the superglue (here
it goes by the name of superbonder), which I forgot to capture on camera. It
does wonders.
A04 - Wires. Keep a whole stock of these fellows. They
are super-handy. I use them to make wired capes, belts, clothes, tails...let
your brainstorm guide you!
Fig.05 - The brushes and the inks.
You'll need a lot of variety there. Different shapes
and sizes make different lines and strokes. Big ones for filling big spaces,
small ones for small spaces and the tiny ones to create detailing beyond
average.
A01 - I have one recipient filled with paper to suck
the water from the brush, also very handy when doing the dry-brushing
technique.
A02 - Quite a few recipients for mixing inks and
holding water. Also use them to keep my figures while they dry out the glues or
paints.
A03 - The ink set. Don´t have a lot of them right now,
just the old browns and blacks required to create those Jedi vs. Sith looks. A
couple of detailing from blues, yellows and reds will do the trick of the
mixing art. A thinner for mixing and a glossy sealer complete my reduced painting
apparatus.
A04 - Long thin brush for lines.
A05 - Very thin medium brush for small detailing.
A06 - Very thin small brush for tiny detailing.
A07 - Curved brush for hard-to-get spots.
A08 - Sweeper brush for mixing.
A09 - Metal pin-head brush for small sphere
imprinting. Very good for eyes and skin marks.
A10 - Conic head brush for filling angled areas.
A11 - Flat headed brush for covering straight areas.
A12 - Medium brush for mixing inks.
A13 - Medium brush for sealing.
Fig.06 - Plastic bags. Always keep a set of those,
they are great for covering your figures when applying epoxy sculpts on them or
for storing your own stuff.
A01 - A variety of plastic bags.
Fig.07 - My action figures storage system.
Keep them separated for better organization of your
stuff. The bags also help the conservation of materials.
A01 - The materials used for constructing your parts.
I keep this small bag for the most important ones.
A02 - Body Parts. Everything you rip off your figures,
from G.I Joes to Johnny Quest, Star Wars and Indiana Jones, keep them well
stored, they are very precious!
A03 - Accessories. Also keep those under watch. It
doesn´t matter where it comes from, if it fits on those customs you have, them
it helps!
A04 - Fabrics. Rip off that
old t-shirt, cut it down and paint it with ink mixed with a lot of water. The
result is a whole wardrobe just awaiting your new customs!
Fig.08 - A box of scraps!
Salvage anything you want from
anywhere you can, whenever you can! Recycling is our mission here! keep the
costs low by reusing things instead of buying every time you want to begin a
new project.
A01 - Ok, it´s not a box, it´s
a BAG of scraps! Fabrics, circuits from joypads, recipients from the
refrigerator, old trinkets....you name it!
Well, that's it for today! I
Hope I've been of some help! If you enjoyed the first lesson and want to
comment anything, from suggestions to critic, fell free to do it, the main goal
of this blog is to trade information and opinion!
