Simon Belmont from Captain N: The Game Master

Completed 6/15/2020

Simon Belmont joins the team, along with Kid Icarus, Mega Man and Captain N. 

The base figure used for this custom was a Diamond Select Van Helsing from their Universal Monsters series.  An absolutely gorgeous figure packed with details.

He came with an array of weaponry guaranteed to dispatch any ghouls he may happen across.  The client wanted this figure to be as close to the animated character as possible.  So I carefully removed all of these accessories, as the cartoon version didn't use or openly carry these items.  I have an idea of how to keep these weapons together and still tie them in with Simon.  We'll get to that later.

After removing the weapons, I tried working on the original head that came with the figure.  With the aging and overall demeanor in the face sculpt, I didn't think it would work for this character.  Luckily I had a headcast from a UFC Michael Bisping figure in the bin.  Got to work with the dremel and modified the head and peg to fit onto the neck.  Worked like a charm.

The beautiful fold-over leather boots did not fit the character, so I had to grind the folds away and sculpted the boots to match the existing leather.  This entire custom was an exercise in sculpting textures to match the existing sculpt-work.

 I added sculpt to the legs to give him those aviator style pants.  This is also a good shot of the head to show how I build up the structure for his hairstyle.  Add a bunch of sculpt to create the general shape.  Then use a fine dremel attachment to grind it further into shape.  I love this particular attachment as it leaves rows of tiny grooves which are perfect for a new layer of sculpt to adhere to.

Sculpted the backpack and straps.  The backpack has an inner core of styrofoam, which gives the object its bulk and keeps it light so that Simon doesn't become back-heavy and fall backwards constantly.  I used a hot-wire cutter to cut the foam to shape more precisely before adding the sculpt.  And again, I focused on sculpting a leather texture to match the rest of him.

 All sculpt-work is complete.  The goggles are made out of some plastic caps I've saved in my random plastic bits bin.

I bulked up the fuzzy hood and sculpted the detail.  Also added details to the backpack.

Finished him up with a nice paint-job.  I created a coiled whip for him made out of braided wire and sculpted tip and handle.  It has a peg that fits into the hole that was already in the belt, where Van Helsing's gun holster rested.  I also made an extended whip (not pictured) for when he needs to snap some baddies into oblivion.

Kid Icarus from Captain N: The Game Master

Completed 6/3/2019

Kid Icarus is now teamed up with the Mega Man and Captain N figures I made previously.

Alternate head, arms and leg

 The client requested that I use a Good Smile Nendoroid figure as the base again, which made complete sense to me as it would be in scale with his Mega Man.

 I chose Okanehira mainly because of his hair.  Kid Icarus has a head full of unkempt hair and I figured it would be easy to transition over.  That was not the case at all, especially the back half of the hair.

 This is a great looking figure in itself.  The details and accessories are top notch, and again, I thought the body would transition well to K.I.

 If you're not familiar with Good Smile Nendoroids, they can break down easily to change out the many different parts. 

 One final look at this base before we go to work.

 A copious amount of dremel work was done to sand away the details.  Used Smooth-on Free Form Sculpt to fill in the sanded areas and also to build up the feet.

Inserted some braided wire armature for the wings. 

Also a good look at the back half of the hair that was not going to work for the Kid's hairstyle.

Another essential element was, of course, his bow.  This figure came with a straight right arm that was perfect for the bow-arm.  So I used a piece of wire and sculpted the bow directly into his hand. I had to cut and re-position a left arm to hold that arrow release pose.  Worked out well.

 Intense sculpt work on everything!  

Chopped off a lot of original hair details and blended in sculpted hair to match.  This was actually a lot harder than i originally imagined.

 Good shot of the two part hair system, which added difficulty to this project.  THANKS GOOD SMILE!!

  I needed the back of his hair to match up with the front, of course, and I ended up sculpting over almost all of the original back half.

I had a hard time visualizing the wings in 3D while still maintaining the look of the animation, so it was a lot of trial and error until it looked right.  Then, once everything was done how I liked it . . . I discovered that the stand-peg would not fit into the hole in his back.  So it was time to drill, re-fit, then repaint the area around the hole.  Good times.

Mega Man from Captain N: The Game Master

Completed 8/12/2018

This figure resides with his new owner, who actually acquired the Captain N I made a few years back as well.  The client is a huge fan of that show and era and wanted an additional member of the team.

Off we go!

Base figure was a brand new Good Smile Co. Mega Man figure, provided by the client.  It was my first time working with a Good Smile figure and they are pretty neat.  Lots of pieces though, so it took me a little time to think of my approach to this guy.

The request was to make it resemble the cartoon version as much as possible.  So the first thing I did was chopped off the top of his dome.

The Megs from the show had more of a squared off head so I completely sculpted the new top and crest of the helmet. Also cut away some of the front of the helmet to expose more of his face.

Used the Dremel to sand down his forearms and tops of boots.  Sculpted the surfaces smooth and added the blasters and knee pads.  Also chopped off the pointed toes, since his boots are more squared off.  Sanded everything smooth.

This is a good view of the sculpt work done on the helmet and crest.  Smooth-on Free Form sculpt was used for the majority of the work.  I used red Aves Apoxie sculpt to fill in patches and blend forms.

Back view

Here are the alternate jumping legs that came with the figure.

For his face, I wanted to keep his original flesh tone and mouth expressions, but repaint the top half.  So instead of just painting over his eyes, I decided to completely remove them.

 I removed the original factory paint using Acetone-Free nail polish remover [shout out to the wife for picking that up].  That stuff worked like a charm.  Then painted the new faces.