Custom Action Figures Thread

[Petezilla]

That Zetton could have totally come from the new Shin Ultraman movie. And I sooo want a figure of that Bagan design for too long... Tamashii did the poster version MG, so maybe there's still a tiny bit of hope...

[GigaBowserG]

Did my own redesign of Zetton, and for the first time made a super articulated figure with swivel hinge joints. He's got 19-20 points depending on how you count it:

Also trying to crank out one more figure before I move, this one I think some of ya'll will really like:

Impressive work with Zetton's articulation! I'm guessing the figures you make are all 3D printed?

[canofhumdingers]

Wow that’s cool! I’d love to know more about how you made the joints. Did you design them yourself or copy them from something else?

[DirektorSplennic]

Did my own redesign of Zetton, and for the first time made a super articulated figure with swivel hinge joints. He's got 19-20 points depending on how you count it:

Also trying to crank out one more figure before I move, this one I think some of ya'll will really like:

Impressive work with Zetton's articulation! I'm guessing the figures you make are all 3D printed?

Thanks! Completely designed in Blender and 3D printed.

Added in 1 minute 19 seconds:

Wow that’s cool! I’d love to know more about how you made the joints. Did you design them yourself or copy them from something else?

Joints were completely done from scratch by mashing spheres and cylinders together in weird ways. I never download things from other sites to use in my models.

[canofhumdingers]

That’s neat! Did you have any fitting issues putting the joints together? How well do they work? I’m just fascinated by the idea of designing and printing your own articulated figures!

[Cryptid_Liker]

Did my own redesign of Zetton, and for the first time made a super articulated figure with swivel hinge joints. He's got 19-20 points depending on how you count it:

Not sure if this was intentional but I like how Mephilas-y the eyes look.

[DirektorSplennic]

That’s neat! Did you have any fitting issues putting the joints together? How well do they work? I’m just fascinated by the idea of designing and printing your own articulated figures!

The whole joint system is a swivel/hinge system, with the wrists and ankles mimicking revoltech joints but without the clicking.

It was easier to put together than I though it would be. The trick is to have some flat pliers for the pin joints, and just squeeze them together. Most of them have held their tolerance and work pretty well as a PLA prototype (never sell them as toys in this plastic, it simply isn't strong enough for longevity). I really want him printed in resin at some point, and a buddy of mine who runs a toy shop is gonna paint one up for me with the classic Zetton colors. The wrists were hard to fit because the pins on the revoltech shaped joints kept twisting off, so I had to file down the pegs a lot. The hip joints I'm still working on, since the pins are too small and there isn't enough tolerance, so they get loose pretty fast. Problem is I can't make them much bigger since the pelvis area is so tiny. I've been experimenting with ball joints as substitutes, but with PLA they either won't snap in, or if they do snap in they wear down almost instantly.

It also depends how you print the parts, with most needing to be horizontal so that the swivel joints rings don't snap when you put it together, because of how the print is layered. It's difficult to explain over writing, but I hope I'm making enough sense.

I don't have the space for a resin printer, which would solve most issues, and it's also why even after two years I haven't been able to take commissions where I can ship figures to people. There are a few people on this site I had to turn down because I can't ship figures that will last, since PLA isn't really the best to paint and it's just overall very brittle.

[Godzillaninja2019]

Any advice for working with blender or anything similar to to make a 3d articulation figure. Out of curiosity

[DirektorSplennic]

Any advice for working with blender or anything similar to to make a 3d articulation figure. Out of curiosity

Look up some sculpting tutorials and basic interface tutorials if you're brand new and memorize short cut keys, it will make your life so much easier. For joints play around with cylinders. It's a huge trial and error process but you'll get it if you just keep practicing. I want to be a toy designer for my career, so I try to do this stuff as much as I can.

[Fermix]

Any advice for working with blender or anything similar to to make a 3d articulation figure. Out of curiosity

Look up some sculpting tutorials and basic interface tutorials if you're brand new and memorize short cut keys, it will make your life so much easier. For joints play around with cylinders. It's a huge trial and error process but you'll get it if you just keep practicing. I want to be a toy designer for my career, so I try to do this stuff as much as I can.

Do you have any special computer peripherals or is a mouse sufficient?

[DirektorSplennic]

Any advice for working with blender or anything similar to to make a 3d articulation figure. Out of curiosity

Look up some sculpting tutorials and basic interface tutorials if you're brand new and memorize short cut keys, it will make your life so much easier. For joints play around with cylinders. It's a huge trial and error process but you'll get it if you just keep practicing. I want to be a toy designer for my career, so I try to do this stuff as much as I can.

Do you have any special computer peripherals or is a mouse sufficient?

For Blender, a mouse works well enough, though after almost three years of doing this ive probably developed carpal tunnel (partially a joke). When I switch over to Zbrush at some point I'm getting myself a tablet. Blender also can support a tablet, but I have no idea how to set it up.

[Godzillaninja2019]

dumb quistion have you ever heard of Monster Mash (Monster Mash is a new sketch-based modeling and animation tool that allows you to quickly sketch a character, inflate it into 3D, and promptly animate it. You can perform all interactions in the sketching plane. No 3D manipulation is required.)

[ultrase7en]

Are there any 3D modelers out there that has already created (or might be able to create) a Toho Frankenstein? I'd love to have a 3 3/4 inch action figure style or slightly larger fig/model.

[canofhumdingers]

It’s still a work in progress, but I was very pleased with the results so far and wanted to share. A few years ago I bought a really cheap, beat up Bandai Mothra larva to go with my x-plus GTTHM display. I always planned to repaint it but only got started on it this week. I tried a new (for me) technique I’ve been dying to try with my airbrush: pre-shading. I’m amazed at how well it worked and how easy it was. I hope to finish her up next week when I have some more free time.

Washed and ready


Primed


Painted white and preshaded


A dry brush of yellow pre shade


A coat of gloss brown

[canofhumdingers]

Made some more progress today. Put a base coat of flat black on the mouth, touched up the brown, and added some clear red and clear yellow sprays to add some variation. Hope to work on it a bit more tomorrow. All I’ve got left is to add some gloss dark brown to the mouth, add a pin wash to darken the crevices, clear coat it all and paint the eyes. Should be able to finish it by sometime next week.

[canofhumdingers]

Finished up Mothra today. Very pleased with how she came out!

[Fermix]

This is my first custom job! I procured a questionably-sourced Shogun ReAction from China and decided to give it a Midnight Blue paint job (the lighting in these photos makes it look a lot brighter than it actually is). The figure came with an unpainted head but the 1200C body.

Really happy to have a more traditional coloured Godzilla in this scale. I have another one of these figures from China and am trying to figure out what to do with it. I kinda wanna give it a funky colourway!

[John Pannozzi]

I would really like if someone made a custom MechaniKong figure that would complement Mezco and Neca's Kong figures.

Maybe the Gorilla Detector from Palisades' Muppet Labs Playset could be used as a base for MechaniKong's head?

[Godzillaninja2019]

I am kinda thinking of making a custom made figure of godzilla-1 or something similar to that design any advice what can be used for the based

[G.H.B]

Hey so I had an idea for making a custom articulated Kong figure that would scale well with the SHMA Godzilla 1964. Seeing how Jungle Lord is completely out of the picture, does anyone have any suggestions on what base figure I could use for this?