All right so after making my McFarlane Spidey figure I really wanted a more comic accurate set of villains. I looked towards an old Ironman figure I had from years back that had removable armor pieces as a gimmick- I had lost all the interchangeable parts long ago and had already attempted to make it into an All New All Different Tony Stark Ironman. I however only got so far as to sculpt the torso before I gave up. The body I had let over had the interchangeable flesh hands and the head was someplace else which I intend to use for another custom. Thinking of what I could turn this into, Mysterio immediately came to mind as I could put a bowl and cape over the neck and it would totally work. He does not need head articulation, and I didn't mind not having toros articulation. I wasn't ecstatic to have an Ironman looking mysterio but I got over it after seeing the video game version from the PS1 Spidey game and Shattered Dimensions looked a bit more armored and unique.
So for the actual customizing process, I looked for some sort of rubber ball or ping pong ball in my ¨toy box¨ and fodder. I found a tiny rubber bowl thing that was really only half a ball. I thought it too small but eventually when placed on the body and covered with cape it seemed to work. I also found some rubber strap things from a 3 3/4 inch figure which I used as straps for the glove to make them look liek he just has flesh hands amongst all the armor. Skipping ahead a bit once the cap was on the figure, I made the eye clasp cape things with some plastic from a Animated Batman base from Dc Collectibles which was nice and thin and flat. I cut the shapes out and glued them on the cape.
Now the cape's a bit complicated. Basically I only had red fabric so besides all the cutting and shaping to get it right I also had to paint it. But first let's talk about the shaping and cutting. I made a piece that covers the back of the figure which is the main portion of the cape. I then attached too front pieces as well. I liked the idea of a segmented cape in several pieces, which would also make painting and posing much easier. The shoulder portion is three pieces of cloth, two on each shoulder which are folded and glued in place so they don't just look like flat pieces on the shoulders. On the back I put a piece that covered the ugly glue on the back, and cut a little shape to it so its not too weird looking.
Painting was pretty straight forward. Sanded all the joints (though I dropped the ball on that step a little and there's unfortunately a bit of paint rub), then painted the figure in black (including the cape). Painted te torso a light green with a drybrush and gloves and boots in a yellow green color. Now as most of you customizers probably know, yellow is a pain in the butt to paint,so excuse me if here it looks sloppy. I could probably put more coats on it but it's somewhat frustrating. I also painted the cape eye clasps yellow and drew the eye details on them. The fishbowl helmet is a straight white.
The cape was painted black then several layers of purple. The fabric got a bit stiff from the paint but not so bad that it cracks or chips.
Check out my instagram ¨spoondude616¨for some more and a timelapse of some of the painting of this.
Hope you guys enjoy this one and critiques are welcome and encouraged!