Tutorial on Custom Ohjya Survive Part 1

Here is a tutorial of one of my earlier custom: Ohyja Survive!! :D

I didnt really like Ohyja Survive's design back when i first saw it in hero saga, i am somewhat dislike its purple scheme and i dont like snakes ;p

However, 2 things changed my mind: (1) i have finished my customd Taiga Survive and Zolda Survive and a 3rd Survive custom is in order and (2) I found a Mcfarlane's Snake woman toy figure for a cheap price of SGD15. It has a real nice sculpt and so full of those useful chains and snake appendages. Thats when i know how my own version of Ohjya survive will look like :D

The custom steps itself are pretty simple though tedious, and here they are:

First lets summarise the parts you need to resculpt/custom:
1) His head
2) His chest
3) His staff
4) His back (with snakes implant)
5) His shield
6) Shoulder thorns
I will be covering part (1) and (2) in this tutorial.

And here are the materials you will need:
1) An Ohyja figure
2) Spare Ohyja chest 2 sets (using 2 sets are actually optional but helps since it reduces sculptings, you can always use one and that works too just more putty required)
3) 2 sets of Ohyja's staff (no harm if you can't find two, just that you will either need to sculpt out the staff into a longer piece or don't change it at all)
4) Knight Survive lower legs and lower arms
5) Macfarlane Snake monster woman figure (see photo below ont the parts i needed, mainly the snake appendages, the head. Ignore that Metal Gear piece in the same photo which i ultimately didnt use)
6) A revoltech 8mm single joint (several if your ouja figures have elbow breakages ;p pls refer to my other tutorial on broken ryuki joints repairs) (you can buy these from hlj website :D)
7) Your tools: epoxy putty, toothpicks, blade, some small pieces of plastic sheets, metal wires, super glue, sandpaper, thinner, some brushes and of course Mr Color paint :D)

Without further ado, please see below for the tutorial :D

1) His head.

I didnt follow Hero Saga's Ohyja head version as i wanted his head to look more like a snake's.

So I cut off Snake woman's head and hollow out his face and stuff with my blade until all that was left was a snake-looking headdress. I then test it out on Ohyja's head. Note, I have removed Ohyja's eye mask revealing 2 translucent red orbs underneath. Cool. they will be useful. So I cut them off for later use ;p

Next, I start cutting up Ohyja's head. Those vent like designs near his ears are cut off to be used as designs for his headress later. The top of Ohyja's head will be used as part of Ohyja Survive's shield (see next part of the tutorial)

Each time i cut Outja's head out, I measure it with Ohyja's head piece and Ouja's neck piece to make sure I dont over do it or leave too little materials on Ohyja's head that i can't connect to Ohyja's neck properly later. Once Ohyja's head has been properly cut down to size, I don the Snake Queen's headress on Ohyja's head and glue them together. Next I used epoxy putty to fill in the gaps between the head dress and Ohyja's head. See photo below.

Next I replace Ohyja's eye mask on the head and those vent-like designs i cut off from Ohyja's head and glue them on like the photo below. I also started adding more sculpts on the head such as a crest like detail over his eye mask.

that small snake design found on the Queen Snake's headress was just too backwards to make it work so i cut that piece off and glue it further upfront on Ohyja's head (see photo above). I filled the gap between the headdress and that small snake design piece with putty (see photo below).

Since the headress' tail part  made the head's movement very restrictive (plus it hinders the snake appendages that I wanted to place on the back of his body later), I cut off the lower part of the tail as pictured in the photo below. I then drilled 2 holes, one in the middle of each of the cut off surface of the headdress. I used a revoltech 8mm single joint piece to connect the 2 headdress piece together. Thsi way the lower snake tail part of the headdress are able to move independently no matter which side the Ohyja's head turns. Helps a lot to allow more poseability for the head without being blocked by the snake appendages on Ohyja's back.

After everything's done and the putty has dried, use sand paper to sand as much of the surface as possible before painting them.

For the painting part, back then I didnt know what the heck is a primer so i didnt use one ;p What I did was I used the following colors for the following parts:
1) Super metallic purple for the headdress
2) Brass for the crest and small snake
3) Metallic silver and white for the top of head and mask\
4) Matt black to cover up other parts behind the headdress that doesnt follow the purple/silver/black theme of Ohyja's

Annnnd thats it for the head.


2) The Chest piece

I used 2 Ohyja chest piece to make this since I have a spare. Makes it easier so that i don't need to use putty to cover up the gap and make the figure too heavy.

First cut up the part highlighted in red i the photo below. For Piece A, cut the front of the chest piece out. For Piece B made cuttings along the red line The remaining front part of the chest for Piece B are to be removed and throw away.

 

 

 

Once that is done, glue the cut off front chest piece fron Piece A on the front of Piece B making the chest of Piece B to buldge out (see couple of photos below to know what I mean).

Use some light materials like rubber or the unneeded piece of Piece B as paddings and glue them on the middle front of the chest piece. Next, add putty over the paddings like the photo below. I used a pen to mark out how I want the design to look like on the putty for my next few layers of putty sculpt.

Now the next part involve a few layers of putty to be added on top of one another AFTER each layer has dried.

First add a thin layer of putty on the middle of the chest piece to form the mouth plate. Let the putty dry for about 1 hour plus. Use your blade and start cutting lines on the putty layer and then pluck out each of those line putties to form a grill-like design (see photo below). When the putty has dried sufficiently but not hardened fully, it is easy to cut shapes on the putty using your blade without causing the putty to go out of shape.

Next add a top layer over it to form the top part of the chest piece. Form 2 putty balls and put it on the part where the eyes are suppose to be. Remember those translucent red eyes i cut from Ohyja's head? Push these red eyes on top of the putty balls like the photo below. If you position it right, the putty ball will form a circle around the red eyes.

Before the upper layer of putty dries, use yourtoothpicks to form details on it like the photo below:

Notice I have a spare red eye that I add on the forehead of the chest piece as a design.

Now once everything dried. It is time to form the parts around the middle of the chest piece. Use putty to form up his abdomen's sides (see photo below).

For the fangs of the chest piece, I used 2 small pieces of plastic sheet and glue them on the top part of the putty layer and then add some putty over the plastic sheets, see photo below. This is actually a very bad way to form those fangs but I was young and unseasoned so yea. The better way to do this is before the upper layer of putty dries, stick 2 piece of wires on the part where the fangsare suppose to be. Let everything dry. Add super glue on the wires to make sure they stay in place. Once the superglue dried, add putty over the wires to form the fangs. This way the fangs are easier to be sculpted on and you wont afraid of future breakages if the figure call on his chest.

One more detail to work on the chest piece is to form those 'wedges' that sticks out from either side of Ohyja's 'breasts'. I cut slits into the sides of the 'breasts'. Then I stick and glue in 2 pieces of plastic sheets to form the 'wedges' and then add putty over it. Voila, see photo below ( i didnt have a pre-painted photo of those wedges so a post-painted photo will just have to do).


Now once everything has dried, use sandpaper to sand everything (except the fangs or you will break them off ;p).

Add on the following color themes:
1) Super Metallic Purple on the overall chest piece.
2) Metallic silver over the grilled mask and other parts of the chest (see photo above).
3) Brass over the linings (see photo above again)

Aaannnd we are done with the chest. See the photos below:

Remember to cover the whole body with a topcoat.

Next Part coming up in a week or so ;D