By now, you would have realied that we are actually almost done, just a little bit more touch up and that is the shoulder thorns/claws and his lengthened staff.
(5) Shoulder thorns
Before adding on putty, use metal wires (hard ones) and pierce them into Ohyja's soft chest armor as shown in the photo below. This act as skeletal frames for the putty to latch on later and it makes the sculpt harder to break later.
Now, use putty to form those thorn/claw-like sholder pads. See photo below.
To form the sharp end of those thorns/claws I have to go through 3 putty layers. The first layer just to form the rough shape of the thorns and the sculpts nearer to the shoulders. Once that layer is dried, I add another thin layer of putty to form the claws themselves. I form the claws as exact as possible and let it dry. After the putty dried, I used my blade and sand paper to make them more sharper and distinch. The 3rd layer is to form those details you see right before the claws nearer to the shoulder pads. The lined sculpts are formed by using pushing my blade on the semi-hardened putty to form lines. After the last putty layer dried, I sand the whole thing carefully.
The shoulder pads are then painted with super metallic silver and lined with a black marker.
(6) The staff
I felt Ohyja's original staff was too short and since I got 2 spare ones I thought it will be great if he has a longer staff. I also wanted the staff to be cooler so I added that ring-like sculpt around it's snake staffhead.
for the staff head, I used metal wires to form the ring-like structure. I used my handdrill and drilled tiny holes into the staff head and glue in the 4 metal wires around the staff head. I then shape a moon-like shape using another piece of metal wire and glue it onto the 4 metal wires embedded on the staff head. See photo below for what I meant. All these metal wires have been previously sanded before i glued them in. I then add a very thin layer of putty on the wires and form lines on them using my blade (see the photo after the one below). I let everything dry and then added some super glue between the metal wires and the thin putty layer to add more support so that the putty layer wont flake off the metal wires.
In order to lengthen the staff, I used the upper portion of the 1st staff and the lower portion of the 2nd staff and connect them together. How I did this is to use my handdrill and drill holes onto the surfaces where i cut off the staffs' parts. I then inserted a metal wire in those drilled holes and connect them together. I glued the parts together. To hide the connection, I used putty to form some shapes around the connection and let it dry.
Once everything dried, I added more details on the snake staff head by adding a horn and tail sculpt on the staff head. See photo below.
We are truly and ifnally done! The color schemes as usual are super metallic silver, brass and super metallic purple. Always paint a primer coat of metallic silver first before adding on the super metallic purple layer. Allow each l;ayer of paint to dry completely before adding the next.
I have also added an alternate shape for Ohjya Survive, I call it the Python Form which you can see below at his gallery. Enjoy ;)
I didnt mention this since its a very minor part of the custom but I repainted Ohyja's sword into purple and brass as you can see from the photo below to better suit his Survive form color scheme. Also notice from the photo below how the changes made on his staff head did not hinder the card slot gimmick behind the staff's snake head :)
I have tried to reduce the weight of this custom by using various paddings such as rubber and soft plastics beneath putty sculpts. However, the figure will still be quite top heavy especially with the snake appendages and the putty sculpt at the front of his chest. It is very advisable if you ever make one to display him with a stand to hold him up otherwise it will strain the knee and feet joints over time.
I would have liked to position the heads on the snake appendages so that they are horizontally correct but it was hard as although the snake appendages are poseable it sometimes refuse to be positioned in the way i wanted it ;p
I must admit, adding the snake appendages on his back makes the back a mess. It was a good thing I did not attempt to stuff 6 snakes on his back instead ;p It could be done actually but the weight will be incredible and the 5th and 6th snake will be very unsupported and probably lolled about unless I remake his entire chest armor from putty or some other resin to create better support.
Notice that I used a base figure with a broken left elbow. I have replaced the broken elbow with a 8mm revoltech joint. You can check out my other tutorials on joint repairs for Ryuki series in my earlier posts.
This is the one biggest mistake I made while making this customs: Somehow made his shield too small ;p
And here is his Pyhton form, easily formed by using Mcfarlane's Medusa's lower body. I didnt made another adjustments to it but it is possible to reconnect those snakes appendages onto the Mcfarlane Medusa's lower body again by drilling holes onto the end of Mcfarlane's Medusa's snake tail and reconnect them there. I should have done it, would have made him a lot more interesting hehehe. If i did it I'll update this post with new photos of it ;)
One day when I am free and i somehow managed to get Ryuki, Ryuga and Knight sets together with these I am gonna take photos of all 6 Survive forms :D
With another year of doing customs after I made this Ohyja Survive custom, I can see where I can improve this figure with my existing skills but i doubt I will do it unless I have plenty of free time... which I never do ;p So thats it for this tutorial, hope you guys like it and as usual appreciate any comments from you. Or any questiosn you wanted to ask about the custom, I will be happy to address them. Cheerios!!
Some more photos on the work in progress stage:
that's amazing design and work, I prefer your design rather than the SIC Hero Saga version, I think your design have more innovation rather than the magazine (which I think lazy design)
ReplyDeletehi man, thanks!! I usually try to make customs that's not per usual and only do them if they are really interests me :) so usually I change the original design :)
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