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Custom S.I.C Kamen Rider Caucasus

Yes its that blue rose totting wierd guy's turn. His only appearance was in Kabuto movie God Speed Love as the main protagonist. Frankly speaking i dont like Caucasus, his existence has no meaning other than loving blue roses and perfection which has nothing to do with his purpose of causing a meteor impact on earth that will mutate the Worms :/ I could be wrong since I never watch any kabuto series and i speed watch the God Speed Love movie ;p But you cant deny his nice design as a rider that lovely yellowwwww..

Still that didnt encourage me to make one since I saw in Hong Kong, SPC shop was selling Caucasus, Ketaros and another guy (can't remember his name) at a reasonable price (At that time i have already ran out of luggage space buying all other stuff and decided to skip these riders, not to mention the SPC sculpt seemed off)

Then, a friend of mine challenged me that I cant make a custom Caucasus in a week's time. And so being a sporting guy, I took the challenge but promise i wont work more than 1 hour per night on it. I can't anyway due to my actual work commitment and the fact that putty needs to be dried ;p

I did managed to finish it in 1 week's time and came up with a better way to connect the giant shoulder pad to his body thanks to a suggestion from another customiser, Miko Matsing :D

So lets get to the tutorial as usual :D

First off, I need a base body and the best i felt to be used is Kabuto itself. This might seemed wasteful so you might try using a Dark Kabuto body instead. But I like Kabuto's more intricate chest piece design.

Then, I know the most time consuming part would be the giant shoulder so i went about thinking how to make one. I decided to use plastic sheets as their base and then layer the sheets with putty to add designs. I also used plastic sheets for his moustache as well.


The one thing I don't like about existing custom versions of Caucasus is that their gigantic shoulder pads are stuck to their shoulders and hence limiting upward and sideways movement for the arm. Then a friend of mine suggested to use a double joint system for the gigantic shoulder pad and connect the joint to the body. And thats what i did :D I used the following joint for this purpose.


Now

Custom SIC Crane Ornoph

Custom SIC Crane Ornoph (completed in March 2013)

This was the second non rider custom figure i made and the first female custom figure. I was actually not that interested in making it since its a non-rider and I am bad with female proportions ;p

What happened was I bought a pile of hibiki base bodies from a seller but when I sort them out among all the accesories and stuff, I finally found from among the 8 bodies i bought, 2 have broken joints and 1 is incomplete! It doesnt come with the following stuff:
1) no neck part
2) no upper arm parts
3) no elbow joints

4) no ankle joints

5) no lower head part zzzzz....

So I was left with something i really can't use. I left it like that for a few months until I realised that it may be possible to use it for a female type figure. I just need to replace the elbow and ankle joints with revoltech joints and then replace the upper arm with putty. The upper putty arm can still swivel at the connection with the shoulder joint. This is because before i slap the putty on to the shoulder joint, I layer the shoulder joint with talcum powder. After the putty dries, I swing the putty upper arm left and right until it gives way. After that, the putty will stay connected to the shoulder joint. The talcum powders prevent the putty from stick on the shoulder joint. See photo below:

I again left the finished body as above for another month before i bumped upon a vinyl crane ornoph. The details on it was already impressive for a vinyl and I thought it could be a great base to make a figure since I have a spare skeleton left with not much use. Bought the vinyl for S$20 if i remember correctly. See the photo below for the vinyl figure.

I generally don't prefer using vinyl as a final layer for customs since they degrade faster (theoretically). Since this is just a side project to me to utilise a incomplete body and also it saves a lot of time using the details on the vinyl, I will make an exception in this case.

So I started cutting up the vinyl figure first and decide on which parts I wanted to use. I decided to retain the following vinyl parts:
1) the head
2) the upper chest and collar
3) the upper arm (I ditched the putty arm in this case as I have decided its easier to use the vinyl upper arm instead)
4) the lower arm armor parts
5) the waist
see photo below. I have cut up the vinyl legs as well but ultimately didnt use them.

The rest after much thought I decided to sculpt them rather than using the vinyl due to the fact that the vinyllayer is quite thick. So for example if i wanted those thigh designs to be used, I will need to scratch a lot of layer off hibiki's thigh to fit in the vinyl design layer. Even then i will need to use putty to shore up any cracks (which there will be usually). Its much easier if i sculpt the designs on hibiki thighs instead.

The next thing to do is to cut up the hibiki body base. Since Crane Ornoph is a female and you need to slot in the vinyl chest part on hibiki torso without it looking too fat, I cut up hibiki's torso by a lot to give her a slim figure. See photo below.

After a lot of cutting, you will be able to fit in the chest piece like the photo below.
You will also notice in the same photo how i position the vinyl waist. This is the right position of doing it. However, since I never watch Kabuto series and know next to nothing about Crane, I changed her waist design somewhat and you will see that later in the tutorial. It didnt really work :( but not very damaging at least.

I replaced the knee and elbow joints with revoltech joints, 8mm single joints for the elbow ones and 8mm double joints for the knees. I then putty up a knee guard for her. You will also notice the vinyl waist wont fit all the way from front to back (see photo below). I glue the vinyl chest piece in anyway leaving a gap near her armpit without vinyl cover. Cover that gap with putty and sculpt the same design as per the vinyl piece will do.

More details were added. Here are the steps as i recalled them:
1) I created my own neck part by cutting up a spare hibiki type lower arm into a stump. The ball socket in the lower arm connects to hibiki's torso where the neck suppose to be. I then fill up the hollow vinyl head with pieces of unwanted rubber or plastics and then seal them up with putty. The putty also act as a glue to connect the vinyl head to the custom neck. I then sculpt some details on the custom neck's front (the part exposed and viewable).

2) I enlarged the breasts using putties as the vinyl breasts were pathetic.

3) I sealed up the hollow vinyl upper arm with putty and glue it to the hibiki shoulder. I also connect the revoltech joint on the elbow, the putty act as a glue for them to stay connected.

4) I drill holes on hibiki lower arms to allow the revoltech elbow joint to be inserted it. I glue the vinyl lower arm patterns on the lower arms.

5) I glued the vinyl waist on hibiki's crotch area, the gaps are sealed up with putty.

6) I sculpt putty designs on her thighs. The ones you see in the immediate lower photo was a failure so I scatched out the putties and re-did it again.

7) I cut up hibiki's abdomen's designs and replace them with putty designs

8) I add design to the putty knee pad i created earlier.

9) I added putty heels for her feet. The inflexible hibiki toes joints became useful now as it can be bent upwards and with the added heels, the feet look like high heel shoes now.

10) I cut up hibiki's belt into a slimmer belt.

11) I added putty on the bottom of his legs to try to cover as much as possible the gap where the joint connecting the feet and legs are.

12) I wanted a girl's mouth on her so i cut off the vinyl mouth plate and use putty to attempt to sculpt one. Im not even sure if i succeeded since its so small and blocked by the eyes plate, its nearly recognisable from the original no-mouth version ;p

The result you can see in the below photo:

Now lets look at the back. Hibiki has a man-ly external underwear butt. We dont want that. So I cut off his underwear and refit him with a girl's bottom yaay. I also resculpted his lower back. See photo below.

I thought her back looks blade and since she is a crane, she needs feathers. I didnt know how to sculpt features yet so i did the next best thing i can, i gave her fin-like designs flaring from her thighs. I also gave her some fin-like shoulder pads to cover up the gapping hole between the body and the shoulder joints. See photo below:

I wanted a nice pair of wings to go along with the figure but couldnt find one ;p

And with some more touchups (added some designs on her breasts, some design on her belt and her feet), we're done. Sand all parts of the body including the vinyl.

Since Crane is a single color character, all i did was spray the entire figure with primer spray 3 times (taking care to let the first layer dry completely before adding on the next). I didnt do linings on it as I was unsure how detailed the linings should be before it messes up the figure, so I left it as is. Hope you guys like her :)

 Yes thats my feet, i dont have a tripod so this is the only way i can take photos of a figure with wings that aren't connected ;p Maybe i should paint out my toes but mehh..

Post production notes: I made a mistake with the belt, the vinyl crotch should cover the belt and not hibiki's crotch :( This forces me to sculpt a separate belt for her which doesnt fit into the crane ornoph design. So if anyone want to make one, just don't repeat the same thing i did.

Until next time, take care and see ya! :)

SIC Perfect Kikaider - anyone seen this before?

I just bought this guy over the weekend. Its really an anomaly coz i have never seen this before. Its not Bandai's SIC and looks like a custom. Its not SPC coz I have visited their shop. So anyone has any idea what is this and where can i get more? :D

It has light up effect. My friend who sold this to me didnt know and didnt remove the batteries which has rusted. Luckily the rust didnt really spread all over the light mechanism and the light still works!

The limit of his articulation. Also he is  super loose, hard to make him stand ;p

The Bijinder and this Perfect Kikaider is the most unstable SICs I have ever encounter hahaha.

Custom G3 Mild simple resculpt and repaint

Custom G3 Mild simple resculpt and repaint

Among SIC figures, G3 and G4 holds a special place in my heart (figuratively speaking... literally ;p). They looked robotic (and I love robots) and they have all kinds of weapons and accesories. The problem with G3 G4 set is its fragile elbows and sometimes knees. Fortunately I only have 1 incident (after buying like 4 sets of them for customs or sale) of a broken elbow. The bad news about broken G3 G4 elbow joints is that its not easy to fix. You can't use a revoltech joint as its not compatible (G4 G3 joints being more angular and boxy while revoltech is all rounded). I have yet to think of a good way to fix them, anyone who knows of one feel free to post it here in the comments section :)

Before we proceed with the custom tutorial, lets have a short summary of Kamen Rider G3 Mild:
Kamen Rider G3 is from the Agito Series. Its basically a exo skeleton suit developed by SAUL to battle the Grongi based on Kuuga's abilities. the G project was shelved as it was completed only after the Grongi was eliminated. However, with the appearance of the Lords, the G project was revived and the latest version G3 was recommissioned to face the new threat. G3 Mild was the test model for a mass production G3 army. Takahiro Omuro was the pilot of the G3 Mild. He later become squad leader of the G5 unit.

I'll like to take this chance to show off how SIC enhance a kamen rider character to bad-ass disposition:

Back to topic, this tutorial is to teach anyone who'se interested to make a custom G3 Mild. For the slight resculpt and repaint G3 Mild have compared to a normal G3-X, I feel its not worth paying SGD150 for one. Better to just resculpt it yourself and it is not hard either (with practice ;p).
Now, before we start, I want to make a comment that I have yet to figure out a good way to change G3's eye color from red to G3 Mild's orange :( I'll elaborate more later.

All right! So lets get down to what you need to make this:
1) a G3-X figure with G3 chest piece
2) some tooth picks
3) a needle or pimple needle (this is crucial for this custom)
4) epoxy putty
5) super glue
6) black liner pen
7) some paint: white, metallic silver, and clear red
8) twisty from any old SIC box sets
9) sand paper
Here's a photo of a G3 and G3-X original figures. I have highlighted those pieces of armor that you should use to minimise repaint when you custom a G3 Mild:

Now that we got that down pad, we can begin with the resculpt.

The only part requiring a resculpt would be G3's head. For the head, you need to remove the following parts highlighted in red by cutting them off using a blade. The parts i marked as "A" which are the antennas will be retained to form G3-Mild's shorter antennas. the rest will not be used. Cut the antenna down to size by cutting off the upper length of the antenna. The lower lenght of the antenna will be used as G3 Mild's antennas:

Once you cut those antennas off, your G3 head should look like this:


Now use putty to reform the head sculpt into a G3 Mild design. Attach the cut off antenna on the putty. At the same time, lump some putties at the sides of the heads to act as foundation for the resculpted G3 Mild radio/receiver-like ear muffs. Let the putty dry. Once they dried, sand the putty parts on the forehead.

Now lump putty on the sides of the head and start forming them into the G3 Mild design shape. For the small square with a screw design on the ear muff-like design, use a toothpick to form the square. The toothpick will need to be cut into a "negative" screwdriver shape to form the square. for the screw design in the square, use a needle or a pimple needle (I use the latter as it gives me better grip and I cant' find a needle in the house ;p) to poke and shape out a screw. This can be done by repeatedly pushing in the parts that does not form the screw. It takes a lot of patience to do this part. Repeat the same thing on the other side of the head. For those tiny bolt holes design you see on G3-Mild's "ear muffs", use a the end of a twisty and poke holes on the putty ear muffs. This will form the tiny bolt holes, simple and easy.

For the antenna that comes out from the right side of the head/ear muff, I used a straight wire which i poke onto the putty ear muff before it dries. Once it dries, I use more putty to form designs on the antenna. See photo below for the final product. Once all the putty dries, sand them.

We are almost done. Now its a matter of repainting the necessary parts. Remember to sand those surface to be repainted with sand paper to let the paint stick better on the surface first. See the YELLOW highlighted parts in the photo below to see which parts needs to be repainted with super metallic silver or white (the white is only for those stripes on the thighs). You will need to do at least a couple of paint layers to make the paint properly smooth and shiny. Also use clear red paint to make the "00" design on the left shoulder pad. Finally once the paint dried, use a black liner pen to line the edges of the figures.

You will finally get the results as the photos below. Hope you enjoy the tutorial! :)

After production notes:

Now that i am better at manipulating putty, the thing I would have done differently would be those ear muff sculpts. Instead of shaping them up when the putty is still loose, I would form a rough shape with hte putty then let it dry for about half hour before i shape the "ear muffs" into a better shape. I will then waitfor another 15 - 20 minutes before i cut edges on the ear muffs. You can't cut sharp edges on putty so let them dry awhile first. So yea, thats about it. Until the next time! :)

Lastly, I thought of a method to make orange eyes for custom G3-Mild. Those clear red on G3 eyes can't be wiped off using paint remover or thinner. So what can possibly be done is to cut off those eyes first. Use putty to shape a foundation first and then paint the foundation with metallic silver paint. Once that dries, use Araldite or syringe clear putty to form clear eyes. Once the clear putty dried, repaint them using clear orange. I have yet to try this method yet though ;p

Here's a photo of the SIC G3/4 family:

And one day when I have enough skills and materials, Im gonna make this guy, Kamen Rider G5 ;D



Kamen Rider Black custom

The Rider that brings back memories Kamen Rider Black TV version custom ;D

This was my... 3rd custom i believe, done near mid of 2012. This was also my first full epoxy custom without using any vinyl materials, quite proud of doing that at that time as it was a step up for my custom expeirence.

I always wanted to make one version of Black coz he was my rider hero when i was a wee little kid too small to even have acnes. I will always remember the small scene in his opening/closing song when he walks slowly away from his bike. ahhh... good memories.

Right, so the custom is actually pretty simple. I used Kamen Rider The First as a body base since he bear the most similarities to Black.

The first thing to do is design of course. And here is how i intended to have him look like when its done. At that time, I was still unsure what to do with the complicated and minutely detailed belt but i went ahead anyway.

Now with the design in mind, I knew where i need to cut off the armor in order for me to have room to replace them with putty sculpts. I proceeded to shave plastics off his joints, his neck, his lower abdomen, his pelvic and the belt (those nubby stubs and his belt buckle) area. I also cut off his collar coz Black dont have a collar.

Then I sand those shaved off areas so that the epoxy putty will stick on it better. I used 2 kinds of putty for this custom, one is the cheap industrial type you can find in the hardware stores and the other is the tamiya hobby putty from hobbyshops which is like 3 times more expensive. I used the tamiya putty for the areas that required more sculpts or  where i need them to be smooth as at that time i was still not accustom to using hardware putty.

Next I cut off parts of his mouth as well as Black has a striped design instead of a insect design for his mouth plate. I also cut off a bit of his chest piece; the lower portion as The First has a slightly extended lower chest whereas Black has a normal looking chest piece. See pic below.

I then start laying in the epoxy putty. Back then I don't even know how to use blades so i used my trusty toothpicks and my fingers. For the mouth, i used my fingers and roll strips of putty and lay them on the face one by one. Those tendon like designs I slap putties on the surface and used a sharp toothpick to slowly edge the lines out. The lower abdomen I just put slaps of putties on it to look like body armor.

Now for the harder sculpts I use tamiya putties (the lighter brown ones you see in the photo below). For those lines along his arms and legs, I simply roll putties into strips (bigger this time) again and stick them on carefully. The patterns on the sides of his mouth plates i used my own hands to flatten the putties and then i cut up a toothpick to make it into a tiny spade that i use to pat the putties into a smoother flat surface.

The hardest yet most ingenius part was how to sculpt the belt buckle. I'll tell you this before you continue to wonder, I DIDN'T hahaha. Here's what i did...

For the belt buckle, what I did was I shape a lump of putty around the original belt leaving the transparent red part exposed. Now this part is funny. I was actually at a lost as to how to make those designs on his belt after stuffing in the putty on his belt buckle so I let it dry for a while. Dyring that time, I actually thought of an idea which works. Instead of painstakingly sculpting out the design, i reliased i can imprint it on the putty! So I went about looking for mechanical looking stuff and found W's trigger gun! I then use certain parts of the gun and place it on the putty to let the shape of the electrical design on the gun imprint on the putty. Look at the photo below. Those arrow tagged as "B" are the ones whereby the shapes were imprinted from the gun. The "C" shape which is a round button was actually one of the stubs i cut off from The First's belt. I added the "A" arrow just to indicate that I push the putty away from the transparent red part as well as the silver ring part around the transparent red part so that it appears to have a round design.

After that its a matter of letting all the putty dries. I should have then sand them to make them smooth but I didnt because back then I didnt know i need to do that ;p Then I repaint all the details and it now looks like the photo below.

Next is simple, repaint everything. Did some linings on the mouth piece, the lower abdomen and the belt. And there you have it, Kamen Rider Black, TV version :D

Next up will not be a Kamen Rider. It will be an SIC and tokusatsu but not rider hehehe something I wanted to try for sometime but didnt until now. Took a while as it requires some re-designing ;) See ya in my next post!

Custom SIC W Cyclone

Custom SIC W Cyclone

One of the main reason for me to learn customs was to save money and the best way doing customs can make that happen is to do a custom that is very easy, simple and cost effective. Meaning a custom of a rider/form of rider that is very similar to another normal version SIC.

Case in point SIC Cyclone from the Double series

When I saw that SIC will be releasing a SIC Cyclone limited version, I finally found a use for my spare Cyclone Joker body (I made so many customs CJXs [CJX, CJX gold, CAX and even a JJX ;p) I have a spare CJ at the end of the day haha ;p). You can find how to custom the extreme forms as well as making a fake body from the CJ box set to save money here: http://kriderworld.blogspot.sg/2013/04/when-cyclonejoker-extreme-gold-is-just.html
I have also included some close up photos of JJX custom below in case anybody interested to make that non canon version hahaha

You can do this two ways: Simple repaint or repaint plus some very slight resculpt.

For my case I did a simple repaint but I'll share with you the resculpt bit if you choose to do it youself.

For the repaint, the challenging part is to get the right bright shiny green of Cyclone's.

After a few experiments, I find the following colors best for this repaint (always remember to sand the surface you going to repaint first):

1st layer : Metallic Silver
2nd Layer: Super Metallic Green
3rd and 4th layer : Clear Green
Always allow each layer of paint to dry first before adding the next.

For the gold parts, I mixed Gold color and a little Clear Orange color to get the shine. The black is just Matt Black color.

The result would be as follows:

There are suppose to be some bright lines along his body if you look at that magazine photo but I didnt add that in yet, not until i get a clearer photo of them to determine the right color to use. The scarf looks darker and a little gold-ish/brown-ish, cant really see clearly. Again will need to see clearer photos to be released by Bandai before i can complete this.

Now comes the part where you may want to do some resculpt. I am talking about the leg and arm rings right next to the legs and hands as well as that gold design on his right chest. The design should now be Cyclone's and not Joker's so its not those swirly lines but more like fence-like lines.

For the leg and arm rings, if you have a spare Cyclone rings, you can replace them easily. The chest part you will need to resculpt. You will need to cut the lines out, add epoxy putty and then shape them into fence-like designs before you recolor them.

All in all, its incredibly easy especially now that I provided you the exact color to use to make that shiny bright green. Its not perfect coz the cyclone part has some very slight grey shadings. If you have an airbrush you can do those very easily using Iron or Grey color paint. For me, Im fine as it is... more importantly, I dont use airbrush ;p Its not healthy for my kids.

Hope you enjoy this very simple tutorial! :)

And here's some closeups on JokerJoker Gold Extreme! ;D

And here's my entire CJ family (minus CJX itself which is still in KL) XD I also bought a custom CAX sword for my CAX and another spare wing for my CJX Gold from Taobao :D This photo was taken before i custom Cyclone. I have since took these guys apart and stored all of them (except for Cyclone) into one single CJ box, its incredible how many of these guys you can stuff into the CJ box if you take them apart bahahah!!