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! :)