Penance from Arcana Studio Comics

Wow it seems like forever since I've posted a new custom. I gotta work faster... or smarter... Screw it, you can't rush art. :p

Penance is the title character of the mini series Penance from Arcana Studio. It's a story about lies, murder and revenge in the superhero community of Atlanta, GA. The main protaganist is actually an ordinary police detective that is caught up in the middle of it all personally and professionally. Check out Penance and Arcana Studio's other titles at > http://www.arcanacomics.com/

I was commissioned by Sean Wise, the co-creator of Tales of Penance, to create this Custom Penance AF. Sean was referred to me by my good friend and AF customizer extraordinaire Matt "Iron Cow" Cauley. Thanx much to both of y'all!

A lot of work went into this job and it really challenged me. As you can see Penance has a mix of the standard superhero leotard and futuristic armor. The gauntlets (I think that's what they're called) were a major source of frustration. They weren't something that could be easily swiped from another figure, trust me, I looked. Nope, I had to create them from scratch. It took no less than 5 tries. I finally ended up constructing them by cutting the basic forms from sheet styrene, gluing them all together, then to his forearms and then sculpting over them with Aves Fixit Sculpt. I did the same for the Eye motif Amulet and Belt Buckle. The armored lower legs came from an HML Ultimate Iron Man which I spliced onto the legs of the DCUC Manta base body. I removed, dremeled and sanded off the unnecessary features and sculpted the needed details. Painting Penance was quite the adventure too. Red doesn't show up on black all that well. Most of the veins of red were done by painting them in white first then going over the white in red. Luckily painting uneven lines is something I'm very good at.

Enough blah, blah... onto the recipe and pics.


Reference & WIP Pics >



Finished >




Recipe >

ML Moon Knight Hood / Cape - airbrushed black, then green
ML MK Head Cast - sanded a bit to modify features
DCUC Manta Body
DCUC Superman Fists
TNA Wrestler's Forearms - Gauntlets created with Styrene and Aves Fixit Sculpt
HML Ult Iron Man Legs from knees down - features created with Fixit, Styrene and Braided Elastic
Belt made from Styrene
Eye Amulet and Buckle made from Styrene & Fixit

Batman - Jim Lee Styled - Created March 2009

Feels like forever since I finished Bane, but finally a new custom! This Batman just seemed so much harder to make than the previous ones. The body was very difficult to open, had to fix some factory defects and attaching the neck was an adventure. Because he has swappable heads (see pics) I had to make sure the neck was secured to the body a little stronger than just gluing. I had filled the hole left when I removed the original neck with Aves Apoxie Sculpt and then after gluing the DCD neck down I drilled a hole in the neck peg cavity and then used a screw to fasten the neck down to the body. I don't think I'll use this DCD cape on a Batman custom again. A lotta effort to make it work. Hope you like it Amazing Spider-Fan!



Recipe:
DCUC 1 Batman Body
DCD Reactivated Batman Head, Neck and Cape
DCD Unmasked Batman BW Head and Belt
Bat Symbol provided by Synner

Bane Created February 2009

I wanted a Bane that was much closer in size to how he was depicted originally and got a flash of inspiration when checking out some customs utilizing the Savage Dragon bod. I also wanted him to fit in stylistically with my other DCUC figures. I think I came pretty close.



Recipe:
DCSH Bane Head
SOTA Street Fighter Ken Neck Joint
LCBH Savage Dragon Upper Torso, Shoulders and Upper Arms
HML X3 Juggernaut Forearms and Fists
DCUC Batman Beyond Waist and Legs
TNA Chase Stevens Boots
Belt made from Styrene and 2 Capsules from DCUC 1 Batman's Belt
Neck / Hood, Shirt and Left Arm Band Sculpted from Aves Apoxie Sculpt

Thanx for looking!

Batman! Created February 2009

Yep, again...

Fwoosher; Amazing Spider-Fan really dug the last two I made and asked me to make him a couple. My one stipulation was that I would not use the DCSH Batman body - I don't particularly like using that bod for customs.


Recipe:
DCUC 1 Batman Body
DCD Unmasked Batman Heads
DCD Trinity Batman Belt & Cape
Model Masters Paints
Aves Apoxie Sculpt (Black)
Bat Symbol - Vinyl provided by my fellow NE FL Fwoosher; Synner. major props to him for it.



ASF wanted the heads to be swappable so the most major part of this custom was grafting the DCD Unmasked BM's neck to the DCUC bod. I didn't do much to the heads except for a little touch-up on the BW's hair. Both heads had excellent factory paint apps so there was no real need to repaint 'em.

Thanx for looking!

Robin (3 of 'em!) Created between Sept & Dec 2008

I was a little disappointed that the Mattel DCUC 3 Robin looked like a dwarf so I decided to try to make one closer in height to the prototype 2-Up made by the Four Horsemen. Turned out my idea was pretty good. I sold the first and I ended up making 2 more for customers. One day I'll have to make one for myself.

Recipe:
DCUC 3 Robin > Head, Cape, Forearms, Belt, Legs from the Knees Down
DCUC 3 Sinestro > Torso, Upper Arms, Waist and Upper Legs
Used Rex Lace to make the Shirt Clasps and Decopauged the "R" emblem
Paint - Citadel and Model Masters, mostly Model Masters on #2 and #3

Robin #1


With the production model >


Robin #2


Robin #3


That's a lotta Robin!

Moon Knight Created December 2008

Moon Knight is an old fave of mine, probably because he comes across as the "Batman" of Marvel, but even crazier. I've been digging on the current MK series, even more since it started dragging itself away from the morbid self loathing it was loaded with in the beginning. I was shooting to make my custom Moon Knight as close as I could to David Finch's depiction of Moon Knight. big, tough, mean and crazy as a snake.



Recipe:
DCUC 1 Batman from the neck down
ML Moon Knight Head and Hood
Cape was cut from clear vinyl
Apoxie Sculpt for the transition between hood and cape, moon symbol, gloves, boots and belt
Belt Buckle is the head of a nylon screw
Crescents on Belt were cut from clear vinyl and glued onto belt
Airbrushed a couple basecoats of gray and then drybrushed with white, cape was airbrushed gray and then white on the back side and black on the inside

Gotta give props to Grown Nerd on Fwoosh for a tip he gave me for the first cape design I tried even though I didn't use it. Props also to Variable Penguin for giving me the tips on how to cut out the cape and Iron Cow for giving me the idea to make the cape out of clear vinyl in the first place. Big props to Fast Freddie for hooking me up with an airbrush which has made painting capes and basecoating figures such an easier and smoother task.

Let me know what y'all think.