Binky's Buffy & Angel Customs

I think I have 5 or 6 threads with my customs in them. To hopefully keep them concentrated and thus more active, I am putting together this super thread of my modest attempts to enhance my Buffy collection of memorabilia.

Of course, my old website with my Buffy repaints and head sculpt photos is long gone (AT&T), and the photos were three hard drives ago. So, barring taking new photos which I dislike doing as much as painting (ironic, I know), I'll update with the older stuff like the repaints, Gunn, and hopefully some LEGO scenes (I dismantled my LEGO Sunnydale MOCs unfortunately some years ago and haven't had time to break them out again) as I find them. But the good news!!! I have new stuff.

Season Willow 4/5





I was going for mid-season 4, so around the time of This Year's Girl. I am still putting together a full figure so hopefully that will be coming soon. More pics below.

I had previously sculpted a human vampire version - many years ago. Here's that figure:





I tried a Dark Willow paint scheme on the same head, but the hair is wrong. So, here's the updated Dark Willow portrait, updated at the suggestion of Skytteflickan88:



I think I could tweak it a little more. Maybe pull the hair back further from the forehead. Or, I could go for a full-on scowl, though that would probably take a few months and would bump it to the back of the line of projects. Do you guys have any suggestions or recommendations? I value any input.

I mentioned in one of those other threads I had three Buffy women I was actively (for me) working on. Here's the second after Dark Willow:

Tara, season 4/5, painted draft.







This is my second try at Tara. Waaaaay back when, during the board's first customs challenge, I made a Vampire Willow (above) and Pet Tara after one of my favorite fan fictions (I wonder why I'm feeling so confessional today). Well, this version is a lot better I think. It's close to done, but not quite there yet. When finished, I'll probably try a hair-down version at some point down the road. Like, way down the road. One of my favorite Buffy characters, and I'm an Amber Benson fan, too. She's not a great actress, but I admire the fact that she's also a writer, and has a nice singing voice. Writing is my first hobby, so I just admire the hell out of writers even when I'm super-critical of them.

Okay, enough for now. I'll see if I can dig up some older stuff, and of course, I'll update as I work on some other projects. Thanks for looking.

Oh very nice and that Tara is simply excellent.

Wow. Tara looks wonderful. Excellent likeness. The only thing I see, and this may be the light, is the top of her nose bridge may need to be rounded off a bit.

Honestly I would prefer a different expression (scowling, intense) for Dark Willow. A smirk is perfect for a Vampire Willow and since we hopefully can get both , it would help to differentiate them.

Could you tweak the head you have and offer some Vampire Willow heads for those of us who missed the first offering years ago and then revise it into a different expression/hair for Dark Willow?

I promise to make us custom outfits, but I sort of have to do my Marion Ravenwood and Peggy Carter projects first. A few months delay would not be bad thing in that regard.

Thank you Sue and SP for the comments.

SP, regarding Vampire Willow, I misplaced the casting blank some time ago but do still have a few casts from the original. I think there are about three or so. I could either use up the last few surviving casts as is or use one to do another run. I would probably want to make some corrections to the face and fringe though, if I went that far. It is a bit of work and frankly I doubt I’d bother just to strike a couple of copies. I still have a couple of unopened VW sets I could convert and sell to fund more projects so it might happen down the line, but would be much more likely if even a couple more people were interested to offset some of the costs. That kind of goes for any head, though. The cost of casting supplies mandates at least 5 heads be struck to break even, even valuing the labor cheaply. Not to say I wouldn’t make a smaller run, because no one ever said a hobby has to fund itself.

I agree about Dark Willow. That version of Willow was so different from her regular character, it would be worth it to try a different expression. I’ll give it a go when I finish up head 3, which is a bit more of a shovel-ready project, so I am more than fine with putting it on the back burner.

So, I found some pictures on my old external HDD. Here are a couple of repaints of the Buffy 12” figures:

Buffy had the thousand yard stare and pink eye.


Angel had piggy eyes. Spike was second hand and had a nose rub. I can’t remember if there was anything else wrong with him but think I remember repainting more than just his nose. I also shortened him and redressed him. His original boots were kind of like clown shoes.


Giles came out of the box with Grecian hair formula slathered all over his hair and hairline.


I think this is one of the first Sideshow figures I got with the really noticeable lazy eye.



And LEGO! Since Sideshow is now distributing LEGO, I thought this would now be apropos:

This is an old picture. Since LEGO has gone a bit crazy with new hairpieces, I’ve updated a few of them since.


Monsters


These things are made for vampire faces.




I’ve assembled the pieces for a Sunnydale HS library and for a Magic Box store, which will be integrated into my existing LEGO town. Other scenes I’d like to work on are Buffy’s house and Willy’s, and every town needs a cemetery or two.

Hopefully within the next month I’ll have an update on that head 3 I mentioned.

By any chance do you still have the original spike boots?

Oh nice work binky. May I ask how did you manage to shorten Spike and what boots did you replace his with?

ShadowX81 said:

By any chance do you still have the original spike boots?

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I do, yes. Are you in the US? If so, if you want to send me a SASE I can drop them in the mail for you. PM me if so.

Sue, that is a real old picture. I've gone through a couple of body incarnations for Spike, including a short skinny chest Dragon. I always seem to go back to the original Sideshow body although I've hacked it to pieces and back. The limitation is the original head. It's just big, and the neck is made for a regular beefy Sideshow body. Right now, it's back on its original body, but I took off about 1/4", some from the thighs and calves. I also took off the same amount from the forearms (between the wrist and the forearm twist). I believe the first short bodies from Jedi Luke had monkey arms because Sideshow didn't shorten the arms. They have probably fixed that by now. I also modified the wrists so that I can use Hot Toys hands - slightly smaller than the Giles hands I used in that picture above, so they look better. The broad shoulders and thick neck are still a problem, but I shaved down the shoulders by a millimeter on each side, so it looks marginally better. A big improvement is to swap out the turtleneck for a t-shirt without a collar so you can see the head does in fact have a neck, even if it is too thick and maybe a little short. I swapped out the pants for Saturday night toys black jeans, gave him a belt, and swapped out the original shoes. I also tried some Newline lace-up boots with separate cloth gaiters, but they looked off scale so I switched to rubber ones similar to the originals with integrated gaiters from one of the WWII figures from Dragon I think. They are at least shorter than the originals which looked like size 14 shoes (not sure what that is in Euro size).

If I were to try to do an ultimate Spike, I would look into using a TT narrow shoulder and redo the neck - make it skinnier and longer. I like the likeness to James Marsters, but it is really a big head with an overszed neck.

I bought my project Spike from that lady who had a gazillion OOB Spikes a few years ago. I think I paid $20 shipped, due to the nose rub. Those were the days! I can't imagine hacking away at my Hot Toys figures like this. Sigh.

I bought my project Spike from that lady who had a gazillion OOB Spikes a few years ago. I think I paid $20 shipped, due to the nose rub. Those were the days! I can't imagine hacking away at my Hot Toys figures like this. Sigh.

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I remember her. I bought a few Spikes dirt cheap from her as well.

Thanks for the explanation. I know what you mean about Spikes enormous bonce (ironically just likes JM's head in real life ) I too want to make an ultimate Spike and think the only way of doing it is as you say use another smaller body, and so I intend to do that, but take a mold of the original Spike head and try and shrink it down to be in scale.

God only knows when I'll get around to it though.

Head 3 reveal and progress update

I said head 3 was more of a shovel-ready project. Here is the first draft of Faith, which I intend to use as a direct replacement for the Sideshow head on the SS kit (with maybe an upgraded body - looking now for one).







I can't seem to photograph at all lately, sorry. The black and white shots are to try to pick up the contours better but it didn't work that well. Oh well. Here are some color shots of the primer'ed copy.







The hair is sculpted around the shoulders to allow a little movement. Not a whole lot of range, but a little. I prefer sculpted hair to rooted any day.





I would normally paint the draft to reveal problem areas to be corrected before going to mold, but I'm hesitant to do that with this one. I have had this head for several months now, and recently I took it with me on vacation out of town to finish up work on it. Since I still work in Super Sculpey (I want to graduate to wax eventually), this head has been baked and boiled (while on vacation) several times, so the Sculpey is no longer vital. Therefore, I don't want to paint it since even the thinnest paint will destroy some detail and introduce unwanted artifacts. I am going to have to try to go to mold blind on how good it is then hopefully make edits on the copy. Also, this is the first mold I'm going to try with several undercuts at different angles so it will be pretty challenging.

So we’re talking a couple more weeks at least on this one until I can provide a painted draft. But if you see something glaringly wrong now, I would appreciate the suggestion. Another set of eyes is often helpful, I find.

Vacation was a week long and I often work on 2 or more heads simultaneously to keep from bogging down on one project (something I learned the hard way). Dark Willow is pretty close to completion, then it will be on to head 4.

BTW, I picked up one of the clone narrow shoulder true type bodies and while certainly more narrow than the regular HT TT, it is still quite wide in the shoulder. I think my search for a good Spike replacement body will continue. That, or my modified Spike body looks better and better. I will try to get a photo up of what I did to the Buck.

Thanks for looking.

Update: Faith

A little sooner than I expected, but I wanted to get it out of the way while I'm still feeling motivated. I mentioned before I didn’t want to do any more work to the original since the Sculpey was in a zombie state already so I had to make a mold and cast a copy just to make edits. It turned out to be a good idea and necessary because I ended up doing quite a few changes to the hair, chin, bridge/eyebrow ridge, jawline, and eyes. Took a while, but I think I’m ready to put this one down as done. And since the mold came out pretty decent, I have more confidence I can make a useable mold of other heads with long hair with multiple undercuts.





Hm. Just noticed I don't have a shot of the other side of her face in light. I'll try to take a few from different angles later. Still having issues finding the proper lighting/situation to take photos that don't flatten out the paint. Well, here's another anyway.



When I referred to this one as shovel-ready, I meant my immediate goal with this one was to make a replacement head for the Sideshow figure (which I had already shortened to be 5’5” in scale). Just pop off the old head and put the new one on. But my ultimate Faith would also include a body swap onto a better proportioned body with functional but still feminine hands, and replacement tattoo. While at it, I might also change up the outfit a bit. Either keep the shirt and Han Solo vest or find a white A shirt and denim jacket, and swap the pleather pants and boots either way for something better looking. I am looking for parts right now.

Dark Willow, scowling, will be the next reveal and should be up within a week, since it’s pretty much done and I have the long weekend to tweak. Just need to find a body and a placeholder outfit.

Oh very nice. Glad to see you're still updating hon as I look forward to seeing how you're getting on custom wise.

Thanks, Sue. I want to keep pushing while I'm motivated. I have to say the enthusiasm has been waning again, what with collector's fatigue (just Angel and a couple of figures left and I'm kind of relieved) and also starting to feel priced out of the hobby with the escalating cost of everything.

Customizing and kitbashing used to the last bastion for the economically minded of toy collecting. Sadly, it is becoming less and less so with the cost of bodies and esoteric pieces you can only get from a $100 or more boxed set. Maybe that's why I have a shelf of heads and no figures. I swear if a stranger walked into my playroom, they'd think I was a sociopath with all the little heads and scalpels.

Yeah I know what you mean. The price of stuff is just skyrocketing, and although It never was a poor mans game we're now in danger of veering into millionaire territory just to collect a few figures let alone make customs of them.

As to the show my enthusiasm has far from waned, in fact with every year that passes I seem to love it that little bit more, but as you say there's not so much merchandise out there toy wise, although I still find there's enough old stuff out there on ebay that I still haven't got. :

Reveal and progress update: Head 4

Since the first was just a repainted Vampire Willow, let’s call this the second and final attempt at Dark Willow, full bitca black.



Compared to the first draft:



I've found the best place to take photos outside of outdoors on an overcast day is in my laundry room, so that is my ironing board cover, not a table cloth. I cannot eat on plaid.



I think each has its own merits, but I do prefer the serious one. I admit I’m not fond of this version of my favorite character, because I don’t think she was handled very well in the show. A truly grieving Willow wouldn’t be wisecracking like she did IMO. And it ended up with such a washed out character in season 7. So generally, personally not a fan of the Dark Willow storyline.

I have a goth outfit from Triad I think would work for a season 8 DW but didn't want to hold off bashing it together to take pictures. I've been going into overdrive with the new heads I'm in the middle of, it's hard to take the time to bash a complete figure together. I figure once I've lost steam sculpting new heads, I'll take the time to cobble together complete figures and take pictures. So, more to do, more to do, ho hum...

So, the next trio of heads I am planning will be mostly unique heads. I am already half way through a revisit of Wesley, then two more female heads after. A reveal of the Wesley draft is around the corner…

Oh very nice, and those veins really do help sell the likeness of Dark Willow.

Looks great. I will get to an outfit as soon as I can. Looking forward to her, Tara and Faith.

Thanks for the comments.

SP, I just got a fresh batch of rubber and resin from Micro-Mark and am in the middle of molds now.



I'm not sure how smart it is, but I'm experimenting with some different mold box techniques. It'll probably take a couple more days. In the meanwhile, here's a look at the Wesley ATS draft.



I’ve wanted to make a Wesley figure since it became all too clear that Sideshow wasn’t going to finish either Buffy or the Angel 12” line. Spenser came out with a nice likeness to AD, but from online photos it looked a little smaller than the other SS figures which are a little bigger than other manufacturers, so a Wesley stayed on my to-do list. This is like my third try at it. He is a tough one, which is weird because he has so many distinctive facial features. Long face, small eyes, crooked, lumpy nose, long philtrum, etc. So, it's still a draft, meaning I'm still tweaking it, especially the mouth area. I opted for a season 2 look, so didn’t give it facial hair or the neck scar but it would be easy enough to add those some time down the road. I also have to figure out a way to get glasses on it.

So, I figure a few more days on Wesley then it's on to the last two, which will be pretty much from scratch (i.e. putting together a headshot montage), so they're going to take a little longer than the ones I've done so far.

Oh Wes is starting to look great. If I was to be picky though I'd say there's something still a bit 'off' around the mouth area imo. But I'd have to see clear profile shots to get a better idea of whats going on there.

sueworld said:

Oh Wes is starting to look great. If I was to be picky though I'd say there's something still a bit 'off' around the mouth area imo. But I'd have to see clear profile shots to get a better idea of whats going on there.

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Thanks, Sue. Yeah, there is definitely something off with his mouth. I think it's too flat right now. I keep tweaking it out and back so it's almost gone zombie, so I have to be careful with it unless I make a copy to experiment on. I'm at the point I need to watch video instead of looking at stills, which is okay because I want to watch season 5 again, I haven't seen it in about 3 years. I'll try to post another progress pic in a couple of days.

I definitely see Alexis Denisof, but agree the mouth is a bit off. I think the furrows running from his nose to the sides of his mouth need to be a bit more pronounced.