Forearm
Hey everyone, welcome back! Time for my next reveal. This next custom was my 2nd of 3 commissions I took earlier this year. It is my first attempt at a 4 armed character, here is Forearm from the Mutant Liberation Front.
When deciding what commissions I was going to take on, Forearm stood out to me for multiple reasons. First, I figured it would give me a chance to work on a multi-armed character as sort of a practice run for my next attempt (which will be Doppleganger, sometime later this year). Secondly, this character takes me back to my childhood, hunting toys, in a huge way. You see, Forearm’s old 5” toy biz figure from the 90’s peg rotted hard around my area, and I recall seeing him years after he was originally released at my local Toys R Us. For those reasons, Forearm made the top 3 and ultimately got made.
His base body is Omega Red. The customer requested this body specifically, and I personally couldn’t think of a better option. It was my first time using it for a custom and it was great to work on. He doesn’t tower over other figures, but he is certainly imposing on this buck. The head came from an old WWF Jeff Hardy figure I had kicking around in storage. I wasn’t super keen on this head choice initially, but the customer really liked it, and I figured I could work with it. The arms and hands came from a Neca Guile Figure. These arms scale very nicely with the Omega Red body. I really like the muscle definition in them and the amount of alt hands makes for a lot of fun too. I will definitely use them again when i make my next figure on this body (prob Venom or Sabretooth).
As a little extra kick of Nostalgia (more for my own personal enjoyment, but my customer does like it as well) I made Forearm his silly nunchuck thing his old 5” figure came with using a nunchuck from a Turtles Michaelangalo figure. Made it feel a little less toy like in decor though. I also gave him a set of wooden steaks. To be honest, I used them as place holders for the nunchuck when making the weapon holding alt hands and I liked the look of them so much I decided to use them. Actually when I think about it, this commission piece originally had no alt hands or accessories. I just enjoyed the process so much I continued to add and add and I think it really took it to the next level.
I got asked how I installed the second set of arms a lot on IG as I was building him. I started by dremeling out the side of the upper torso around the ab crunch. Once there was clearance, i removed the butterfly joint where the shoulder plugs into on the Guile figure and sanded away the entire butterfly joint leaving just the socket and a thin wall of plastic. I then inserted it into the dremelled out sides of the torso and cemented them in place using Apoxie Sculpt. Once dried, I used a dremel to make some extra clearance for the arms in the socket and voila! Extra arms were officially installed.
I used Apoxie Sculpt to sculpt the harness, wrist gauntlets, boots, pant wrinkles, knees, head harness and filled in peg holes. I also used it for both weapons, the nunchucks and the wooden steaks. And I used it to sculpt the fingers on the weapon holding hands. As for the hair, I opted to use Procreate as I find sculpting that style of hair is much much easier using this medium and it is far less fragile.
When it came to painting, I got to revisit the chromed red look I gave my Modular 90’s Iron Man last year. I really love how it looks, especially against the orangish-reddish pants. I also am pretty stoked on how well the skin tone turned out here. Utilizing my airbrush for skin tone is still pretty new to me. I generally still prefer to do it by hand (although I do enjoy an airbrushed base coat… so smooth!) but there was too much to cover by hand and i wanted a more finished look. I also used something new to clear coat him with. I finally got around to trying Liquidex Matte Varnish. I quite like the little bit of sheen it leaves. Kinda gives it a more ‘official release’ kinda look as it’s not as muted as Testors Dull Coat. I will be using it again, that is for sure.
Overall, I am beyond stoked with how this figure turned out. He looks pretty, he’s big and imposing and has little to no paint rub :) I hope my customer is as happy as he says he is and I hope my next venture into a multi-armed character (Doppleganger) is as successful as this was! Up next, my 3rd (and final attempt) at 90’s Jim Lee Psylocke! Come on back and check it out. Thanks for stopping by everyone. Have a good one!
