Crimson Dynamo

What up ya’ll. Thanks for stopping by for my next reveal. Ive had this one on the chopping block for a while, since early October actually. But now, he’s finally complete and in the hands of his new owner. Check out, Crimson Dynamo!

So as I just mentioned, this figure was made for a my buddy Omarali Customs as part of our annual-ish figure swap. He has been working hard on an Into the Spider Verse SP/DR for me, so I figured I had to take on an equally challenging project. His list was loaded with a handful of goodies I was definitely enticed by including 70’Savage Submariner, Skurge and Miek from Planet Hulk. But in the end I really wanted to paint something metallic (thanks to Turbo Dork paint!) and I didn’t want to make Titanium Man, so Crimson Dynamo was my guy.

The way Omar and I do our swaps is we share progress with one another (and the world) until its time to paint. Once we start flinging paint, we stop sharing so there is some element of surprise, which is a fun way to do it. Thankfully he’s an easy customer who generally lets me do my thing.

Believe it or not, CD here is made using an Omega Red figure exclusively. I did a ton of sculpting on this guy. Apoxie Sculpt was my goto medium for this project. The majority of the torso has been sculpted over. The upper thighs were removed from the torso and detailed with lines, as were the feet. The head was done in multiple layers to ensure I didn’t loose the shape of the face, which is something I generally do and then struggle to fix. The only thing not done with Apoxie Sculpt were the tubing around the top of the hip swivel and knees, which were done with Procreate, simply because I find it easier to handle and maintain the proper roundness of the piping. 

To make the shoulder pads I glued some heavy plastic over the shoulder so I could build up the shoulder pads over the butterfly joint, without loosing the articulation in the butterfly joints. Once the glue dried, I started building up the shoulder pads in layers. When I had a good base built up, I sanded it smooth and level, and applied one final, thin coat of Apoxie Sculpt to the shoulder pads. I then pressed pieces of kebob skewers into the wet apoxie.

Once they were all placed, I brushed them liberally with super glue to give them some strength. I then brushed them with liquid green stuff by citadel, which kinda acts like a wood filler. After they dried, I gave them a good sand and repeated. I did this same process for both the gauntlets (which started as paint pots from the dollar store) and the boots (which were made of PVC piping).

The paint job on this guy was super simple in theory, but it was my first time using the very wonderful Turbo Dork metallic paints, so I did multiple test pieces to figure out exactly what worked best. I used Turbo Dork Redrum as the base of the entire figure. I planned on doing some shading using a metallic orange, a silver, black, etc. To be honest, I prob tried 7 or 8 different combos of colours, but in the end, the Redrum base on its own looked so so good. So I left the shading alone. Instead, I hit the shoulder pads, gauntlets, boots and helmet with a multiple coats of clear red. The look of this was SO subtle, that I don’t think Omar even noticed it when he took it out the box. It definitely does not show up in the pics above. But in hand, to me anyways, I could see it. I swear. haha.

So at the end of this very long process, I was super stoked to get this guy off my worktable. But I will say he was a ton of fun to make. And once the ‘skewer work’ on the shoulders, gauntlets and boots were finished, it really sparked my desire to finish him up. Im hoping my buddy Omarali Customs enjoys him and I cant wait to see what he cooks up for me with his SP/DR custom :)

Keep an eye on my instagram for updates on my current project, a 12” Sentinel. I also hope to share the finished project of my Doppleganger custom soon. I just sent it out to the very talented @Iam978customs aka Poundz, Spider Man customizer extraordinaire to paint for me (did minor weblines once and promised to never do it again, haha). So check back soon for more updates! Cheers!