US Agent (American Zealot) — customs by matchu

What’s up everyone. It’s time again for another custom figure reveal. This next one is another swap figure for one of my friends. This time, for my good friend Seth over at Newcollector Customs. This year was our 6th (???) annual custom figure swap. He was the first one I ever swapped with and it will continue as long as we are both actively customizing. Earlier this year, Seth made me a Jokerpool for my deadpool shelf which turned out awesome. To return the favour, I made him this very cool US Agent. Check it out!

This version of John Walker is from the American Zealot storyline. When he originally sent me his choices, this one stood out to me a lot (probably because I was watching Falcon and the Winter Soldier on Disney+). But in all honesty, his costume was just appealing to me. I liked the flap on the chest, the more tactical helmet and the laced up boots. I started piecing together a base body, but went through a few different versions of it until I found something that I felt worked best.

US Agent was made using a Skullbuster torso, 80th Anniversary Iron Man Arms, MCU Captain America belt, Ultimate Captain America head and boots and legs from a GI Joe Classified Gung Ho Figure. The Shield was an MCU cap shield, that I modified with elastic straps and a magnet to both hold it onto his back and to the throwing effect that goes around the wrist. It was a real mixer!

In regards to sculpting, I had quite a bit to do on this guy. I ended up using both Aves Apoxie Sculpt and Green Stuff. The Green Stuff was used for his collar and for the texturing on the pants/crotch. Because the Gung Ho legs already had texture, I needed to make the crotch from the Skullbuster torso textured as well. I also removed the cargo pockets on the front of the legs using my Dremel and used a texture stamp on some thinly spread out Green Stuff to make those areas match the rest of the texture on the legs. I also used some leftover green stuff for the helmet detailing.

I sculpted the arm gauntlets, the flags on the shoulders and the design on the front and back of the torso using Aves Apoxie Sculpt. The star on the back of the torso is covering a magnet that I embedded into his torso. This allows his shield to be stored neat and tidy on his back. I also used it to fill in his peg holes and the hole/design on the front of the torso as well as using it to smooth out the middle of the shield that I had sanded the star off of.

Painting this guy was pretty simple. I ended up dying the legs/boots to ensure that all potential possibilities of paint rub were removed. His paint job was mostly simple as he is primarily black in color. The shield was a bit of a pain in the ass to properly mask, and ultimately I ended up having to touch it all up because my masking skills on that sort of thing are pretty horrible haha. The paint on the face however, turned out way better than usual, and for the first time ever, I got the eyes on the first try. Hot damn! Practice makes perfect?

This custom marks the first time ive ever used a water slide decal. My buddy Dee taught me how to print and apply my own water slide decals. So I printed 2 American flags, and placed them on the sculpted rectangles I made on his shoulders. I think it worked really well and learning this new skill has got me excited for potential uses down the road. Looks like I won’t be trying to make perfectly symmetrical D’s for my soon to come Daredevil after all!

Once he was all finished and reassembled, I was so happy with how he looked. I think Newcollector liked it a lot too, which of course makes me very happy. Plus it looks awesome in his Captain America/Us Agent display. Im very glad I got the opportunity to make a US Agent because he ultimately was a ton of fun. I really enjoyed the build of the base body, and once he was finished, I thought it all tied together very well.