Ultimate Iron Man
What up everyone! Back again with another reveal. This one was a commission for my longest running customer. This customer has purchased a Vengeance of Moonknight, a S2 Netflix Daredevil, AOA Captain America built on a Infinity War Cap buck and now this beast. Here is, 2 lbs of fun, Ultimate Iron Man.
Disclaimer: While I do love the grounded take of the Ultimate Universe, Iron Man was never a fav of that universe for me. In fact, I have always strongly disliked this look for Iron Man. I find it clunky with a bug like appearance that really is just not visually striking like Iron Man.
With that being said, when Victor approached me with his request for Ultimate Iron Man, I decided to take on the challenge. And oh boy, a challenge it was. Thankfully, my bud Justin (aka Resilient Customs) had a Marvel Select Ultimate Iron Man that he offered to me at no charge that made parts of this project a lot easier, even though making them compatible with the Legends base figure proved to be quite challenging.
Iron Man was made using parts from 4 figures. The base figure (torso and legs) were an Endgame War Machine figure. The head, forearm and shoulder Armor and boots are from the Marvel Select Ultimate Iron Man. I used shoulders from an Ex Nihlo figure and arms from Omega Red. I used the smaller shoulders to be more compatible with the shoulder armor stolen from the Select figure.
The biggest challenge I had with this figure was grafting the boots to the lower legs while maintaining knee articulation. The boots are heavy and unarticulated. So I had to cut below the knee joint on the War Machine legs, keeping the knee joint intact. I then heated up some framing nails with a lighter and pushed them into the top of the boots. I used my Dremel and made the heads of the finishing nail sharp. I then heated again and attached it to the knee joint. I then clamped it together with super glue to let it fully set. Finally, I blended it all together at the cut seam using Apoxie Sculpt.
Speaking of Apoxie Sculpt, I did full resculpts on the arms, shoulders and torso. I love sculpting armor, so this was my fav part of the project. Im particularly happy with how the torso of the figure turned out. I probably did 6 or 7 layers on the Torso (and prob 5 on the arms) so I spent a lot of time in the same spot while working on this big guy. In the end, with the addition of the Select boots and all the added Apoxie Sculpt, this guy weighed about 1.5 lbs. Crazy stuff!!
The other thing I love about making Iron Man figures is the paint job. While I don’t always enjoy painting as a whole, I do love working with metallic paints. I particularly love working with this metallic candy apple red application. It just always looks great. I am still missing my old Gloss Coat that I used to buy from Testors (they are no longer sold in Canada) but this project I started using Pledge Floor Care over a few coats of Vallejo Matte Coat and the finish was quite satisfactory. Still not AS good as the Testers, but its a good enough replacement to stop seeking a better option. So yay for that?
Overall, I am super happy with how this guy came together. For a design that I really do not love, he was a lot of fun piece together. The sculpt was a fun challenge, as was the build. Im excited for him to arrive so my customer can check it out first hand, but until then, he can scope out all these pics. Thanks for stopping by everyone. Stay safe.
