The all-female Ame-Comi line hasn't gotten a lot of attention even with DC Collectors, possibly because no one really seems to know where it fits in. It started out as a competitor to the Kotobukiya Bishoujo line with some stiff competition with the Shunya Yamashita Marvel designs, which have since branched out to include DC characters as well. Now, DC aims to change that with an announcement made at C2E2 this past weekend.
Once again I end up with a DC Collectibles statue that doesn't quite live up to expectations. The good news is this one is destined for a repaint very soon, so hopefully she'll look better!
This Elspeth began life as a Sylvanas Windrunner World of Warcraft figure from DC Unlimited. The customer who requested her wanted her kept as an archer but changed to more suit Elspeth's style and of course, changed from elf to human. After a little Apoxie sculpt and a whole lot of metallic paint, here she is.
A friend asked me to change his DC Unlimited Sylvanas Windrunner (WoW) figure into Elspeth the Pure from Magic the Gathering without doing too many changes to the original figure. Should be fun.
This is the part of every project where it's hard to show much progress. So much cleanup is required on a figure like this, everywhere I look I find another seamline or flaw to fill in.
Detailing Elspeth is pretty fun, now that I've gotten most of the prep work out of the way. Finishing up the cape with a little secret weapon I have stashed away. Here it is in the paint stage. Then we move to pastels for shading once the coats are complete.
I've wanted to build this kit ever since I first saw it back when it was new. I'm a huge fan of PenPen and this is one of the best figure representations of him, in my opinion. The sculptor, Nakamura Manabu did a wonderful job in getting all the details from the original illustration spot on and evoking a warm feeling that while out of character for Rei is still a welcome change. There was just one problem: whoever designed Rei's outfit in the original illustration must have been color blind, because it was absolutely a hideous mixture of Salmon, Orange and Yellow. I decided straight away if I ever built this kit I would change that.
Last time I showed you some detail progress on my little Sandman/Death homage, Gisele. Today I'm going to get a little more into her "Death" persona.
I loved this kit when I first spotted it mostly due to its tiny size and complexity. 60 parts and just over 10 cm? Intriguing, and I just love a challenge. After sorting through what seemed an endless amount of cuffs, wings and eye pieces, I decided to pattern her a bit after how I dressed in high school and also the comic book character Death from the Sandman series by Neil Gaiman.
This Gisele kit has a lot of alternate parts to choose from. I decided to use the wings on her backpack as the original ones that were to be attached to her shoes, so I had an extra set. That got me thinking how the Sandman series would always have these great little creatures in the land of dreams. I went out in search for a little animal figure I could add wings to and fell in love with this baby panda vinyl toy. His original factory paint job was a bit rough and we have a bit of work to do to make him fit in, so let's get to it!
My latest project is a long and involved one. Using a base of the Pinky Gisele kit, I'm creating a little homage to the Neil Gaiman Sandman comic book series with a little Death goth girl cosplayer with a special friend inspired by some of the fantastical creatures from the land of dreams. I thought it might be a nice chance to give a view of my process on a few key details.
