El Skutto
Super Freak
So I've decided to modify the Toybiz 1:6 scale Witchking Ringwraith figure in order to fill the biggest gap in the entire SSC LOTR 1:6 line - to finally have a villain. I am by no means skilled in modifying or customizing figures, so this thread will be primarily to track my progress (or lack thereof), and give a forum for more experienced customizers to chime in with helpful advice or criticisms.
To begin with, here's the Witchking figure out of package. You'll notice that as far as his outfit goes, it's not too shabby. They went a little overboard on the slime/weathering effect on the bottom and inside edges of his cloak, but it's still serviceable. The most glaring problems with the figure are the solid plastic hood, which clashes pretty strongly with the cloth outfit, and that annoying little plug you see inside the hood, where his neck would be.
First step, remove his cloak and separate the hood from the body. Getting rid of that plug was pretty easy, I just slid a flat X-Acto blade under the edge of the plug and gave the handle a couple of whacks with a hammer. That's the remnant of the plug next to the cloak.
Here's the figure, sans cloak and hood. I can't really remove his undergarment due to his forearm armour, and I don't want to risk removing the hands without knowing for sure that I'll be able to put them back in again. Same goes for his velvet pants (no joke). The front and back pieces of armour are glued to the material, so the only way to remove the pants would be to remove the feet.
So now I have this heavy plastic hood with an thick bottom ledge on the inside, and an indentation on the bottom. The indentation fits over the neck stump, but seems to sit just a little too high on his shoulders, so I'm thinking of cutting out the bottom of the hood so that the whole thing just rests on his shoulders, instead of on his neck. I'd lose the neck articulation, but since that was limited to right/left movement only, and severly restricted by the hood's front strips of "material", it's no great loss. I'm welcome to other suggestions.
Right now, I'm entertaining a couple of ideas for the hood. The first is to cover the entire thing, inside and out, in rubber cement, and then applying a layer of thin black material to better match up with the outfit. Second, I'm thinking of cutting off those plastic strips at the front of his hood and just letting the material hang there instead. But then maybe it'd be a good idea to keep the neck articulation after all. Thoughts?
To begin with, here's the Witchking figure out of package. You'll notice that as far as his outfit goes, it's not too shabby. They went a little overboard on the slime/weathering effect on the bottom and inside edges of his cloak, but it's still serviceable. The most glaring problems with the figure are the solid plastic hood, which clashes pretty strongly with the cloth outfit, and that annoying little plug you see inside the hood, where his neck would be.
First step, remove his cloak and separate the hood from the body. Getting rid of that plug was pretty easy, I just slid a flat X-Acto blade under the edge of the plug and gave the handle a couple of whacks with a hammer. That's the remnant of the plug next to the cloak.
Here's the figure, sans cloak and hood. I can't really remove his undergarment due to his forearm armour, and I don't want to risk removing the hands without knowing for sure that I'll be able to put them back in again. Same goes for his velvet pants (no joke). The front and back pieces of armour are glued to the material, so the only way to remove the pants would be to remove the feet.
So now I have this heavy plastic hood with an thick bottom ledge on the inside, and an indentation on the bottom. The indentation fits over the neck stump, but seems to sit just a little too high on his shoulders, so I'm thinking of cutting out the bottom of the hood so that the whole thing just rests on his shoulders, instead of on his neck. I'd lose the neck articulation, but since that was limited to right/left movement only, and severly restricted by the hood's front strips of "material", it's no great loss. I'm welcome to other suggestions.
Right now, I'm entertaining a couple of ideas for the hood. The first is to cover the entire thing, inside and out, in rubber cement, and then applying a layer of thin black material to better match up with the outfit. Second, I'm thinking of cutting off those plastic strips at the front of his hood and just letting the material hang there instead. But then maybe it'd be a good idea to keep the neck articulation after all. Thoughts?