A Superman customisers plea for help and a story of frustration...

[rebelpig]

Been customising for many years now, sculpted heads, reworked. repiants, made clothes from scratch, patterns and all. In fact most of the things i've made i've had a fair amount of success with and been quite happy withe result. Theres not a lot I've started that has fallen by the wayside.

But one thing lately has me beaten, completetly, frustrated as hell.......
When I saw the Mattel Zod figure, I placed an order and am currently reworking the figure, that projest is going great. But then I thought it would be a good idea to have a Chris Reeve Superman to accompany it. (I didn't like the look of Mattel's prototype)
It started great I'm working with Sunhoc's reeve sculpts which I love. It'll be going on a truetype. I've finished the boots as accurately as I can. I've managed to produce a scale fabric chest insignia & one for the cape too. The yellow belt is done and ready to fit. Everything was coming together nicely....then I started work on the bodysuit. And that's where it all went wrong.
I was using a Triad blue bodysuit, but I had to correct the neckline, I was careful, used tiny stitching but it started to fray and run. I was trying to make the shorts but after 4 attempts they still look awful. The cape, despite days of research and drawing patterns will just not come out right.
I've seen some amazing customs around and they all looked as if they were something I could get close to, how wrong I was. I've never, so far had a project get out of hand so much, infact I'm thinking of binning what I've done and selling the complted parts off, I feel that bad about it.
SO- now comes the plea for help, does anyone know of anyone who could make the suit for me or where I could get one thats good enough ?
I'll be so grateful for any help I can get. Don't let this on beat me guys!
Many thanks guys for just reading this, I just had to get it off my chest.

P.S. I now know if I'd been a little less hasty in starting this I'd now just be waiting for the Hot Toys Reeve. But how many times have we started projects just to find out that a companies gonna make one soon. I have been wanting/waiting to get my hands on a Reeve Superman of a great quality, probrably since I saw Supes at the Odeon Leicester Square with my Dad when I was 10yrs old. The year it came out.

 

[katkuru]

You can try to contact Les Walker, he has done an awesome Reeve Supes. He'll get you going in the right direction.

 

[Tekkaman Blade]

You can wait for the Mattel version for the costume. It's pretty accurate. For Mine I cannabalized a barbie superman and an old Kenner 1/6 superman. Between the two it made a decent costume. But I'm probably buying the mattel version for that costume and the crystal base.

Sadly I will probably end up buying the Hot toys superman myself, it will depend on the sculpt. Sunhoc did an excellent jop, but if they capture a version with that classic Reeves grin, I'm definately getting it.

 

[dragonsleeper]

16k made a tutorial..use the search function to find it or pm the man, he is brilliant and a supes nut..

 

[martin-el]

I know exactly what you mean -
For something that looks so simplistic the Superman Movie costume is a difficult beast to acheive in this scale. There may be plenty of Superman figures available but not one to date has anything close to the cut, style or most importantly colour as the one in the Movies.
Its taken me a good fifteen years to seek out and settle on the Kris Meadows custom as IMHO the costume is unparalelled.

I think you are wasting your time trying to cobble together a costume from different sources and agree that the Mattel one is crying out for a decent body to be shoved into it and looks pretty accurate too. You may end up changing out the cape but that will be short work.
And as we've been starved of any Superman Movie lines for decades, I must say that, having recieved the General Zod only days ago its a cracking presentation and at least fills the gap the Mego dolls of the time could not.
Oh! And roll on Hot Toys!!

 

[Tekkaman Blade]

You can see pics of my superman in the Zod fixing thread I posed a while back.

 

[rebelpig]

Thanks guys, have managed to sort out some issues. I've copied the bodysuit and resolved the neckline issues. I have a plan for the shorts and cape, just hope it works, but I'm gonna be VERY persistant with this.
I've also partially resculpted the truetype I'm using, and made a real modification of the Sunhoc head. will post some pics soon to show the progress. Many thanks to all those above for the encouragement and pointers!

 

[Reinhardt]

Martin, that Superman is fantastic! Love the styrofoam fortress as well!

 

[rebelpig]

All glithches worked out now, should have something to show by the end of next week. Will post as soon as I have pics.