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He looks fantastic.
I'm glad I had a chance to see my drawing come to life. My art is an action figure, how cool is that?


EDIT: My original post was worded poorly and caused an unneeded panic. Fixed to express what I actually meant.

Thanks, still working on his cape, but I should have the whole thing wrapped up by this weekend.

lol at the picture of the exacto knife and the little letter in the cup!
sigh

I always make 2 or 3 copies of things like the letter so if I skrew up, I have alternates.
I admire your courage to just go with one.


He's pretty danged adorable with the little magnets/precape 'look', too.

Lo, There Shall Come a Lard

Part 11: Whatever Happened to Paul Gambi?


So, I've gone as far as I can with plastic and clay, and now it's time for cloth. I wanted, as near as possible, to match the sheen from the original drawing so I bought some satiny-type fabric from the fabric store:



I got a half yard, because I wanted a bunch extra in case I screwed it up.

<span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text">Don't tell anyone... but I did, in fact, screw it up.

Several times.

What you are seeing here is actually my fourth attempt at making this.</span></span>

I searched the web for some sewing patterns for capes (I figured that there must be some people into making clothes for like doll-house people or something) and was very happy to find a great resource at the Mego Museum .

I used one of their cape patterns, but scaled down to the size I was working at, and cut across more straight on the bottom:



The folds you see above are just me accounting for the seams.


Next, a few things I used to get the specific thing I was going for:



The thing on the left is called, "Stitch Witchery". It's a finely spun glue-like substance that fuses fabric when ironed. I knew that this would be my best bet at this scale because, otherwise, my seams would be too evident.

In the front are some thin wires that I snipped out of an old, junked telephone. I wanted the cape to be able to be shaped to form, so, as you'll see, I included a piece of this wire in the bottom.


OK... on to the boring part:



1. I attached my pattern to the fabric on a fold and cut it out.
2. The fold actually fell on the "wrong" (non-shiny) side of the fabric, so I ironed back the other way.
3. I ironed out the guides for my seams (just on the sides, as I wanted some flexibility around the collar).
4. I trimmed the seams down as much as possible, and inserted the phone wire into the fold.
5. Placing the Stitch Witchery on the seam, I ironed it shut and...
6. Repeated that on the other side so I was left with just the top portion still open.


Still awake?

OK... then I reattached the little magnets from the previous part to guide me on how to trim the shoulders/neck portion of the cape:



Pretty neat how flexing the wire in the bottom allows me to stand it up on its own, huh?

So then I trimmed it down and repeated the fusing process on the top:



And then asked Lardy if he'd like to try it on for size:



But did he?!?!


Tune in this weekend for the exciting conclusion to the epic Lard Lad saga!

[is weirded out by how much that view of the iron resembles a vintage Legion spacecraft!]

Sometimes an iron is just an iron.

And now...


"Lo, There Shall Come a Lard"

Conclusion: And in the End... the Lard You Take, is Equal to the Lard You Make


When last we left Lard Lad, he was just about to try on his cape...

But, no!

Before I added the cape and started trying to get it into position correctly, I wanted to ensure that all the paint and the decal would stand up to all the handling that would take.

So the final step before assembly was to coat the figure with a lacquer spray to seal in all the colors:



This spray also takes off any of the excess shine from painting and makes it look a bit more matte (that's why you'll notice I took off his glasses for this - I didn't want to dull the reflective paint.

While that was drying, I also did my final bit of painting (the cape discs), then everything was all set.


Ready?

Now the money shot:



Ta-daa!

Obviously, it's not perfect, but for the first time out of the gate, I'm super-pleased with how it turned out.

In just under a month, he went from this... to this:




I've been reviewing all the little features as I went along, but by way of wrap up:

LMB Action Figure #1 - Lard Lad - comes with a removable cape:




...a removable headband and glasses:




...and one in ten comes with a special bonus pack-in, to start building your own Legion of Message Board Posters Super-Pets team:



... Lardy's old pal, and LMB Mascot, Pro-D.


Thanks everyone who followed along this process. It was super-fun (though very time consuming) and I will definitely be continuing on with more.

Though I will probably be taking a couple weeks break before starting the next one, the base figures are already on their way to provide me will the materials necessary to make figure #2... Dev-Em.

But, until then...



Thanks, and good night!

That is so freakin awesome!

<---speechless!

I'd say something meaningful but my jaw is on the floor....


Lardy is thrilled of course, but well, thats my sketch and you made it come to life.
I really don't have the words to express how I feel about this.

Very kewl!

Deds, if I've never said it directly to you before, I dearly love that depiction of Lardy and all of the personality you put into it. It's, simply, one of my favorite drawings of ANYTHING! Yes, I described the costume and Dean was the first to draw it in the original group pic, but you made Lardy come alive like never before in your drawing. Then, one day, our good friend Loser Lad added the masterful color pallet that really added a whole, new dimension to those great lines you'd originally put together.

I'm thrilled for you, Mark, to see a beautiful portrait you created so long ago come to life as a completely awesome action figure! And I'm so grateful to you, Dean, Bill and Tom for putting so much love and work into a character that has, in turn, helped inspire me to write stories that could be worthy of all that love. Thanks, also to Newc/Michael for another beloved pic of Lardy that currently graces my avatar pic here and to all the others like Joe-Boy, Peebz, etc. who have added their own depictions over the years.

I'm truly honored by you all and feel blessed that there's something about my character that can inspire so many great works of art! Thanks so very, very much to all of you from the bottom of my heart!

Wow, Ex, once again you've gone above and beyond to do something great!

:damn overachiever:

The figure looks just as good, if not better, than those you can actually buy. Even with that, the highlight for me was your running commentary and visuals of the project.

Outstanding buddy....just outstanding!

I'm so stoked that my character gets to be the second one in the new LMB Figure line by Exnihil

You really outdid yourself, Ex! Amazing work!

Thanks so much for all the kind words! You guys are the best!


As a preview of what's up next, here's the target image of Dev-Em to which I'll be working, along with figures I'll be using for the base:





The drawing is one that the ever-talented Sketch Lad did last year.

For the figures - although Lobot on the left has the perfect head for Dev, and a nice start for the "puffy armed" sleeves - that Captain Typho fellow on the right (apparently from the Phantom Menance, but I have zero recollection of him) has that tunic and overall build that is too good to pass up.

So, I'll be doing a little head and limb swapping. Although I'm guessing there will be much less sculpting required for this than there was for Lard Lad, I'm really looking forward to the paint work. There is so much detail in Sketchy's design that I think it will be a great challenge.

Should be a fun February!

"Dev of Two Worlds"

Part 1: When It's Time to Change, You've Got To Rearrange


So, all hepped up on how the first figure came out, I started trawling eBay to find some inexpensive figures to start chopping up to make LMB figure number 2, Dev-Em.

For those who don't know Dev's backstory, he is half Daxamite and half Durlan. Given this joint parentage, it seemed fitting that the construction of his action figure would involve combining bits from two different figures. As mentioned above, I had decided on using the torso and legs from a Phantom Menace character called Captain Typho, and the head and arms from the Empire Strikes Back character, Lobot.

The two arrived and seemed very enthusiastic about working together:




The Lobot figure had a couple features that I thought would make this project a little interesting. His little computer headband comes off, leaving a pretty good line to build up the head shape and the ears, and he had removable hands (perfect for a little Durlan shapeshifting customization):




I compared the two to the Lard Lad figure to ensure I wouldn't have any scale problems:



Typho is a bit taller, but nothing too jarring, and in fact, it sort of makes it more realistic to have a bit of height difference.


So, off to the kitchen to "boil and pop" off the heads and arms, and begin to get an idea of the base I'd be working from:




Hmmm... I have to admit, I was a little disappointed in the Lobot head.

Admittedly, he didn't yet have ears, so perhaps that was contributing to the overall look, but I found it a bit gaunt looking, and too elderly. I would be able to smooth out the wrinkes with clay but, even so, it just wasn't clicking for me.


Then, suddenly, as if to shake me out of my daze...



...a Stormtrooper showed up out of nowhere and blew future Dev's head off!


Why, Stormy? Why would you do such a thing?

"This is not the Dev you're looking for."

He's not? Well, fine then. Since you seem to have all the answers, where is this perfect Dev-Em head?

"You need look no further than..."




"...under this helmet!"


Well... I had to admit, he was right.

This particular Stormtrooper (apparently from some Dark Horse comic book) has a much more representative look for Dev and, apart from the ears, won't require any additional sculpting.

It has a different mount than the Typho body (the body is set up for a peg, while the Stormtrooper has a ball and socket) so I'll have to add that but, in the end, I think it will look much better.

Awesomesauce...Bwahahahahaha!!

Quite the sense of humor!


I was thinking that the sparse braids on Dev's avatar, a Giffen TMK version, is very interesting.
Just a thought.
You and Dev feel free to tell me to mind my own business.

Please, don't send a Stormtrooper over to blow my head off, though.

(mistake)

Shady, if any Stormtrooper ever dared to pull a blaster on you, I'd be the first one to lay down some force on them.


So, onward...


"Dev of Two Worlds"

Part 2: The Mirror Crack'd


When I was working on the Lard Lad figure, I mentioned that I was hesitant to crack open the torso, for fear of breaking it. Now that I've got one figure under my belt though, I'm a little more confident and decided to give it a go for two distinct reasons:



1. That lower half of the tunic will be way easier to work on if it's detached, and the only way to do that is by breaking open the torso.

2. More importantly, instead of trying to make my own ball and socket joint for the neck, I decided to just salvage the one from the Stormtrooper (since I already knew it was the perfect fit for the head).


Not wanting to accidentally bend a small screwdriver, I used a tool that came in a tire patching kit I bought years ago (and only ever used that one time, so at least it's getting some use) and cracked open both of the torsos:




Once I had that done, I used my dremel to both open up the neck hole bigger (with the grinding bit) and to cut off and taper the ball joint (with the sanding disc):




I then Super-glued the joint in place (making sure to not get any glue on the seams):



... because I still wanted to be able to separate the two halves for later steps:




Finally I made sure I could still take the head on and off without breaking the glue. Yep... the glue is stronger than the force necessary to remove the head. It looks pretty spiffy, too, with future Dev now granted a full range of motion:




...unless he... you know... actually wants to walk anywhere or something.

awesome stuff, Exxy!

Oooooohhhhhh...

Thanks, guys.

OK, this has nothing to do with the current figure I'm working on, but I'm all excited, so I thought I'd share.

After weeks of stalking ebay, I finally just scored this oddly scarce figure, who will wind up being the base for LMB figure #3...



Handsome devil, ain't he? Type of fellow one might build a statue or three of.

oh, great.... like his ego ain't big enough...