37 replies to this topic

[Reccoom Kaboom]

This is the first of the customizing figure challenges, focusing on articulation, and running thru January and February. With this being a joints and poseability challenge, the focus should be on showing stability, innovation, and aestetics of custom joints. It can be extreme closeups of single joints, or broad shots of the entire figure: your choice. After February, there will be a poll, to determine whose got the best joint(s) in town. The winner will get a merit badge-style patch, hand-painted by me. As with most all of the Fan Art Challenges, I intend to enter this as well.

Participation in this challenge (and the poll) will decide if there will be more Customs Challenges, so please enter.

[Ericnilla]

sounds awesome... but way too time consuming.

[Reccoom Kaboom]

a single joint is too much for 2 months?

[Ericnilla]

[dankingery]

maybe reiterate the fact that you've designed the challenges to be stages of a particular figure if the entrant so desires. this particular contest is all about articulation and really, the basis of the model. the next challenge is paint apps and so on. so really, if someone chose to, they could be spending the next 6 or so months working on a single figure. they'd just enter pictures of the figure in the various stages to meet the requirements of the contests. i think this is a way cool concept and i really hope our customer community takes a liking to this. this has the potential to be as cool as the fan art contests. all it takes is some hard work and dedication from our members here.

[Ghost Lion]

Wow I hope all the great customizers enter this one! I bet Articulationnut could just take a couple shots of what he has laying around his place and have a cool entry.

[musclemenkids]

Is this your entry? The Claw?

Man, that is seriously awesome, not only the joints but, shizznit that is a great paint job, i love what you have done with the mouth there you have serious talent

This is the first of the customizing figure challenges, focusing on articulation, and running thru January and February. With this being a joints and poseability challenge, the focus should be on showing stability, innovation, and aestetics of custom joints. It can be extreme closeups of single joints, or broad shots of the entire figure: your choice. After February, there will be a poll, to determine whose got the best joint(s) in town. The winner will get a merit badge-style patch, hand-painted by me. As with most all of the Fan Art Challenges, I intend to enter this as well.

Participation in this challenge (and the poll) will decide if there will be more Customs Challenges, so please enter.

[Reccoom Kaboom]

that's an old figure custom of mine, just as an example.

[Reccoom Kaboom]

here's my first entry: Mimic the Fast from Gormiti. The neck, shoulders, and knees are "doubled" ball joints, which is an airsoft pellet hollowed out for a ball pin joint, creating a joint within a joint. They seem to increase poseability, and hold poses well if constructed tightly. the figure is rounded out with swivel pins in the hips, and ball joints in the wrists, elbos, and waist. This might be the first Gormiti custom on these boards.

[dankingery]

you're like the macgyver of creativity reccoom. very cool. i think that was a great choice of figure too. seems like a unique pose no matter how you shape it. great work.

[Articulationnut]

Excellent work Reccoom

I like everything about this figure. The figure itself is unique , basically being an anthropomorphic flower man and it has a great mid torso . The "V-Taper" of the back makes it look heroic which is nutz as ...its a flower man lol. Youve made a Flower Man look formidable and like he might layeth the Smacketh.

That back pose is great...just fantastic. The aerodynamic head along with the yellow Air Soft pellet joints accent the body perfectly (no need for paint !). The pic of the figure hoisting a MUSCLE in the air is very cool as it shows off the Adonis like lines of the figure. If you would have used that same head with a thicker mid torso it wouldnt have worked as well.

I wasnt going to chime in until after the dead line but id hate for you to think it was being over looked. Id love to have a piece like that near my PC or on the shelf. Poseable statues FTW.

Edited by Articulationnut, 02 February 2009 - 06:17 PM.

[Ericnilla]

pretty sweet RK you gots some skills.

[SpyMagician]

I posted this over in the Gormiti section, and figured it made sense to enter it here!


(EDIT: I noticed that sometimes the images aren't showing up right, so here's a link the gallery:
http://picasaweb.goo...feat=directlink )


Okay,

So I've been a Gormiti nut for the last few months and finally got around to taking pics of the various custom articulated figures I've made.

Let's start will the fully articulated M.A.F. I made out of a US FE Steelback:



This one was a fair bit of work. I chose Steelback as he's my favorite Gormiti Character, and being molded in Black in the Final Evolution colors, that allowed me to use some Black Revoltech joints I had.

The joints are all either Revoltech or Hobby Base Double Ball Joints. I've used these extensively in my Gormiti customs and they work great for almost any PVC figure.

The Double ball allows a decent range of motion, while allowing you to hide the joint if you dremel out a decent socket for it. I don't actually use the plastic sockets for the double ball joints. Usually I just use the actual double ball (looks like a tiny dumbell) and dremel out sockets for them in the PVC pieces I want to attach. As long as you cut the parts carefully and smooth the areas where the joints meet, it make for a very nice firm seamless joint.

The Revoltech Joints are more visible, but if you can find a good color match they work really nice and are excellent firm, ratcheted joints. Just dremel a hole for the post and a shallow socket for the ball part of the joint and you're good to go. Usually a slightly smaller diameter hole than the Revoltech post is best as then you can heat the PVC and insert the post while soft, letting it conform to the post for a nice tight fit.

Here's a map of the articulation scheme on Steelback:



Basically it just involved a lot of careful cutting and dremel work. He breaks down into the following parts: Head, Torso, stomach/waist, upper arms, lower arms, thighs, lower legs.

Previous to making this complete M.A.F., I'd done a lot of partially articulated Gormiti.

Initially I was pleased with just shoulder articulation, a la Battle Beasts. To me 2 points at the shoulder is the minimum for making a small LRG type figure into a fun "action figure." Plus the double ball joints make for ball joint shoulders rather than simple swivels, which is nice.



Some figures however, really benefit from an additional point of articulation, so I have these done with 3 points, usually adding a neck or single elbow:



Next we have Rocciatauro (Bullrock), who due to having weapons really benefits from 4 points, in both shoulders and elbows. Using the double ball joints, the elbows don't get full range of motion, but rotate and have some lateral movement, which allows for decent poses while preserving the sculpt and sturdiness of the figure.



I did one 5 point figure of the Cartoon Series Steelback, adding a ball jointed neck to his shoulders and elbows, which works rather well for this figure:



Finally, I have some oddball figures, done using a mix of Revoltech joints and Double Ball Joints:



L'Antico Thorg was the most work, as he actually required 2 figures to get around the extreme pre-posing of the original (it's so off balance it actually has trouble standing). He ended up with Revoltech shoulders which allow full shoulder movement plus Double Ball Joint hips.

Stalactite, has a lot of poseability for a minimum of articulation points. Double Ball Joint shoulders and Hips plus Revoltech elbows make him pretty versatile.

Finally, The Severe Guardian has 3 Revoltech Joints, one in the neck, 2 in the shoulders. This one required adding a bit more black to the figure (kneecaps) to make the black shoulder joints look more natural. The nature of his wings make them look a bit odd detached from the torso, but it allows poses besides gliding, and the neck joint lets him look up, letting you get some decent flight poses.


Ultimately, the main issue I found with articulating small figures was function vs stability. I didn't want really delicate figures that would fall apart easily. But overall, the Double Ball Joints and Revoltech joints really did a good job of offering function while maintaining structural integrity... The clear Double Ball Joints were great too, as you could use them in the clear figures without them being too visible!

Spy

Edited by SpyMagician, 07 February 2009 - 07:05 PM.

[Articulationnut]

Spy Magician...for some reason i can only see your first 2 images (which are incredible btw). Id love to see the rest

[SpyMagician]

Spy Magician...for some reason i can only see your first 2 images (which are incredible btw). Id love to see the rest

Yeah, for some reason my picasa images seem to show up erratically on this board!

Here's a link to the gallery:

http://picasaweb.goo...feat=directlink

Spy

[dankingery]

those are very cool. steelback is the coolest. he's one of my faves too though, so i'm a little partial.

[Reccoom Kaboom]

Nice work, Spymagician! Not a fan of revoltech joints myself, as they're a bit too stubborn for frequent use. They look great on your Gormiti though, and for staying in pose they work fine.

Here's my 2 newest: Parthenon and Terryman from the g1 muscle line.
Parthenon sports 22 p.o.a. in a variety of single (ankles)and double (knees, hips, shoulders, elboes)ball joints, pivot joints (biceps), and hinge (wrists). He is two standard figures combined to make Parthenon properly proportioned to the manga/anime.
Terryman has double ball joints for waist and neck, single ball joints for wrists, elboes shoulders, hips, knees, and ankles, and poseable eyes. 20 joints in all.

Attached Files

•  parthenonVSterryman.jpg   1.56MB   6 downloads

Edited by Reccoom Kaboom, 08 February 2009 - 02:25 PM.

[Articulationnut]

Spy Magician your dedication is admired I dont know how long it took you to complete these figures but i know "burnout" happens to us all at some point so your completing this many is impressive and shows your are indeed a fan heh. When that customizing bug bites you though its hard to stop (speaking personally). I completely agree with you regarding 2 points at the shoulder being the bare minimum for a fun action figure. Universal joints at the shoulder allow so much more expression than just swivel IMO. Ball hip joints are a very close second and i wont buy a figure that doesnt have ball joints hips (if its articulated. LRG's are a different story).

You mentioned function vs. stability and thats been a motivating factor for me as well when making figures. I actually "play" with my figures in that i reposition them every so often , etc. Not much but enough for stability / sturdiness to be important lest the figures fall apart or lose a pose easily. My figures need t be able to survive a fall from heights (desk at least) and a toss against a wall. In a nutshell the figures need to be on par with store bought figures in their ability to hold a pose. A lot of joints at "LRG scale" just arent strong enough.

Im not extremely familiar with all of the Gormiti sculpts but its obvious some of these sculpts seem as though they were born to have articulation.
Steelback - His color scheme & bulk perfectly suit the black revoltech joints. Ive looked at those joints in the past (and variations of them on Starwars figures and microman fiugres) and they definitely have their uses for larger / thicker limbed figures as they are strong. Especially when they are supporting heavy forearms and lower legs. I still prefer Marvel Legends style joints a bit more in certain areas of the body.

Bullrock - You mentioned preserving the sculpt - great job there. I dont know how thick that figures arms are but i cant see the joint (elbow). Ill assume they are buried fairly deep in the arm cavity and thats a plus. Sacrificing a bit of ROM (range of motion) for sculpt integrity is sometimes worth it. Ive been cutting back on adding articulation to certain figures recently for that reason. Id much rather have more articulation than less heh....but sometimes the sculpt just doesnt allow it without reducing the aesthetic of the figure.

Lastly...your oddball figures are NICE! Specifically the L'Antico Thorg figure. Its a perfect fantasy creature that would fit in just about anywhere (especially if you repainted it in earth tones).

[Articulationnut]

Reccoom Kaboom!! That Terryman with its eyes popping out actually made me smile man. Seriously heh
Thats just a classic look for the figure and needs to be someones avatar lol. It helps that im also a fan of that muscle sculpt. Its a nice "medium build" torso and Terryman has that whole 80's Rambo / martial arts tough guy look going with the headband. Yep..definitely a fan of that figure sculpt. *EDIT* - I just noticed that your using a different torso for that Terryman than the one that was attached to that head. No wonder it looks so good lol.
The only thing that bothers me slightly about your Terryman is that a figure as nice looking as that needs less gaps in its sculpt. It breaks up the beautiful lines in my opinion.

Building the Parthenon to scale is impressive. I wanted to tackle the Parthenon down the road but i didnt start on him right away because i wasnt sure if i wanted to start down the "scale road". Making a figure like the Parthenon "regular" height would look good but wouldnt do that figure justice after seeing it in animated form. You definitely captured the scale well here.

I love the "Dear GOD!" look on Terry's face. I just have to mention it again


How tall is that Terryman (and the Parthenon for that matter)?

Edited by Articulationnut, 09 February 2009 - 06:06 AM.

[SpyMagician]

Articulationnut:

THANKS MAN!

Some great feedback there. I'm totally in synch with you on the stability vs. range of motion issue.

I've got a few new Gormiti MAF so expect pics soon!

One of the more interesting ones is another Steelback (US Series 1) using only double ball joints, no Revoltech. While it loses some in r.o.m, it gains ins stability and look as the joints are all much better hidden.

Spy

[Reccoom Kaboom]

Articulationnut:

THANKS MAN!

Some great feedback there. I'm totally in synch with you on the stability vs. range of motion issue.

I've got a few new Gormiti MAF so expect pics soon!

One of the more interesting ones is another Steelback (US Series 1) using only double ball joints, no Revoltech. While it loses some in r.o.m, it gains ins stability and look as the joints are all much better hidden.

Spy

That's great. Always looking for new ways to do customs, and the revoltech joint piracy technique was new to me before you showed yer stuff. very clean look, and seems like they were manufactured that way by your pics (so kudos on the photography as well. A skill not appreciated enough on these boards if you ask me). the diagrams are also a nice touch.
Which figures are you entering, and will there be some range of motion pics?

[Blitzwulf]

Hi all! It's been awhile since I've posted over here, but this challenge I couldn't resist. After looking at the fantastic work of Recoom Kaboom, and Spy Magician, I just had to try to articulate a figure, and it looks like I barely made it! Now that Gormiti have hit the US, I have been insatiably grabbing them, although I had purchased a set from the test market batch last summer. I can no longer resist them, they are great figures, with loads of darth potential! So this is my first attempt at articulating/ customizing a Gormiti figure. I call it Steelbat, a Gormiti/ BB hybrid. I used the joints I had readily available, which are a mix of zoids blox, and Gundam action figure ball joints (around 3mm). The parts I jointed were the neck, torso, hips, knees, and feet. I'm still contemplating doing the arms, but I'm not sure that I want to change the upper body too much, the sculpt is pretty amazing as is. The Revoltech joints that Spy Magician used looked to be key, they are very cleanly done as well! I think I'll be looking for some of those in the future. Thanks for the insight all of you guys have given me already, it's really appreciated! Comments, and suggestions are welcome!

Edited by Blitzwulf, 27 February 2009 - 05:46 PM.

[meatcutta78]

All of the entries kick major ass!!!!,You guys really put in some time with these bad boys.

[dankingery]

Comments, and suggestions are welcome!

comments: bad ass! don't change a thing. i love it.

suggestions: drink milk, it does a body good.

Edited by dankingery, 27 February 2009 - 06:44 PM.

[Articulationnut]

Blitzwulf,

I think you may have created a few board members dream hybrid !

The Battle Beast bat head is definitely fitting for that body. Its an idea of what a new BB line might look like (even if it had no articulation).