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Thread
: Figures
HHFF's Cobra Shelf
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09-27-2021, 03:01 AM
HissHissFangFan
Iron Grenadier
Join Date: Feb 2017
Location: Kansas
Posts: 981
NOTE: flickr bots may be restricting photos due to all the "exposed skin". Let me know if the photos aren't showing.
DR MINDBENDER [2021 UPDATE]
Flickr Album:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/134079...h/51516654070/
20210925_025811
by
HissHissFangFang
, on Flickr
Parts:
• Head: 2015 CC Membership Arctic Dr Mindbender
• Torso and arms: 2011 Gnaw Hyde
• Upper Legs: 2007 25th Cobra Trooper
• Lower Legs: 2008 25th Cobra Viper
• Cape: 2002 JVC Dr Mindbender + Marvel U Sentry
• Gauntlets: Boss Fight Studios
• Hands: Joy Toy
• Webgear and Wand: 2009 DOCI Dr Mindbender
Paints:
• Pants and Gauntlets: Citadel Screamer Pink + Citadel Naggaroth Night [purple]
• Silver parts: Tamiya Chrome Silver
• Flesh: blended Testors Skin Tone Warm + Testors Skin Tone Light [both discontinued]
Notes:
While by no means a favorite of mine, Mindbender rounds out my top 13 Cobras, has a nice role as an upper-level CC lackey, and visually blends the group with his purple—which is subdued for him individually by the black cape and boots. But I’d also say this guy and the rest of 1986 Cobra agents (distinct characters) drew the line for me as things really started to get outlandish for the toy line.
PhotoGrid_Plus_1632560427697
by
HissHissFangFang
, on Flickr
The biggest thing I’ve been wanting to do for many years is find a better cape for the good doctor. For one, I hate cloth capes on 1/18 figures (and most but not all 1/12 figures as well). At these smaller scales, they just don’t have the weight and drape needed to match the detail and sculpt of a plastic cape. Other thing is that Hasbro went with that silly 1978 Star Wars robe//cape//neither style. That style shouldn’t have been used 8 years later, much less 31 years later in a line meant to use update figure techniques.
More about the cape later with picture comparisons. The BFS Gauntlets were a last-minute addition—ordered last weekend and coming in earlier this week and earlier than I expected. I tried painting the ROC Duke/Ripcord hands I had been using previously, but they didn’t look good. I had seen these gauntlets used well by kuh_rupht and AF80sFan, but those guys used beefier BFS arms. I wanted defined but not beefy arms and thought the gauntlets would look oversized on the skinny GnawHyde arms I favor. I really wasn’t expecting to end use them at this time, burns out they fit well (not loose or tight), and look great. They really break up all the black—but required me to retake all my photos taken last weekend and early this week.
2021-09-26_12-01-06
by
HissHissFangFang
, on Flickr
Above includes the original 25th Mindbender figure found loose without webgear and cloak from Asian ebay seller years ago. Also, on the far right is the “custom” Mindbender I was going to use for my shelf back in 2008-2009. Back then, I had no plans to by the DOCI 7-pack because I only needed one figure. I ended up getting lucky in 2009 because JoeCon was in town, and was able to get him loose. Also for that old custom, I only had familiarity with Testors Acrylics bought from Hobby Lobby, and that metallic purple seemed to be my only option for that color. What a difference 10+ years makes…
My previous 2017 iteration of Mindbender was solely based on the 25th figure/build and updating its parts for similar but better sculpted pieces. It was only a few years ago that I finally pulled out the original figure and saw the discrepancies of the 25th that I was carrying over to my previous custom. For this iteration, I wanted to correct some of those discrepancies, like the gauntlets, the knee-high boots and thigh gear. The cod piece will have to wait for a future iteration—if at all. I’m not a fan of bringing that detail over (also see Scrap-Iron, maybe others).
2021-09-25_12-43-38
by
HissHissFangFang
, on Flickr
The main thing I wanted updated on Dr Mindbender was the cloak/cape, and would swore to myself not to post any update until that was figured out without reservation. For the last few years I’ve been searching this site and JoeCustoms.com and studying previous work by others. For me, the most promising seem to be using the JVC Mindbender cape (used way way back by Bad Sociologist and Mercer2), with its swooping sides and nice Cobra medallions. I had the loose figure but wanted to wait to experiment on an extra. Once I got the extra (maybe a year ago), it had major fit up problems unmodified, and would spend weekends trying to modify it to work.
The top curves were cut down to be less pointed and exaggerated—that was the easy correction. The main problem with the whole cape is that it was sculpted so flat and didn’t curve around and over the shoulders of my figure correctly (front part and medallions sat too far back on the shoulders. More work was done to mate cape to figure, carving out the back side of the cape as wells as the backside of the figure and webgear. I reached a point that I thought was the best it could be, and almost called it completed.
2021-09-25_12-06-10
by
HissHissFangFang
, on Flickr
The picture above was taken just this week (with the updated gauntlets), but with last year’s modified JVC cape—I never took a picture back when it was completed. After days of looking over when it was done, I wasn’t happy with it. The asymmetric size was a little annoying, but I was more bothered by the overall shortness of the cape. In my mind, I wanted a bigger cape with more volume. I really believed I was just one step away from what I wanted, and chose to shelf this guy in favor of doing other stuff/figures over last year or so. However I did mark this be finished before Nov 2021, four years after publishing my first version.
I figured the cape would have to come from the Marvel U line, but I never had good hands-on access to that catalog and the styles available, or never really remembered to study them at B+M stores I’d frequent. A few months ago, a B+M toy store opened very close to me, and had some MU figures. I’d been studying stuff they had over that two months—never found anything there, but it got me a in a mindset to check once I went back to St Louis earlier this month. There, I found a few possible candidates loose and cheap. They also had a JVC figure loose, so that I could compare the capes, verify the widths matched, and visually see that combining them was possible. With a third spare JVC cape and two good candidates for the bulk of the cape, I felt was ready to finish this one out.
20210925_033830
by
HissHissFangFang
, on Flickr
Above is a view of the back along with the unmodified cape. The Sentry cape was cut at very top of the shoulders and temporary tack glued to MB’s webgear. The Sentry cape was then carved at the top surface, while the JVC cape’s top was cut and shaped to fit on top of the Sentry cape while being corrected to look good from the front view.
The JVC cape top was then glued hard to the Sentry cape, and the cape assembly removed from the webger and body. Aves sculpt was used to fill in the gaps and transitions (didn’t spend too much time with the detailing since it was in the back). Then the whole cape assembly was painted Tamiya Flat Black (look close, and you can see paint touchup and cleanup needed in the back—later).
PhotoGrid_Plus_1632559803768
by
HissHissFangFang
, on Flickr
Above is a side comparison of last year’s version and this year’s version (again excluding the gauntlets). The final cape is actually loose on the figure, in case for some reason I want to switch out the capes (I’m still not settled on it final fit and cape may be big for tight group pics). Near the end, I decided to add the front chain to complete the look. It’s not found on many old visuals (cartoon, card art, comic art), but Hasbro actually snuck it in on the reproduced card art for his 2009 release--maybe they were also working on a similar updated cape? For me, I felt something across the front was needed to complete the voluminous cape visual.
For the chain, a third of a link was chopped and its remainder was forked into the bottom of the cape’s medallions. The cape assembly could probably rest better on the webgear if the chain was forked into the sides of the medallions (something I though of just yesterday when studying the pics), but the chain might end up too close up to the neck. Unless I left it long and let it droop? Maybe for another round or for the final 13 group pic—I keep getting these last-minute ideas which keep delaying my work, and I think this iteration is good enough to go.
PhotoGrid_Plus_1632588614330
by
HissHissFangFang
, on Flickr
2021, 1986 and 2009 (from generalsjoes.com), 2017.
It took a while for me to get here with this guy. Really over the last year and a half I’d work on him but never really got in the groove with him like all the figures I’ve shown during that same time period [The same is true for some 1987 Joes and my Joe T13]. I’m really glad to get this one to this point, as I really have been itching to update by Cobra top 13 figure display photo. That should be coming in the next few months—I want to try out the FSS on the Crimson twins, and I want to spend time making the group photo being the best it can, and maybe outdo its previous iteration.
PhotoGrid_Plus_1632566111240
by
HissHissFangFang
, on Flickr
Original photo, Samsung S9//final Lightroom processed//
deep-fried with Google pictures app//”sanded down” back in Lightroom
2021-09-26_12-05-14
by
HissHissFangFang
, on Flickr
Bonus flashback: Cobra Top 13 by HHFF 2010. DMB just might have been my second painted custom, after Rock’n’Roll, but can’t confirm…
20210925_025811~2 (1)
by
HissHissFangFang
, on Flickr
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GI JOE:
T13
O13//1982
1983-?
| COBRA:
O13//1982
1983
1984
1985-?
Last edited by HissHissFangFan; 11-02-2021 at
12:29 AM
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