Customizers: Brag/Nag/Lag Thread

Mandingo Rex

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So one thing I was thinking about... Every customizer has his strengths and weaknesses. You know there's that one thing you do that you're super proud of, but there's also that thing that you hope nobody notices about your customs, and you really need to work on still, or something that you're afraid to attempt.

I think it's good to be able to be proud of your work, but also toss a critical eye to the work, because there's always room for improvement.

I'll start...

My Brag:
I've gotten pretty damn good at painting friggin' eyes on 1:18 figures. I used to avoid it like the plague, and my early attempts were awful. I've gotten to the point now that I have to correct Hasbro's paint jobs sometimes.

My Nag:
Flesh tones on faces! I cannot for the life of me get "white" flesh to match and go on thinly. It always comes out a tad thick, no matter how thick or thinly I apply layers. The color matching always looks decent, and I can get the hairline, facial hair, eyebrows and eyes pretty good, but dammit if I can't get the facial flesh tone to not be so thick that it starts to mask (literally) the detail in the sculpts.

My Lag:
Originally, it was popping torsos. Now that I've mastered that (okay, so I still waste a few torsos every once in awhile with too much pressure) my biggest "lag" is sculpting with Greenstuff, and dying with RIT dye. I'm scared to death to start with the RIT (partially due to my girlfriend probably killing me if I tried) but I at least bought some Greenstuff... nearly a year ago! One of these days... sigh.
 

G.I.*EDDIE

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i'll have to get back to this at work (if the comp at work actually works today)

it'll give me time to ponder this...
 

K-Tiger

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Brag: I do a pretty mean paint job, especially considering i scoff at the use of using 3-4 dollar-a-bottle paints. I'm pretty pimp with slings, now. Most guys are impressed with a length of plastic twine and big ass rings, but i think my sling-fu is stronger.

Nag: My sculpt-fu is non-existent. I blame this on my unwillingness to order any product. I'm a cheap ass, and if i can't find it in stores i don't want to deal with it. I never really picked up sculpting, even in high school art classes where i had access to clay and tools. I do believe Hobby Lobby has Miliput, so i may buy some and learn the Sculpt-fu.

Lag. Umm, my Custom-fu is often hurt by my lack of parts. Unlike most customizers i don't run a huge surplus of parts to work with. Again, cheap-ass.


There's really nothing to fear when dyeing, MR. Just pop into a dollar/thrift store or garage sale and get a used sauce pot, so you don't mess up the old lady's. Also, have paitience, keep the heat low to prevent part warpage and boil-over, as it WILL boil and i'd hate to think what might have happened if i hadn't been doing it on a ceramic top range. Stains, and worlds of hurt.
 
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Dropshipbob

Turtlenap, Hanger Alpha
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I too don't like blowing my own horn, with that said, I will say I have plenty of room for improvement.

Brag: Sculpting hair. I know, it's just hair, whoop-de-do, but it can certainly turn a character that only "sorta" looks accurate into one that looks "pretty accurate".

Nag: sculpting folds and wrinkles in clothes. No matter ho wmany times I've tried sculpting these, I just CAN NOT get it right. It's so bad that I think it's actually distracting. I would also say painting, which can sometimes be messy, but I seem to have a slight tremor when I'm doing the really tiny details...so I'm not sure that's within my control.

Lag: Just cleanliness and tightness in the overall construction and paint on my figures. When I make a custom, I am generally doing it for me...not for resale (might explain why I can't seem to sell any), so I don't usually worry about the little things. (Also, see nag)
 

K-Tiger

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I think sculpting hair is a pretty big achievement. I've got a couple of female heads that i wish i could have did a bangin' hair sculpt on.
 

Mandingo Rex

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Dropshipbob, I'm right there with you on the "I make customs for me" thing... I just don't really have time to do it to sell them, but I'd love to help folks out if I had the time.

I need to try my hand at sculpting. I would probably be decent with it, but I need to get some more tools and get over my initial fear of it. The last time I sculpted anything with clay or a similar modeling material was way back in high school. I dabbled a little in sculpting in college, but that was working with industrial models, not exactly clay-like figurine type stuff.
 

G.I.*EDDIE

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Brag: i can't really say i'm particularly a pro at any one thing...what i am proud of is my ability and willingness to try, and be decent at most aspects of customising...be it painting, sculpting, grafting, fabricating...whatever...show me how and i'll give it a shot...

Nag: eyes...i hate them...not sure if i have parkinsons or what, but it takes me soooo many times to get it right...its funny, cause my painting on everything else is pretty good, even small details, but not eyes...really though, i think it stems from a bigger nag which is my impatience...which leads to my lag

Lag: procrastinating...ohhhh how i procrastinate...i start a project then get impatient waiting for something to dry, or waiting for the part, or whatever...i lose interest and move on, then i dread going back...i've got so many half finished projects its silly...if i was to nail it down to something specific though, i'd have to also say dyeing...just havent gotten around to it...

Drag: although i'm pretty good at it, i HATE painting...i dread doing it...its so messy, theres so much to clean up, lots of waiting (see nag)...especially paint matching...i can do it, but by the time i've got the color perfectly matched, i've got a vat of a color i'm likely to never use again...
 

Mandingo Rex

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To be honest, Eddie's the first member at HissTank that I contacted about making a custom. I asked CobraCollector who made his Sarge for him, then I contacted that guy... Who was Eddie. Turns out, I made my own but from there things sorta snowballed and turned into where I am today, with a few dozen customs littering my shelf. I will say, he's pretty solid across the board when it comes to customs, and one of the customizers who got me into this. *gawly shucks*

I hate painting as well, but mostly joints. I still can't for the life of me figure out how folks (who swear by it, no less) can sand down a joint and get no paint wear. I just can't do it, so I avoid it.

And while I don't exactly "play" with my customs, I don't want paint flaking off them the second I move them, which is why I try to keep my customs as paint-free as possible. I will spend extra money on source parts to get base plastic that is as close to the right color as possible, so I have an extra amount of fodder. Most of the time though, I end up making some fodder figure out of it, so it ends up okay... But I've got at least a few gallon bags of parts that I'll one day probably sell off just to get rid of them.
 
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G.I.*EDDIE

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Mandingo Rex said:
...I don't want paint flaking off them the second I move them, which is why I try to keep my customs as paint-free as possible. I will spend extra money on source parts to get base plastic that is as close to the right color as possible, so I have an extra amount of fodder. Most of the time though, I end up making some fodder figure out of it, so it ends up okay... But I've got at least a few gallon bags of parts that I'll one day probably sell off just to get rid of them.

lol...me sentiments EXACTLY...i hate painted joints for the sole reason that once the figure is posed, i wont move him due to joint flaking...and any figures that the only to do them was paint the joints, i now hate...

and i remember when you came on the scene over there simply because you felt the same way about figure accuracy as i did...
 

malcadon

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My Brag:
I'm a great artist, and years of painting miniatures really pays off! I'm also good at painting micro details. If possible, I could "MacGyver" a solution to a tricky problem.

My Nag:
Most figures are a bitch to work with: trying to remove parts without braking them; a lack of uniformity and compatibility with different sculpts; some poorly conceived designs. Hasbro figures are too fucking expensive, while not always offering you moneys worth!

My Lag:
I'm a lazy fuck, and major projects (like extensive re-sculpts, and painting vehicles or a large number of troops) tend to ether go half-finished, or never started. I hate having to MacGyver shit together, as they tend to look shitty! The price of figures means that I dont have the luxury to have many spare figures to custom with, nor have enough figures to "army-build" with (I dont really build whole squads, but I like to have one for each color scheme).
 

Mandingo Rex

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I wonder how many guys on here are artists? I'm not talking the snobbish "I'm an artiste" types, but seriously have some artistic talent besides doodling paint onto little plastic men? I'd bet that there are more than people realize.

I went to art (technically design, but it was for graphic design which is essentially applied fine art) school, and I gather that there are several people on here who also have some sorta artistic talent too. Whether they doodled or whatever, there are different degrees. That definitely gives me an edge doing this sorta stuff, but even folks who are casual artists can go a long way in customizing figures...
 

K-Tiger

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I really can't make paint do what i want on canvas, like i do on figures. I can draw when i'm in the right "spot", but i go months on end without being in the right frame of mind. I hate when i can't make a pencil do what i want.


I'm a mediocre artist that doesn't have the sheer will or magnetism to start a political partei.


I had been playing with the idea of doing a sketch thread, but didn't think anyone would participate.
 
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G.I.*EDDIE

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i've always been artistic my whole life...and like with this new aspect of artisic expression (customising toys), i've always dabbled in everything...at one point in my life i wanted to be an architect, a CAD designer an animator...things that got brushed aside for real life issues...

even when i was little i was drawing dios, and scenes, painting figures, sculpting or creating parts/weapons out of whatever i could find...my dad was/is a carpenter as his hobby and had a wood shop so i got a lot of use out of that...came in real handy for school projects...
 

SR_501

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I went to and finished Art school, Meet my Girlfriend there she actually has a Job in the field. *grumble about how I can't find one* I would like to think it does help in some ways . I did at one point paint miniatures too. Every know again I still pick up the pencil and paper...
 

Mandingo Rex

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I really can't make paint do what i want on canvas, like i do on figures. I can draw when i'm in the right "spot", but i go months on end without being in the right frame of mind. I hate when i can't make a pencil do what i want.


I'm a mediocre artist that doesn't have the sheer will or magnetism to start a political partei.


I had been playing with the idea of doing a sketch thread, but didn't think anyone would participate.

I used to sketch and draw a ton in high school, but I don't much at all anymore. I was huge into comics then, and wanted to get into comics. Then I realized that would take a lot more learning and practice with drawing anatomy, etc... Then I thought about getting into architecture, like Eddie. From there, I realized that I didn't want to die by the time I was 45 from overworking/stress, so I opted for "graphic design" which was as close to applied comic book "graphic art" as I could get and make a guaranteed living with it. So at the last minute, I changed majors from Architecture to Graphic Design and here I am today. Part of me wishes I'd gotten into industrial design, but most of my friends who went that route had aspirations of working in film or video game design or designing cars, robots, spaceships or motorcycles, while most of them design iPod cases or baby strollers now. Not quite what the brochure leads you to think...

Still, it beats being a starving artist and going into simply "art" like some friends did. They're mostly working at coffee shops or started mediocre bands, or the like.
 

K-Tiger

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Hey, McFarlane and Liefeld ignored proper anatomy for years, and see where they are now!

Art is highly subjective. Look at Picasso.
 

G.I.*EDDIE

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Then I thought about getting into architecture, like Eddie. From there, I realized that I didn't want to die by the time I was 45 from overworking/stress...

the amount of time you have to spend in school detered me from that career path..though i was always an honour roll student, i LOATHED school...correction, i LOATHED waking up early...and having to pay someone on top of it, then getting homework...yeah, i waited 18 years to be done with that garbage, and i wasnt going back...
 

Mandingo Rex

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Same boat. Same boat. I actually graduated valedictorian of my high school, but I hated school. Hated it. Always felt like my teachers were a bunch of halfwits (most of them were) and I was wasting most of my time. Public education is awful. In college, I learned a lot more, but still hated college, considering that I was paying to learn to do the job that I would one day get paid to do. Honestly, I was working 30 hours a week, almost full-time, my entire senior year of college, and all I wanted was the damn degree so I could quit paying and get paid back.

My friends who were in architecture, I'd say half of them never became licensed architects or got their 5th year degree to become AIA certified... One of my closer friends who did, just got licensed, and he's 30. THIRTY. And he was working basically full-time since college.

No thank you.
 

Dropshipbob

Turtlenap, Hanger Alpha
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Man, I'm seeing much the same stuff that I went through.

I had about three paragraphs typed out, but I think it would only bore you all.
 

Big Jim

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I dont really like writing so I tend to keep it brief, on here I read almost everything. Some threads I skip but if I open a thread I read it all they way through. On other sites I only read certain peoples posts or certain threads. Sometimes I just look at the purty piktures
 

Rick

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Brag: I'm proud of the realistic dios and figures I create.

NAG: Just about everything like sculptng, painting vehicles and other common techniqes. I have alot of learning to do

Lag: Can't figure difference from Nag.
 

Mandingo Rex

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Lag: Can't figure difference from Nag.

Well there's the N and L difference!

I guess it was Nag="I do this but I suck at it or need improvement" and Lag="I am afraid to even attempt this"

Eddie added "Drag" because he wants to be a woman on Friday nights, and some holidays.
 

Dropshipbob

Turtlenap, Hanger Alpha
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Welll....all right, but procede with caution.

I've been artistic my whole life. When I was little up till I graduated I was always drawing. I also painted a few game minis and 1/72 scale models, a few airplanes, a few sci-fi models.
I thought I wanted to design robots and the like, but as I grew older a learning disability reared it's ugly head, my math skills absolutely sucked and my father made it clear that unless my math improved, that wasn't going to happen (thanks "Dad"!:mad:) In Jr. high and Sr. high I thought about being either a conceptual designer or a comic book artist. When I was in high school, I went on a busines trip with my father to Colorado. We happened to find this...I dunno what to call it, an art commune? It wasn't a bunch of hippies, these were actual artists that worked in this building in seperate studios, sold their work and helped others do the same. It was opened to the public, so you could walk in and chat with whoever.
My dad took it upon himself to tto ask one of the artists what his son, with the LD could expect in reguards to conceptual art, which she said I would basically starve.
I then also found out that getting into the comic field was pretty difficult even when you're a kick ass artist...which I knew I wasn't, and I couldn't get to thrilled about doing what it would take to build up my portfolio. I had also taken the graphic arts course at the vocational technical school while in H.S., but I couldn't see myself doing any of that for a job, and me and the teacher didn't get along to well, which assured me I probably wouldn't get a job locally if I used him/his class as a reference. I think part of my problem also was that once I made it known I had no interest in college, people pretty well wrote me off.

So I graduated from H.S. with no ambitions or prospects, tried to get a job as a graphic designer at several places only to either be turned away, or offered a job doing something completely different..delivering newspapers, pulling printed product off the line and folding/boxing it.
I wasn't drawing much anymore at this point but was still building models and "making stuff".

After more than a few years and a few dead end jobs, a friend convinced me to go to college. I signed up for the graphic arts program (because like Mandingo, I thought it was the only field I could actually get work in) but after four years and a few failed courses, I decided I had enough. I have a very dim view of college now and what they offer/how they go about things. I was also tired of having to put my life on hold, I was newly married and wanted to get about living. I was able to get into the G.D. field and all the jobs I've had so far have been related to that field.
 

Dropshipbob

Turtlenap, Hanger Alpha
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Well, I did say I got into the graphic design field. I currently have a pretty good job working for a billboard company...although I spend more time on the internet than doing work (because it's pretty slow around here).
 

Mandingo Rex

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Wait, so not to be mean, but what sorta learning disability? You mean like dyslexia or ADHD or something? Or just something that pertains to math? That sucks dude, but to be honest, I'm awful at math myself. I used to be decent at it, but I'm terrible now. I struggle with the tip at dinner, haha.

I think sometimes schools don't know how to teach every student properly due to the different ways that people learn (and being sorta ADHD/OCD myself, it's been tough for me at times to pay attention throughout school and stay focused) and they write them off as "learning disabled". I knew tons of kids in school who were determined as "LD" but didn't seem to have anything wrong with them.
 

Dropshipbob

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At the time they didn't really have a name for it, I later found out it's called Dyscalculia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyscalculia

Which I have to say this didn't really hold me back except in college, but my problem was that being labeled along with stating I wasn't interestd in college, people seemed to write me off.

But I don't want to put to fine a point on this as this wasn't the topic. :)
 

Mandingo Rex

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Oh no, haha. I didn't mean to call it out, it just sounded odd since I'd never heard of it. So if it's beyond basic math, then it's not that big of a deal then? Not like many folks are really good at most advanced math anyways, besides scientists, mathematicians and accountants (and really, accounting just requires not fucking up basic math, there's just more of it than most "normal" people encounter).

College was mostly a(n expensive) crock of shit, except for the classes that pertained to my major. So was high school. The entire educational system is misguided, personally. I feel like I never learned a lot of anything useful in all my years of education. Anyways, thanks for detailing me on that, I'd never heard of it. I bet it's not that big of a deal then, but it sounds kinda like dyslexia for math... Errr, as far as the way it hinders, anyways?

Anyways, carry on!
 

Dropshipbob

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Oh it's no problem, I figured I would just go with the flow and post about it.

Part of it is like dyslexia in that sometimes numbers will get turned around, but I don't have problems with that. Mostly just relating numbers to each other in a complex formulae....I came pretty close to flunking algebra in college, which was the first time I ever had it. I dropped the course before that happened. My only option was to get a tutor, but even my wife wasn't able to help me, and she was/is married to me!

The math requirements were the only thing keeping me from graduating, that, and lack of money.
 

G.I.*EDDIE

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Mandingo Rex; said:
To be honest, Eddie's the first member at HissTank that I contacted about making a custom. I asked CobraCollector who made his Sarge for him, then I contacted that guy... Who was Eddie. Turns out, I made my own but from there things sorta snowballed and turned into where I am today, with a few dozen customs littering my shelf. I will say, he's pretty solid across the board when it comes to customs, and one of the customizers who got me into this. *gawly shucks*

i was thinking while i was working on my street corner ( <---- lol ) that its funny you mentioned that ^^^ cause now, with you being a foam pro, i'm constantly picking your brain...
 

Rick

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I hear you guys on the math. I was in all AP classes and in college I had to take classes like "Mechanics and strenghts of materials." You know, like figuring how many pieces of rebar are needed in a concrete beam and how thick they need to be as well as the spacing and how thick the concrete needed to be surrounding the rebar. 3 page long form calculations.

I still can't tell you off the top of my head what 30% of 650 would be. Without a calculator I'm screwed. I have no idea what it's called but I'll type something and have to review because letters will be reversed and words repeated and I have no idea I did it.

Is it thier or their or field or feild, even at 42 I still have to spell check it.
 
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malcadon

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I have dyslexia. I use to have a lot of trouble, until I raped the living shit out of it with the thickly-worded tome that made-up Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. By no means an easy read, and I had to learn it on my own. I still suck - not as much as I used to - but the spell-checker feature on Mozilla/Firefox is a real lifesaver (oddly enough, I can write "paradigm" or "hydromagnetodynamics" without error, and yet I get stumped on simple shit like "through", "straight", and "plain"). With its inherent complexities, the English language sucks serious syphilitic donkey balls!
 

Big Jim

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I have UADD(Undiffrentiated attention deficit disorder) and mild dyslexia but have always done better in school than friends who were "normal". I would space out but somehow still take in the info. Im really lucky that Ive grown out of most of the bad parts. One of the best things is now I can read upside down and backwards. The worst part growing up was having to do speech therapy, kids arent nice when you have a lisp and talk similar to elmer fudd