Atom Smasher:  Other than Legion… JSA is probably my favorite DC team.  Someday I’ll get around to the rest of the team, but when I saw Atom Smasher on the JLU alongside Vigilante and Shining Knight, I knew he was going to be done and done soon.  As you can tell… I decided to go with the large version of the character… always nice to break up the sight lines on the custom shelf.  Coming up with viable base figures is another story, especially since that scale is outside my area of expertise.  The base for Mr. Smasher is a 10” white Venom with a 10” Moon Knight head.  The belt is elastic and the rest is pretty much a repaint.  The head was attached using two part epoxies for the collar.  Can’t wait to start working on the rest of the JSA… among a couple other projects I have in mind.

Batman:  I was petty apprehensive about this custom… almost to the point where I wasn’t going to show him at this Con.  I don’t really have a problem with the technical aspects of this custom… and I love the base figure (Capcom Capt America), but once I had him finished… I noticed that he was a little too tall to be in scale with the rest of my customs.  True… he’s part of the “Big Three” at DC, but I didn’t feel right about a Batman that is taller than Martian Manhunter.  I decided to throw anal retentive attention to scale to the wind in this case though.  I know… I know… the world doesn’t need another Batman figure either.  True… plenty have been done either professionally or custom wise… and a lot better than I could ever do, but I wanted a Batman that wasn’t quite as intense as most that are produced.   Anyways… Bats here is mainly a repaint.  Points were added to the head and forearms using Magic Sculpt.  The belt and pouches are elastic and his cape is fabric with wire in the hem.  Other than being a little too tall… I ‘m pretty happy with the way he turned out.  This custom was based on one of Batman’s many animated appearances.

Green Lantern – Hal Jordan:  Pretty standard stuff here… but that’s what happens when you have a lot of Peter Parker heads left over.  The base is a Beetle body.  The ring is Magic Sculpt.  Even with this custom being pretty standard… I’m happy with the look.  It was nice to see Hal on an episode of JLU too.  Don’t get me wrong… I like Kyle and John Stewart as well, but Hal is the GL I knew when I was growing up.  I had to make him first.

Nightwing:  Here’s another sentimental favorite… Always been a fan of Richard Grayson.  This custom is a combination of Spider-man figures.  The chest and arms are from a Bug Buster Spidey… one of my all time favorite figures (sometimes the legs get on my nerves, but usually a great figure for my style).  The legs come from a Web Flyers Spider-man… the one that came with the batwing helicopter thingy that didn’t really do much.  After joining them at the waist using various forms of epoxy while maintaining articulation… I did a lot of sanding, filling, and smoothing to the legs.  Then I added his boots and gloves using Magic Sculpt.  The head was donated from an Invasion Series Ice Man (2) figure.  I did some re-sculpting of the face area in order to knock off some angles in the original sculpt.  I’m pretty happy with the look of this one.  I should have made his escrima fighting sticks, and probably will in the future, but they were a casualty of time for this custom con.

Martian Manhunter:  J’onn J’onzz is a sentimental favorite of mine.  I loved Ostrander’s serial on him not too long ago.  I love the noir feel of this character.  On to the figure… the head is from a Classic X-men five pack Cyclops.  So are the legs.  The arms were salvaged from Mutant X Havok figure.  The chest is a heavily retooled Total Justice Hawkman.  This was one of the first customs I attempted after discovering the two part epoxy clays (magic sculpt, plumber’s putty, and kneadatite to be specific). The shoulder sockets were changed to accept the ball jointed shoulders of the Havok figure.  Kneadatite was used to enhance the brow.  As I was assembling him, I noticed that the torso looked out of proportion with the rest of the body…  I used a combination of the epoxy clays to elongate the abdomen.  I love the light up eyes feature on this figure.  The cape and belt are the usual minesurfer material choices.

Red Tornado:  Remind me never to paint stripes again.  Other than some sanding, smoothing and filling (a lot actually), this figure came down to a cape and a repaint.  The base is the Night Something or Other (maybe even Stealth) Iron Man (dark purple).  Getting the stripes acceptable was the biggest challenge on this figure.  Given my fondness for Peter David’s Young Justice book… I was pleasantly surprised to see Red Tornado on JLU.  Hopefully we can get him to do a little more than spin and disintegrate in future appearances.  The cape is fabric and the chord is embroidery floss.

Robin:  To be honest… the inspiration for this one came from one of Iron Cow’s entries in a Custom Con…number 5, I believe.  Besides… I couldn’t have a Batman, Nightwing, and Batgirl and not have a Robin.  The figure itself is basically a repaint of an X-Men Sunspot figure.  There was, of course, some obligatory sanding and dremelling of details.  I also filled in some of the original sculpt.  The boots, gloves, and the “strings” across his chest were made from Magic-Sculpt.  His cape is cloth with wire in the hem.  The belt is elastic with a “buckle” made from some left over Magic-Sculpt that I shaped into a circle, covered with some bubble plastic, and etched some lines in for the appropriate pattern and texture (they’re subtle, but they’re there if you look real hard).

Shining Knight:  Warning, rant ahead, skip this paragraph if all you want to read is the recipe.  Given my fondness for the Legion… you better believe that I’m also very fond of the obscure characters we’ve been getting in the JLU show.  I like the Animated Style… they are very cute.  They’re almost larger versions of minimates, only with less articulation as far as I’m concerned.  They take up more space and are harder to keep standing than minimates but I keep on buying them.  The thing about the Animated Style that doesn’t appeal too much to me (as a customizer) is the relative sameness of the style.  The shapes and lines for each character are similar and it just seems like customizing in that style would lead to “rutness”.  Don’t get me wrong… there are some great Animated customizers that I respect tremendously... Double Dealer, Iron Cow, Casimir, Bill Burns and Mike Danza are among my favorites.   I’ve considered doing an Animated Legion, but I can’t bring myself to purchase and cut up forty or so Nightwings (I know there are more bases than Nightwing, but not a whole lot more) just to have difficulties standing them all up on a shelf (JLU bases included too).  That’s just not for me at this point in my customizing travails. 

But I’ve digressed…  After seeing Bill Burns’ excellent animated version of this character, I knew I had to make him.  The legs, torso, and head all came from an X-Men X-Cutioner figure.  In my research for this custom… I noticed that Mr. Knight seemed to always be drawn with pants and boots as one entity.  Now I’m no expert on armor, but this didn’t seem likely to me… so I left the X-Cutioner’s boots in place.  I like big gaudy boots on my Knights… it makes them easier to stand up on the shelf.  The arms came from an X-Men six pack Sunfire… they seemed obvious for the armor pattern.  I had to reshape the shoulder joints to accept the ball joints of the Sunfire arms, so while I had him open, I went ahead and added waist articulation too.  I sculpted the helmet and leg armor from Magic-Sculpt and his tunic was made from fabric (no wire for this one).  I added some armor on his chest too, but that’s pretty much covered by his tunic.  The belt is elastic and the sword is from the armory.  I replaced Sunfire’s hands and forearms with the X-Cutioner’s gauntlets and hands.  I couldn’t have a Shining Knight that couldn’t hold his sword.  The colors on his tunic are fabric paint that I stenciled on.  I really enjoyed making this custom as it allowed me to utilize some figures that I don’t think I’ve seen anybody use as a base.  Something I’m not sure I could have achieved if I was an Animated Style Customizer… that’s just me though.  Sorry about the rant.

Vigilante:  I was half way through this one when Bill Burns unveiled his Animated Version.  Great figure by the way.  At that moment, I was so glad that I work in another style.  Instead of going from W-I-P to W-T-P? (what’s the point?)... I endeavored to finish my own Vigilante.  I’m very pleased with the results.  The ornery ol’ cuss was put together using a Peter Parker from the old Animated Series and a Black Tom.  Peter’s arms and legs were joined with Tom’s torso.   I used an Animated Superman head that I had unsuccessfully tried to turn into a Firestorm in my earlier customizing days.  I sculpted the hat from scratch using Magic-Sculpt.  I also had to fill in some of the shoulder joints so that the Peter arms would not be too loose.  The figure that really put the final touches on this custom was a Will Smith from the Wild Wild West Movie line.  I used one of the hands from that figure and both guns.  The left hand is from a Total Justice Blue Beetle.  The belt is the usual elastic and the holsters were hand made from fabric (after two or three failed attempts, I finally got them right).  His neckerchief is made from fabric and the lariat is from a JLA Wonder Woman.  Magic Sculpt was added to his chest for the “flap” look and the belt buckle and buttons were cut from gold and silver beading material.  There is nothing better than a cowboy with a big ol’ shiny, and more importantly, gaudy belt buckle and matching buttons.