I may not like being short, but somebody had to do it.

I got a big sword too, except I’m cooler because I talk.

Still pretty dang tough.

Yeah, the tiger claw is on the wrong side, so what? My sword is friggin’ HUGE.

Recipe:

• Head/Bandolier – DG Storm Shadow.
• Hood – Arctic Monkeyhead Snake Eyes.  Modded, to be more ninja-like and not as melty as it ended up as.
• Torso/Feet – 25th Anniversary Storm Shadow.
• Upper Arms – Resolute Storm Shadow.
• Lower Arms – ROC Tornado Kick Snake Eyes.
• Hands/Upper Legs – ROC Storm Shadow.
• Knees – ROC Rollbar.
• Lower Legs – M.A.R.S. Trooper.

Biggest Fail: By quirk of fate, the parts I used for his arms were all on the long side while his legs were all on the short side.  He looks like a weirdly-orangutastic thing.

Biggest Nail: I’m really, really happy with how the paint apps came out.  I think this might have been the first figure where I was totally happy with the paintjob.

Before I went blue and cool, I was green. Super green.

Uzi AND a big sword. Thanks Snake.

It’s not the green, it’s the puke yellow.

WHOA, bet you’re glad they pulled you out of that diarrheatic elephant’s butt.

Recipe:

• Head/Upper Arm Right/Lower Arms/Lower Legs – ROC Flash.
• Torso – Retaliation Red Ninja.
• Skirt – Valor Vs Venom (VVV can bite my ass) Kamakura.
• Hood – Arctic Monkeyhead Snake Eyes.  Modded, to be more ninja-like.
• Upper Legs – ROC Snake Eyes.
• Upper Arm Left/Knees/Feet – DVD Battles Snake Eyes.
• Sword – Fodder from Ninja Dojo battle sets.

Biggest Fail: The hood got a bit melty and ended up looking like a decroded piece of crap.

Biggest Nail: I actually love his arms and legs being from ROC Flash.  I know it’s probably not everybody’s same notion, but I frickin’ love it.

As with the rest of the Ninja Force customs I had planned, I put together the parts for this one two years ago and have only just reinvigorated myself with my customs.

Sure, a bit ambitious to take on the project of the entire crappyass, dayglo 90’s G.I. Joe Ninja Force all at once.  I see that now.  But them limits, they is there to be pushed.

I knew that I would put off Zartan and his zany colours and wacky mohawk though, because I was anxious about trying to sculpt that damn mohawk!  I looked around for custom cast heads too, but I don’t remember finding anything that would work.  I even bought some proper Green Stuff (shit is spendy!) for sculpting, but Chief Craft Supervisor Wife got ahold of it and I haven’t seen it since.

Then one day I was looking at the Banzai that I did (will link later) and I remembered that his hair was originally off of one of the ROC ladies that I have heaps of.

Sure enough, I got to looking at ROC Baroness’s hair, particularly along the bottom, and I had an idea.  I cut off the bottom section of her hair, sculpted and curved it and heatgunned it and sho’ nuff, it was an awesome-looking mohawk.

Because really, go big or go home.  If I’m making crazy biker ninja assassin in flouros and leather, what’s the point of a nice, conservative mohawk?

Kwapang! Gotcha squirrel!

It was Head Art Executive Wife’s suggestion to bag the green pants and do orange and green stripes down some “snazzy” pants.  The orange and green are strips of electrical tape and the pants are just black with a silver wash.  Thanks Wifeage!

Knifey Spooney mate… um, no.

I originally had those funky Retaliation Storm Shadow lower legs on him too, but there was something about them that didn’t work and I ended up with ROC Nitro Viper’s boots instead.

And while I understand the irony in pointing out something subtle, because it’s too subtle, the boots are black with a purple wash.  Because you can’t go wrong when tying together flouro orange, green and purple.  Wait, what?

Dude, you’ll never get the ladies with those pants…

Old school!  Shit, just noticed I’m missing heaps of stuff for that O-ring.

Well, I stayed simple on accessories deliberately because I felt that the NF stuff came with too much and I like the idea of Zarty carrying his bow and little else.

In case the mohawk didn’t get my point across, I cut the sleeves off my leather jacket too.

I also noticed that the O-ring version has the armguard on the wrong arm, so I fixed that.

Recipe:

• Head – ROC Zartan (desert).  ROC Baroness gave the lower chunk of her hair for his mohawk too.
• Torso/Upper Arms/Lower Left Arm/Left Hand/Upper Legs/Knees – ROC Storm Shadow (Arctic Assault).
• Lower Right Arm/Right Hand – ROC Snake Eyes (City Strike).
• Lower Legs/Feet – ROC Nitro Viper.

Recipe Gear:

• Jacket – Mutt Williams (Indiana Jones).  I think this is the first time I’ve used something from a toyline that’s not G.I.Joe!  The chain is from one of my daughters’ broken necklaces that swished around the bottom of their jewellery box so long that I dug it out and threw it in my customs fodder.
• Bow – DG Storm Shadow, modded with string and with arrows from ROC Night Creeper’s crossbow.
• Knives – 25th Anniversary ANYBODY (Stalker and Snake Eyes, probably).

I’m badass. That’s the point. I’m a badass.

Biggest Fail: The seams of the pants are very obvious because of how the wash laid down on it.  If I could do it over, I’d find a better way to get that wash on so that the paint doesn’t gather like that.  Also, the sheathe for the knives is too tight and one of the knives already has some paint stripping off.

Biggest Nail: While I love his head and I’m pretty proud of it, I LOVE that bow.  Gives me happy vibes every time.

It was well over a year ago that I was cruising through my endeavour to make a modern version of all the old G.I. Joe Ninja Force* figures.  I think I bumbled my way through Dojo and T’Jbang before making some that I actually liked, like Tiger Claw and Kamakura.

I was gung-ho for the rest though, such to the point that I had the parts all picked out for each one and in their own plastic compartment in my morgue-like customs container.

Now, nearly two years later, and I’ve gotten a workspace set up and have reignited the passion, and Jinx was my first jump back into the fray.

*Yes, I know she wasn’t technically “Ninja Force” but she’s a ninja and… a force… and needed an homage.  Shoosh.

The blindfold is more for you, really, than it is for me.

Naturally since the SDCC versions are absolutely fantastic and don’t need a thing done to ’em, this one is based off the Valor Vs Venom (VVV can bite my ass) Agent Jinx, that came in a 2-pack with a weird-looking Slice.  The figures were, yeah, weird, but the card art was cool and she was kickass in the cartoon.

Impossibly tiny waist and head yet monstrous shoulders… I’m like Barbie on roids!

I don’t even have the figure (can’t find one cheap enough on eBay) so I had to work off of pictures I found on YoJoe.com and such.

And one off this trading card, though I’m not sure where it’s from.

See, I don’t need the blindfold to whup some ay-uss.

Jinxy, Jinxy, Jinxy

Part of what took me so long to even attempt a Jinx was that I had NO idea what I was going to do for parts and, more importantly, a head.  No way in hell I could afford an SDCC version just for parts and I wasn’t up to scratch with modding/painting a Scarlett or something.

I had pretty much planned to wait for my skills to catch up or just get braver, or both.  Ha!

Couple of years ago, I had one of those rare moments where my father actually sent me money for my birthday like I’m 12 and I very uncharacteristically spent it on myself.  I’ve always wanted to be one of “those guys” that can just buy an SDCC or some sort of HTF figure and then play with it.  I know this isn’t the Holy Grail for anybody, really, but being able to pick up the red AND the white SDCC Jinxes was a situation I’ll probably NEVER be in again.  I’m pretty damn happy I could though!

‘Cept the white ones feet don’t bloody stay on her stand, dammit.

And they went right ahead and made the Retaliation Jinx the exact same mold as the red one, cheeky buggers.  If I’d known they’d do that, I’da just painted a RET one.  Heh.

I got a lotta longass hair. Or would it be asslong hair?

Luck shined when I won an auction from some caster on eBay.  I picked up an SDCC-style Jinx head for $4 (I think) and put here in the parts box.

Then stalled.  And procrastinated.  And waited.

So yeah, two years later and I’m all full of piss and vinegar, ready to paint a flat-grey head!

Forgot my blindfold again, SCHWING!

Which, holy shit, was not easy.  I read Jin Saotome’s tutorials on painting eyes and shit, I hit up HissTankers for advice, I Googled and I practiced and nothing could have prepared me for not only the steadiness needed for that intimate level of detail but also making her Japanese!

I stayed off the coffee though and gave it a solid go, bringing it to my Chief Art Director Wife to see what she thought.  While terribly sweet and supportive, there was a lot of “Not Asian enough” and “her hair needs a different treatment, some sort of layer or wash” (Ha! I just got that!  Wash!) and “is she half-Japanese? Because that could pass…”

And pass it did, because I was happy and was getting seriously scared at fucking this thing up (“Don’t overwork it!” they’d cry in my art classes).

Let’s go shoppin’ girls! For BLOOD.

Recipe body:

• Head – Custom cast from Unknown off eBay (from SDCC Kim Arashikage).  LOVED that it was cast off of the SDCC, but there was a huge glorping fault along the inside of her ponytail that took some work to clear out.
• Torso – Resolute Baroness. Chose this one for the collar aspect, though it took a LOT of painting on Liquid Green Stuff and sanding and sculpting and sculpting and sanding to get rid of the snake scales and the cobra logo embossed on her chest.
• Upper Arms – ROC Scarlett (Impact Armour).  I had some other arms picked out that SO did not work.  Can’t remember why I made half of the parts choices I did, but I’m glad I stopped smoking so much crack.
• Lower Arms/Hands – ROC Baroness (Paris Pursuit).  And the bracelets are just electrical wire I snipped off a broken toy my 4-yo had.
• Skirt – POC Storm Shadow.  I trimmed a seam out thinking I’d make it more petite and finish it down the side, but I totally forgot to make it flexible for movement.  Sure enough, first time I posed her, I “snapped” that seam back open.  It looked alright enough, so I left it!  Holy shit though, would I have LOVED to have known about the indomitable Vortious Custom Accessories.  He’s got this belt, that would’ve been fkn PERFECT.  Think I might order it anyway and revisit this Jinx custom again someday.
• Upper Legs – ROC Baroness.  With some sanding and modding.  The original legs I had picked were 25th Ann Storm Shadow’s (I used the lowers) and they just… wouldn’t… FIT.  Then, remembering I no longer smoke the crackrock, I put some female legs on her and it all worked out.  Hell, they had the leg strap things too!  HOW did I miss that the first time I was selecting parts?!
• Knees – Renegades Firefly.  Think they’re also off the Resolute Cobra Troopers, but I had an extra Firefly, so there you go.
• Lower Legs – 25th Anniversary Storm Shadow.  These got sanded and shaved and sanded and the texture was just perfect.  Though, in hindsight, I might’ve just gone with the ones off the Retaliation Jinx (for whatever odd reason, I had extras) but I kind of like doing it my own way…
• Feet – ROC Scarlett (Impact Armour).  Again, I had others picked out and NO idea why.  These worked for the “boot-like” look of her ninja kickers, and that’s just a spare bit of plastic I’d carved off of a rocket launcher or something glued to the top of her feet.

Recipe Gear:

• Naginata (staff) – Retaliation Jinx.  Painted the grips and blade.
• Sword – POC Snake Eyes.  For whatever reason, I had an extra one of these.  SCORE.  The scabbard is just glued on.
• Knife – Renegades Firefly.  I think.  I can’t remember, but it’s close enough to his.  The scabbard is black electrical tape.
• Blindfold – Straps from the fencing helmet that comes with Retaliation Red Ninja.  I had a couple extra of these, one of which had no mask, so it was easy enough to cobble them together and make a strap all the way around the head.  Wrinkled fabric casts are VERY forgiving sometimes, so I didn’t have to sand/glue too much.

Biggest Fail:

Probably her skirt.  The more I think about it, the more convinced I am that I’m going to order that belt from Vortious Custom Accessories and rework that thing.  Overall though, I’d like to be a bit more pedantic about the paint and trim and such.

Biggest Nail:

Think I did alright on her head.  First time I’d ever attempted painting a face and eyes and such, so I’m pretty pleased how she turned out.  Though you can see the obvious discrepancies between her eyebrows and eyes and such.  I’m still happy though, maybe my standards are just low!

Slightly surprised eyebrows aren’t my forte.

Sure, you’re surprised, but why do my eyebrows look slightly furry?