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?

So a while back, coupla years ago, I had a couple of the Defense of Cobra Island (DOCI) Alley Vipers that I got for cheap from Sinodolls on eBay that don’t come with any gear.  None.  Bare.

I tried to make the gear myself and had a… well, a real learning experience.

Welp, when I saw another one come up in auction for a penny, I grabbed him up and decided that I was going to try and do this thing proper.  Make the equipment as near to the real thing as I could without casting it myself or getting parts from somewhere else and painting those.

I started by sanding off the shitty enamel paint from before.  I tried to be kind to myself too, reminding that it was all I could find nearby and all I could afford, etc. but it was still a pain in the ass.

Not having much else to work with, I kept the base helmets and vests and sanded the fuck outta them.  I had one extra vest I’d put on another figure as a placeholder until I got his proper vest and the helmet is off of Blowtorch as well (though it IS glued on).  So I had enough for three… schweet!

Getting the helmet styled into the proper Alley Viper fit was the first step, and I used the Pursuit of Cobra (POC) Alley Viper as a template for the entire deal.

Helmets WIP

Here’s the old helmet with the old, crappy, visor, with his friends behind him.  Wifeage once again came to the rescue with some of her acrylic nails, giving me the ones that were too big for her, and I’ll be goldarned but if you lay ’em tip-to-tip, like a clamshell, and set ’em up against the back of the helmet, it’s perfect!

I glued ’em on and sanded ’em to fit, then painted on Liquid Green Stuff (which is brilliant).

Helmets WIP, glued the fake nails on

I traced the POC AV’s visor and used it as a template for cutting out the new visors.  That’s an old pill bottle from one of wife’s medications that I carved up into weird butterfly shapes.

Green stuff and sanding

I took a cheapshit rifle from a pack of G.I. No’s (True Heroes I think?) and sliced the barrel a few times, making nubs for the hinge of the visor.  The exact same size as the drillbit that I have for my hand-powered hobby drill (Games Workshop again).

Visors fitted on

It takes a bit of working with ’em, using the heatgun to soften the plastic a bit and then lots of blowing on ’em to cool it down, but they fit real nice at the end of it.

And they stay up!

Visors WIP

Using the thicker plastic from the cheapass rifle barrel was a better call than the metal pin from a thumbtack I used last time.

Alley Viper shield WIP

Next up was the shield, which I wanted to be strong so I cut up an old conditioner bottle.

Lesson here: cheap conditioner bottles have remarkably hard plastic.

Once again, I traced the POC AV’s shield and used that as a template for paper, then cardboard.  I wasn’t sure how to make the “raised” areas of the shield, nor how to shape it, until I started using my actual brain.  Then I cut the main shield in half, sanded a bit of a “round” to the top and bottom and glued it together at an angle.

Then I cut two pieces to double-layer the top and then again for the bottom.

Alley Viper shield WIP

I took a sword from the “100 Pieces Bulk Lot” auctions you get from Sinodolls as well (comes with about 6-10 of the swords from VVV Storm Shadow) and cut the grip off, then used the blade as a “brace” for the handle.  LOTS of super glue and we rollin’.

Alley Viper Gear WIP – First coat of orange

Then I started painting shit orange, just to see how we go.

Now I used Photoshop to colourmatch the orange and blue from the DOCI AV to the shit I can get at Games Workshop in Freo (who’ve got a new manager that’s friggin’ awesome).  When I FB msg’ed the shop, AwesomeMgrGuy got back to me with a big yes that they had both Dragonsnot Orange and Elfjizz Blue (kidding, Trollslayer Orange and Altdorf Guard Blue, or some shit like that).  Legend.

Alley Viper Gear WIP – Orange w/white basecoats

Oh, that’s right.  Last time I did this, Wifeage smartly suggested a white basecoat.  DUMBASS, I forgot.

But then I remembered, so as to limit my dumbassery.

I basecoated the vests, helmets and visors, but the second and third shields were cut from an old Napisan bottle (laundry powder) which was MUCH softer and easier to work with.  It’s white already, so I used a basecoat of hers for her nails as a primer and then got to painting.

Alley Viper Gear WIP – 3rd and 4th coats of orange.

And BANG, there you go.  Some are only on one coat, but nearly everything got a primer coat plus 4-6 coats of orange.

Using an acrylic this time though, instead of enamel, meant that I only needed to wait 15-20 minutes between coats, as opposed to AN ENTIRE DAY like last time.

SO much sanding, sanding, sanding and cutting, cutting, cutting though, with those shields and those helmets/visors.  I vowed that I wouldn’t touch a paintbrush until I had them just how I wanted them, with the right corners and edges and whatnot.  Laborious, but glorious.

Alley Viper Gear WIP – Gettin’ my blue on

K, funny thing.  I was cutting up the vests, from this guy:

As I managed to get a few of him for SUPER cheap too (and a Night Adder vest, same thing).

But yeah, I was cutting off the pouches from three separate vests for my beautiful new DOCI AV’s and forgot that I have three cats.  When I came back in the morning, several pouches were missing off my work area.  I scoured the floor with my li’l headlamp on and couldn’t find ’em for the life of me.  I’m NOT going through a mound of catshit for a pouch the size of a kibblebit, but I was tempted.

I was sad though, I had to mismatch some pouches now because I wanted each vest to be interchangeable and none to be any different from the others.

So I forgot to take pictures for a while.  During all the gluing and painting of the vests, really.

Then, when I remembered to take pictures, my SD card was gone because Wifeage needed to borrow it for her Canon Asskicker 450D because we had a kookaburra in the backyard.

Sittin’ in the ol’ gumtree…

LOVE living here.

So yeah, I got all the pouches glued on, with some borrowed from:

• Renegades Ripcord
• Agent Helix
• POC Firefly

The guns are from the Rise of Cobra (ROC) Elite Viper and the scopes are from Marauders (with some modding).  The knives are 25th Ann. standard Joe issue and the batons are from various fodder here and there, though Renegades Law & Order, Renegades Cobra Trooper and POC AV all use them too.

With a couple of stickers from CobraStickers.com and some backpacks from G.I. No and I’m all set.  Oh, and yeah I had to carve the knife scabbard off their forearms for their vest, so sacrifices were made, sadly.

Alley Viper Gear WIP – Boys gettin’ geared up.

Now some from my “new” photography studio!  That’s right, I’m BIG TIME now baby.  I cut up an old grey singlet and aimed both desklamps inward.  Score.

Wifeage to the rescue again tho, she loaned me the tripod for my camera.

Alley Viper Gear WIP – Lookin’ good boys

Front and centre!

Just their vests, because that was the hardest part.

Pile O’ Gear – missing a backpack!

All their gear: 3 helmets, 3 vests, 3 shields (w/baton holder), 3 guns (w/removable scope), 2 backpacks (because I can’t find a shop that sells G.I. No’s down here and TRU is too far away.

Damn sexy

Playing with camera settings

Hey, who’re yer friends?

Peek A BOO!

POC, DOCI, RET

Visors up (and mine stays up! Still excited!)

All up, there are some glaring differences from the factory stuff, shields edging and pouches and logos and whatnot, but overall I’m very, very pleased.  I reckon they pass the “squint test” too, in that if you squint just right with them next to “real” Alley Viper’s gear, you can’t hardly tell the difference.  Score.

One of my absolute FAVOURITE O-ring Joes was the Night Viper.  I loved him so much that I frequently swapped heads for a cool-looking Joe (like Dial-Tone or Falcon) to make them like, undercover.  Not even terribly sure why I loved it so much, just did.

So of course I was stoked when they announced a Night Viper coming out in the Retaliation line of toys.  Thing is, I’d already had the parts and bits together for this project though.  Plus, when I got a gander at the one they’d come out with, $40 on eBay and all, I saw just another kitbash with some cool colouring.  Stupid Hasbro.

So I was even more motivated to make my own.

Recipe (body):

• Head – Night Adder
• Chest/Torso/Arms – POC Snake Eyes
• Upper legs (outer) – ROC Duke (Impact Armor)
• Upper legs (inner) – ROC Ripcord
• Knees – POC Gayass Tornado Kick Snake Eyes
• Lower legs – POC Gayass Whirlwind Kick Storm Shadow
• Feet – ROC Charbroil with bits I cut off POC Gayass Tornado Kick Snake Eyes shins

Recipe (gear):

• Visor – ROC Snake Eyes, bits and pieces, spotting scope from Marauder Gun Runners.
• Webgear – Bits and pieces, belt from ROC Snake Eyes, belt from ROC Impact Armor Duke
• Flashlight/Knife/Knife Scabbard – Marauders again.
• Rifle (w/strap) – ROC Grand Slam
• Rifle (painted) – Heavily modded crap gun from True Heroes set.  Cut and glued in most of the stock, clip and scope.

Hardest Part – Carving and cutting and drilling and fitting that inner thigh piece to the outer thigh piece.  The biggest gripe I have towards the ROC Impact Armor legs was the weird way it tapered in on the inner thigh.  Ripcord’s inner thigh looked great there, but the holes didn’t line up, so it took a lot of work on that harder plastic to get it to fit.

Easiest part – Cutting up the bits from other backpacks and webgear and gluing the night vision head-scope thing together.  LOVED making that sucker.

Biggest Fail – The huge gap at the top of his left leg.  And making the foot armor thingo so thick that he can’t bend his toes up.  Also was going to do ROC Flash’s head with ROC Charbroil’s helmet, where he could take it off and be all human underneath, but it was going to be too much work and I got lazy.

Biggest nail – The gear, I reckon.  I love the headscope (except that it doesn’t go up far enough), the webgear, the flashlight and knife and the rifle.

Thanks again to Seebs for the old school Night Viper.  Frickin’ LOVE that guy.