Pirate Color Blanks Figure

It occurred to me that I wanted to make this pirate have a companion parrot as well. When I was looking through my figures I noticed that I had mini Color Blanks figures so I selected one for the main pirate figure and a mini Color Blanks figure to be the parrot.

Color Blanks figure and Color Blanks mini figure

The next thing I did was create a sketch of my pirate and his parrot for Talk like a pirate day. I recommend doing this so that you can plan out some of your ideas for sculpting and painting. This also helps you build a material list.

Color Blanks pirate sketch

In my arts and craft supplies I happened to have this little wooden treasure box that still needs be painted and it worked perfect as an accessory to my pirate figure.

With a sketch and Color Blanks figure selected it was time to start disassembling and modifying my figure. I cut off the hands and one of the legs so that I could give my figure a peg leg and a hook for a hand.

Color Blanks figure disassembled

Next it was time to start working on the face. I love sculpting faces! This is where you really have a chance to give your Color Blanks character. Using polymer clay I started sculpting the face, peg leg, boot, hook and coat cuff.

Color Blanks pirate figure starting to take shape

You’ll note from the pictures that I completely filled in the areas with polymer clay where there was originally a pattern of hair on the Color Blanks figure. I also cut off the little cowlick that was on top. This made it easier for me to add a bandana and hat.

Color Blanks Pirate – coat and bandana details

I used speaker wire and polymer clay for the eye patch and some simple craft wire for the earrings. More polymer clay was used to make the pirate’s coat, shirt ruffles and belt. I also found some little skull charms to use in the belt and one that I would later use on the hat. For the facial details, I painted with acrylics.

For the parrot, I removed the ears and tail from the cat figure. I sculpted on some polymer clay to make a beak and more bird-like features and then painted with various colors of acrylic paint to make it look like a little parrot.

On the finished Color Blanks pirate I’ve added a polymer clay hat along with a little cross bones skull charm. The little parrot mini figure was glued to the top of the head. I finished with various other acrylic paint enhancements and some Color Blanks markers to touch up. The treasure box was filled with little plastic beads and then coated with some gold acrylic paint to solidify the treasure inside.

Pirate Color Blanks figure with treasure chest.

Breath of Fire 4 Ryu Custom Creatology Vinyl Figure

I like working with RoseArt’s Color Blanks but these vinyl figures are a good alternative if you can’t get your hands on any. The Creatology penguin figure that I used from Michael’s has a comparable thickness of material to a Color Blanks vinyl and was easy to modify.

Vinyl Penguin figure from Creatology

I based my custom vinyl figure off of the incarnation of Ryu from Breath of Fire 4.  If you’re familiar with the Breath of Fire series on Nintendo and Playstation, this is the main character and each game has a different variation of him with key similarities but a different back story.

Ryu from Breath of Fire 4 on Playstation – Reference Artwork

To start my custom modification of Ryu I took the Creatology penguin figure and I modified him by removing the beak with an X-acto knife. I then added polymer clay to make a nose and ears. After finishing the resculpt of the head I baked it at a low setting; approximately 245 degrees.

The next step was to paint the base color of the skin and then start sculpting hair, clothing, and his sword. In order to make the sword more stable I inserted a piece of small metal wire into the hand and arm area before sculpting a polymer clay sword around it. After another baking of the custom vinyl Breath of Fire figure I finished it off with more paint details and added some additional touchups with my Micron pens. Check out the finished figure below!

If you have a Michaels store in your area you may consider picking up some Creatology figures there. As an alternative I would definitely consider going and getting some of Rose Art’s color blanks and doing some custom vinyl sculpts yourself!

Breath of Fire 4 Ryu Custom Creatology Vinyl Figure

Breath of Fire 4 Ryu Custom Creatology Vinyl Figure

This Halloween Color Blanks figure had a pumpkin head and I was immediately inspired to see how I could transform it into something different. I took out my plastic clay and started molding pieces to make the face look scary and added spikes to the head. 

To modify the feet I extended some pieces of clay to create sharp toes. The teeth were created by taking some wooden sticks, much like popsicle sticks that you can purchase from a craft store, and cutting them up into little wood squares. I then painted them with acrylics and stuck this directly into the soft, unbaked clay.

I stuck my Halloween Color Blanks figure in the oven at about 250° suspecting that it would need to be baked at a little bit lower temperature because of not knowing how easily the plastic would melt. When I took the figure out of the oven everything looked pretty much intact except the hands got a little bit warped and bubbled from the heat.  In this case it lent itself to the modification and making my figure scarier but I would need to solve this on future custom Color Blanks. From the heat warping of the plastic figure it could also not stand correctly anymore. The solution I found was to mount the figure to a base with glue. I ended up using a base that I had from another figure that had broken a long time ago.

I finish my Color Blanks figure with a mixture of acrylic paints, sharpies and micron pens to achieve the desired look. If you get a chance check out some of my other custom figures too!

Customized Halloween Color Blanks Figure

In my experience with sculpting polymer clay onto Color Blanks I found that the plastic that is used to make these is not very tolerant to heat. As a result it’s a bit of a challenge to seamlessly sculpt pieces of polymer clay to your Color Blanks. The polymer clay will need to be heated to a certain degree in the oven and I found the pieces that are most susceptible to distortion are the arms and the body.

When I started on my Jak figure I sculpted his hair directly to the head without first cooking the clay. I use clay colors matching his native hair colors and molded them on until I got the desired look. I also made earpieces, eyebrows, shoulder pads and the straps in his chest plate. I then made the various pieces of his helmet but did not connect them.

I placed the polymer clay pieces of Jak in the oven inclusive of the Color Blanks soft plastic head. I cooked the clay about 15° lower than the recommended temperature but for a longer period of time. This seemed to work out well.

Then it was a process of painting and reassembling the Jak figure. I used acrylic paints of various colors until I achieved the desired effect.

Another important thing to note when reassembling the figure is that the head’s opening where it attaches to the body became distorted from the heat of the oven so I had to use an exacto knife to cut the opening larger to reassemble the head to the body.

One afternoon I decided to take my kids to Toys “R” Us and while in the figure section looking at Marvel comics toys  I found this Red Hulk bank. It seemed fairly sturdy as far as Hulk toys go however the mold was kind of cheesy looking and the paint job was really bad; also they used the same mold for the green incredible Hulk and the hair looked nothing like the Red Hulk’s. Another minor issue was that my Incredible Hulk was missing its bottom so you couldn’t store money in the bank.

I took it up to the register as is and was able to get it at a discounted price of only $10. Not to bad considering an actual Incredible Hulk statue will run you $80 – $250 easy!

Red Incredible Hulk statue before modification.

To start making my custom Red Hulk I got out some colored polymer clay, red, orange and little bit of yellow acrylic paint and started to go to work on it.

I tried to color match the skin on the back to cover up the money slot  by mixing clay colors and patching it. Next I made flames on the back inspired by the cover of the first Marvel Red Hulk comic book. I then gave him more of a flattop hair style like he has in the comic book as does his alter ego; which I won’t tell you here if you haven’t ever found out who the Red Hulk really is!

The next thing I did was put the Hulk statue in the oven at a lower degree temperature than the clay recommends in case there was any distortion issues with the actual plastic mold.

After the Hulk was cooled off from being in the oven I used acrylics to paint him and do touch ups to flame work as well as the hair, eyes and teeth and highlight the muscles. Finally I sprayed the new and improved Red Hulk statue with a protective clearcoat.

These modified figures are always great fun to do and I love doing these as commissions!  Check out the finished Red Hulk below!

Finished product, custom Incredible Red Hulk statue

Custom Red Hulk Statue, side view

Wouldn’t be great if they somehow included Red Hulk in an Avengers sequel!