I searched for a muscular figure on Ebay to use for this custom shredder modification and this Incredible Hulk I found was for sale at a really good price. Sure he had some bangs and bruises from being played with but broken and used figures work great for mods.

When planning my custom figure I determined pretty quickly that this was going to mostly be a polymer clay and fabric modification with acrylic paint. Having modified one of these 13″ Hulk figures in the past I knew that I could not sculpt the polymer clay directly on the figure and bake it because the vinyl that these figures are made of has a pretty low melting point. I needed to come up with a different strategy.

The first step I took was sealing up a number of the joints with an air-dry clay. The clay starts to dry really quickly so I used a wet rag to smooth it into areas. This saves a lot of sanding!

Once the clay was dry I sealed the clay and figure with a coat of purple spray paint.

The way I ended up creating Super Shredder’s blades and armored pieces was to sculpt the polymer clay directly onto the figure. Yes, I realize I said I couldn’t do that. The clay was still warm and pliable at this point. I would then take the figure and place it in the freezer for about 15 to 20 minutes. This caused the polymer clay to become firm and provided the opportunity for me to take a small sculpting tool and carefully pry the pieces off without them losing their shape. Then it was just a matter of putting the clay pieces in the oven for baking.

After Super Shredder’s helmet and armor was cooled I painted the pieces using dry brushing techniques. The next step was to actually go and fine tune the painting details on the figure. Once the colors seem ed Super Shredder-like, I started gluing and applying the various piece of armor onto the figure.

The last elements that I created were Super Shredder’s cape and his loin cloth. I used some spare fabric and sanded the edges after I cut it into the desired shape. Sanding the edges helped give the look of worn, torn clothing. To finish Shredder off I mixed some acrylic paints until I achieve the faded color that I wanted and dipped the cloth in the acrylic paint. After saturating and wringing out some of the paint I draped the cloth pieces into position and applied the final sections of armor.

Vinyl Figure

To start this Steampunk Megaman figure, I used a simple Creatology vinyl penguin figure. These are similar in size to Color Blanks figures and provide a great blank canvas if you want to get really custom. These vinyl figures also have proportions much like a lot of the 8 and 16 bit video game characters which work great for recreating them.

Sculpting with Polymer Clay

I used some polymer clay to sculpt elements such as the helmet, right arm and parts of the arm cannon. I bake the clay on the figure at a slightly lower temp to prevent warping of the vinyl.

LED Powered Arm Cannon

I took a clip on light’s battery compartment and stripped it down to a very small container and wires. I then soldered on a resistor and smaller LED light. Small plastic gears and miscellaneous other spare parts were added to make the arm cannon more mechanical looking.

Spining Shaft (Power Source) in Chest

For additional effect I added a moving component in the chest of the Steampunk Megaman figure. I took a small electric motor saved from a broken printer and mounted it inside the head of the figure. The shaft of the motor goes down through the neck where I connected, offset and painted broken parts from a motherboard. It creates a great spinning effect. A wire passes through the back to cordless phone battery back, disguised as tanks, that powers the spinning chest shaft. This battery back is removable and rechargeable via a phone base.

Steampunk Megaman video

See a full rotation of the figure in the video below as well as the spinning motion of Steampunk Megaman’s chest.

Just for kicks here’s a picture of Steampunk Megaman and 8 bit Megaman vinyl figures.  Both figures started with the same basic Creatology vinyl figure.

I found this little snow man Color Blanks figure that seem to fit the bill. Once I got started it was a process of adding some polymer clay to his face and feet and putting him in my oven for a first baking. For your viewing pleasure below are some pics of the original snowman Color Blanks figure and the figure once I started applying clay.

The Start of my Color Blanks Leprechaun – A snow man figure!

Sculpting features of the leprechaun onto the snowman Color Blanks figure.

I was recently asked if it is safe to bake these figures and I don’t recommend baking them in the same oven that you cook food in. I bought a used Nuwave (infrared) oven that I cook my figures in. The Nuwave ovens are small, much cheaper than buying a real second oven and will trap any fumes produced by the figure.

With the leprechaun Color Blanks figure, after the first baking I applied base coats of  acrylic paint to the hat, face and body. After the paint was thoroughly dry I sculpted the leprechaun’s jacket and beard. I then took the Color Blanks figure and put it in the oven for a second baking. It is important to note that I cook my figures with acrylic paint as well. As long as the underlying figure does not warp, the paint will hold up to the temperature.

With a few final paint & marker touch-ups, my Color Blanks Leprechaun figure is all set to go. Have a great St. Patty’s day!

The finished leprechaun Color Blanks figure.

This Megaman custom vinyl figure started as a penguin Creatology figure that I got from  a Michaels craft store. They have a neat penguin figure that works as a great base and I have used before. See my Breath of Fire Ryu 4 vinyl figure; it uses the same Creatology figure.

Megaman and met custom vinyl figure

For this custom Megaman vinyl I started by modifying the head and removing the beak of the penguin. I then added some clay and smoothed it out. Next I gave the head a quick bake in the oven and then sanded the face to be smooth. Viola! No more penguin beak.

The rest of the process was sculpting basic shapes and painting basic colors to reflect the Megaman seen in the original 8 bit Nintendo games. I finished my Megaman vinyl figure off with some wiggly eyes.

This Christmas-inspired Frost Santa Color Blanks figure started as a large snow man with a LED light inside of it. I like RoseArt’s idea of the light-up figures and they look really cool with the pens colored on them as well. In the case of sculpting polymer clay onto the Color Blanks figure, the LED light does not show up well. It either has to be relocated or removed.

To make my Frost Santa Color Blanks figure I took the snow man figure and removed the LED light. Not to worry though, I am definitely saving it for another project. I sculpted some white and red polymer clay onto the snow man and turned it into a Santa Claus figure. After Some light blue and white acrylic paint I added snow flake details with light blue Color Blanks pens. Voila! My Frost Santa Color Blanks Figure is complete and has now joined our huge family of Christmas decorations.

Frost Santa Color Blanks Figure

Thanksgiving cornucopia Color Blanks figure

I started with a figure that had a can body shape. RoseArt was kind enough to send me some really cool and interesting figures to choose from this round and the can inspired me to create a cornucopia Color Blanks figure. I used polymer clay to modify the shape, acrylic paint for some color and Color Blanks pens for some details.

I then stuffed the Cornucopia’s open belly with all kinds of Kawaii style fruit & vegatables sculpted out of polymer clay. My 5 year old daughter who loves scuplting and drawing gave me a hand on this figure and helped sculpt many of the fruits and vegetables.

Thanksgiving cornucopia Color Blanks figure

Green and Gray Hulk Color Blanks figures

While the story of the green and gray hulks has evolved into different incarnations of the same entity, they are often depicted quite differently. I wanted capture some of these differences in my little hulk Color Blanks figures. Both of these hulk Color Blanks were customized using vinyl figures, polymer clay, acrylic paint and Color Blanks markers.

Green and Gray Hulk Color Blanks figures

If you want to see some tips on vinyl figure customization, check out some of my other Color Blanks posts below.

Little Pumkin Girl Color Blanks Figure

Mix and matching color blanks figures

For this Color Blanks figure, I created a pumpkin hat, ghost balloon, pumpkin vine hair, a black dress and a little decorative pumkin out of polymer clay. She is painted with acrylic paints. The grassy stand is made out of a scrub pad.

This little pumpkin girl Color Blanks figure provides quite a cheerful contrast to my other Halloween Color Blanks. If you haven’t seen my Zombie Color Blanks figure check that out too. Thanks for taking a look!

Zombie Color Blanks Figure

Step One: Creating a Plan for the Color Blanks Figure

The first thing I did was get a mockup of how wanted the figure to look.  In this particular case what I did was pose the figure in the coffin and then take a photograph so I would have an idea of how it would stand and how I would sculpt it more as a composition.  

Egg Head Color Blanks Figure in Coffin

Step Two: Disassembling and Modifying the Figure

As I do with all my figures, one of the earliest things I did in the creation process is take the figure apart and then start making any necessary cuts on the figure. For my zombie Color Blank I wanted to have the eyes glow so I needed to make holes in the eyes to see lights through. This also complimented the sculpting process because  I wanted to have some decay and have it look somewhat skeletonized.

Taking Apart the Color Blanks Figure

I cut the nose hole and eye holes and I also cut out a part of the head where it would have the brain exposed. Doing this also gave me a good area to work inside the head where I would be feeding wires for LED glowing eyes.

Step Three: Polymer Clay Sculpting

Sculpting is always my favorite part of modifying the Color Blanks figures. I really had fun sculpting clay onto the face to make my decaying zombie.  I added little black pieces that were fitted into the eye and nose cavity. There were small holes made in the eye pieces to connect the lights.  

Sculpting the brain that would be exposed out of the broken part of the skull was definitely a tricky part. The brain had to be sculpted larger than the hole and while the clay was soft I bent and place it inside the head.  I then fit it to the location of the opening of the skull as if I was patching it closed. Next I released it from the side of the head and left it free floating when I gave the head a baking in the oven. This way I still had room to work with wiring and then glue the brain up fitted when completing the figure.

sculpting polymer clay on the zombie color blanks figure

Step Four: Paint Base Coating

After items had been cut, reassembled and put back together, it was time to give the zombie a base coating of acrylic paint. The zombie was coated in greens and blues.

Zombie Color Blanks Base Coating

Step Five: Detail Painting and Sculpting of the Hair

I made and attached simple strands of black polymer clay hair after I finished up detail painting highlights and shadows with various acrylics. For the coffin I painted brown and gray acrylic paint and then poured on rubbing alcohol to the still wet paint. This can create various aging and cracking effects in the paint depending on the ratio. It helped to give more of an aged looked to the coffin. The alcohol itself evaporates away. One of the zombie’s arms was cut in half and then a piece of wire and hot glue was added to create bone tissue. For the rotting chest area, I cut a hole in the chest and used hot glue to make exposed ribs.

Zombie Color Blanks Details

Step Six: Wiring Up the LED lights in the Color Blanks Figure

I added a rocker switch to the back of the coffin, added a connector for a 9V battery and some wires to go up to connect the LEDs inside the head. I then assembled the Color Blank Zombie figure back together. The battery was housed inside the coffin. If you are not much for wiring RoseArt has new illuminated Color Blanks figures that come with LEDs that make them glow!

Wiring for Zombie Color Blanks Figure

Finishing Touches

Once the figure was completed, the LEDs were tested and then I took a hot glue gun and started making strands of webbing all over of the coffin. An easy way to do this is to add globs of hot glue to an area and let it cool for a few seconds and then take the glue gun and touch the glue. The glue will stick and allow you to stretch it down to another area. Repeating this process the hot glue will be stringy and will stretch out to create web-like strings.  Thanks for taking a look!

Zombie Color Blanks Figure

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.