That wasn’t her first costume. She used to wear black, not red.
Here’s what I did about it:
That was easy. Completed late-2009.
NEXT WEEK: One of the worst sculpts ever gets the mod treatment.
Been quite a while, eh? Other features took over the site for a while, but now My Custom Mods is back! And it just so happens that this is one of my most ambitious mods of the series yet:
Normally, this is where I put a pic of the original figure — the “Before” shot. But this time, I wasn’t just modifying a sculpt. Instead, I was trying to substitute a whole character, dial, sculpt and all.
THIS is what I want.
Black Widow is a character who’s never been done right in HeroClix. This is what she does:
Nearly all versions of her are really good at #4 and part of #2, but not #1 and certainly all fail terribly at #3.
Well, it turns out that Gambit (Mutations & Monsters) is quite good at all those things:
So the lithe Russian gal I've coveted all this time is a really a dude with permanent 5:00 shadow? ...When did HeroClix start mimicking my personal life? ...Wait. Did I just type that out loud? OMG...
Anyway, I decided to replace his sculpt with Black Widow.
However.
Not only did I not want to dismantle my actual Black Widow (if I even had one at the time), but since this was going to be an unofficial version, I wanted to mod an entirely different sculpt to match.
Sharon Carter filled the bill.
So here’s what I did:
Completed late-2009. But more than a year later, I’ve still not played her in a game.
(Maybe it’s because I know that “she” is really a “he.” Just like…oh, I almost did it again.)
NEXT WEEK: Another white girl going black…sort of…
Kneeling in mid-air...?
I’ve never liked the “standing on the flight disk” pose in HeroClix. Ones like this are even worse. So when WizKids did away with the flight stands, I decided to do away with his.
Fits in my box better, too.
Completed late-2009.
NEXT WEEK: My first dial transplant.
OK, I would MUCH rather have gotten this character in the grittier Sandman Mystery Theatre revamp as opposed to this “Darkwing Duck” look.
It's as though the sculptor couldn't choose between the original 1940s DC Comics depiction and the more realistic 1990s Vertigo revamp/retcon.
And I toyed with the idea of doing a more substantial modification. But instead I decided to try a simple fix first:
Completed late-2009.
Unbelievably better with just that one dab.
NEXT MONDAY: another JSA member made good.
The 1990s were a stupid time in comics, full of stupid revamps and stupid new directions and stupid new powers and and stupid new costumes. Daredevil’s briefly-worn “armor” costume was among the stupidest of all.
But, I must admit…it did look cool. And when I saw this Experienced Daredevil dial sporting Toughness where no previous Daredevil had any at all, I figured this one must be this costume. So I decided to modify mine to match:
Front...
...and back. Photos by Antonio Cade.
Completed late-2009. Yep. It does look pretty cool.
NEXT MONDAY: A much less extensive repaint.
The dial is right...but the sculpt isn't.
While the Rookie and Experienced versions of this character both bear the “Destroyer” tagline and the Wing symbol, the vet version not only lacks both, but he has a radically different appearance:
He’s actually physically smaller than his more hulking Destroyer incarnation, but as initially drawn in the Guardians of the Galaxy, he’s still quite buff. That’s why I didn’t want to go the route many other talented modders did in choosing a smaller character to modify.
Longtime readers of Heroclixin’ will recall my Guardians of the Galaxy series and how their appearance in this game made me a fan of the comic. And, as this Mods series shows, I’m often motivated by a desire for comic-accuracy in doing these sculpt repaints and modifications.
In fact, Drax here was actually one of the first mods I revealed on this site, way back during my first Guardians of the Galaxy campaign. But now you get to learn the process:
Better now.
Completed late-2009, in time for my blitz of Guardians of the Galaxy teams that followed shortly after.
NEXT WEEK: A stupid revamp gets a cool mod.
This 2004 representation of the X-Man Rachel Summers is pretty good both from a playability and sculpt standpoint. But in 2007, a new version of Miss Summers was released in the Days Of Future Past action pack that looked even better, replacing the painted firebird effect with translucent plastic:
…representing her past life in the future as the mutant-tracking Hound.
(…It’s a long story.)
Unfortunately, Hound is appropriately named. She’s a dog. Her dial is probably the worst for her cost range in the whole game unless you can somehow ensure she lands on — and stays on — the two good clicks in the middle of her 10-click dial. With a DV that never tops 16, that’s a tall order.
Faced with this piece I was never gonna play with a sculpt that was even better than the good sculpt on a figure that I would play, I decided to make a change:
Completed late-2009.
NEXT WEEK: Finally learn the process behind one of the very first mods I showed off on this site, nearly a year ago…!
Just like the Robin half of Mod #12, the underside of the Boy Wonder’s cape was unpainted. In this case, the cape was even bigger and the omission all the more egregious. Here’s how I fixed it:
Not bad; I'd gotten better paint this time around. Completed late-2009.
Next Monday: A good old sculpt on a good dial gets a second life as an even better sculpt on a horrible dial. And that’s before I get my hands on it!
Strangely, Angel was the one X-Man that really caught my attention the first time I encountered the character in the episode of Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends: “A Firestar Is Born.” http://www.youtube.com/v/EF0rH2541Ew?version=3
But apparently (and as usual), my appreciation for a character without sooper kewl powers was a minority one. Angel was revamped into this garish Wolverine clone with metallic wings:
While I admittedly enjoyed the change because one of my longtime favorites was finally getting some respect, I was even more glad to see this cover several years later:
This was the version of Angel, then, that was current when the Danger Room set was conceived. (Or was it? I think his skin color had finally been changed back from blue to flesh by mid-decade.) But I wanted something more like the Angel of my youth. Even besides the blue skin, his feathers here are too dark. So here’s what I did:
I always preferred the red costume to the blue one, though, so I left that alone.
Completed mid-2009.
Next week: Fixing yet another WizKids production error on yet another bird-related character.
Next post: The first of one of those promised Atlantis battle reports.
Or is he Pepto-Bismol Man?
OK, yes, it’s true that Nimrod has always had a slightly pink shade:
And yes, in his then-recent appearances, that shade was being colored a bit more deeply pink. But come on, now! It’s plain that he’s 95% shaded white, not pink!
What makes it worse is that he’s almost correct on the actual set poster! (Couldn’t find a scan of it, though.) He’s translucent white except for the dark pink details of his face and chest.
When I finally got a Nimrod, I wanted to strip the pink paint off. But I feared getting some on the base details and accidentally stripping those off as well. There was also no guarantee that he was actually going to be the neutral color seen on the poster. So I chose to attempt a repaint instead:
Completed mid-2009.
It’s not a complete success, as I got fingerprints on it and never achieved the even coverage I sought. But it’s still a darn sight better than it was, and I suppose the fact that some of the pink still shows through is more character accurate than my original intent.
Next week: Another character painted white. But in a different way.
