Hi guys, so I finally decided to post a custom literally for the first time, ever. Who better to do than one of my favourite mainstream Batman villains, Ra's al Ghul? I just got him from the post office today and I have another one on the way just so I could have one that was still "as the manufacturer intended" and one that I customized.
First I sanded the heck out of him and shaved off his eyebrows. Man, he looks rough here.
Then I did some sculpting. I gave him extra hair to reduce his widow's peak hairline because it didn't quite look right to me. I also added some longer sideburn but I didn't want to go full mutton chop since I was going for more of a cross between Neal Adams and Batman TAS. I also ended up cutting off even more of his "mustache" and resculpted his Fu Manchu facial hair to more closely resemble the comics. I also added those two circular button thingies that he's got on the rope that holds his cape.
I carved out a bit of his jacket so that he could have exposed cuffs and I carefully applied paint to his cuffs. Then I painted the button things gold, his facial hair black, I added some grey to his wing tips and repainted his entire face a flesh tone. Finally, I painstakingly painted the black mascara looking stuff around his eyes which was insanely nerve wracking for me to do since if I made one bad move, I could paint the whites of his eyes and be screwed.
I tried to paint them as cleanly as possible. Finally, I was done. I'm fairly happy with how this one turned out although there were a few things I wish I did better and I'll probably go back and tweak them later but overall, I like it a lot better than when I first took him out of the box and I'll happily put him on my shelf which isn't something I normally do because I usually like to have retail stuff on my shelf only and customs go into a tub never to be seen again unless they're of somebody that hasn't been made yet.
I also didn't really add any washes except for the blue in the hair because I like my customs to look as close to retail as I can make them and their paint apps are usually pretty flat colours.
Here's a front shot of Ra's.
Here's a front/top shot of Ra's. I think it looks pretty cool from this angle.
Here's a closer up shot of Ra's who looks oddly like Willem Dafoe in this shot.
Here's a bonus picture with Ra's taking on Bats.
And there you have it, my first ever custom I've ever posted online. Hope you guys like it!