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The 3d print production has started. I should have a batch shipped to me early November.
Head sculpture (BeastMaster) Mad Max (Mel Gibson) Sculpt
- Thread starter Luisenigma1
- Start date
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fallinlight
Member
I thought I'd share my Beastmaster head on my Road Warrior figure. I spent about 14 hours on the neck to get it just right, trying out some of my spare neck adapters. Was an arduous task, but I learned a good method in the end through trial and error. I usually just use cotton but this called for something firmer and solid. Then I just remembered Beast recommended using 16mm diameter rubber tubing upon seeing his post earlier in this thread. So, I might try that later. I sliced the chest and took out the neck adapter from inside already, anyway, so the body is all prepped now, at least. That said, I think I prefer my method perhaps, as the neck shape with my adapter is very close to Gibson's. It looks like the tubing will still keep a taper towards the top, which always annoys me with some necks, and also even after some modification methods.
It's a larger than usual head it seems and I think modifying any neck on the body of your choosing is a must, as I don't know of a stock one that would fit this head properly. The key is that Gibson had a wide and tall neck. Using references from the film and Beasts photos, I think I've gotten near screen-perfect with mine.
On my stock custom body, it looked very off and it was really bugging me. I initially tested the head on an AT011 when I got it a week or so ago and it also looked bad:
And this as on my Max figure, without modification:
I remembered how much of a difference the neck height and size can fix and improve a figures likeness, though, so I got to work. I tried a few adapters and settled on the largest half bowl type one I had which allows the head to fit almost perfectly on top:
Unfortunately, most of the head doesn't quite fit over the neck as it is about the exact same width as the new circumference of the neck. But can be fit pretty snug still with some mild heat and wiggling it lightly. I also couldn't fill gap beneath chin, so from side angles in certain lighting, as you will see, it doesn't look the best. But I think I've nailed Gisbon's neck from profile, head on. Really helps sell the his likeness and big improvement over the above, if you compare. I am much happier now. I've got sore fingers to rest now!
It's a larger than usual head it seems and I think modifying any neck on the body of your choosing is a must, as I don't know of a stock one that would fit this head properly. The key is that Gibson had a wide and tall neck. Using references from the film and Beasts photos, I think I've gotten near screen-perfect with mine.
On my stock custom body, it looked very off and it was really bugging me. I initially tested the head on an AT011 when I got it a week or so ago and it also looked bad:
And this as on my Max figure, without modification:
I remembered how much of a difference the neck height and size can fix and improve a figures likeness, though, so I got to work. I tried a few adapters and settled on the largest half bowl type one I had which allows the head to fit almost perfectly on top:
Unfortunately, most of the head doesn't quite fit over the neck as it is about the exact same width as the new circumference of the neck. But can be fit pretty snug still with some mild heat and wiggling it lightly. I also couldn't fill gap beneath chin, so from side angles in certain lighting, as you will see, it doesn't look the best. But I think I've nailed Gisbon's neck from profile, head on. Really helps sell the his likeness and big improvement over the above, if you compare. I am much happier now. I've got sore fingers to rest now!
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fallinlight
Member
With some cotton, or some heat and my needle-nose pliers, I can fine adjust the adapter and neck to articulate the head as I want. For now, I've settled on this brooding pose, similar to shots from the film:
I hope the above helps.
Wishing everyone a warm and Very Merry Christmas
I hope the above helps.
Wishing everyone a warm and Very Merry Christmas
Great work, and your outfit look particularly good.
Can you share what parts you use?
Can you share what parts you use?
fallinlight
Member
Kind thanks, @Wor-Gar. I am the second owner of the base body and I didn't put it together and modify (apart from the t-shirt a bit and neck) and weather it, all credit goes to the previous owner and customiser who did that, it's amazing work.
Body: the torso and legs of the body are from two separate figures for the right proportions and to fill out the Dark Toys outfit. He did a great job there, it's a solid body and very similar to Gibson's, with a very similar chest as you can see, for example. The chest is shaped like a Maha or DID Advanced 2.0. The arms are more muscular than Gibson's were but I think the trade-off is needed to fill out this outfit, even then the outfit still hangs too loose on his arms, but it certainly looks decent/ passable, I think and is good improvement over stock.
Clothing: the clothes are from three different 1/6 Max figures, as well as a couple of areas the previous owner did himself with leather. Most of the outfit is Dark Toys, apart from the rear hand axe pouch, axe and the tire wrench and pouch, which are from the Premier Toys Max, which was switched out to have real material and accessories.
I will see about cutting his right sleeve the correct way, but it might take off too much material and then look worse, so will have to review this carefully first.
Weathering and other modifications/ enhancements:
Pleather outfit: the outfit was heavily weathered with various rust, dust and dirt paint details added, with a 'dust' acrylic colour mixture of the customiser's own.
T-Shirt: Max's T-shirt was cut and ripped to screen-accuracy at the neck line and the left breast area, which is torn in the film. I improved the neck line by fine trimming loose hairs and getting the shape closer to the film.
Shotgun: Max's sawed-off shotgun was weathered including with metallic scrapes, as well as grip wrapping added.
Leg brace: The stabiliser portion of the leg brace below the knee was reinforced and enhanced, as that aspect had been missing on the brace. Testers paint in a chrome was used to paint the brace to make it appear more metallic. An acrylic silver metallic top coat of paint went over that, since the Testers can be a little grimy. However, it is rubbing off easily, so I will need to seal it with a sealant.
Arm rag: the red arm rag, which was a cheap ribbon on the Dark Toys figure was also been replaced with an actual rag piece
Other accessories: Max's boot knife and all accessories, etc., have been weathered and in some areas, given stronger connections, such as the binoculars.
Max's Dog: The dog was re-painted to be closer to the actual colouring in the film.
There might be some other things that were done but I am not sure. If I think it safe to, I will treat all of the pleather with Aerospace 303, which I use for any pleather, it should be fine.
I hope that helps
fallinlight
Member
fallinlight
Member
@magpie, thanks for sharing your figure, looks awesome. Superb, cosy dio for Max, too, lots to take in and appreciate in it. I recognise the backdrop from a seller online and I think the base, too. I'll eventually put together a nice dio for mine, too.
I see you also wore some paint off the top of your neck, too, ha ha. I'll probably get my painter to touch that up on mine. What body are you using and is there a gap beneath the chin of the head like mind? Maybe I can try to stuff that area if I wrap some rubber tubing around part of my neck adapter, but I don't like overhandling things and repeating processes like what I did for my mod too many times, it becomes quite high risk. Perhaps approaching it from beneath might be better, but then I'd have to undress the torso again. Again, that is a risk now as the DTs vest is very tight to get on/ off on the custom body.
I see you also wore some paint off the top of your neck, too, ha ha. I'll probably get my painter to touch that up on mine. What body are you using and is there a gap beneath the chin of the head like mind? Maybe I can try to stuff that area if I wrap some rubber tubing around part of my neck adapter, but I don't like overhandling things and repeating processes like what I did for my mod too many times, it becomes quite high risk. Perhaps approaching it from beneath might be better, but then I'd have to undress the torso again. Again, that is a risk now as the DTs vest is very tight to get on/ off on the custom body.
I can’t actually remember what body this is on, did it all quite a while ago. The neck is fine I think it’s just the light that makes it look like a rub. I literally just popped off my Cult King head I was using and put the Beastmaster head on with a bit of blu tack. I’ll sort it properly once it’s painted.
fallinlight
Member
Hey @<BEASTMASTER>, hope you are well. Just tracking back through the thread and re-read the above. I think the neck on my body was similar to the VTS/ DAM one above but even after making it larger, I have a significant gap below the chin. Did you keep the neck hole tight as you said above, or did you end up making it larger? I'm trying to think of a way to close the gap. I might have to re-do re-work my neck adapter, or try stuffing that area of the neck if I can. But I don't think I can widen it forwards any more, that adapter was the largest I had and it is extremely tight in there as it is.
Thanks
fallinlight
Member
So, I ended up damaging the neck of the above chest with my pliers trying to widen it some more at the front to close that ugly gap. Too bad for me to be happy using it as is. I took the opportunity to try something I had in mind before which was making small slits to the reae of the neck to make it easoer to fit things inside to expand it. It worked but the slits showed.
I am pretty stuck to this body, since the bottom of the leg brace is hot glued to so the boots. And I, nor the seller knows what make or model torso he used for me to try to replace it. I stopped to gather my thoughts and ideas.
I thought to try a necked head as that was the only safe solution. I still may do if I can and pair it with the other chest after cutting it down for necked head.
Then I thought to give a spare chest I have another go, it is very soft, unlike most chests and thus, very easy to work with. I fixed him and magically got him even better than before using with the chest I never thought I would have a good use for. I didn't want to give up the other chest, which is very nice and a great match for Gibson's but I had to give this a go.
The neck now fits almost perfectly and I have full and safe articulation of the head this time using a long neck peg. I just wasn't at rest with how the head was fitting and looked overall/ from the sides before. Futzing is easier it seems and even his jacket fits better, for example the collar.
Proportions seem a bit better now and everything is more uniform. Also gained more leeway to futz and expose more chest and t shirt like in the film. That may be due to the chest and it actually being too small for the torso, and or just its different proportions to the previous one, I reckon. The Dark Toys jacket seems to sit a bit higher at the collar amd the flap area does not appear to be quite screen accurate, as there is more chest exposednin the film. So, pulling the jacket open a bit and stretching the leather out a bit in places was the key to exposing more of his chest. The caveat is that if you.do that too much, then the collar position and size end up being too large and mis-positioned compared to the film. On that note, one thing I like about the DTs outfit is that it is quite manageable and easy to futz. A shame it can't be wet/ submerged in water lile real leather can and left sleeve isn't longer, as I would have winkled it lile the film if so.
It was trial and error with the neck and took many hours again. I ended up using 2x specific neck adapters to get the best shape and foundation I could for the head. Plus a long neck peg for stabilising the head and articulation. If I can get, or make a plug adapter for the neck peg, then I won't need to remove the head at all to articulate and it will be even sturdier on the neck.
I'd need to try and get the chest paint matched to the arms.
This goes to show that scraps, parts and things you least expect to work can work the best and fix an issue. It also proves again, that working to the qualities/ aspects of the outfit is always the endgame and what may be most important. That said, I think the proportions are very similar to Gibson overall. I might need to ideally shave a few mm off his height if I really wanted to go another level, since Gibson was a tad sborter than the likes of Harrison Ford, but I can't. I feel accomplished.
I am pretty stuck to this body, since the bottom of the leg brace is hot glued to so the boots. And I, nor the seller knows what make or model torso he used for me to try to replace it. I stopped to gather my thoughts and ideas.
I thought to try a necked head as that was the only safe solution. I still may do if I can and pair it with the other chest after cutting it down for necked head.
Then I thought to give a spare chest I have another go, it is very soft, unlike most chests and thus, very easy to work with. I fixed him and magically got him even better than before using with the chest I never thought I would have a good use for. I didn't want to give up the other chest, which is very nice and a great match for Gibson's but I had to give this a go.
The neck now fits almost perfectly and I have full and safe articulation of the head this time using a long neck peg. I just wasn't at rest with how the head was fitting and looked overall/ from the sides before. Futzing is easier it seems and even his jacket fits better, for example the collar.
Proportions seem a bit better now and everything is more uniform. Also gained more leeway to futz and expose more chest and t shirt like in the film. That may be due to the chest and it actually being too small for the torso, and or just its different proportions to the previous one, I reckon. The Dark Toys jacket seems to sit a bit higher at the collar amd the flap area does not appear to be quite screen accurate, as there is more chest exposednin the film. So, pulling the jacket open a bit and stretching the leather out a bit in places was the key to exposing more of his chest. The caveat is that if you.do that too much, then the collar position and size end up being too large and mis-positioned compared to the film. On that note, one thing I like about the DTs outfit is that it is quite manageable and easy to futz. A shame it can't be wet/ submerged in water lile real leather can and left sleeve isn't longer, as I would have winkled it lile the film if so.
It was trial and error with the neck and took many hours again. I ended up using 2x specific neck adapters to get the best shape and foundation I could for the head. Plus a long neck peg for stabilising the head and articulation. If I can get, or make a plug adapter for the neck peg, then I won't need to remove the head at all to articulate and it will be even sturdier on the neck.
I'd need to try and get the chest paint matched to the arms.
This goes to show that scraps, parts and things you least expect to work can work the best and fix an issue. It also proves again, that working to the qualities/ aspects of the outfit is always the endgame and what may be most important. That said, I think the proportions are very similar to Gibson overall. I might need to ideally shave a few mm off his height if I really wanted to go another level, since Gibson was a tad sborter than the likes of Harrison Ford, but I can't. I feel accomplished.
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fallinlight
Member
UPDATE: Upon further reflection, I still wasn't 100% happy with the above. Went back to try the first chest, which I think is better and figured out a way to close the gap, which is to just stuff some cotton inside behind the Adam's apple. But the neck is too far gone now, really with the damages I made, so I think I will just try to get a necked head at this stage and try to make that work with the first chest.
If anyone ends up selling a necked head, I would be very interested. Happy to also consider trading my clean head only for one, thanks.
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