𝙒𝙚𝙯𝙡𝙚𝙞𝙞 :)

It was important to me that the colors wouldn't just be all black and silver. I wanted something that would pop and also keep a good Nutcracker aesthetic. I biased the color scheme off of some early 1970s Marvel Star Wars comic looks for Vader. They couldn't just use black ink back then so he was more of a Dark Blue with light blue highlights.

I got a blank nutcracker base to use since I have never worked with one before. I had a circular piece of wood that I used as the Helmet before adding some air dry clay to. I had to saw off the original head of the nutcracker to make sure the Helmet would fit on the shoulders.

I was able to follow my usual steps of sanding, cleaning, priming, and painting from there. Everything really just fell into place with this project. I wouldn't be opposed to making another nutcracker in the future.

After a lot of trial and error I think I'm finally starting to grasp how to paint convincing looking skin tones. I always have had difficulty combining the right colors along with layering the paint correctly.

I've been working on this on and off for about a month. The project got put on hold for a good while due to a hurricane coming through my area and knocking out power for some time. Base figures are Marvel Legends Kingpin and SW Black Series Omega.

It took me an unreasonable amount of time to try to get the colors on Front as close as possible. It's difficult to recreate a digital sickly effect.

I used an old Sabertooth head and hands on a wrestler's body. The face, ears, fangs, lower pants, and body hair are all original sculpts.

Thanks for the kind words! It makes me happy when people say my work is inspiring, so thank you.

It's no wonder you have trouble finding figures on eBay. That site is good for some specific things you may want to look for, but I'd avoid it if you're going for the cheaper side since it's riddled with price gougers.

Starting with online sources, the two best sites for low prices are Walmart.com and Amazon. They frequently run sales on action figures in order to cycle older stock, so generally the products that are left are either items that didn't sell well initially or overstock items. As a result, most of the prices for action figures range anywhere from $9-$12 and even lower in some cases. The best way to keep track of when sales happen is to follow a toy news and deal social media account. I'll list some of the best and most reliable ones below.

Now the best retail stores for deals are going to be Walmart, Target, and Game Stop. All three stores are seemingly in a constant state of wanting to cycle out product, so you have a good chance to find good figures of any variety in their clearance sections respectively, however prices may vary depending on the store. Game Stop is a especially good location though since they frequently run deals on clearance items like buy one get one, and if you have an account with them you could potentially get items even cheaper than the reduced price.

Lastly I'd recommend any local Comic Shop or privately owned toy store for potential deals. It's common for collectors to sell access figures they may have or even whole collections to those type of businesses. Most modern Comic Shops have sections with used figures of all verities that are typically listed for a lower second hand rate. This, of course, depends on the store.

I hope you find this information helpful, and I hope I'll get a chance to see some of the things you'll make :)

For this project I used a super sculpy to sculpt the body from scratch. The limbs are an amalgam from a number of different base figures.

As I was making this I had to scramble last minute to redesign the clothes because Wayne made a big announcement about how he has a loincloth now. It worked out well in the end.

I took a bit of a break in the middle of working on these, so it took longer than usual to complete. It also didn't help that I botched the first coating of primer because I was trying a new method. Regardless, I'm happy with the results.

The base figure for the Employee is the Client Black Series and the straps are made from a WWE figure accessory. Everything else including the Helmet, shovel, and air tanks had to be made from scratch.

The Bracken base figure is the Marvel Legends Kro figure. I was able to repurpose a lot of original parts such as the Tendrils I used in place of the leaf-like parts. The face and back (where the Tendrils are attached) needed to be reshaped with Apoxie sculpt.