CobraCrimson's G.I.Joe Customizing Ideas and Tutorials

2009-12-03T13:23:00.000-08:00

Cobra Crimson Guard Urban Assault Strike Team Light Attack Tank continued..............

After the black camouflage had dried, I added silver details and then assembled the tank. Added stickers from the Hasbro sheet for the Armadillo along with Crimson Guard logos and silver Cobra symbols from cobrastickers.com and some custom home made ones for the Urban Assault logos.

Custom Cobra Crimson Guard Urban Assault Strike Team Light Attack Tank "recipe"

Entire Vehicle - G.I.Joe Armadillo Tank (2008 25th Anniversary Vehicle Sets, Wave 1 {Serpentor/Air Chariot and Steeler/Armadillo})

Paints used:

Krylon Fusion Satin Burgandy Spray Paint

Krylon Satin Black Interior/Exterior Acrylic Paint

Tamiya XF-1 (Flat Black)

Tamiya X-11 (Chrome Silver)

2009-12-02T11:51:00.000-08:00

Cobra Crimson Guard Urban Assault Strike Team Light Attack Tank

This is the second of the custom vehicles that I did for the Crimson Urban Assault Strike Team. This one was based on a G.I.joe Armadillo tank and was completely taken appart. I started by spraying the body and turret pieces of the tank with Krylon Fusion Satin Burgandy. Then after that had dried, I started to paint the black camouflage and the silver details.

Continued in tomorrow's post.....................

2009-11-17T08:09:00.000-08:00

Cobra Crimson Guard Urban Assault Strike Team Heavy Battle Tank continued.............

After the satin black camouflage had dried, I painted the rest of the detail applications on th etank. The raised conduit running all over the tank, engine fans and cooling vents, bolts, rivets, tools, etc. were all painted. Then the rest of the stickers went on and it was time to put the tank back together again.

Custom Cobra Crimson Guard Urban Assault Strike Team Heavy Battle Tank "recipe"

Complete Tank - G.I.Joe Mobat (2008 25th Anniversary Target Exclusive Ultimate Battle Pack)

Paints used:

Krylon Fusion Satin Burgandy Spray Paint

Krylon Fusion Satin Black Spray Paint

Krylon Color Creations Satin Black Indoor/Outdoor Paint (#KDQ5105)
Tamiya XF-1 (Flat Black)

Tamiya X-1 (Gloss Black)

Tamiya X-9 (Brown)

Tamiya X-11 (Chrome Silver)

2009-11-16T20:24:00.000-08:00

Cobra Crimson Guard Urban Assault Strike Team Heavy Battle Tank continued........

After some of the detail paint apps had dried, I used a soft tip pencil to draw the outlines for the camouflage on the tank. I then used satin black acrylic paint and filled in the camo patterns. This took multiple coats with the black since it's fairly thin. I painted the camouflage with the tank "mocked up" so the pattern would flow the right way and not be off from the other parts.

Then after the black camouflage paint had dried, I applied some Cobra and Crimson Guard logo stickers.

Continued in tomorrow's post.......................

2009-11-14T13:12:00.000-08:00

Cobra Crimson Guard Urban Assault Strike Team Heavy Battle Tank continued.......

After the flat grey primer had dried, I sprayed those parts with Krylon Fusion Satin Burgandy and some with Krylon Fusion Satin Black too. Then, after they the coats had dried, I did some detail paint work on some of the parts and then mocked the main parts of the tank up to decided on the camouflage pattern. I used a pencil and softly drew the desired patterns on the tank so I'd know where to paint the black for the camouflage. Here's some pics:

To be continued in next post............

2009-11-12T18:31:00.000-08:00

Cobra Crimson Guard Urban Assault Strike Team Heavy Battle Tank (U.A.S.T.H.B.T.)

I liked the idea of the Crimson Guard Strike Team and wanted to make some vehicles for them. Before I finished taking this Mobat appart, I had decided to make this a special branch of the Crimson Guard Strike Team and call it the Crimson Guard Urban Assault Strike Team. I had decided the colors would be the Burgandy with Black urban style camoflauge.

For those that aren't aware of what this custom actually looked like before the whole project, here is 2 pics of what the 25th Anniversary G.I.Joe Mobat Tank looks like:

So, after taking it completely appart, I seperated the pieces to show them once taken appart so you get an idea of what's involved.

Then, it was on to the primer. Using Flat Grey Primer spray paint, I coated the main body, underbody, main turret and small turret(turrets are not pictured with primer).

To be continued in tomorrow's post..................................

2009-11-11T20:09:00.000-08:00

Cobra Viper Officer (Arctic Outfit) continued from yesterday's post.........

After the flat white paint had dried, it was time to do some detail paint apps. I painted the details on his inner thighs, outter thighs, vest and faceshield with sky blue and also used gold for his lenses on his goggles and flat black for trim on his inner and outter thighs and the belt & some pockets on his vest along with the grenades on his vest. I glued his torso back together and placed a red Cobra symbol sticker from cobrastickers.com on his vest to finish him off.

Custom Cobra Arctic Viper Officer "recipe"

Head/Goggles - Viper Pilot (2008 25th Anniversary Vehicle Set, Wave 3 {Fang/Claw})

Rest of figure - Desert Explosives Trooper (2008 25th Anniversary Internet Exclusive Desert Conditions 7 pack)

Rifle - Viper (2008 25th Anniversary Single Carded Figures, Wave 7)

Paints used:

Flat Grey Primer Spray Paint

Flat white Spray Paint

Tamiya XF-1 (Flat Black)

Tamiya X-11 (Chrome Silver)

Tamiya X-12 (Gold Leaf)

Tamiya X-14 (Sky Blue)

2009-11-10T14:35:00.000-08:00

Cobra Viper Officer (Arctic Outfit)

Next up in the Cobra arctic customs was this Viper Officer. Using the same basis as the Arctic Viper for this one, I started with an Internet exclusive Desert Explosives Trooper and popped him appart. I then sprayed the torso, arms and upper legs with flat grey primer. Then sprayed them with flat white after they dried.

to be continued in tomorrow's post.....................

2009-11-05T11:25:00.000-08:00

Cobra Viper (Arctic Outfit) continued from yesterday....................

After the flat grey primer and flat white had dried, it was time to add some detail paint. I painted the inner thigh padding with grey and red along with the stripes and pouches on the outer legs. The vest was painted with grey and flat black and received a red Cobra symbol sticker from cobrastickers.com to finish it off. I also painted the lense pieces on his goggles with flat red and the sides of his knees above the boots with flat white.

Then it was final assembly time and re-glued the torso. Decided to give him some different gear for the arctic too. He still has his typical standard issue Viper rifle, but I gave him a Snow Serpent backpack with missile launcher and skis and poles so he can be an arctic ski-patrol Viper.

Custom Arctic Ski-Patrol Viper "recipe"

Head/Goggles - Viper Pilot (2008 25th Anniversary Vehicle Sets, Wave 3 {Fang/Claw})

Rest of Figure - Desert Explosives Trooper (2008 25th Anniversary Internet Exclusive Desert Conditions 7 pack)

Backpack - Snow Serpent (2008 25th Anniversary Single Carded Figures, Wave 9)

Skis/Poles - Snow Job (2008 25th Anniversary Single Carded Figures, Wave 5)

Paints used:

Flat Grey Primer Spray Paint

Flat white Spray Paint

Tamiya XF-1 (Flat Black)

Tamiya XF-7 (Flat Red)

Tamiya XF-19 (Sky Grey)

Tamiya X-11 (Chrome Silver)

2009-11-04T11:05:00.000-08:00

Cobra Viper (Arctic Outfit)

Another of my vast line of Cobra Arctic customs was this Viper. I didn't like the 25th Anniversary Arctic Vipers that Hasbro released with the Internet Exclusive Arctic Conditions 7 pack so I decided to make my own. I started with a 25th Anniversary Internet Exclusive Desert Conditions 7 pack Explosives Trooper and popped him appart. I then sprayed the body pieces with flat grey primer and after that had dried, sprayed them with flat white.

Continued in tomorrow's post...................

2009-11-03T13:37:00.000-08:00

Major Bludd (Arctic Outfit) continued from yesterday.....................

After painting the neck flesh color and detailling his jacket and thigh pads with the flat black, I dremeled out the inside of the cut "bionic" right arm of Major Bludd so it would fit on the glove/hand peg from the arctic Snake Eyes forearm piece and then once it was the right size, glued it onto the peg and end of the forearm piece with Lok-Tite. I also had to dremel out the inside of the back part of the hood to allow Major Bludd's helmet to fit on his head. Then, I mounted the legs onto the lower torso halve and put the bottom of the jacket piece on. Then I put the arms and the lower torso with legs and jacket bottom into the upper torso and glued the torso halves back together. After the glue had dried, I put his dog tags around his neck and glued the hood on and then popped his head/helmet on.

Custom Arctic Major Bludd "recipe"

Head/helmet/dog tags/gun/backpack - Major Bludd (2008 25th Anniversary Internet Exclusive Desert Extreme 7 pack Set)

Lower right "bionic" arm and legs - Major Bludd (2008 25th Anniversary Single Carded Figures, Wave 8)

Torsos/Hood/Right Upper and Forearm/Left Arm and Hand/Jacket Bottom - Snake Eayes (Arctic) (2008 25th Anniversary Single Carded Figures, Wave 8)

Paints used:

Flat Grey Primer Spray Paint

Tamiya XF-1 (Flat Balck)

Tamiya XF-15 (Flat Flesh)

Tamiya X-11 (Chrome Silver)

2009-11-02T10:27:00.000-08:00

Major Bludd (Arctic Outfit)

Another of my custom arctic Cobra figures, Major Bludd! Using yet another arctic Snake Eyes for the basis of this custom, I popped it appart and used the hood, upper and lower torsos, upper right arm, left arm and bottom of jacket. For the Major Bludd parts, I used the head, helmet, dog tags, legs, lower right "bionic" arm cut off just above the elbow area and gun with backpack.

I sprayed the jacket pieces with flat grey primer and decided to leave them that color and add flat black details to the buttons, belt and trim.

To be continued in tomorrow's post.............................

2009-10-31T09:27:00.000-07:00

Copperhead (Arctic Outfit) continued from yesterday's post....................

I painted over the Snow Serpent torso and arms and Copperhead legs with German Grey and the "fur" on the shoulders and hands was painted flat black. I did some detail painting to his helmet with silver and flat black as well as on his legs. I glued the torso back together and added some final touchups and the red Cobra symbol sticker to his left arm from cobrastickers.com.

Custom Arctic Copperhead "recipe"

Head, shoulder harness, belt, legs, weapons - Copperhead (2008 25th Anniversary Comic Packs, Wave 4 {Shipwreck/Copperhead})

Torsos, arms, hands, shoulder "fur" - Snow Serpent (2008 25th Anniversary Single Carded Figures, Wave 9)

Paints used:

Tamiya XF-1 (Flat Black)

Tamiya XF-63 (German Grey)

Tamiya X-11 (Chrome Silver)

2009-10-30T17:29:00.000-07:00

Copperhead (Arctic Outfit)

Next in my arctic Cobra customs arsenal was Copperhead. After watching the Sunbow G.I.Joe cartoon from the 1980's and seeing Cobra using Killer Whale hovercrafts in the arctic, I thought that Copperhead would be piloting one of those for sure and decided to make this figure.

I started with a 25th Anniversary Snow Serpent and popped his head and webgear off and took his legs off too. I then took a 25th Anniversary comic pack Copperhead and took his head, webgear, rifle and legs off. I popped the Snow Serpent torso appart too for better painting applications. This figure unlike the previous arctic customs did not use any spray paint.

Continued in tomorrow's post.............................

2009-10-29T12:55:00.000-07:00

Crimson Guard Troopers (Arctic Outfits) continued from yesterday's post..................

After the flat white had dried, I added flat red details and painted their shoulder pads grey along with the buttons on their chests and gloved hands. The masks were painted with flat white and trimmed with flat black. The eyepieces were painted silver.

All 3 of the Troopers are the same as far as the paint apps go. Put them all back together and finished off the Arctic Crimson Guard Squad of 5.

Used red Cobra symbol stickers on their chests from cobrastickers.com

Custom Arctic Crimson Guard Troopers "recipe"

Entire Figure - Desert Crimson Guard (2008 25th Anniversary Internet exclusive Extreme Conditions Desert 7 pack)

Paints used:

Flat Grey Primer Spray Paint

Flat White Spray Paint

Tamiya XF-1 (Flat Black)

Tamiya XF-2 (Flat White)

Tamiya XF-7 (Flat Red)

Tamiya XF-66 (Light Grey)

Tamiya X-11 (Chrome Silver)

2009-10-28T13:48:00.000-07:00

Crimson Guard Troopers (Arctic Outfit)

The last of the Arctic Crimson Guards were 3 Troopers made the same way as the Officer and Squad Leader were. Starting with 3 Desert Crimson Guard troopers, I popped them appart and then sprayed them with flat grey primer. After the primer had dried, they were sprayed with flat white.

Continued in tomorrow's post........................................

2009-10-27T13:56:00.000-07:00

Crimson Guard Squad Leader (Arctic Outfit) continued from yesterday.............

After the parts were painted with the flat grey primer, they got a coat of flat white spray paint. The mask, chest piece, tops of backpack and detail on cuffs were painted with light grey, the trim around the mask and chest piece as well as the buttons on chest piece and backpack and stripes on the sides of the legs were painted on with flat black. The cuffs were painted with flat red and the emblem on the helmet and eye spot were painted with silver. I glued the torso back together and painted his arm badge flat black and gold, added a red Cobra symbol sticker on his chest and he was finished.

Custom Arctic Crimson Guard Squad Leader "recipe"

Entire Figure - Crimson Guard (2008 25th Anniversary Internet exclusive Extreme Conditions Desert 7 pack)

Paints used:

Flat grey Primer Spray Paint

Flat White Spray Paint

Tamiya XF-1 (Flat Black)

Tamiya XF-7 (Flat Red)

Tamiya XF-66 (Light Grey)

Tamiya X-11 (Chrome Silver)

2009-10-26T11:08:00.000-07:00

Crimson Guard Squad Leader (Arctic Outfit)

Next in my army of Arctic Cobra customs was the Crimson Guard Squad Leader. Using the same basis as the arctic Crimson Guard Officer, I used the Internet exclusive Desert Crimson Guard for this custom figure. I used the same colors mostly for the Squad Leader too. The above pics are of the figure popped appart and sprayed with the flat grey primer.

Continued in tomorrow's post........................

2009-10-25T12:29:00.000-07:00

Crimson Guard Officer (Arctic Outfit) continued from yesterday.................

After the flat grey primer was dried, I applied the flat white spray paint and let it dry. Using sky grey, added the camoflauge and painted the mask and ropes hanging from shoulder pad with sky blue. For the chest, shoulder pads, wrist trim, leg stripes, trim around mask on helmet and backpack trim, I used flat black. Also added gold to the helmet, shoulder pads, buttons and medals on chest, arm patch and backpack. Then came time to reassemble him and glue the torso back together. Added a silver Cobra symbol sticker to his chest from cobrastickers.com for the finishing touch.

Custom Arctic Crimson Guard Officer "recipe"

Entire Figure - Crimson Guard (Desert) (2008 25th Anniversary Internet exclusive Extreme Conditions Desert 7-pack)

Paints used:

Flat Grey Primer Spray Paint

Flat White Spray Paint

Tamiya XF-1 (Flat Black)

Tamiya XF-15 (Flat Flesh)

Tamiya XF-19 (Sky Grey)

Tamiya X-11 (Chrome Silver)

Tamiya X-12 (Gold Leaf)

Tamiya X-14 (Sky Blue)

2009-10-24T08:28:00.000-07:00

Crimson Guard Officer (Arctic Outfit)

The 4th arctic Cobra custom figure that I did was a Crimson Guard Officer based on the Desert Conditions Crimson Guard from the Internet exclusive set from 2008. I wrapped the figure in a sock and stuck it inside a bench vise and carefully closed the jaws until the figure popped appart. The sock is used to keep the pieces from flying when the glue pops and also to help protect the figure from getting marked-up from the jaws. Here's what the figure looked like after being popped appart and the lower arms being taken off with the boil-and-pop method.

Next, I applied the flat grey primer spray paint to the majority of the parts.

Continued in tomorrow's post...........................

2009-10-23T15:35:00.000-07:00

Cobra Trooper (Arctic Outfit)

The third arctic custom Cobra that I did was this Cobra Trooper. Using the same basis as the previous arctic Cobra Officer and Cobra Commander with the Snake Eyes (arctic) upper/lower torso, hood, bottom of jacket and arms/hands. As with the Cobra Officer's hood, this one had to be dremeled out to allow the helmet to fit properly. I used the head from the Internet exclusive Desert Extreme Cobra 7 pack set Explosives Trooper and repainted the mask flat black. The legs, helmet and knife were from a wave 2 Cobra Trooper.

Custom Arctic Cobra Trooper "recipe"

Head - Desert Explosives Specialist Trooper (2008 25th Anniversary Internet exclusive Extreme Conditions Desert Cobra 7 pack)

Helmet, legs and knife - Cobra Trooper (2007 25th Anniversary Single Carded Figures, Wave 2)

Rest of Figure - Snake eyes (Arctic) (2008 25th Anniversary Single Carded Figures, Wave 8)

Paints used:

Flat Grey Primer Spray Paint

Flat White Spray Paint

Tamiya XF-1 (Flat Balck)

Tamiya X-11 (Chrome Silver)

2009-10-22T13:29:00.000-07:00

Cobra Officer (Arctic Outfit)

The second of my arctic custom Cobras, an Officer. Used the same basis for this as I did with the Arctic Cobra Commander, Snake Eyes (Arctic) upper/lower torso, arms, bottom of jacket and hood. I used wave 1 single carded figure Cobra Officer head, helmet, legs and knife but repainted the mask and knee pads flat black insted of grey. Had to use a dremel and remove some of the plastic on the inside of the back part of Snake Eye's hood to allow the helmet to sit properly on the Officer's head.

Sprayed the Snake Eyes parts with flat grey primer, then after it had dried applied the flat white spray paint. Then used flat black and silver for the buttons, belt and belt buckle. Put him back together again and reglued his torso. Applied a red Cobra symbol sticker from cobrastickers.com to his left arm.

Custom Arctic Cobra Officer "recipe"

Head, Helmet, Legs, Knife - Cobra Officer (2007 25th Anniversary Single Carded Figures, Wave 1)

Rest of Figure - Snake Eyes (Arctic) (2008 25th Anniversary Single Carded Figures, Wave 8)

Paints used:

Flat grey Primer Spray Paint

Flat White Spray Paint

Tamiya XF-1 (Flat Black)

Tamiya X-11 (Chrome Silver)

2009-10-21T12:45:00.000-07:00

Cobra Commander (Arctic Outfit)

Another custom for my Cobra Arctic Squads, this time it's Cobra Commander!

I started with the arctic Snake Eyes figure from the 25th Anniversary Collection, Wave 8 and popped him completely appart. Using the upper and lower torsos, bottom of jacket, hood and arms/hands from the Snake Eyes along with the legs, gun and heads from Cobra Commander figures, I started this custom. I sprayed the Snake Eyes parts with grey primer first, then flat white for the color. I then added details with flat black and silver for the buttons, belt buckle and belt. His gloves were painted flat black as well and used a red Cobra symbol sticker from cobrastickers.com for his left arm. Once the parts were all painted and dried, it was time to put him back together and re-glue his torso.

Custom Arctic Cobra Commander "recipe"

Head #1 - Cobra Commander (Hooded) (2008 25th Anniversary Comic Packs, Wave 5 {Tripwire/Cobra Commander})
Head #2 - Cobra Commander (Chrome Battle Mask) (2008 25th Anniversary Target exclusive Ultimate Battle Pack)
Upper/Lower Torso, Hood, Arms, Hands, Bottom of Jacket - Snake Eyes (Arctic) (2008 25th Anniversary Single Carded Figures, Wave 8)
Legs/Feet and Gun - Cobra Commander (2008 25th Anniversary Target exclusive Ultimate Battle Pack)

Paints used:
Flat Grey Primer Spray Paint
Flat white Spray Paint
Tamiya XF-1 (Flat Black)
Tamiya X-11 (Chrome Silver)

2009-10-20T14:02:00.000-07:00

Chrome Stormtrooper from Star Wars Japan Convention

I saw the top picture while surfing the web and decided to make a custom figure based on this statue. I started with a 2007 Star Wars 30th Anniversary Saga Legends Sandtrooper. I painted the entire figure with silver acrylic paint. Then used gold for his belt, details on his head and knee. Then painted his eyes green to match the statue and used black and red Sharpie markers for the japanese writing on his shoulder pauldron.

Custom Japan Star Wars Convention Chrome Stormtrooper "recipe"

Entire Figure - Imperial Sandtrooper (2007 Star Wars 30th Anniversary Saga Legends)

Paints used:

Tamiya X-11 (Chrome Silver)

Tamiya X-12 (Gold Leaf)

Tamiya X-28 (Park Green)

2009-10-19T11:13:00.000-07:00

Dreadnok Raizuur

I did this custom for a contest on another site for creating a new Dreadnok or updating an existing one. I decided to create a new Dreadnok for this one and wrote up a little backstory for him too. Here's my background story for him:

"Growing up in a white-collar family in a fancy private gated community really had an adverse effect on young Rasputin V. Putin. His father Vladimir, was a former Russian K.G.B. agent until he and his wife Ivanna, a former stripper/prostitute, defected to the United States in 1981. Vladimir quickly got a very good paying job working for the Springfield Toasty Bakery, a government front that was spying on the recent activities of the terrorist organization known as Cobra.

After graduating from Springfield Prep Institute (a very ritzy and rich private school), young Rasputin started to lash out against any and all authority figures. One night while his parents were sleeping, Rasputin cut the brake lines on his dad's new Rolls Royce. The next morning Mr. & Mrs. Putin loaded up their beloved Rolls with luggage for a "vacation" they were going on (paid for by the government) to Langly, Virginia. While driving to the airport, they came up to a railroad crossing while the train was coming through and couldn't stop due to their son sabotaging the brakes the night before. Once word got out about his parents deaths, he was under immediate investigation by the C.I.A. and F.B.I.

Now on the run from the law, Rasputin took off for the swamps to hide. That night while he was grilling some muskrats he had killed, a group of strange men and a woman appeared and knocked him out. When Rasputin came to, he was surrounded by what he thought was a biker gang like the Hells Angels. What he was in the middle of turned out to be much worse. The man who seemed to be the leader of the gang introduced himself as Zartan. His brother Zandar, sister Zarana and the rest of the gang, Buzzer, Torch, Ripper, Thrasher, Monkeywrench & Zanzibar. They were known as the Dreadnoks and were mercinaries for Cobra.

After being initiated into the Dreadnok gang, Rasputin took the code name of Raizuur (pronounced Ra-zor) because of his love of sharp objects and he was mentored by Ripper. Raizuur dyed his hair bright blue and wore it in a mohawk with a pony tail, tattooed barb-wire around his head and collected the skulls of the muskrats he had killed his first night in the swamp and wore them as a necklace."

I sculpted his mohawk and pony tail out of greenstuff and then painted it bright blue.

I cut out spots on his vest to resemble rips in it and detail painted the vest after that.

I also had to carefully scrape the US Marine logo "tattoo" that is on Gung-Ho's chest off using the tip of an Xacto knife.

Since Dreadnok Ripper was his mentor, he used the same type of rifle as Ripper.....

(and I added details to it)

Custom Dreadnok Raizuur "recipe"

Head - Basso (2008 Star Wars 30th Anniversary Comic Pack {Mouse and Basso in Stormtrooper disguise})

Rest of figure - Gung-Ho (2007 25th Anniversary G.I.Joe Box Set)

Skull Necklace - Snake Eyes (2008 25th Anniversary Single Carded Figures, Wave 8)

Axe - Storm Shadow (2009 25th Anniversary Comic Packs, Wave 8 {Resolute Storm Shadow/Tunnel Rat})

Rifle - Ripper (2008 25th Anniversary Single Carded Figures, Wave 12)

Hair- Greenstuff

Paints used:

Tamiya XF-1 (Flat Black)

Tamiya XF-8 (Flat Blue)

Tamiya XF-7 (Flat Red)

Tamiya XF-10 (Flat Brown)

Tamiya XF-19 (Sky Grey)

Tamiya X-11 (Chrome Silver)
Tamiya X-14 (Sky Blue)

2009-10-17T14:53:00.000-07:00

Cobra Night Vulture

I came accross the original Cobra Night Vulture from 1991 and decided he most likely won't be getting an updated figure anytime soon so why not make a 25th Anniversary stle updated custom of him. Using the Snake Eyes figure from the 2007 25th Anniversary G.I.Joe Box Set, I began the transformation from Snake Eyes to Cobra Night Vulture. Took all of his gear off and set it aside. I completely repainted the upper/lower torso, arms and upper legs with purple like the original Night Vulture. The head was painted black, goggles purple with red lense and the goggle strap grey. Painted the red and black details on his arms and upper legs. Used H.I.S.S. Driver lower legs on him and painted his webgear black with red accents. Gave him Scarlett's crossbow gun since that was the only weapon the original version of Night Vulture came with.

Custome Cobra Night Vulture "recipe"

Entire Figure minus lower legs - Snake Eyes (2007 25th Anniversary G.I.Joe Box Set)

Lower Legs - H.I.S.S. Driver (2008 25th Anniversary Single Carded Figures, Wave 7)

Crossbow Gun - Scarlet (2007 25th Anniversary G.I.Joe Box Set)

Paints used:

Tamiya X-1 (Gloss Black)

Tamiya X-7 (Gloss Red)

Tamiya X-16 (Purple)

Tamiya XF-19 (Sky Grey)

2009-10-16T12:31:00.001-07:00

Iron Grenadiers Mako Shark continued from yesterday.........

After the metallic gold spray paint dried, I used flat black paint to add detail to the rudders, cannons, cannon doors, torpedos, engine cover, engine intake and exhaust pieces.

To get the Iron Grenadier look even closer to the original style from the 1980's vehicles, I used clear red paint and applied multiple layers to the inside of the canopy. By doing this it "tinted" the canopy red and is still see through just like the original Iron Grenadier vehicles. This clear paint is thicker than regular acrylic paints though and is sticky as well. Since it's a tinted clear paint, it took multiple coats to cover evenly.

After the clear red had dried, I applied flat black to the outter edges and trim of the canopy to finish it off.

After re-assembling the vehicle, stickers were applied. I printed some of them out and the others came from Hasbro sets from the Sharc Tooth and Night Specter. I also added gold Destro Iron Grenadiers logos from cobrastickers.com (not pictured).

Custom Iron Grenadiers Mako Shark "recipe"

Entire Vehicle - G.I.Joe Sharc Tooth (2008 25th Anniversary Vehicle Set, Wave 2)

Paints used:

Krylon Fusion Satin Black Spray Paint

Rustoleum Metallic Gold Spray Paint

Tamiya XF-1 (Flat Black)

Tamiya X-12 (Gold Leaf)

Tamiya X-27 (Clear Red)

2009-10-15T12:13:00.000-07:00

Iron Grenadier Mako Shark

I had some extra 25th Anniversary G.I.Joe S.H.A.R.C. Tooth & Night Specters left after the squad of 5 Crimson Guard Red Tides were finished. So, the next one I did based on a S.H.A.R.C. Tooth was an Iron Grenadier version that I called the Mako Shark. Destro's newest addition to his Iron Grenadier arsenal.

This one started out as a G.I.Joe S.H.A.R.C. Tooth shown in the picture here:

and was taken completely appart and the body was painted Satin Black with spray paint and then the rudders, cannons, cannon doors, engine cover, torpedos and intake/exhaust panels were sprayed with Gold Metallic.

Continued in tomorrow's post.........................

2009-10-14T12:58:00.000-07:00

Cobra Crimson Guard Blood Dagger Fighter/Interceptor continued................

After the final coats of satin burgandy were applied to the body pieces, it was time to move on to the detail paint applications. The cockpit, engine area, landing gear and landing gear areas, rear thrusters, missiles and drop tanks all received detail paint apps. Here's the front landing gear complete assembly:

.....and the part that took the most time to do was the cockpit/engine piece. Using fine tip detail brushes in various sizes and multiple colors of paint, the piece came together. I used a few pictures of real fighter jet interiors and engine areas for referance points and went from there.

For the missiles and drop tanks, all I added was silver trim around the ends.

And for the rear thruster piece, I added silver to the raised fin areas on the outsides.

To finish the interior pieces off and give it that added realism look to it, I painted the inside areas of the upper and lower body pieces as well as the inside of the rear stabalizer wing with flat black. Every area inside that could be seen when the cockpit, engine access hatches or landing gear where open received the flat black paint apps and the leading edges of the wing surfaces received flat black as well.

Then after all the detail paint apps had dried, it was on to reassembly and then sticker application.

Custom Cobra Crimson Guard Blood Dagger Fighter/Interceptor "recipe"

Entire Jet - Cobra Python Patrol Conquest X30 (2008 25th Anniversary Target exclusive Python Patrol Conquest X30)

Stickers - Original Python Patrol Conquest X30 from Hasbro and cobrastickers.com Crimson Guard logos and white Hiss Tank numbers

custom printed out stickers for squadron banners on rear wings and lady riding missile nose art

Paints used:

Flat Grey Primer Spray Paint

Krylon Fusion Satin Burgandy Spray Paint

Krylon Fusion Satin Black Spray Paint

Tamiya X-1 (Gloss Black)

Tamiya X-2 (Gloss White)

Tamiya X-11 (Chrome Silver)

Tamiya X-12 (Gold Leaf)

Tamiya XF-1 (Flat Black)

Tamiya XF-2 (Flat White)

Tamiya XF-3 (Flat Yellow)

Tamiya XF-7 (Flat red)

Tamiya XF-16 (Flat Alluminum)

Tamiya XF-19 (Sky Grey)

Tamiya XF-63 (German Grey)

Tamiya XF-66 (Light Grey)

2009-10-13T11:35:00.000-07:00

Cobra Crimson Guard Blood Dagger Fighter/Interceptor

The last custom aircraft that I have done so far for the Crimson Guard is this Blood Dagger fighter/interceptor. It started out as a 25th Anniversary Target exclusive Python Patrol Conquest X30 jet. Since the PP Conquest comes molded in dark red plastic with a distinctive black and silver "snake scale" pattern on it, this needed to be primered so this pattern would not show through the new color. I used flat grey primer spray paint and sprayed the upper and lower body halves, missiles, drop tanks, front and rear engine covers, rear thrusters, landing gear, landing gear covers, landing gear wheels and rear stabalizer wings.

Next up was the satin black spray on the cockpit, landing gear, landing gear wheels, drop tanks, missiles, engine intake vent and rear thruster piece.

Then the main color was applied to the upper and lower body halves, front and rear engine covers, rear stabalizer wings and front and rear landing gear covers with satin burgandy.

Continued in tomorrow's post............................................

2009-10-12T13:47:00.000-07:00

Cobra Crimson Guard Blood Dagger Pilot

The last of the Crimson Guard Air Force vehicle customs that I did was the Blood Dagger and Pilot. Today's post is for the Blood Dagger Pilot and tomorrow will be the Blood Dagger Fighter/Interceptor.

Starting with a 25th Anniversary Wild Weasel figure, I popped his head off. I then popped the head off of a single carded Crimson Guard. I still had the lower mask part of the Cobra Air Trooper's helmet that I cut off and used the helmet/goggles for the Ice-Viper Officer custom. I cut the front of the Crimson Guard's head/mask off with an Xacto knive and then used "greenstuff" to attatch the "mask" part of the Cobra Air Troopers helmet to the Crimson Guard head.

Then after the greenstuff had dried and the mask was painted, I snapped the new head onto the neck ball of Wild Weasel's torso. Then I painted his chest to resemble a Crimson Guard Officer/Squad Leader's chest plate with silver and black.

Here are some pics of the custom head:

Custom Cobra Crimson Guard Blood Dagger Pilot "recipe"

Head - Crimson Guard (2008 25th Anniversary single carded figure, Wave 5)

Cobra Air Trooper (2007 25th Anniversary single carded figure, Wave 4)

Rest of Figure - Wild Weasel (2008 25th Anniversary Target exclusive Rattler set)

Paints used:

Tamiya XF-1 (Flat Black)

Tamiya X-11 (Chrome Silver)

2009-10-10T12:40:00.000-07:00

Cobra Crimson Guard Flight Pod

Another addition of mine to the elite Crimson Guard's air aresenal. This Flight Pod started out as Cobra Commander's blue version from the 25th Anniversary Target Ultimate Battle Pack. After taking it appart, it was sprayed with flat grey primer. Then the Regal Red color was sprayed. I used black and silver for details, painted the edge trim on the canopy with black and used a black fine tip Sharpie permanent marker to make the last "C" on the sticker into a "G" so insted of saying "CC" for Cobra Commander, it now says "CG" for Crimson Guard as shown here:

The stickers are a combination of the originals from the Target UBP Flight Pod and cobrastickers.com Crimson Guard logos.

Custom Cobra Crimson Guard Flight Pod "recipe"

Entire Flight Pod - Cobra Commander's Flight Pod (2008 25th Anniversary Target exclusive Ultimate Battle Pack)

Paints used:

Flat Grey Primer Spray Paint

Regal Red Spray Paint

Tamiya X-1 (Black)

Tamiya X-7 (Red)

Taliya X-11 (Chrome Silver)

2009-10-09T16:45:00.000-07:00

Cobra Crimson Guard Red Tide Squadron

I wanted to give Cobra's elite Crimson Guard some air power to add to their arsenal. I started by making this squadron of 5 Red Tides. Using 25th Anniversary G.I.Joe S.H.A.R.C. Tooth's and Target exclusive G.I.Joe Night Specter's for this custom project. I started by taking them completely appart and spraying the top and bottom body pieces with Regal Red spray paint. The engine cover, cockpit area, twin cannons, topedos, cannon cover doors, rudders, intake and exhaust pieces were sprayed with satin black. After the satin black had dried on the intake and exhaust pieces, I used a dry-brush method and applied the silver to resemble a mesh screen more. I used the silver paint and a fine detail brush to do the details on the cannon cover doors, engine cover, rudders, underbody, interior and wings. I used flat black and a fine detail brush to paint the canopy frame and details on the underbody and body in front of canopy. Yellow, red, blue and gold was also used in the cockpit area for details. I used both the G.I.Joe Night Specter and S.H.A.R.C. Tooth for these but chose to use the darker tinted canopies from the Night Specter for all 5 of these because they looked alot better than the totally clear canopy from the S.H.A.R.C. Tooth. Stickers are from the S.H.A.R.C. Tooth, Night Specter vehicles from Hasbro and the white numbers are from cobrastickers.com's white H.I.S.S. Tank number sets and Crimson Guard logos are also from cobrastickers.com.

Custom Cobra Crimson Guard Red Tide "recipe"

Entire Vehicle - G.I.Joe S.H.A.R.C. Tooth/G.I.Joe Night Specter (2008 25th Anniversary Vehicle Set, Wave 2/2008 25th Anniversary Target exclusive Attack on Cobra Island Night Specter)

Windshield Canopy - G.I.Joe Night Specter (2008 25th Anniversary Target exclusive Attack on Cobra Island Night Specter)

Stickers - S.H.A.R.C. Tooth, Night Specter, cobrastickers.com

Paints used:

Flat grey Primer Spray Paint

Regal Red Spray Paint

Tamiya XF-1 (Flat Black)

Tamiya X-1 (Gloss Black)

Tamiya X-11 (Chrome Silver)

Tamiya XF-7 (Flat Red)

Tamiya XF-8 (Flat Blue)

Tamiya X-12 (Gold Leaf)

2009-10-08T13:22:00.000-07:00

Cobra Crimson Guard Stinger Attack Jeep continued.......................

After the primer had dried, next came the main color coats. Using Regal Red spray paint, I painted the main body piece and the hood. I sprayed the vintage Stinger roof and doors with flat black. While that was drying, I started working on the interior and chasis. First up was the rollbars and dash assembly. I wanted to add some life like details on the interior and started with the gauges in the dash. I painted the centers of the gauges silver and the marking in red. Also added a rearview mirror with silver and framed it with flat black.

For the seats, I wanted them to look somewhat plush and comfortable since this Stinger is for the Crimson Guard, Cobra's elite unit. After painting the seats red, I used gloss black for the contrasting piping on them and then put a silver Cobra symbol sticker on the headrests.

Next up is the rear shelf rack just above the headrests of the seats. This area is filled with fans, hydraulics and electronics for the missile launcher.

While I was working on the interior stuff, I decided to paint the vintage Stinger rear panels too. The pegs on them had to be cut off and sanded down so they'd fit and a very small strip on one side of the panels had to be carefully sliced off with an Xacto knive so they would fit in the spaces vacated by the Vamp's rear vent panels. The vintage Stinger ones are just a bit wider than the 25th Vamp's.

After painting the interior and letting it dry, next were the wheels. I painted them silver and then added flat black to the recessed detail areas of them. Also, I painted the exhaust on the sides underneath along the door areas with silver and then black for the ends where they would be open.

To modify the vintage Stinger's front bumper/pushbar, I used the Xacto knive and carefully "carved" the hooks off of it and cut the ends of the pushbar off. The ends then were glued onto the ends of the stock Vamp pushbar and the hooks were glued onto the Vamp's pushbar as well in between the fog lights.

Now it was onto the missile launcher and how I was going to get it to fit while still retaining the full 360 degree rotation that it should have. I decided to cut the end of the vintage Stinger missile launcher off even across the bottom. This took a little bit of dremel tool work but turned out good. Then, I took the Vamp's twin cannon mount and cut it off right at the base so all that was left was the peg and the base for it. After sanding that down nice and smooth, I glued the newly cut peg onto the bottom of the vintage Stinger missile launcher. After they had dried, I did some detail painting on the missile launcher.

Now to reassemble the custom Crimson Guard Stinger! After snapping the rollbar/dash assembly into the main body piece, I carefully snapped the main body piece onto the chassis. Then glued the rear panel pieces onto the rear deck on the sides of the missile launcher. I had to cut the tabs off of th eends of the vintage Stinger's rear troop grab bar and then glue it onto the back of th eVamp where the gas can rack used to be. The Stinger's troop ledge/platform had to be modified a little to fit on the back of th e25th Anniversary Vamp and also was glued into place. I snapped th eStinger's roof panel and doors onto the rollbar and then did some detail paint to the engine compartment. After gluing the vintage Stinger's hood tank onto the 25th Vamp's modified hood and securing a piece of metal mesh for a grille behind the cutout vents on the hood with "greenstuff" around the edges underneath, snapped the hood onto the body. Then it was time to snap the newly formed missile launcher onto the back where the 25th Vamp's twin cannon setup had been. Detail paint apps on the shovel and the shovel holder on the body. Applied the stickers from cobrastickers.com (this custom Stinger as well as my Cobra Black Widows and Arctic H.I.S.S. Tank are featured on their website under the Customers Pics section).

Custom Cobra Crimson Guard Stinger Attack Jeep "recipe"

Main Basis - G.I.Joe Vamp (2008 25th Anniversary Vehicle Sets, Wave 1)

Roof, Doors, Missile Launcher, Troop Platform, Troop Grab Bar, Rear Panels, Hood Tank - Cobra Stinger (Vintage 1985 ARAH)

Missiles - G.I.Joe Pac Rat Missile Launcher (Vintage 1983 ARAH)
Mesh Grille - Mesh for gutters or also used on cars/trucks as mesh grille inserts

Stickers - Cobra Stinger set (cobrastickers.com)

- Crimson Guard Logos (cobrastickers.com)

- Small silver Cobra symbols (cobrastickers.com)

Paints used:

Flat grey Primer Spray Paint

Regal red Spray Paint

Tamiya X-7 (Red)

Tamiya XF-1 (Flat Black)

Tamiya X-1 (Gloss Black)

Tamiya X-11 (Chrome Silver)

Tamiya XF-66 (Light Grey)

Testor's Model Master Gloss Blue

2009-10-07T13:06:00.000-07:00

Cobra Crimson Guard Stinger Attack Jeep

Well before Hasbro announced plans on releasing a 25th Anniversary version of the Cobra Stinger with the online only Wave 5 of the vehicle sets, I made this custom Crimson Guard Stinger out of a 25th Anniversary G.I.Joe Vamp from the 1st Wave of vehicle sets and parts from a vintage 1984 Cobra Stinger. To begin this process, I bought a vintage 1984 Cobra Stinger and took it appart to use the front bumper, tank on the hood, doors, roof, missile launcher, both rear panels, rear troop grab bar & rear troop ledge/platform. The Stinger came with different missiles than the all red ones that it's supposed to come with but I liked the half red half black ones from the vintage 1983 G.I.Joe Pact Rat Missile Launcher better. Once all of these parts were stripped off of the vintage Cobra Stinger and cleaned off, it was time to get the donor 25th Anniversary G.I.Joe Vamp ready for primer. As stated, this custom used the 25th Anniversary G.I.Joe Vamp for the basis and here is a pic of what the Vamp looks like for anyone who doesn't know:

Quite a bit different compared to the custom Stinger, right? Well, after taking the Vamp completely appart, I tossed the rear cannon and hoses, gas cans and gas can rack, duffle from on hood and rear vent panels into my spare parts bin because they wouldn't be used for this one. I painted the main body piece with flat grey primer spray paint..................

............and did some cutting with an Xacto knive and some filling in spots with "greenstuff" on the hood before it got sprayed with primer.

After the "greenstuff" had dried and been sanded smooth, the hood received primer too.

continued in tomorrow's post................................

2009-10-06T15:48:00.000-07:00

Cobra Ice-Viper Officer continued from yesterday's post

As stated in yesterday's post, I started this custom project with the 25th Anniversary Arctic Snake Eyes figure as the basis. For those that don't know what this Snake Eyes figure looks like, here is a pic of him:

Now, as you can see he's quite different from what the final custom Ice-Viper Officer looks like. I also went step by step yesterday about how I popped the entire Snake Eyes figure appart to get it ready for painting. For the Ice-Viper Officer's helmet, I wanted it to look as close as possible to the vintage 1987 Ice-Viper's helmet. To get this look, I used a Cobra Air-Trooper's helmet from the 25th Anniversary line and using an Xacto knife, carefully cut the "mask" part off of th ehelmet leaving the helmet and goggles. Here is a pic of the pieces that needed to get some primer before adding the paint:

And here's those pieces after the grey primer spray paint was applied and dried.

So, on to the painting parts now. After the pieces had received the flat grey primer spray paint and dried, I applied the flat white spray paint to them. After a couple of coats of the flat white, I "mocked" the torso, arms and legs up and started the grey camo pattern applications where ever needed to be applied before final assembly due to not being able to reach areas with brush, etc. For his head, I used one from the 25th Anniversary Armored Cobra Commander and painted it sky blue. For his "fur" collar around his neck, I cut the shoulder pieces off of the "fur" collar from a 25th Anniversary Snow Serpent and painted it flat brown. Now it was time to start assembly and more detail painting. Once the entire figure was back together (torso/arms assembly glued back together and legs screwed back on and knee joints reattatched to lower legs), I decided that to add the real look of th evintage 1987 Ice-Viper, he would need his "fur" on his gloves and boots along with his small armor pads on his upper arms and thighs with his sai holders on them and his belt with buckle and his armor padded sling around his chest. To do this, I used a combination of "greenstuff" sculpting putty and actual pieces from the original Ice-Viper figure. Starting with the original figure, I used the dremel tool and carefully cut the arm and thigh pads off of him along with his belt buckle (I used this same method on Raptor to get his belt buckle off too) . After sanding the backs of the pieces smooth and the edges, they were almost ready to be applied to the custom Ice-Viper Officer's body. To get the "fur" on the ends of his gloves and boots along with the belt and the chest sling, I used the "greenstuff" sculpting putty. I started by laying a thin layer around his waist for the double belt and then while it was still plyable, stuck the belt buckle on and let it dry. Same with his arm and thigh pads, applied a small spot of "greenstuff" to the desired locations and built them up with the sculpting tools and then applied the small pads from the vintage Ice-Viper to the desired locations and let it dry for at least a day and did some detail sculpting to them as they were drying. For the "fur" on the ends of his gloves and boots, I applied the "greenstuff" around them and then after it had started to dry a little bit (around an hour or hour and a half after applying it), started to make the furry details in it with the sculpting tools to make it look like fur. I also used a small strip of "greenstuff" to make a goggle strap around his helmet. Then came the "fun" part, the chest sling! I applied the "greenstuff" to his upper torso first, getting it the way I wanted it and placing the "fur" neck piece on it and applying preasure so the greenstuff would form to the bottom of it so once dry, it would fit together well. I didn't leave the "fur" piece on though, just long enough for the form of it to start drying. After the upper torso piece had dried and been sculpted the way I wanted it, I started the lower torso piece using the same method. Once it was all dry, I had a fully moveable torso still. I painted his chest sling sky blue to match his head (the colors of the Arctic M.O.T.H. Ice-Viper that I was basing his color scheme off of) and the colors that Hasbro uses for the Arctic Cobra officers they release. I painted his gloves flat black along with his boots and the "greenstuffed" "fur" on the ends were painted flat brown. His goggle strap and double belt were painted flat black and his buckle was painted gold along with his goggles. His boots received the same grey detail as the vintage Ice-Viper has and his arm and thigh pads were painted flat black. The camo around the newly "greenstuffed" arm and thigh pads and lower arms and legs by the "fur" were touched up and finished with the grey and I painted the handles of the vintage Ice-Viper's sais flat black. The sais actually stay in the holders on his thighs just like the originals did! Added a red Cobra sticker from cobrastickers.com and slipped the spiked foot wear from the 25th Arctic Snake Eyes on his feet.

Custom Cobra Ice-Viper Officer "recipe"

Head - Armored Cobra Commander (2008 25th Anniversary single carded figures, Wave 6)

Helmet - Cobra Air-Trooper (2007 25th Anniversary single carded figures, Wave 4)

Neck "fur" piece - Snow Serpent (2008 25th Anniversary single carded figures, Wave 9)

Upper/Lower Torso - Arctic Snake Eyes (2008 25th Anniversary single carded figures, Wave 8)

Upper/Lower Arms & Hands - Arctic Snake Eyes (2008 25th Anniversary single carded figures, Wave 8)

Upper/Lower Legs & Feet - Arctic Snake Eyes (2008 25th Anniversary single carded figures, Wave 8)

Arm, thigh pads with holders, sais and belt buckle - Ice-Viper (1987)

Chest sling, goggle strap, double belt, "fur" on ends of gloves and boots - "Greenstuff"

Paints used:

Flat Grey Primer Spray Paint

Flat White Spray Paint

Tamiya XF-1 (Flat Black)

Tamiya XF-2 (Flat White)

Tamiya XF-10 (Flat Brown)

Tamiya XF-19 (Sky Grey)

Tamiya X-12 (Gold Leaf)

Tamiya X-14 (Sky Blue)

2009-10-05T13:39:00.000-07:00

Cobra Ice-Viper Officer

The Ice-Viper has been one of my favorite Cobra characters ever since he was introduced back in 1987. He was originally packaged with the Cobra W.O.L.F. vehicle since he is the driver of it.

I liked the look of the Ice-Viper that Hasbro released with the exclusive 2 pack Arctic Missions for the M.O.T.H. set because of the grey camo patterns and light blue details like the Snow Serpent Officer had that he was packaged with. This is how this custom came about and is my first custom that I used "greenstuff" for sculpting. I was happy to see that Hasbro was releasing a new version of the Ice-Viper with The Rise of Cobra movie line of figures (Collection 1, Wave 2) but when I saw pics of the new figure, I was quickly dissapointed by it and decided to go ahead and make this version based closely on the original ARAH Ice-Viper from 1987 and the version 2 Ice-Viper from the Arctic M.O.T.H. exclusive set.

I used the Arctic Snake Eyes from the 25th Anniversary line for the basis of this Ice-Viper Officer and popped Snake Eyes's head off. Then I wrapped the rest of the Snake Eyes figure in a sock (yes, sock like you put on your feet) and then stuck him in a bench vise and cranked on him until the glue holding his torso together popped appart. The sock is used for this so pieces don't go flying everywhere and also to keep the figure from getting unwanted damage from the ends of the vise. Once popped appart, there was 6 pieces total (front of upper torso, back of upper torso, hood, lower torso with legs and bottom of parka still attatched, right arm, left arm and small "washer" that goes on top of post sticking out of lower torso that holds the upper and lower torsos together and allows movement when together.) Next, to seperate the arms, I heated up a small pot of water and brought it to a boil. Then using a small pair of pliers to hold the arm piece, dipped the arm into the boiling water to heat it up and make it easier to pull appart without breaking anything. The arms do not need to be in the boiling water for very long at all though, just a quick dip for like 2-3 seconds and they should be soft enough to pull appart safely. Holding the arm with the pliers by the shoulder joint area, pull the lower section of th earm out of th eelbow joint. Then pull the hand out of the lower arm(or do this before the boiling part, might be easier) and repeat for the other arm. To remove the legs from the lower torso, first you will need to remove the bottom "skirt" part of Snake Eyes' parka by slipping a small flat-bladed screwdriver under the back side of the lower parka and lower torso, right where the belt line is and then pushing the lower "skirt" parka piece up and over the top of th elower toso. Once you have removed the lower parka piece, spread the legs appart out towards the sides (like a snow angel) and there is a small phillips screw on the inside of each leg in the thigh area. After removing the screws, you can pop the upper leg halfs appart and then take the lower leg out from the peg on one side of the upper leg (Peg can be either on the outer half or the inner half of th eupper legs, Hasbro used both methods durning the 25th run). To seperate the knee joint from the lower leg, use the same boil in water method as the arms and hold the lower leg in the pliers by the foot. Dip in the boiling water for a couple seconds, then there is a small pin that holds the knee joint in the lower leg and it is larger on one end then the other. Use something small enough that you can push the small pin through the joint by pushing the smaller end of the pin out towards the larger end. Now all of these pieces are appart and ready for painting.

Continued in tomorrows post........................................

2009-10-03T12:07:00.000-07:00

Imperial Jedi Assassin Rogue and his AT-RT Walker

Another of the highly feared Imperial Jedi Assassin Squad formed and hand picked by Tyrex. Rogue came from the Galactic Marine ranks and was a member of Commander Baccara's squad that ruthlessly gunned down their former general, Jedi Master Ki-Adi-Mundi on Mygeeto. After the issueance of Order 66, Rogue was recruited by Tyrex into the newly formed Imperial Jedi Assassin Squad that's sole purpose was to hunt down and eliminate the remaining Jedi scattered throughout the galaxies. Rogue fit in very well with the other members of the squad and quickly painted his armor red and black, to symbolize blood and death, which is what he would bring to any Jedi or allies of the Republic that he would come across. While tracking a Jedi on the planet of Kashyyyk, he came across an abandoned Republic AT-RT Walker left after the Order 66 took effect. He decided to use the abandoned walker to his advantage to get around quicker and easier. After eliminating the Jedi target, he returned with his new AT-RT Walker and repainted it to match his armor, blood red and death black! It was at this time he decided to add some gold to his armor and walker to show his honor and appreciation to his new general, Imperial Jedi Assassin Squad Leader, Tyrex, who loved gold almost as much as killing Jedi.

Custom Imperial Jedi Assassin Rogue and his AT-RT Walker "recipe"

Entire "Rogue" figure - Galactic Marine (2007 Star Wars 30th Anniversary Target exclusive Order 66 Galactic Marine)

Entire AT-RT Walker - AT-RT Walker (2007 Star Wars 30th Anniversary Target exclusive AT-RT Assault Squad Battle Pack)

"Rogue's" leather-like shoulder pads and kilt made from immitation leather fabric from JoAnn Fabrics

"Rogue's" cape made from fabric from JoAnn Fabrics

Paints used:

Tamiya X-1 (Gloss Black)

Tamiya X-7 (Gloss Red)

Tamiya X-12 (Gold Leaf)

Tamiya X-11 (Chrome Silver)

Testor's Model Master Silver

2009-10-02T15:25:00.000-07:00

501st Legion Scout Trooper

The last of my customs I did for Commander Rex's 501st Legion Torrent Company was the Scout Trooper. I made 2 of these and they were both the same.

Starting out with a Biker Scout from the 2007 Star Wars 30th Anniversary Saga Legends, all that was used was a large blaster rifle and some blue paint to make these 2. The 501st Legion deco was painted on with gloss blue acrylic paint.

Custom 501st Legion Scout Trooper "recipe"
Entire figure - Biker Scout (2007 Star Wars 30th Anniversary Saga Legends)
Large Blaster Rifle - (2008 Star Wars The Legecy Collection Saga Legends box of Clone weapons)

Paints used:
Testor's Model Master Gloss Blue

2009-10-01T13:15:00.000-07:00

501st Legion Galactic Marine

This was another custom Star Wars figure I did to go along with the Commander Rex. I made a whole squad for Commander Rex to command, a new resupplied Torrent Company for him to be in charge of.

This custom 501st Galactic Marine started out as a Target exclusive Order 66 Galactic Marine. I added the blue deco of the 501st Legion and painted the clone's hair red to make him a little more individual like the clones are in the Clone Wars cartoon on Cartoon Network.

Custom 501st Legion Galactic Marine "recipe"

Entire Figure - Galactic Marine (2007 Star Wars 30th Anniversary Target exclusive Order 66, Wave 1 {Mace Windu & Galactic Marine})

Paints used:

Testor's Model Master Gloss Blue

2009-09-30T13:43:00.000-07:00

Commander Rex (Phase II Armor from Episode III)

I know this isn't a G.I.Joe custom, but I originally started customizing Star Wars figures before I started on the G.I.Joe stuff. I have liked Captain Rex since the first time I saw him with the Clone Wars movie and the Clone Wars animated cartoon on Cartoon Network. The 501st Legion seems to have a bunch of clone commander figures already with Commander Vill, Commander Bow & Commander Appo so I thought Captain Rex should be promoted to Commander Rex and I decided to do an Episode III version of him as a Commander in the 501st Legion in Phase II armor.

I started with Commander Vill figure from the 2008 Target exclusive Order 66 set and popped off his head. I painted the "Jaig" eyes on Vill's helmet too as well as painted the kilt black. Then I used a Captain Rex figure from 2008 The Clone Wars and used his head and blaster pistols as well as cut of his range finder off of his helmet. I glued the range finder onto the side of the Vill helmet and then put Rex's head on Vill's body and he was done. Not too much involved to make this one but it was fun and I liked the way it turned out.

Custom Commander Rex (Phase II armor from Episode III) "recipe"

Head - Captain Rex (2008 Star Wars : The Clone Wars single carded figure, Wave 1)

Range Finder - Captain Rex (2008 Star Wars : The Clone Wars single carded figure, Wave 1)

Blaster Pistols - Captain Rex (2008 Star Wars : The Clone Wars single carded figure, Wave 1)

Rest of Figure - Commander Vill (2008 Star Wars 30th Anniversary Target exclusive Order 66, Wave 2 {Emperor Palpatine & Commander Vill})

Paints used:

Tamiya X-1 (Gloss Black)

Testor's Model Master Gloss Blue

2009-09-29T13:41:00.000-07:00

Cobra Armored Troop Transport

Here's the custom Cobra Armored Troop Transport vehicle that goes with yesterday's post for the custom driver figure. This custom vehicle started out as a tan colored L.A.V. from the BBI line of toys and after I completely stripped it appart and repainted it and added some stickers, this is what it now looks like in the above pics.

Before any paint was applied, I cut out the driver's hatch so the custom driver figure could sit or stand in there and cut the base of th eturret gunners slot out so a 25th Anniversary figure could actually stand in there right. I used flat black spray paint for the entire vehicle and added some flat blue on the ammo boxes, gloss black on the vents, mirrors, ammo boxes and stowage, flat red for the taillights, brown for the stowage and silver for details on stowage, mirrors, etc. The hardest part about getting this vehicle back together after the paint had dried was getting the rubber tires back on over the wheels! That part was not very fun at all but I managed without breaking anything or ruining the new paint job. After everything was put back together, stickers from cobrastickers.com were added for the finishing touch.

Custom Cobra Armored Troop Transport "recipe"

Entire vehicle - USMC L.A.V. (Light Armored Vehicle) (Elite Force 1:18 scale by BBI)

Paints used:

Flat Black Spray Paint

Tamiya X-1 (Gloss Black)

Tamiya XF-1 (Flat Black)

Tamiya XF-7 (Flat Red)

Tamiya X-11 (Chrome Silver)

Tamiya XF-8 (Flat Blue)

Tamiya XF-10 (Flat Brown)

2009-09-28T13:46:00.000-07:00

Cobra Armored Troop Transport Driver

The G.I.Joe Team has the A.P.C. for a troop transport but Cobra really doesn't have anything like that so I decided to make them one that had some firepower on it and could haul some troops into battle. The vehicle I used for this custom was a L.A.V. from BBI and will be tomorrow's post. Today's post is for the custom driver that I made for it.

Starting with a "Scarface" Cobra Officer, I popped off his helmet, head & webgear. I wanted this driver to fit in with the rest of Cobra's "blueshirts" like the Stinger drivers and Officers and Troopers but yet, stand out a little from the pack. So I used Viper upper legs insted of the Cobra Officer ones and used a Snow Serpent head and goggles along with Double Clutch's vest. I popped the glued on goggles off of the Snow Serpent's head and then painted the head flat blue and the goggle red with black trim. After the paint had dried, the goggles were glued back on. The vest was originally dark green/olive drab and was repainted flat blue with black trim and the Viper upper legs were painted flat blue with black side pockets.

Once everything was put together, he looked like I had wanted him to, like a typical Cobra "Blueshirt", yet different enough to distinguish his rank and job classification.

Custom Cobra Armored Troop Transport Driver "recipe"

Head/goggles - Snow Serpent (2008 25th Anniversary single carded figure, Wave 9)

Vest - Double Clutch (2008 25th Anniversary Vehicle Sets, Wave 1 {Vamp w/Double Clutch})

Upper Legs - Viper (2008 25th Anniversary single carded figure, Wave 7)

Rest of figure - "Scarface" Cobra Officer (2008 25th Anniversary Comic Pack, Wave 3 {"Fred" Crimson Guard/"Scarface" Cobra Officer})

Paints used:

Tamiya X-1 (Gloss Black)

Tamiya XF-1 (Flat Black)

Tamiya XF-8 (Flat Blue)

Tamiya X-7 (Red)

2009-09-27T10:34:00.000-07:00

Cobra K-9 Unit Officer and Dog

Cobra needs a K-9 Unit to patrol the perimeter of their bases so I decided to make this special K-9 Unit Officer and his dog.

Starting with a 2007 25th Anniversary Cobra Officer from wave 1, I took his right upper leg and left lower arm off and switched them with 2008, wave 10 Mutt. The lower left arm from Mutt would not go into the Cobra Officer's left upper arm because the knob on Mutt's lower arm was bigger than the hole in the upper arm of the Officer. So, out came the dremel and with a little bit of modification, the Mutt lower arm fit into the Officer upper arm. I used Mutt's right upper leg with the holster and matched that up with the lower leg and torso of the Cobra Officer without a problem. The vest was also from Mutt and was repainted blue and black with some silver trim. I painted the K-9 Unit on the back of the vest and added a silver Cobra symbol from cobrastickers.com to the front and back of his vest.

For the Cobra dog, I painted a coat on him with blue and then added the black for the trim of the coat and put a silver Cobra symbol on both sides of the dog's coat to finish it.

Custom Cobra K-9 Unit Officer and dog "recipe"

Head/Helmet/Torso/Right Arm/Hand/Left Upper Arm/Left Leg/Foot/Right Lower Leg/Foot - Cobra Officer (2007 25th Anniversary single carded figure, Wave 1)

Left Lower Arm/Hand/Right Upper Leg/Vest/Gun and Accessories - Mutt (2008 25th Anniversary single carded figure, Wave 10)

Dog - Junkyard (2008 25th Anniversary single carded figure, Wave 10 {Mutt & Junkyard})

Paints used:

Tamiya X-1 (Gloss Black)

Tamiya X-11 (Chrome Silver)

Tamiya XF-1 (Flat Black)
Tamiya XF-8 (Flat Blue)

2009-09-25T10:56:00.000-07:00

Cobra Viper Squad Leader/Officer

I wanted a special Viper to lead my Viper army so I decided to do a custom Squad Leader/Officer & a Viper Commander. These were both fairl easy custom figures to do since there was very little painting involved.

For the Viper Squad Leader/Officer, I started with a regular 25th Anniversary Cobra Viper figure and added some gold paint to his faceshield, vest buckles, belt buckle, knee pads, goggles and tips of his boots along with black gloves and arm pads. I painted over the small red Cobra symbol on his vest and placed a silver Cobra symbol sticker from cobrastickers.com in place of it.

As far as his rifle goes, it was replaced with a bigger and better one from Marauder's Gun Runners complete with scope and grenade launcher.

Custom Cobra Viper Squad Leader/Officer "recipe"

Complete figure - Viper (2008 25th Anniversary single carded figure, Wave 7)

Rifle - Marauder's Gun Runners

Paints used:

Tamiya XF-1 (Flat Black)

Tamiya X-12 (Gold Leaf)

2009-09-24T10:41:00.000-07:00

Cobra Black Widow Attack Jeep

Before Hasbro released the 25th Anniversary Cobra Stinger in the wave 5 of the vehicle sets mid-2009, I decided to give Cobra another attack jeep based on the 1982 Canadian Sears exclusive Cobra Combat M.S.V. set with a repainted black G.I.Joe Vamp and M.M.S. also repainted black.

I used a 25th Anniversary G.I.Joe Vamp jeep and took it completely appart and spray painted the body flat black. I brush-painted the wheels, gas cans, push bar and duffle bag on the hood. Stickers came from cobrastickers.com and I decided to call them Black Widows.

Custom Cobra Black Widow Attack Jeep "recipe"

Entire Jeep - G.I.Joe Vamp (2008 25th Anniversary Vehicle Sets, Wave 1)

Paints used:

Flat Black Spraypaint

Tamiya X-1 (Black)

Tamiya XF-1 (Flat Black)

Tamiya X-11 (Chrome Silver)

Tamiya XF-10 (Flat Brown)

2009-09-23T20:44:00.000-07:00

Cobra Haz - T.A.T. (Hazardous - Tactical Assault Team) Officer continued..................

For the body armor, I used the chest and shoulder armor pieces from a 30th Anniversary Star Wars Clone Troop in training fatigues figure from 2007. I painted them flat black and then used a tiny drill bit and drilled the holes in them for simulated bullet holes and let the drill bit kind of hit the shoulder pieces to simulate battle damage scratches. Then after the holes were drilled, I painted the inside of the hole with flat black and then did the surrounding area around the holes in silver to simulate the armor breaking open and penetrated. The air breather mask is made from a 30th Anniversary Star Wars Clone Trooper Commander Vill helmet from the 2008 Target exclusive Order 66 set. I cut the lower section of the helmet out and painted it satin black with the red details and used rubber "tubes" from a screen window seal/gasket kit. I cut the rubber hoses to the desired length and glued them onto the mask. Then, glued the mask onto the troopers face. Once I put the rest of the figure back together, I glued the other ends of the hoses to the top of the body armor on the back where the ledge is after I dremeled out 2 small holes for them to go into. Using an Xacto knive, I sliced off the gun and holster on Tomax's right thigh and glued the holster from a H.I.S.S. driver's right thigh on inplace of it and put the gun in it. Then, I added a flesh wound on his right arm by using the dremel and taking a little bit of plastic off of his arm. Painted the new wound flesh color and then added the red for blood around the wound and down his leg and boots and on the stand too.

Custom Cobra Haz - T.A.T. (Hazardous - Tactical Assault Team) Officer "recipe"

Head, Helmet, Torso, Arms/Hands, Lower Legs - Night Watch Officer (2008 25th Anniversary Toys 'R Us exclusive Night Watch 5-pack set)

Upper Legs - Tomax (2008 25th Anniversary Comic Pack, Wave 3 {Tomax/Xamot})

Body Armor/Shoulder Armor - Clone Trooper in Training Fatigues (Episode II Style) (2007 30th Anniversary Star Wars single carded figures)

Air Breather Mask - Commander Vill helmet (2008 30th Anniversary Star Wars Target exclusive Order 66 set {Emperor & Commander Vill})

Hoses for Air Breather Mask - Rubber screen window gasket/seal repair kit (Menards, Home Depot, Lowes, etc.)

Large Rifle with Scope and Silencer - Marauder's Gun Runners

Uzi - Snake Eyes (2007 25th Anniversary G.I.Joe Box Set)

Silencer for Uzi - Marauder's Gun Runners

Grenades on belt - Viper (2008 25th Anniversary single carded figures, Wave 7)

Leg Holster and Gun - H.I.S.S. Driver (2008 25th Anniversary single carded figures, Wave 7)

Paints used:

Flat black Spray Paint

Tamiya X-1 (Gloss Black)

Tamiya X-7 (Red)

Tamiya X-11 (Chrome Silver)

Tamiya XF-19 (Sky Grey)

Tamiya XF-15 (Flat Flesh)

2009-09-22T12:30:00.000-07:00

Cobra Haz - T.A.T. (Hazardous - Tactical Assault Team) Officer

This next custom figure I did was never a real figure or character made by Hasbro or in any of the comics or cartoons. He was something that I came up with and is a completely new character based on my idea. Cobra needed an elite tactical assault team that would go into any hazardous situation and get the job done. I wanted this Officer to have some battle damage too and have the gear needed for pretty much any hostile assault situation they could encounter. He is loaded with grenades, a handgun for close-quarters combat, an uzi, a large rifle with scope, an air-filtration mask and body armor. The body armor these elite soldiers wear is light weight and moves very well with them, yet is very strong and can withstand multiple close-range rounds as well as most machine gun fire from a distance.

I started with a Cobra Night Watch Officer and swapped his upper legs for a pair of Tomax upper legs with the Cobra style armor pads on the front of them. The upper and lower legs, along with the "pants" part of the lower torso were painted black and then reattatched to the rest of the torso after they had dried.

Continued in tomorrow's post................................

2009-09-21T14:10:00.000-07:00

Cobra Arctic H.I.S.S. Tank continued....................

I started this custom with a 25th Anniversary Target exclusive blue H.I.S.S. Tank. I started by taking this H.I.S.S. Tank completely appart and spray-painted the body pieces with flat white. Then drew the desired camo patterns with pencil and painted them with light grey and then small blotches of dark grey. The canopy was painted black along with the troop carrier ledge on the back. The sides of the tank threads were brush painted with white and then the camo pattern was added over that. Stickers are a combination of the original stickers from a black H.I.S.S. Tank and cobrastickers.com red Cobra symbols and red H.I.S.S. numbers.

Custom Cobra Arctic H.I.S.S. Tank "recipe"

Complete H.I.S.S. Tank - H.I.S.S. Tank (2008 25th Anniversary Target exclusive H.I.S.S. Tank(blue) from Attack on Cobra Island set of 3 vehicles)

Paints used:

Flat White Spray Paint

Tamiya XF-1 (Flat Black)

Tamiya X-12 (Gold Leaf)

Tamiya X-11 (Chrome Silver)

Tamiya XF-66 (Light Grey)

Tamiya XF-63 (German Grey)

Tamiya X-2 (White)

2009-09-20T11:51:00.000-07:00

Cobra Arctic H.I.S.S. Tank with Arctic H.I.S.S. Commander

This next custom was done before Hasbro released the 25th Anniversary Arctic H.I.S.S. Tank set. I wanted to give the H.I.S.S. Commander figure a more H.I.S.S. Driver look by giving him the H.I.S.S. Driver trademark lower legs. I did some research on arctic vehicle camo patterns and decided to use this style on the H.I.S.S. Tank.

Today's post will pertain to the Arctic H.I.S.S. Commander figure, tomorrow's will be for the Arctic H.I.S.S. Tank.

Starting with a 25th Anniversary Snow Serpent, I used a H.I.S.S. Driver head and lower legs along with Snake Eyes webgear. I painted the "fur" parts of the Snow Serpent brown and black gloves. The head was painted white and received a sky blue mask like most of Cobra's Arctic Officers have. Painted the raised details on the H.I.S.S. Driver's helmet grey and the goggles silver.

Custom Cobra Arctic H.I.S.S. Commander "recipe"

Head - H.I.S.S. Driver (2008 25th Anniversary single carded figures, Wave 7)
Torso/Arms/Hands/Upper Legs - Snow Serpent (2008 25th Anniversary single carded figures, Wave 9)
Lower Legs - H.I.S.S. Driver (2008 25th Anniversary single carded figures, Wave 7)
Webgear - Snake Eyes (2007 25th Anniversary G.I.Joe Box Set)
AK47 - Snow Serpent (2008 25th Anniversary single carded figures, Wave 9)

Paints used:
Tamiya X-11 (Chrome Silver)
Tamiya XF-66 (Light Grey)
Tamiya XF-1 (Flat Black)
Tamiya XF-10 (Flat Brown)
Tamiya X-14 (Sky Blue)
Tamiya X-2 (White)

2009-09-19T10:55:00.000-07:00

Cobra "Slither" A.T.V.

I wanted to give Cobra something they could use as far as an A.T.V. that was smaller and more "life-like" sized than the classic Cobra Ferret. I saw these A.T.V.s on Marauder's Gun Runners site and bought 2 of them. They come cast in a dark green color so I took them both appart and painted pretty much everything a different color than what it originally was. The main body piece was painted blue with black camo patterns on it and the engine and suspension was detailed a little bit too. After the paint was dry, I re-assembled the entire vehicle and put some stickers on from leftover Cobra F.A.N.G.s. These 4-wheelers are a pretty close to life size vehicle for these 25th Anniversary G.I.Joe and Cobra figures and with the color scheme I used, they look good with Cobra's Night Watch figures from the Toys 'R Us exclusive 5-pack set.

Custom Cobra "Slither" A.T.V. "recipe"

Complete 4 wheeler - Marauder's Gun Runners

Paints used:

Testor's Model Master Gloss Blue

Tamiya X-1 (Gloss Black)

Tamiya X-11 (Chrome Silver)

2009-09-18T16:29:00.000-07:00

Tomax and Xamot Extensive Enterprises business suits continued.........

........I painted the pants flat grey and the jackets flat blue. The 6 buttons on their jackets where painted gold, the shirts underneath their jackets were painted white with yellow ties. Then to complete their business attire, I got 2 conceal-carry briefcases from Marauder's Gun Runners and a set of Extensive Enterprises logo stickers from cobrastickers.com.

Custom Tomax and Xamot in Extensive Enterprises business suits "recipe"

Heads - Tomax and Xamot (2008 25th Anniversary Comic Pack, Wave 3 {Tomax/Xamot})

Rest of figures - Cobra Commander {Black Suit} (2008 25th Anniversary SDCC Exclusive Black Suit)

Briefcases - Marauder's Gun Runners (Conceal-Carry cases)

Paints used:

Tamiya X-12 (Gold Leaf)

Tamiya XF-8 (Flat Blue)

Tamiya XF-66 (Light Grey)

Tamiya X-7 (Lemon Yellow)

Tamiya X-8 (Red)

2009-09-17T10:46:00.000-07:00

Tomax and Xamot in their Extensive Enterprises Business Suits (Cobra Crimson Guard Commanders)

These have been the most expensive custom figures that I have done yet. I can't beleive that Hasbro has yet to release these two as a set in their Extensive Enterprises business suits like they wore in the Sunbow cartoon during the 1980's. This set would be a definate seller for them if they would ever do this, even if they were released as an exclusive set. After watching the old cartoons on DVD, I figured out what I was going to use to make these figures on my own. The expensive part is the 2 San Diego ComicCon (SDCC) exclusive Cobra Commander black suit figures that I had to buy to use as the basis for these figures. At $20-$25+ per figure, just to use for customs is kind of expensive but they turned out just how I had hoped they would. After the two SDCC Cobra Commanders arrived in the mail, I opened them up and popped off their heads. I noticed that the Tomax and Xamot heads from the comic pack would not fit on the neck ball of the SDCC CC figures because the neck balls were bigger than the holes in the bottom of the Tomax/Xamot heads. So a little dremel work on the insides of Tomax and Xamot's heads and they fit good. Tomax and Xamot are twin brothers who dress similar, only "mirror" each other's outfit. Notice the jacket, how the red button is on the left side on Tomax and on the right side on Xamot. They have always been like this since the first time they were in the cartoon and they also always had the opposites on their jacket with the overlaps with Tomax's going towards the right and Xamot's going towards the left. In order to get this, I had to carefully cut off the edge on one of the SDCC CC jackets and flip it over and glue it down so it overlapped the opposite way for Xamot.

Continued tomorrow..........................

2009-09-16T10:37:00.000-07:00

Crimson Shadow Guard Officer

To lead the 4 custom Crimson Shadow Guard Troopers that I made, I decided to do a custom Officer. Using the "Fred" Crimson Guard from the comic packs, I painted him with Tamiya Gloss Black and Tamiya Gold Leaf acrylic paints. I painted the accents with the Gold Leaf insted of the Chrome Silver like on the Crimson Shadow Guard Troopers to signify his rank above them as an Officer.

Custom Crimson Shadow Guard Officer "recipe"

Complete Figure - "Fred" Crimson Guard (2008 25th Anniversary Comic Packs, Wave 3 {"Fred" Crimson Guard/"Scarface" Cobra Officer})
Rifle - Crimson Guard (2008 25th Anniversary single carded figure, Wave 5)

Paints Used:

Tamiya X-1 (Gloss Black)
Tamiya X-12 (Gold Leaf)

2009-09-15T10:34:00.000-07:00

Female Crimson Shadow Guard Trooper continued.........

......Next, I used Tamiya Gloss Black (X-1) acrylic paint and painted the whole body, arms, legs, her hair, helmet and backpack. After the black dried, I used Tamiya Chrome Silver (X-11) for the accents on her chest and dual leg stripes down the outside thigh pieces and the emblem on her helmet. Then, I cut the shoulder pads off of the comic pack Crimson Guard "Fred" figure (that also donated the helmet, legs, backpack, rifle, pistol and stand) and glued them onto her shoulders.

Custom Female Crimson Shadow Guard Trooper "recipe"

Head - Scarlett (Pilot) (2008 25th Anniversary single carded figures, Wave 11)
Torso - Scarlett (Pilot) (2008 25th Anniversary single carded figures, Wave 11)
Arms/Hands - Scarlett (Pilot) (2008 25th Anniversary signle carded figures, Wave 11)
Legs/Feet - "Fred" Crimson Guard (2008 25th Anniversary Comic Pack, Wave 3 {"Fred" Crimson Guard/"Scarface" Cobra Officer})
Helmet - "Fred" Crimson Guard (2008 25th Anniversary Comic Pack, Wave 3 {"Fred" Crimson Guard/"Scarface" Cobra Officer})
Shoulder Pads - "Fred" Crimson Guard (2008 25th Anniversary Comic Pack, Wave 3 {"Fred" Crimson Guard/"Scarface" Cobra Officer})
Gear (Backpack, Rifle, Pistol & Stand) - "Fred" Crimson Guard (2008 25th Anniversary Comic Pack, Wave 3 {"Fred" Crimson Guard/"Scarface" Cobra Officer})

Paints Used:

Tamiya X-1 (Gloss Black)
Tamiya X-11 (Chrome Silver)

2009-09-14T09:48:00.000-07:00

Female Crimson Shadow Guard Trooper

To go with the 3 previous Crimson Shadow Guard Troopers that I made, I decided to do a female version. Since Hasbro has never made a female Crimson Guard figure at all (Baroness Crimson Strike Team doesn't count either), I had to do some parts searching and came up with this combination seen in the above pictures. Using a dremel tool and a very very tiny bit of greenstuff (to fill in the hole left in the left upper chest/shoulder area from the grenade piece, and to smooth out the right shoulder area where I dremeled the "shoulder pad" off), parts from 2 very different 25th Anniversary figures and some gloss black and chrome silver Tamiya paints, the female Crimson Shadow Guard Trooper was created. I chose to use the 25th Anniversary Pilot Scarlett figure for the torso, arms, hands and head. The "stock" 25th Pilot Scarlett has alot more hair on her head than what this custom has and had to be dremelled and minor sculpting so the Crimson Guard helmet would fit on her head. I also had to dremel out the hip areas on the lower torso of the Pilot Scarlett figure to get the Crimson Guard upper legs to fit. After carefully dremelling out the hips, the Crimson Guard legs finally fit.

Getting the hair dremelled down enough so the helmet would fit over her head was a bit trickier then the hips were. After finally getting the head to fit in the helmet, it was on to the right shoulder pad on the Scarlett torso, I dremelled that off and filled in the hole left with greenstuff. After it dried, I smoothed it out and sanded it down so it looked normal. Continued tomorrow.................

2009-09-13T10:32:00.000-07:00

Rip-It (Cobra H.I.S.S. Tank Division General)

After seeing the Rip-It figure from the 2007 International G.I.Joe Convention (Atlanta, GA), I decided my Cobra army needed a H.I.S.S. Tank Division General and went with the 2007 version of Rip-It (black with blue accents), rather than the 2000 version which was blue with black accents. To give him a sense of higher rank and more importance than the H.I.S.S. Commanders or the H.I.S.S. Drivers, I gave this custom Rip-It a removeable helmet to go along with his different paintjob and different customized H.I.S.S. Command Tank #000. To get the desired removeable helmet, I had to use the head from the H.I.S.S. Commander that I used as the donor for this custom Rip-It and dremel out the inside of the head until it fit over the Scarface Cobra Officer head that was being used for him. I used gloss paints on this and now, wish that I had used flats insted due to the shine, but it sets him appart from the rest of the H.I.S.S. Commanders and Drivers. Everything on the H.I.S.S. Commander was repainted to acheive the desired colors.

Custom Rip-It "recipe"

Head - Scarface Cobra Officer (2008 25th Anniversary comic pack, Wave 3 {Fred Crimson Guard/Scarface Cobra Officer})

Helmet - H.I.S.S. Commander (2008 25th Anniversary vehicle packs, Wave 1 H.I.S.S. Tank)

The Rest of Figure - H.I.S.S. Commander (2008 25th Anniversary vehicle packs, Wave 1 H.I.S.S. Tank)

Paints Used:

Testor's Model Master Gloss Blue

Tamiya X-1 (Gloss Black)

Tamiya X-11 (Chrome Silver)

Tamiya X-7 (Red)

2009-09-12T08:19:00.000-07:00

Raptor continued...................

........Starting with the torso, I decided to use Gung-Ho from the 2007 25th Anniversary G.I.Joe Box Set. I pulled Gung-Ho's vest off and popped his head off. Unscrewed his legs and took them appart too. I needed an upper torso that featured a bare chest and arms so Gung-Ho was the best choice for this at the time and I had the parts available. First thing to do after taking appart Gung-Ho was to scratch off the Marine logo tattoo on his chest. I did this very carefully with the tip of an Xacto knife blade, this allowed me to get into the grooves of his chest and remove the tattoo. Now, I needed to put together a new set of legs that resembled the vintage Raptor figures legs from 1987. I used Roadblocks upper legs from the 2007 G.I.Joe Box Set and Gung-Ho's lower legs, also from the 2007 Box Set. To get the leg holster on his left thigh, I usde the one from Gung-Ho's right thigh and made some modifications to it with the Xacto knife so it looked right on his left thigh. Now to find a head that looked somewhat like Raptor's.........I used Duke's head, also from the 2007 G.I.Joe Box Set and painted the brown around his eyes like Raptor has. For the arms, I kept the Gung-Ho ones with the torso and painted the elbow pads and gloves black. After painting the lower torso pants part and the legs brown and the boots black with silver "talons" on the toes like the original Raptor had, I decided to try and make the Cobra necklace like the vintage version had. I used the dogtags off of the 2008 25th Anniversary single carded figure, Wave 8 Major Bludd and cut off some of the "chains", then used greenstuff to sculpt the "pendant" on the necklace. After the greenstuff dried and was sculpted a little bit, I painted the chains red and the pendant silver with black trim and back. Carefully cut the edges off of a red Cobra chest sticker from www.cobrastickers.com and placed it on the newly constructed pendant. After all of the figure was painted, dried and re-assembled, I got the idea to use real feathers insted of sculpting them on with greenstuff. After a trip to the local JoAnn fabrics store, I had the feathers I needed for the job. Using basically just the tips of the feathers, I glued them on his wrists, ankles and back with clear Loc-Tite glue. Also using the Loc-Tite glue, I glued the freashly painted belt buckle that was dremeled out of the original Raptor figure's waist onto the new Raptor waist. The backpack post had to be removed from the original Raptor's backpack/winged-cape and some of the plastic had to be cut off from the backpack part as well to fit the contours of the 25th Anniversary Gung-Ho back. Then, slipped the new Raptor's arms through the holes in the cape and glued the modified backpack piece onto his back. The last step was to glue the original cowl onto Duke's head. Before the cowl fit right, I had to carefully cut the tab out of the cowl that used to go into the groove on Raptor's head. To finish him off, I added some detail paint apps to his bird and made him a custom stand.

Custom Raptor "parts recipe"

Head - Duke (2007 25th Anniversary G.I.Joe Box Set)

Torso - Gung-Ho (2007 25th Anniversary G.I.Joe Box Set)

Arms - Gung-Ho (2007 25th Anniversary G.I.Joe Box Set)

Upper Legs - Roadblock (2007 25th Anniversary G.I.Joe Box Set)

Lower Legs - Gung-Ho (2007 25th Anniversary G.I.Joe Box Set)

Side Holster and Gun - Gung-Ho (2007 25th Anniversary G.I.Joe Box Set)

Cobra Pendant - Major Bludd (2008 25th Anniversary single carded figure, Wave 8)

Cowl - Raptor (1987 ARAH single carded figure)

Backpack with "wings" cape - Raptor (1987 ARAH single carded figure)

Belt Buckle - Raptor (1987 ARAH single carded figure)

Bird - Raptor (1987 ARAH single carded figure)

Paints used:

Tamiya X-9 (Brown)

Tamiya X-1 (Black)

Tamiya X-7 (Red)

Tamiya X-11 (Chrome Silver)

2009-09-11T13:28:00.000-07:00

Raptor (Cobra's Bird Handeler)

Next up was one of my favorites still to this day, Raptor! I never really liked him when I was a kid but he always looked kind of cool and I figured Hasbro would not release him in the 25th style (which they have not, yet), so I'd try and make my own custom 25th style Raptor. I bought a vintage ARAH Raptor figure complete off of ebay and started looking through my custom fodder pieces to get an idea of what parts I was going to use to make him into a 25th Anniversary update. Once I found out what pieces I was going to use, I decided to get the feathers on his back, wrists and ankles like the vintage figure had sculpted on, I was going to use real feathers and glue them on. Starting with the vintage Raptor, I managed to pry the cowl off of his head(they are glued on originally from Hasbro) and take off his cape and bird. Then came the fun part, to get the belt buckle off of the figure! I used the dremel tool and hacked appart the vintage Raptor's waist piece and was careful not to damage the belt buckle area. After getting the buckle free from the remainder of his waist, I carefully trimmed around the buckle untill it had a nice even flat edge that I could glue onto the new Raptor's belt and trimmed the edges also. Now that I was done with stripping the vintage Raptor of everything I needed, it was on to the task of kit-bashing the parts together for the new one................................

To Be Continued in Tomorrows Post......................

2009-09-10T15:06:00.000-07:00

Cobra Crimson Strike Team Viper

Next up, I did a custom Crimson Strike Team Viper based on the JoeCon Crimson Strike Team set from 2002. I made this custom Viper a year before any news of the 2009 JoeCon Crimson Strike Team set was released. I started with a regular 25th Anniversary Wave 7 Cobra Viper and decided to make a removeable helmet for him too. First, I popped off the Viper head and then dremeled out the inside until it would fit over a 25th Anniversary Cobra "Scarface" Officer head from the comic pack. Next, I took off the Viper's vest and painted it black, red and silver with Tamiya acrylic paints and painted the Viper's body red also. I painted the Viper's wrist pads silver as well as the insides of his thigh pads. Then painted the helmet red and the goggles black with silver lens and red straps on the goggles, added a Crimson Strike Team logo in silver on his left bicep, painted the outside trim of his wrist pads and inner thigh pads black along with the pockets on the outside of his thighs.

Custom Cobra Crimson Strike Team Viper "recipe"

Head - "Scarface" Cobra Officer (2008 25th Anniversary Comic Pack, Wave 3 {"Fred" Crimson Guard/"Scarface" Cobra Officer})

Rest of figure - Viper (2008 25th Anniversary Single Carded Figure, Wave 7)

Paints Used:

Tamiya X-1 (Gloss Black)

Tamiya X-11 (Chrome Silver)

Tamiya X-7 (Red)

2009-09-09T10:26:00.000-07:00

Cobra Crimson Shadow Guard Trooper

My next custom was a Crimson Shadow Guard Trooper. Based on the TRU exclusive Crimson Shadow Guard set from 2005. I liked the look of them and figured Hasbro would not release an updated version of them so I did my own. These were more than just a little paint here and there, they are complete repaints basically. I used Tamiya Gloss Black (X-1) on the first custom Crimson Shadow Gurads that I did (3 Troopers, 1 female Trooper and an Officer) but now use Satin and Flat Black on my newer ones. I used the "Fred" Crimson Guard from the 25th comic pack with the "Scarface" Cobra Officer for these first customs. The trim was painted with Tamiya Chrome Silver (X-11)

Custom Crimson Shadow Guard Trooper "recipe"

Entire Figure - Fred series Crimson Guard (2008 25th Anniversary Comic Pack, Wave 3 {"Fred" Crimson Guard/"Scarface" Cobra Officer})
Rifle - Crimson Guard (2008 25th Anniversary Single Carded Figure, Wave 5)

Paint used:
Tamiya X-1 (Gloss Black)
Tamiya X-11 (Chrome Silver)

2009-09-08T10:43:00.000-07:00

Cobra Night Watch H.I.S.S. Tank Driver

My next custom G.I.Joe figure I did was a Cobra Night Watch H.I.S.S. Tank Driver. I based the colors and camo patterns off of the Toys 'R Us exclusive Cobra Night Watch 5-pack set with the black and blue camo. He was another example of just using a little bit of paint to make a different figure that most likely will never be produced otherwise.

I used Tamiya Flat Black (XF-1) and that was all the paint needed for this one. Painted his head, upper/lower torso, arms and upper legs.

Custom Cobra Night Watch H.I.S.S. Tank Driver "recipe"

Complete Figure(minus the Upper and Lower Legs) - H.I.S.S. Commander (2008 25th Anniversary H.I.S.S. Tank Vehicle Set, Wave 1)

Upper/Lower Legs - H.I.S.S. Driver (2008 25th Anniversary Single Carded Figures, Wave 7)

Paint Used:

Tamiya XF-1 (Flat Black)

2009-09-07T15:51:00.000-07:00

Cobra Officer (Female)

Well, let's start where it all began for me. late 2007 I started customizing some of my Star Wars figures a little bit and then got into the G.I.Joe 25th Anniversary line and the rest is history as they say.

My fisrt G.I.Joe custom was a female Cobra Officer. I used a Scarlett figure from the 25th Anniversary G.I.Joe Box Set from 2007. Popped her hair off and cut off the small grenade attatched by her shoulder. Took off all of her gear that was supplied with her and scrounged up an extra blue Cobra Officer helmet from a 25th Anniversary Wave 1 Cobra Officer and an AK47 rifle from an extra 25th Anniversary comic pack "Scarface" Cobra Officer. These first customs I did only involved mionor dissasembly and parts swapping. Later on after more experience, I started to delve deeper into the custom possibilities.

I used Tamiya Flat Blue (XF-8) Acrylic Paint and Tamiya Flat Black (XF-1) Acrylic Paint for the colors to make her into a Cobra Officer. After a couple light coats of paint were applied and dried, the finishing touch was a red Cobra sigil sticker placed on her chest. To get the sticker to sit properly and adhear to the contours of her chest, I placed the sticker where I wanted it to be and used a hair dryer held a couple of inches above the sticker and figure to heatup the sticker and make it more plyable. The heat softened the sticker and allowed it to be smoothed out and form to the contours of her chest.

Custom female Cobra Officer "Recipe"

Head - Scarlett (2007 25th Anniversary G.I.Joe Box Set)
Upper/Lower Torso - Scarlett (2007 25th Anniversary G.I.Joe Box Set)
Upper/Lower Arms - Scarlett (2007 25th Anniversary G.I.Joe Box Set)
Hands - Scarlett (2007 25th Anniversary G.I.Joe Box Set)
Upper/Lower Legs - Scarlett (2007 25th Anniversary G.I.Joe Box Set)
Feet - Scarlett (2007 25th Anniversary G.I.Joe Box Set)
Helmet - Cobra Officer (2007 25th Anniversary Single Carded Wave 1)
Rifle - "Scarface" Cobra Officer (2008 25th Anniversary Comic Pack {Crimson Guard/Cobra Officer} Wave 3)

Paint:
Tamiya XF-1 (Flat Black)
Tamiya XF-8 (Flat Blue)