Hi everybody! I'm a bit late to the custom Kreon scene, but I'm a big fan of the little guys and I've been trying to improve my customization skillz, so I figured I post how things go for me. I'm very interested in any feedback!
Archive Post Grimlock Helmet by Tresob. Jetfire Helmet by Tresob. Sideswipe Helmet by Tresob. Red Alert Helmet by Tresob. Kickback Helmet by Tresob. Arcee Helmet and vest by Tresob. Punch/Counterpunch Helmet by Tresob. Highbrow Helmet by Tresob. Gears Helmet by Tresob. Warpath Helmet by Tresob. Laserbeak By Tresob. Hot Spot Helmet by Tresob. First Aid Helmet by Tresob. Streetwise Helmet by Tresob. Groove Helmet by Tresob. Blades Helmet by Tresob. Defensor Helmet by Tresob. Hands by WuLongTi. Air Raid Helmet by Tresob. Slingshot Helmet by Tresob. Silverbolt Helmet by Tresob. Skydive Helmet by Tresob. Fireflight Helmet by Tresob. Afterburner Helmet by Tresob. Lightspeed Helmet by Tresob. Nosecone Helmet by Tresob. Scattershot Helmet by Tresob. Strafe Helmet by Tresob. Scrapper Helmet by Tresob. Scavenger Helmet by Tresob. Mixmaster Helmet by Tresob. Long Haul Helmet by Tresob. Hot Rod Helmet by Tresob. Springer Helmet by Tresob. Kup Helmet by Tresob. Blurr Helmet by Tresob. Omega Supreme By WuLongTi. Devastator Helmet, hands, mixing barrel, and dump truck bed by WuLongTi. Onslaught Helmet by Tresob. Swindle Helmet by Tresob. Brawl Helmet and vest by Tresob. Vortex Helmet by Tresob. Blast Off Helmet by Tresob. Motormaster Helmet by Tresob. Drag Strip Helmet by Tresob. Wildrider Helmet by Tresob. Breakdown Helmet by Tresob. Dead End Helmet by Tresob. Alpha Trion Helmet by Tresob. Beachcomber Helmet by Tresob. Dreadwind Helmet by Tresob. Runabout Helmet by Tresob. Hun Gurrr Helmet by Tresob. Blot Helmet by Tresob. Rippersnapper Helmet by Tresob. Sinnertwin Helmet by Tresob. Cutthroat Helmet by Tresob. Razorclaw Helmet by Tresob. Rampage Helmet by Tresob. Divebomb Helmet by Tresob. Tantrum Helmet by Tresob. Headstrong Helmet by Tresob. Cliff Jumper Helmet by Tresob. Megatron Helmet by Tresob. Octane Helmet by Tresob. Runamuck Helmet by Tresob. Ratbat By Tresob. Galvatron Helmet by Tresob. Scourge Helmet by Tresob. Cyclonus Helmet by Tresob. Wheelie Helmet by Tresob. Predaking Helmet and hands by WuLongTi. Sword and animal heads by Tresob. Bludgeon Helmet by Tresob. Scorponok Helmet by Tresob. Spinister Helmet by Tresob. Bulkhead Helmet and vest by Tresob. Slipstream Helmet, torso, and wings by Tresob. Trailbreaker Helmet by Tresob. Brawn Helmet and vest by Tresob.
So far most of my customization work is based on Shapeways pieces by Tresob and WuLongTi. Check them out, they're awesome! I've bought Shapeways accessories over the years, and I've found that I tend to prefer the WSFP (White Strong Flexible, Polished) material for its balance of durability and aesthetics. Especially with parts as small as Kreon accessories, I think the strength is important, and I've never had a problem with WSF breaking on me yet; whereas, I have with the Detail materials. The regular WSF material has a very coarse texture. It tends to look worse in pictures than in person, but it's still pretty noticeable. The polishing process smooths down the surface a lot, though it can dull fine details and it still has a bit of texture even after the polishing. You can also sand a regular WSF piece by hand, but I've found that to be a lot of work and it can be really hard to get into those tight corners as well of the polishing machines at Shapeways can. So, my first lesson learned on this project is that it's actually better to hand paint these pieces than try to spray them. - First, the WSFP pieces are porous enough that they seem to suck up the paint and leave practically no trace of brush strokes! - Second, that same porousness makes it very difficult to mask off straight lines for spray painting without unsightly bleed over. It's about as easy to just hand-paint those lines, especially if they're along sculpted details anyway. In fact, some of the places I want to paint are so tight, I'll actually use a toothpick to apply the paint, and I've had good results with that. - Third, spray paints actually seem to accentuate the appearance of roughness. I'm not exactly sure why -- I'm guessing the even spray tends to build up the small imperfections in the surface texture; whereas, hand painting tends to fill them in and even it out more. I had spray painted Grimlock and Sideswipe, but I wasn't happy with the way it looked, so I sanded them back down and did it again by hand and was much more pleased. Also, I think that using flat paints helps reduce the appearance of surface flaws. Glossier paints reflect all of those pits, especially under flash photography. The red paint I used for Red Alert isn't totally flat, and I think that makes his helmet seem more roughly textured than, say, Grimlock or Sideswipe. But in person I'm pretty happy with how Red Alert came out. Arcee's chest still looks pretty rough, even in person, so I may try to sand that out manually. I figured it makes more sense to keep all of these customs in a single thread since there would be way too many if I gave each one I intend to do a separate thread. I plan to collect pics in my archive post, and I'll describe my experiences in new posts as I go. Any feedback is very much appreciated, especially if you've learned any tricks that can help me improve. Thanks!
That's one awesome Grimlock. It looks like an authentic kre-o piece. Nice work. Can't wait to see what else you have.
Here's another few that I've painted up: That Laserbeak figure is so small! I basically painted the entire thing with toothpicks. In case anyone is curious, that face on Gears comes from the AOE Lazerbolt set with a bunch of the "tribal" detailing removed. Basically, I took the back side of an exacto blade and scratched away all of the lines I didn't want. With a little patience, this is very effective to "erase" tampo details from Kreons. I've been using the same trick to remove the noses from my SDCC Kreons. (Modifying an exclusive toy?! Sacrilege, I know! )
PM sent. Since I would never want to steal someone's intellectual property, I made a helmet called "Janus"...that just happens to bear a slight resemblance to a toy called Punch/Counterpunch.
As I've mentioned before, I think the Shapeways WSFP material I've been using for this project looks much better painted in matte than gloss. The reflections off the gloss paint make the minor surface texture much more apparent. This is especially true under flash photography, but it is also definitely noticeable under normal lighting conditions. Some of the paints that I've been using which have a pretty close color match to certain Kreon stock colors are seemingly only available in gloss. Fortunately, I ran across this: Tamiya X-21 Flat Base. Here's a YouTube demonstration that I thought was useful. Mixing the paint was a bit of trial-and-error. The Tamiya website recommends a 10:1 ratio of gloss to flat base paint to start with; however, I found that I needed about a 2:1 ratio to get the level of flatness that I wanted. The flat base paint dries a chalky white, so it does affect the gloss paint's color somewhat, but the effect isn't too noticeable unless you add a whole lot of it. So, I tried flattening my gloss red paint and giving some of these pieces another try. Here are the results: Before and After Red Alert Warpath Gears
Now that I have that red color figured out, I can make a lot more progress on which figures I can paint up. Here's the Protectobots. The Defensor hands are by WuLongTi. Everything else is courtesy of Tresob. Thanks again, guys! Hot Spot First Aid Streetwise Groove Blades Defensor
Awesome! They have a great finish to them. Have you thought about hiring yourself out as a figure painter? Seriously, I know people who do that.
Thanks! It's been a fun learning experience for me. I've done some simple figure repaint projects for myself, but I'm still definitely in the learning phase. But if someone happened to be particularly interested in working with me, I'd be open to it. Here's another set that I've finished up. All custom helmets by Tresob. Air Raid Slingshot I made a minor modification to Tresob's helmet: he originally came with small "cheek" pieces. Since my orange color-match isn't perfect, I thought it would blend better and give him a more convincing "bald" look without them, so I trimmed them off using a dremel with a cutting disc. Silverbolt Skydive Fireflight