What better place to start than the beginning?!
I dabbled a little with various little modifications prior to creating this fig, but in reality for me it all started with this little chap. He is still one of my favourite figs (as you can tell from the watermark) and contains a good deal of the techniques I continue to use now.
The inspiration for this fig came from the pieces rather than any pre-conceived plan. He evolved from an attempt to create a more militaristic armour piece. I will talk about the development of the Brikviet backstory at a later stage so for now I will just concentrate on the fig design.
Parts Required:
2 * 1X1 Plate (black)
1 * Castle chestplate (any colour – whichever is cheapest)
2 * Firemans Axe
2 * Buzzsaws
1 * Rock raiders Helmet
1 * Ice Planet Visor (normally trans-orange)
1 * Triangular road sign
2 * Star wand (normally trans-red)
1 * Cable reel
1 * Hammer
1 * Black torso and legs
1 * Minifig head
1 * Katana
Additional non-TLC parts / tools
1 * Brickarms Grenade
2 * Brickarms U-clip or Monopod
1 * Brickarms Space Assault Rifle
Superglue
Games Workshop black undercoat spray
Games Workshop Chaos Black paint
Games Workshop Catachan Green paint
Craft knife / Heavy duty cutting knife.
Standard paintbrush
Stage 1: Creating the Armour
The armour on this fig is very simple and is created as follows:
1. Cut the axe heads off the 2 axes (taking care to retain the shape of the head). You will be using the heads for this armour, however I would suggest keeping the handles for use in other things (I generally use them as cigars);
2. Glue the two axe heads onto the sloping front of the chestplate, with one on either side of the central line, leaving a small gap between the plates. Try and keep them as straight and parallel as possible;
3. Cut the handles from the two buzzsaws.. cutting a straight line as close to the end of each side (I may try and take an image of this with the cutting points and post it for those unsure where to cut);
4. Position the handles from 3. above on the shoulders of the armour, trying to keep the handles as horizontal as possible. Once you are happy with the positioning glue these in place.
5. Cut one of the monopods just below the clip trying to obtain a clean, straight cut;
6. Glue the monopod clip to the left axehead breastplate.
That is the armour done… just do the helmet next.
Stage 2: Creating the Helmet
1. Cut the antenna from the Ice Planet visor;
2. Cut the handle part from the cable reel (another image I will post later to show where to cut);
3. Glue the handle from the cable reel to the bottom of the Ice Planet visor (best to do this right in the middle so that the visor will close properly with this part between the cheek guards of the helmet)
4. Cut the top of the hammer off (leaving a small piece of handle on it) and then glue to the top of the helmet (using the ridge on the top as another support for the glued piece).
That is the helmet done!
Stage 3: Painting
1. Take the helmet, visor, body armour and triangular sign and place on a flat surface. This should be ideally outdoors or in a well ventilated area that does not matter if it gets covered in paint;
2. Shake the black spray can vigorously (as instructed) and when ready spray the items carefully (as instructed), ensuring that the pieces are completely covered;
3. Wait for the paint to dry (leave as long as you can as there is noting worse than fingerprints in the paint);
4. When the undercoat is dry decide what colour you want the armour (in my case Green – Catachan green) and paint it on in thin layers using a standard brush. This is all done before putting on the fig body.
I use GW paints because of my wargaming background and the easy availability. I also use Catachan green specifically because to me it is one of the easiest paints to use… it goes on well and when dry looks like a solid colour with little or no streaking.
Once all the paint is dry (really dry – at least overnight) I would add a Matt Varnish (brushed on in thin coats) that seals the paint and makes it much more resilient to scratches and flaking. I normally don’t have a problem…. but others do so I generally recommend a Matt varnish.
Once everything is dry I generally finish off with the fun bits of assembling the parts together on the fig and adding weaponry / accessories based on preference. In this case the fig has a TLC Katana and a http://www.brickarms.com Space Assault Rifle (with monopod attached). However the advantage of minifigs is that you can change this as much as you want.
Hopefully this is helpful to anyone looking to create a similar fig. As you can see the image it should help when following the instructions. Any questions about this fig just ask!
