packratstudios: A look back at my favorate project of 2011 - Captain Spectre

Monday, January 9, 2012

A look back at my favorate project of 2011 - Captain Spectre - The Process

Last year PackRatStudios was approached by Tom Floyd, the Creator, Writer and Artist of the Pulp Comic Character Captain Spectre!, to create an action figure based on his character. The best part about this project was definetly the character. Pulp, Steampunk, and World War 2 are right up my alley.

I started off by finding as much images of Captain Spectre as I could find. Then Tom sent me his Sketch ups of the Character (see below). These sketch ups were instrumental in showing me exactly what Tom wanted out of a figure.

Working with Tom before I got started on the figure, we talked about how much articulation he wanted in the figure, and scale. We also talked about accessories. He definetly wanted Captain Spectre to have his Thompson sub machine gun and his 1911 pistol. Tom also stated that he would love a base and or display case. So with all the details hammered out, I started working on the Captain!

The SketchUps and Drawings used during creation:

My cork board during production:

First Sculpt of Captain Spectre's Head (getting ready for casting):

Preliminary work on the suit:

AND, Oh yeah, Tom wanted two exact figures, so I was working on two during this process:

One figure is done and ready for paint:

Once I had both figures completed and accessories at the ready, the figures were painted. Captain Spectre wears a pretty much all black costume, so to bring in some definition, various shades and glosses of black were used, there are also blue highlights to add shadow and more definition to his jacket.

Once the figures were both painted, I then moved on to planning out the bases. I sketched up two different bases/displays for the 2 Captain Spectre figures. One base would be a section of a tank or other mechanical device that would sit on a platform that would rotate the figure. The other base would be a rocket blast that the figures jetpack would attached to via magnets. Both of these bases would have a glass dome that would serve as the display case. I think they came out amazing, and Tom was thrilled when he got them. He proudly displays them on his tables at comic conventions around the US!