Daredevil
The very first comics I ever owned were Daredevil issues #288-290, a 3-part story arc in which he takes on Kingpin and beats the living hell out of Bullseye. My childhood brain was overjoyed and it cemented Daredevil as my absolute favorite comic character. Something about how he's constantly beat down in every way imaginable, sometimes of his own doing, yet he continues to fight on. He loses his sight, then his dad, then his girlfriend, then another girlfriend, then another girlfriend (seriously, these ladies should know better) and despite all that he continues to fight and protect Hell's Kitchen. So because of that, I've been itching to make a custom DD for myself.
While the Bucky Cap body (medium size Hasbro body) features excellent proportions and articulation, I never felt like it was the right choice for Daredevil. I've always been a fan of the slimmer, more acrobatic looking Daredevil ala Frank Miller or Alex Meleev. Then along came that beautiful Sunfire figure with better proportions, double jointed goodness, and the return of butterfly joints. It was the perfect buck for my Daredevil!
The recipe, as always, is fairly simple:
Head: ML Walgreens DD
Angry Head: ML Electro with sculpted mask
Body/Arms/Legs/Hands: ML Sunfire
Alt Grip hands: ML Secret Wars Captain America
Feet: ML Walgreens DD
Holster and Billy Clubs: Scratch built
With a costume as simple as DD's I really wanted to cram a ton of detail where I could so I took a lot of inspiration from various statues and artwork. I started by completely disassembling the figure and removing the paint. I then sculpted over all the deep musculature to give the appearance of stretched cloth, sculpted seams and covered all the peg holes, and sculpted over his forearms and lower legs to make them look like worn leather gloves and boots. I prefer my heroes to look like they're actually, well, wearing a costume and not prancing around in body paint like some playmate of the year. I sculpted the DD on his chest, being very careful to keep it ultra thin and in-scale with the figure. Lastly, I took the grimacing ML Electro head and sculpted the mask and horns adding small details where I could. Like the Captain America scale-mail torso I made, I have casts of the Angry DD head for sale. Just shoot me an email though the contact page for info.
So that was it for the body. Nothing too crazy. But that lead me to his billy clubs. Toy companies have never been able to get DD's billy clubs right. They're either too big, or just plain white sticks, and they've never had even a whiff of the ingenuity they're known for. I really wanted to make his clubs the way I've always known them, and that's how they're detailed on the 1991 Marvel Universe Card #129. This was a crazy challenge that wracked my brain for weeks trying to figure out exactly how I was going to pull this off. I started by cutting equal length pieces of 1/8" styrene rods. I then made removable caps that peg onto the clubs, held in place by 1/8" magnets and steel rods so the magnets had something to grab on to. I then made a second pair of caps which connect a 26 gage black wire so I can pose him with his billy clubs flying all over the place as we've seen so many times in the comics. But I wasn't done there! I positioned the magnets used to hold the caps on so that they attract each other allowing the clubs to be connected end to end. Then finally I added yet another magnet and cap on the bottom of one club to snap on the curved top of his cane, or grappling hook as it's used when he's fighting crime. If you're totally lost, don't worry. Just check out the YouTube video below to see how it all works.
Lastly the paint job. Just like with the sculpted details,I knew I had to spice up the paint job to make up for the monochromatic design. I used a few different shades of red and a lusterless (flat) clear coat for the bulk of his costume, and deep reds and browns for his boots, gloves, belt and holster with a semi-gloss clear coat to give them a weathered leather look.
So there you have it. MY perfect Daredevil is ready to whoop some action figure ass all up and down my display shelves.
Thank you for reading and enjoy the pictures below! Don't forget to check out my YouTube channel and drop a like there. I don't make videos often but if you want to see the latest and greatest, please hit that subscribe button while you're there.
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WIP
