Thanks everyone for the kind words. I think now that I reworked it and shared pics it better illustrates what I mentioned a few pages back, which I know a few people may have thought was blowing things out of proportion. I do want to clarify that I think this is more than an admirable effort, and that indeed Inart is doing stellar work. I also think what
@karamazov80 said is spot on, there will always be a drop off in quality for the factory version. I've seen almost every single Hot Toy figure can be improved even ever so slightly with a paint tweak here or there to bring out likeness. Many I've done I don't post on @RFCustomFigures because they are noticeable more in person than through photos.
But for something like this I knew it would be a radical transformation.
@JorjeCroft not only are you right but eyebrows may be the most overlooked and obvious make or break likeness thing on must characters in general. And I believe that and the beard could have been avoided with better QC. I think they could have done better here with full empathy on how hard it is to get something right in the factory level.
I feel for them as their ambition and at this price point I always knew the rooted hair would be hard to pull off on a mass level. Having worked with this type of hair for years I know that it all depends on the specific hide you get. And how it’s applied. Literally impossible to be consistent, as a casual collector there’s no way you should have to sit back and pray you get a good one.
For the hair specifically, I maintain what I said earlier (which was also controversial) that the sculpted hair holds better likeness (not realism but likeness) so that's exactly what I referenced when trying to shape it.
Luckily I did not have to do much to the bottom, but to get the volume in the top I wet it and messed / teased with it with a toothpick and metal prod to break up some of the product a bit. The big thing was trimming the bangs a touch in the very front and yanking those bangs closer together to close the massive forehead. 90% of the ones I've seen have that issue, that's the main difference with the prototype. Think of the hair shape in the front as a triangle: the bottom of his cheeks being the widest and the widow's peak the narrowest. they did attempt the bangs, I believe all would need to be trimmed to get the same effect.
The eyebrows were reshaped with lighter brown /flesh paint and darker brown to get the shape right.
The whole orbit was accentuated. Viggo has very distinct orbits. So this includes thickening the bottom eyelashes and accentuating the bags and crevice on the inside of the nose bridge.
The beard lightened the sides of the mustache and chin and darkened the lip divot and sides of the chin
). But after a couple of twisting attempts with bare hands and no budge, I broke out the old rubber gloves and with the grip they gave it worked like a dream - easy-peasy!
