SilentSurfer's Laboratory: Come up to the Lab & See What's on the Slab.

[DarthMagnus]

There's a little thing to click on that says something like "get embed code". You click on that and a long code comes up. Just copy it and paste it. You don't even need the

things because the code will already have what it needs.

Thanks man!

 

[EVILFACE]

Don't think I ever posted them here, but here is my SilentSurfer myers painted by Elvis1976. Unbeatable team.

 

[SilentSurfer]

Nice Myers, EvilFace, and thanks for posting it here finally. I hadn't seen yours painted up by Elvis yet. Nice job on the hair.

 

[SilentSurfer]

i go insane of no news from you about that project and begin making it myself in photoshop

Oh, wow, that's hilarious. I thought there was something a bit off about that pic, but I didn't realize til you said that that that is the HT head on a production still.

You like how I was able to use the word "that" three times in a row and not have it be improper grammer.

Well, P., the wait is over. There is nothing standing between me and your P2 repaint anymore. I just finished some Smallville heads, and your P1 body is on the table.

 

[SilentSurfer]

Speaking of Smallville heads, these were painted for a guy named Jeremy. I'm not sure if he is on the Freaks board since he contacted me directly through email. His special request was that I paint the flesh tone to match that of the Hot Toys Truetype hands he sent, male and female. This took some tricky figuring out, but I made it happen. Not only do they have the same tone, but the solid resin heads have a bit of translucent effect like the plastic hands he provided. Check it.

Clark

He also had me remove the neck on one of the heads so that he could option a rubber body.

I'd post more pics of Kent, but the sculpt was so rough that no amount of paint was going to make it look awesome. I only included it in this post to show the flesh comparison.

Next up is Lana Lang. She was tougher because she is a white girl, but Jeremy sent me the Cuban Truetype hands which were much darker. I kept wanting to lighten her up so I could shade her like I'm used to, but I eventually worked it out. She still looked way too dark until I painted the hair. Then she didn't seem so extreme anymore, and I actually like the way she turned out very much. Not the right tone for the actress, but she matches the hands. Here's two different shots with different lighting to prove I really nailed it.

This sculpt wasn't a dead on likeness, but it was much nicer, and a whole lot cleaner than the Kent sculpt.

And of course, I felt she deserved her own poster.

 

[TheObsoleteMan]

That's fantastic paintwork, especially the eyes, but I look more like Kristin Kreuk than that sculpt.

 

[SilentSurfer]

Tru dat. And the Kent was so much worse I didn't even want it in my thread even with my paint on it.

 

[P.]

- lost ebay package arrived after several months
- gort is shipped
- and finally SilentSurfer starts the movie-proper repaint that i waited for since McFarlane predators
perfect day!
Nathan, please sometimes show me some production photos i will be patient like a snake, no hurry when you work on it

 

[SilentSurfer]

Copy that. Five by five.

 

[SilentSurfer]

Yo, P., Predator 2 body repaint is done. Pics later today. You're going to love it. There's just one problem. The Hot Toys head is going to look like a cartoon on it now.

 

[P.]

so fast??? i thought it will take a week or two! really, how did you manage?

There's just one problem. The Hot Toys head is going to look like a cartoon on it now.

oh shi.
i had to send it to you like you suggested, especially as i have 2 of them.
but i will lose my mind after another half-a-year waiting %)

 

[scarbrs]

Speaking of Smallville heads, these were painted for a guy named Jeremy. I'm not sure if he is on the Freaks board since he contacted me directly through email. His special request was that I paint the flesh tone to match that of the Hot Toys Truetype hands he sent, male and female. This took some tricky figuring out, but I made it happen. Not only do they have the same tone, but the solid resin heads have a bit of translucent effect like the plastic hands he provided. Check it.

Clark

He also had me remove the neck on one of the heads so that he could option a rubber body.

I'd post more pics of Kent, but the sculpt was so rough that no amount of paint was going to make it look awesome. I only included it in this post to show the flesh comparison.

Next up is Lana Lang. She was tougher because she is a white girl, but Jeremy sent me the Cuban Truetype hands which were much darker. I kept wanting to lighten her up so I could shade her like I'm used to, but I eventually worked it out. She still looked way too dark until I painted the hair. Then she didn't seem so extreme anymore, and I actually like the way she turned out very much. Not the right tone for the actress, but she matches the hands. Here's two different shots with different lighting to prove I really nailed it.

This sculpt wasn't a dead on likeness, but it was much nicer, and a whole lot cleaner than the Kent sculpt.

And of course, I felt she deserved her own poster.

Great Work on these That TT color is hard to match.

Eric

 

[drjedisith]

i love your work. that is just clean awesome work man!

 

[SilentSurfer]

Thank you Dr. I do my best.

Great Work on these That TT color is hard to match.

Eric

Being a very-semi-translucent plastic made it really hard. Thanks for recognizing that. It did keep me from shading and highlighting like I'm used to, but the customer requested color match to the body as #1 priority, so that's what I did. It was a challenge, but it's the challenges that keep this job interesting.

 

[SilentSurfer]

so fast??? i thought it will take a week or two! really, how did you manage?
oh shi.
i had to send it to you like you suggested, especially as i have 2 of them.
but i will lose my mind after another half-a-year waiting %)

Before I got my new compressor, I spent insane amounts of time frustrated and trouble-shooting issues with moisture, air pressure and whatever else. I also was using a cheap paint that I got from Michaels, and while it worked in an airbrush, it wasn't made for it, so it created its own issues to overcome. It was such a pain in the ass to paint larger projects like Preds that I had a hard time committing to sitting down for the time it took to do it. More than half the time was spent figuring out how to correct a problem I was having instead of just getting paint on the figure.

New airbrush, new paint, and new compressor (in that order) and 99% of my troubles are over, which is how I'm able to work faster now. Also, I'm hoping to become an in-house painter at Sideshow, so I've been more dedicated to putting in full-time hours at the paint station. What I used to stretch out into two weeks, I was able to do in three days.

I'll tell you what though, P., you may have had to wait a while longer than either of us wanted, but because you sent your Pred to me so long ago, you got in on my old pricing from when I hadn't figured out how much time I was really putting into these things. Considering what you're paying for this vs. the time I put in, I'm making only about $7 a friggin' hour. Hope that helps make you feel a little better after waiting this long. Sorry about the wait still. I had really underestimated the amount of stuff I had on my shelves at the time.

Next post will have pics in it...

 

[SilentSurfer]

Here's the pic P. sent me to show his idea of using the P1 body to customize the P2 figure, an idea I too once had, but never got around to doing myself before I sold my own P2 figure.

So, it was kinda nice to have this opportunity to realize the dream, even if I won't be keeping it for myself. I have done so many fun and successful customs that I wish I could keep for myself. This is definitely one of them. This body turned out as good as I dared to dream and better than I expected. Hope you like it P.

Go back to the first pic, and you'll notice how cheap the paint up was from Hot Toys. That wasn't good enough.

I saved us both some time and didn't detail the forearms or lower legs since they will be covered by armor, but I did make sure to spot the portions that would still be seen.

 

[SilentSurfer]

I can't wait until P. gets this body back and dresses it up. Please take lots of great pics and post them in here.

OR...

You can send your P2 head to me and I can paint it to match for you, cause I'm sure you can imagine how bad it's going to look now on top of this paint job. If you send the armor with it, I can build him up and take some excellent photos while I've got him here before sending the completed figure back to you.

If that sounds like something you'd like to do, I'll email you about pricing and wait time for that one later, P.

 

[Rotfish]

Send him the head, P. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[DNett503]

very nice work Nathan. If I can ever find a P1 body I'll be sending it to the Lab.

 

[Devil_666]

Absolutely GORGEOUS paint up SS!!! But I'm skeptical about the P1 body with the P2 armor. Even in the pic from P. it looks too big (I think we talked about this in some thread when you first mentioned your idea to do the same mod!?).