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Customs Corner Interviews
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10-08-2017, 06:57 PM
#
1
KamenRiderOOO
Resident Customizer
The Guy with the Voices
@TrueKROOO
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Visalia, CA
Posts: 11,080
October Interview- Nrin Vakil/ZordBuilder
1. When did you first get into the Toku Community?
Quote:
I was initially hooked in 1993 like many other people when MMPR first debuted. My interest in Power Rangers waned when the last of the remaining MMPR cast left during Turbo, though I caught a sporadic episode here and there. Tommy's return for Dino Thunder, which occurred during my senior year in high school, got me back into things, and that's when I saw my first Sentai: Dekaranger. It was also around that time that I started poking around some of the fan boards online. I didn't discover Kamen Rider until Kamen Rider Decade, then Kamen Rider W sucked me in and is still my favorite series. In college, I gathered a group of my buddies to dress up as the original six MMPR. Of course, I was the green ranger. I made all the helmets, sewed the belts, and made my green ranger armor.
2. How long have you been customizing?
Quote:
Since middle school, but back then I only customized Star Wars action figures. I even made the figures of my wife and I for our wedding cake from Star Wars action figures! Then life got busy and I took a break from customizing until around 2014. I saw the first pictures of the Dino Charge zords and the Bandai of America minizords and was instantly inspired to get back into things and make those minizords into DX sized zords.
3. What was the first custom you did and was it for yourself or for a customer?
Quote:
First ever custom (I think) was a removable helmet Boba Fett, using a Dash Rendar head, and I hollowed out the existing helmet with a dremel. That was back in middle school.
Toku related, my first custom was the Oviraptor zord, which was quite the ambitious project. As soon as I saw the Dino Charge minizords in stores, I held one up next to the DX zord and though I could an easy head swap and repaint - boy was I wrong!
I really had a fun and difficult time finishing the Oviraptor zord, primarily because I was also learning how to mold and cast at the same time. Getting the right shaped void in the base of the Oviraptor head piece so it would fit on the peg atop the Parazord body was a huge challenge that took me a week or two to figure out.
I loved the end result, and I was really amused when I saw Bandai of America was making their own version. I still like my head and jaw better, but their forearms blow mine away.
4. What materials and methods do you use when customizing?
Quote:
Since getting back into customizing as an adult, I've been able to use materials like silicone rubber for molds and two-part liquid plastic to fabricate new pieces - be it helmets, lower jaws or arms. The potential hazardous exposure to fumes made my parents not allow me to try out these materials when I was a kid.
I typically like to use silicone rubber molding material and urethane plastic from a company called Smooth-on (I buy mine from The Engineer Guy -
http://www.theengineerguy.com/
). I've also discovered a really neat material on their website called Hydrospan, which lets you enlarge a cast up to 1.6x the original by soaking it in water. I recently purchased the reverse type material called Hydroshrink, but I have yet to experiment with it.
For sculpting, I still stick to good old Sculpey, which I cure in heated water. I use a mix of hand sculpting and some pointy tools to do detailing.
With regard to painting, I've really gotten into paint markers. My two favorites are Gundam markers and the Walmart brand "Painters" markers.
5. How much do you enjoy customizing?
Quote:
A lot! It's hard to quantify/qualify, but customizing is an incredibly fulfilling artistic outlet. I've always been drawn to making things that could have or should have appeared in the show, comic, or movie - basically "in-canon" stuff. So it often feels like I'm contributing to the expansion of the fictional universe I'm creating my custom from. To me, customizing represents a very distinct artistic endeavor, because you end up with an articulated, detailed creation that can look like it was produced by a major toy company (or look even better than what those companies make) rather than something less tangible like a drawing or painting.
6. What is your favorite piece you've made?
Quote:
It's kind of a tie between the Tapejara and Futabasaurus Megazords. Both just look so cool to me, distinct from their original counterparts, but fitting right in with the officially released zords. Both had similar creative elements in fusing the custom pieces to the pre-existing articulated connector points, and the work on Tapejara led to the success of the Futabasaurus. I do wish I could figure out how to make Futabasaurs more submarine-y and less space-ship-y. Other than that, I really like these big dino megazords!
I also like the Dino Force Brave figures with correct helmets that I've been working on recently. To me, it was a no-brainer that if they switched colors and zords that the helmets should have been properly repainted, too. I'm happy to debut the whole team here on Tokunation!
7. What is your least favorite piece you made?
Quote:
Some of my Spirit Rangers for the non-show Dino Charge zords, especially the earlier ones. I'm still getting better at detailed painting, but it is darn hard to mirror details and make them look good when painting by hand. This led me to dabble in printing stickers for the visor details, but I still want to be able to figure out a good way to do things without going down that route.
Zord-wise, I'm not a fan of the Iguanodon's tail weapon not really fitting in flush with the rest of the dinosaur. I like the idea, but could not figure out a better way to disguise it before it whips out as a tail-end weapon. I also still regret not re-painting the whole purple Pachy-zord the proper lighter lavender color. I had a very frustrating time when I repainted Parazord into Oviraptor, because the pieces did not fit back together because they became thicker from the spray paint, and then bits flecked off here and there. Coming off of that experience, I avoided that altogether for Iguanodon and just made the new pieces match the darker purple. I might revisit it one of these days and give it a proper color repaint.
8. Biggest customizing job you've had/most tedious to make custom?
Quote:
The biggest job thus far has been the Futabasaurus Megazord, which involved enlarging the minizord head, cutting the lower jaw off from the head, filling in some of the busted teeth, attaching those parts to the cut up connector bits from Plesiosaurus, and THEN I decided to try the "cheek" details that the Futabasaurus has.
In general, for the Dino Charge Zords, I've tried to fabricate new pieces that can easily be switched out for the ones that come with the official zords, like forearms, heads, jaws, etc, without actually cutting up the zord base figure. For the "cheek" details, I ended up sanding down the Plesio-zord neck pieces, punched through the material once or twice, and then reverse molded the chewed up parts so that the new pieces would mount flush to the remains of what I had sanded. In the end, it worked out well, but I almost though I'd need to buy a new Plesio-zord because I had ruined the whole neck piece.
On a related note, my in-progress Diplodocus is going to have a lot of that going on. For a long time I had thought about avoiding "disguising" the other dinosaurs on the Titano-zord base figure, but I feel like I really need to get all those bits smoothed out like the minizord. That's going to take a while...
9. Do you have any custom plans that are coming up/in progress?
Quote:
Lots and lots, as always. As people who follow my Facebook page know, I have customizing ADD and am constantly starting new projects, which can distract me from finishing others. When the creative inspiration bug bites me, it's hard to not zoom off after a new and exciting idea.
Primarily, I plan on finishing up all the extra Dino Charge zords using pieces from the mini-zords. I've still got Allosaurus, Diplodocus, Deinonychus, Styracosaurus, Kentrosaurus, and Victory - with each in a different stage of production. I also want to make proper Spinozord arms for the Bandai of America toy.
I'm still working on the rangers (Spirit or otherwise) to accompany those zords as well.
I also intend to make Dino Force Brave zords using the American zords and shrinking/adapting the unique pieces molded from my Korean mecha. I'll have to experiment with Hydroshrink to make it all work, but I think it's totally doable. The next logical stage is making zords (and rangers?) of the extra dinos from the batteries in that series. I've already got ideas for a few of them.
In unseen work, I've got a few Kamen Rider custom figures in various stages of development, such as a Kamen Rider Gaim arms for Kamen Rider Skull, a Kamen Rider W version of Kamen Rider Drive, and I really want to make a Kamen Rider W version of Kamen Rider Build, if they don't make an official one (I'm a bit obsessed with W, as you can see).
10. Any advice for fellow Customizers?
Quote:
Be prepared to fail and to make a few (maybe quite a few) duds when you start customizing. Even if you are proud of something now, you might look back in a year or two, through the eyes of your advancing skills, and say, I can't believe I made that!
The actual process of fabricating a new piece or part can be incredibly frustrating as you learn a new technique. I can't tell you how many bad molds or casts I made in the creation of some of my Dino Charge zords, either due to air bubbles, not letting the mold (or hydrospan) cure long enough, and I end up with a worthless mold or part because I rushed and was too excited to get to the end product. I'm a fan of a (de)motivational quote I once heard - "I've learned so much from my mistakes, I think I'll make a few more!"
Even so, stay humble, because there will be someone out there far more talented with more advanced skills than you have. I enjoy seeing others work and drawing inspiration from them, however, it really gets me when someone says that my work inspired a project they are working on. It doesn't happen too often. I can't let that inflate my ego (too much), but it feels nice to be part of a creative conduit chain.
Lastly, don't give up! I've had multiple late nights where I almost feel like throwing my project across the room because it seemed like everything was going great and then one little detail in the fabrication derails me and everything grinds to a halt. Just take a step back, do something else, then the creative inspiration will provide a solution and you can get back to your custom with renewed energy.
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