Do you remember another one season Glen A. Larson show - Automan?
It was on the winter of 1983/1984.
Never seen it? Imagine Tron as a cop.
Here is Automan himself - played by Chuck Wagner. TOO COOL...
I thought I'd try my hand at a custom figure after seeing some online and noticing a blank figure one day while at Joann's. For this first figure I just decided to paint it. No mods to it. Many custom figures I have seen online, people sculpt new items like hair, even heads! They are such an inspiration that I wanted to get my feet wet with a simple project. And since am currently on an Automan kick... here we go...
CALLING AUTOMAN...
CALLING AUTOMAN...
ENTER ACCESS CODE: CRIMEFIGHTER
Here is my completed figure! AH-HA! *SURPRISE* I completed, what, like - two projects now?! LOL
I've been working on this guy for three months. Started on 3/11/15 and finished on 6/17/15. I have one minor accessory to add, and a case to buy - but the figure is DONE.
Now you are all WONDERING about the "build?"
Don't worry, of course, I took photos
This is how he started out. A Rose Art Color Blanks - kind with a cube head. There are quite a few different types of the blanks, pretty cool stuff. And then I bought some new acrylic paint. Now I have a huge stash of acrylic paints, but got new Khaki for the hair, some new black and flesh - just in case, and then Neon blue and sparkle blue - two new colors for me.
I did a LOOOOT of research on Automan's suit from watching the show. I drew out the panels on his suit the best I could figure and here I've copied it to the blank to get a feel for how to translate the shapes to a chibi figure - so short and round.
Time to get at it... so OFF WITH HIS HEAD!
Three or four coats of the Neon blue here.
Disaster.
After so many coats the acrylic forms a skin as you probably know. And I didn't realize the shoulder joints had become encased in the paint. After I let it dry overnight I picked it up and moved his cute little arm up and down - then screamed
The paint tore off in a big chunk as it tried to move along with the arm. Here you can see I stripped the arm fully and started to repaint it.
While the "repairs" to the arm were underway I tested some of the glitter panels.
Got frustrated here. Shoulder in ruin. The pencil lines still showed badly threw the paint. And the blue had color shifted from neon to a very deep blue. He seemed to blueberry and not "glow-y" enough to me. It's true - in the second picture above - from the show - that the "non-glow" spots are very deep blue... but my figure wouldn't have a visual effects team to jazz him up while on display. I wanted my figure to be more bright overall.
So.......
Took off every bit of paint. TOTAL start over.
One nice item was the pencil marks came off with the paint too. Good riddance.
Back to the drawing board. New paints.
New idea was a bright, bright blue with a satin/pearl blue on top of that. Hopefully it would give it a little depth.
I didn't want another train wreck so I did the arms with my new idea.
The looked good.
Cleaned the arms... AGAIN... as my test was just to learn from.
New base coat done.
The satin/pearl half on. Looking all "glow-y." Like it. Let it dry and moved on to the head.
*Fingers crossed* hope this goes well.
Base coat on the head. Geeking out.
Head set aside to dry. Panel work started.
The face.
I got a Chuck Wagner promo pic from the web. Scaled it to my figure's head.
(Printed some spare copies.)
Traced Chuck's face on the back of the page with a pencil.
Transferred the pencil to the head by rubbing with the Scissor handle - oh the things you learn in grade school!
Now I have my guide for my Automan to look like Automan! (i.e. Chuck)
Starting the DETAIL work.
Moved to a smaller brush - on the right.
Look, it is about the size of the lines on notebook paper - YIKES - SMALL!
Automan is doing a Batman impression (no pupils) - lol
Now, I busted out some of my old paint for the hair. REAL OLD. See the yellow bottle on the left? OLD.
The Apple Barrel packaging / logo have changed... note the retro Wal-Mart green price tag as well.
Yes... my paint is from 1993 - AND STILL ROCKIN'
OLD SCHOOL CYLONS RULE!!
Here's lookin' at ya.
Painting the day away.
Almost done.
Tiny, tiny details added.
Look! Didn't get any on the table cloth
(Well... none that anyone ever noticed yet. )
Ears! Same process as the face. Drawing transferred, etc.
Geeking out again.
"One a scale of 1 to 10... think of me as an 11." (That's a quote from the show, from Automan himself.)
Hair details done.
Even little finger details added!
More panels put on. The lower legs / feet are hard to see in the show much. There are no real close ups of Automan's feet. The best views are when Automan is dancing disco. Yes... disco.
In the show, Automan has a little helper - Cursor.
Think of "the bit" from Tron (floating, fast moving) + R2D2 type of personality. Cursor draws various items Automan needs to save the day - disguises, cars, jets, anything. I thought I could make Cursor out of a sparkle pom-pom, or maybe a iridescent bead for a bracelet or something. Finally I thought of the odd shaped game dice. It is a distorted version/shape - but similar just like the figure. Had this one around that became my Cursor.
Gooping on the paint THICK to cover the numbers. Same process as Automan, but skipped the base blue.
I went back to the store and got gloss coat for the body and matte for the head. I didn't want all my hard work to get chipped or scratched!
Matte coat applied!
Gloss coat applied!
Now, after this I realized I was back at the same screw up as before. Up until now Automan's arms could swivel. After the gloss coat, once again, there is a skin at the joint that can't flex with the arm spinning around. I tried it and cracked up a chunk of shoulder again and said something sort of like
I was able to patch him up and no one will ever tell there was a repair.
I did try to cut the gloss coat free at the joint, but it was just starting to make a mess. I decided that no one will ever get to mess with him / move his arms so he'll be okay as is.
The moment was at hand! All the parts were done... three months of work and Automan was ready to have his head reattached.
Automan!!!!
(And, yes, in the background - there is Cylon-Puppy - she is always watching)
Now, I have:
- Cursor to finish - long dry time with THICK paint
- Buy a display case - as soon as it goes on sale at Michael's (picked it out already)
- Print out the city/Automan logo image I have used above to put in the back of the case
- Install Cursor with a wire painted black - so he "floats" as suggested by GroupLeader Zeta
Thanks for looking.