Customizing Stace Ace "Scars of Dracula" 1/4 figure-- from blah to blood!

[mjaycox]

Hello all--

I know it's been a realllllly long since a last posted. But, I wanted to share this recent kitbash I did.

I upgraded the Star Ace "Scars of Dracula" 1/4 premium format figure with a new head sculpt, better tailoring and new paint-job. And now it's the PF Christopher Lee figure I always wanted.

This particular figure holds special significance to me, as "Scars of Dracula" was my entry into Hammer Horror-- many years ago after watching it for the first time on channel 44 in Chicago, one Saturday night. So I really want to do this justice.

Like a lot of you, when the Star Ace premium format figure came out, I was thoroughly underwhelmed. It looked, well... amateurish. The sculpt was off, the buttons were oversize. Everything seemed under-baked.

Obviously what they were going for was this:



But what we got instead, was THIS: 



Look at those Raggedy Andy buttons for god sake


completely flat paint job

All this mediocrity for the princely (of darkness) sum of $500 bucks.

This was not good enough. I had to do better.
But- how to go from this:


to THIS?:



Here's how! (Note, this will be image heavy-- give it time to load). I am going to keep the writing to a minimum, and let the pictures do the talking.

The FIRST step is to get a better 1/4 scale Lee likeness. Luckily for me, the genius Jeff Yagher had a released a Dracula 1/4 bust in 2019, and I managed to snag a copy for a steal.



What an improvement! Now to get it the head off the rest of the bust and fitted onto the neck stem of the Star Ace body





A combination of a cutting drill bit in my dremel, and a coping saw are used to remove the head






A hacksaw is used to remove the Star Ace head likeness from the neck stem.



The new head is attached to the neck stem with epoxy, and then sculpting putty is used to smooth the transition and make it seamless.





After a quick size check, and wardrobe check, it is ready to be sanded, primed and painted.

























To get the right effect on Christopher Lee's hair, you need to really layer the various pigments on correctly. I use thin multiple coats, starting first with charcoal, then wrought iron gray.

Next, I will dry brush on some pale white



But then this is softened by a thin wash of black pigment.



After the wash, a little bit more white is gently added to the frontal hairline of his toupee to achieve the right effect



Looks pretty good!



While that head dries, it is time to tackle the clothing. I remove the crappy buttons from the shirt cuffs and make them into french cuffs, and then I fashion some silver cuff studs for them.

Next I swap out suitcoat buttons which are the proper scale.

I remove the crappy ribbon tie and swap it out for some thin black braided cord which looks appropriate.









Ahhh that's much better. Now I just need to make a cravatte pin, with a red rhinestone jewel and a gold mail ring.


Next, I touch up the crappy paint job on the base with some dry0brushing and washes, before sealing it with clear coat.



Okay-- with all this done, it is time to start reassembling














Now he is a figure worthy to stand on my shelf in my monster basement.

Well that's all for today. I hope you all enjoyed my photo essay as much as I did making it.

Beast witches,

Matt 

[aura of foreboding]

FANGTASTIC!

What is the other headless Dracula project you have going on in the background? 

[Palifan]

That's some amazing work you did there Matt and thoroughly worth it! The end result looks amazing and looking at the before and after together is like night and day (or should that be day and night?!).

Thank you for documenting it so well as well, it's always good to see all of the steps people have to go through to do something like this and shows the time and care needed to get the right look results.

Fantastic

Ian

[Sir Masksalot]

see all of the steps people have to go through to do something like this and shows the time and care needed

When clients complain that private commissions are so expensive, just show them this post. 'Splendid rework, mjaycox!

[Anton Phibes]

Absolutely beautiful, top notch, fang-tastic work!

[Vintage Horror]

The master of customizing!

[MonsterBaker666]

WOW!  SOOOOOO much better.  Full marks! 

[The Cantankerous Collector]

Nice job! Damn, those original buttons were HUGE!

[mjaycox]

When clients complain that private commissions are so expensive, just show them this post. 'Splendid rework, mjaycox!

Hahahaha too true

As a customizer myself, one of my things that I love to do is collect the work of other artists. I feel that it's very important to support people in the same hobby as me.

And because I know how much work and effort goes into it, I never quibble about price

If I had to pick a favorite artist who works in this arena, I would have to say Gregory Edwards from Maine. His stuff is among the best I've ever seen, and I have one of the largest collections of it

Matt

[Anton Phibes]

Hahahaha too true

As a customizer myself, one of my things that I love to do is collect the work of other artists. I feel that it's very important to support people in the same hobby as me.

And because I know how much work and effort goes into it, I never quibble about price

If I had to pick a favorite artist who works in this arena, I would have to say Gregory Edwards from Maine. His stuff is among the best I've ever seen, and I have one of the largest collections of it

Matt

Link to his work available?

[Hepcat]

But, I wanted to share this recent kitbash I did.

I upgraded the Star Ace "Scars of Dracula" 1/4 premium format figure with a new head sculpt, better tailoring and new paint-job. And now it's the PF Christopher Lee figure I always wanted.

Incredible work!

[ODBJBG]

First, NICE work!

That said, when you have to do that much to it, you're not really customizing anymore. You basically rebuilt this thing from the ground up! Ace basically provided a generic dummy body for your final product.

Good stuff overall though and appreciate pics of the process.

[Hepcat]

If I had to pick a favorite artist who works in this arena, I would have to say Gregory Edwards from Maine. His stuff is among the best I've ever seen, and I have one of the largest collections of it.

There are unfortunately many Gregory Edwards in Maine.

[BRICK]

Simply BEAUTIFUL!!! Also, you were being very generous to call the original figure "mediocre"!

[AndyFish]

Absolutely great job-- you've got an interesting collection back there too-- can we get some details on your '49 Batman serial figure?  Do you have a '43 as well?