Batman 1939 - 1/12 Scale Handmade Action Figure

BATMAN 1939 - 1/12 SCALE HANDMADE ACTION FIGURE

How he came to be…

It’s incredibly difficult for me to write anything even remotely succinct about this figure and what it means to me. So much work went into making this figure, and it represents so many firsts for me - it’s my first “action figure as an art piece” that I made, but it also came about during a period of significant upheaval for me. It really is special, and though my skill has grown quite a bit since I first built the Batman figure, I’m still pretty damn proud of it.

Though it was my first action figure art piece, the Batman figure was definitely not the first action figure that I ever made - truthfully, my memory’s a little fuzzy when it comes to that title. Growing up, I was always disappointed when my favorite characters (or non popular versions of the characters that I loved) were never immortalized in plastic. Like any kid would, I rectified that situation by using construction paper, Elmer’s glue, and cardboard and cannibalized whatever poor plastic soul I had laying around into whatever I wanted it to be. Sometimes, I’d just use the paper and glue (with added details contributed by Crayola markers) to make the non-articulated 3D forms that I wanted.

I have a clear memory of using plaster during my 3rd grade art class and asking my teacher if plaster was what they used to make action figures - you see, I was obsessed with figuring out the secret sauce. My poor teacher had no idea how to answer my dumb question. Eventually, I learned about Super Sculpey, epoxy clays, and acrylic paint (okay, so I already knew about paint, but I’m talking about REAL paints not the flaky shit used for finger painting). I took a Michael Keaton Batman figure and painted him grey with the vintage bat symbol (minus the yellow oval) so he could “look like the old comics”. I also learned about Mego figures and the MASSIVE customizing community (I feel like that deserves a write-up on its own) and the basics of sewing. I made a Mego black-suited Spider-Man which has been lost to time unfortunately.

Despite growing older, I still wanted to know how to make an action figure. Since my childhood though, I’ve learned about two-part polyurethanes, chemicals that can shrink and grow sculpts, 3D printing (and very basic 3D modeling), and silicone mold making! In 2016, I lost my dead-end job and decided to pursue a career as a Graphic Designer (which I’m now looking to hang up in favor of being a full-time artist), on top of planning my wedding to the love of my life. I don’t know why or how, but she loves that I make action figures and has encouraged me to make every single one - starting with the Batman in 2016!

Process

I knew I wanted a version a version of Batman that reflected his first appearance in Detective Comics #27 from 1939 - I can’t really tell you why I like that look in particular, but I like it and decided to make an action figure based on it. But, like, my version of it. I’ve seen a lot of different interpretations and direct translations over the years from many different artists, but I wanted to do my version in action figure form. I created a few sketches early on, but I kind of stopped-and-started on this figure multiple times over the years, mainly because I was trying to figure out how I wanted to go about it. This was the figure that allowed me to develop my style and process for the most part, and it’s the one that made me realize that I wanted the finished product to look and feel handmade rather than go for the “factory finish” look that many toy customizers go for.

I employed 3D modeling and printing for the first time with this figure - mainly for the head sculpt and belt details. This was actually my first time using 3D modeling software, so a bulk of the time that I spent on this figure was in learning how to use Blender. Truthfully, once you get past the technical hurdles (it’s painfully obvious that ALL* 3D modeling software was developed for engineers and not artists) 3D modeling is actually pretty easy if you have some experience in drawing and sculpting. I did decide to hand sculpt the boots and hands in the end though - I was running low on energy and time, and I’m much quicker at sculpting organic shapes by hand. I’ll probably always do some combination of 3D printing and hand sculpting for my future projects.

After hand sculpting a few parts and receiving 3D prints of the rest from Shapeways (printed in high-detail resin), I then molded the parts using Smooth-On’s Moldstar 15 and made casts using Smooth Cast 321. Unfortunately, this was the first time that I had ever cast resin in LA (specifically, the SFV) and I didn’t realize that the slow cure time of the resin would interact with the humidity and cause the resin to foam. In the end, I had to warm the molds in a makeshift cardboard box oven and cast on a day with low humidity to get anything usable. Luckily, I’ve found that just sticking to vanilla Smooth Cast 300 does just fine here, so I won’t have to buy a pressure pot - yet!

After all of the newly casted parts were cleaned up, I painted them using Golden Fluid Acrylics - in the past, I made a strict divide between my “art paints” and my “model paints”, but quite frankly the art paints are pretty versatile and really high quality. I like that they’re (mostly) single pigment and I prefer mixing my colors over buying a stock mix - especially since it means I can work from a small palette (I only have ten bottles of paint)! After painting the pieces, I varnished them using Liquitex Permanent Varnish (both gloss and matte).

I completely forgot to mention that I used a black Action Portable body from 3A (RIP)! The figure is almost perfectly 1/12 scale (six inches when everything is put on it). I love using this as the base body - it reminds me of the bodies that Hot Toys used to use, but scaled down. Luckily, I’ve found a supplier in China who makes blanks, so I won’t have to cannibalize any more rare and expensive 3A figures!

For the soft goods, the fabric used was either fabric that I already had available with some of it being cannibalized from other sources - I already had a yard each of dark grey and black spandex, and then I sourced the belt leather from an old wallet of mine. The boot cuffs are also recycled leather - I don’t like the idea of buying “fresh” leather, and I’ve been moving completely towards faux leather lately (I do want to use up the leather that I already have though). The bat emblem was cut by hand from black electrical tape, and was glued to the outfit with Barge cement. Barge cement was used to glue down pretty much everything.

Conclusion

This figure was created during a very heavy period of change in my life - I had lost my job that year and decided to pursue a career as a Graphic Designer, I married the love of my life, and the election happened (oh god) all right when I was making this figure. This was also right around the time when I started to get this itch that maybe - just maybe - this could be art? I mean, I was still feeling pretty self-conscious and had thoughts that art should be loftier. But still, maybe action figures could be given some consideration.