Hey and thanks for stopping by. These are the 14 steps I did for the Harpy World of Warcraft custom figure- excluding detail painting, sealing, and adding a base. This is over a week of progress or so.

Finished figure here:


1. First I sketched the character I would like to make a figure of. For this one I picked the harpy creature, the World of Warcraft version.

2. For the base I decided to pick a 1/8th scale WWE Diva figure. They have GREAT articulation and are generally easy to find and not terribly expensive. With all toy customs research the toy you are looking to use first!! You don't want to ruin some rare/htf collectible!! Anyways this pic has my basic tools for sanding down the base- dust mask, eye protection, sandpaper, and my fave Dremel tool.

3. After sanding and removing bits from the figure (which for fair note, is a messy job and can take awhile as this one did) I posed her next to the sketch, so I can get a basic idea where everything goes.

4. Here she is fully sanded and with her wire mesh base for her hair, tail and wings. I ended up not keeping these wire claws, and instead used smaller wire I sculpted into the clay when I was attaching it. I attach the wire bases with Apoxie Sculpt when I am sculpting the first layer onto the body.

5. Front view of the harpy with base sculpting done. Base sculpting is not the time to fiddle around with details, just where everything goes. This is also after a nice sanding- be careful with the wire base!! Also, as you may notice I sanded outside on a patio table. This saved on cleanup.

6. Back view of the harpy with base sculpting.

7. Her tail after adding her feathers. I did do some sanding, finishing, detailing, and re-sculpted some of this too

8. Front view after most sculpting and detailing finished. I always make sure everything is sanded and cleaned in a bath of Oxyclean before painting. Don't want any random bits of dust getting in your paint and making it look ghetto.

9. Back view of #8.

10. Harpy with base painting. I like to do everything in stages, and this is my first stage of painting, the base colors. Note there is still some grey apoxy showing through, and the colors are not finished.

11-13. Other views of base painting- for note I did not use primer in this figure since most of her was sculpted and what wasn't was sanded.

14. Starting of the detail painting. My big pointer for EVERY piece of art is layers. Paint some, and let it dry, then paint more. Repeat over and over.

After this I did much more painting (see completed figure) and then sealed the figure with diluted modge podge, and will be adding a base.

Any questions or comments, please let me know! Thanks for viewing and as always, comments and favs appreciated!

(Moved from my Cincicustoms account)