Have you ever dreamed about one day having an action figure made of yourself? When you were a kid did you dream of being in a movie, or being a sports star and that at some point someone would make an action figure of you?
I know I did, and whilst I haven’t had anyone offer to make a figure of me yet, it’s now more possible than ever for people to take matters into their own hands. I always remember seeing that episode of the Big Bang Theory where Howard pays thousands of dollars to get a top of the range 3D printer so he can make a figure of himself and Bernardette and thought it looked cool.
Well fortunately Funko Pop have made it easier than ever for you to get create and turn yourself into a Funko Pop figure without having to break the bank!
In this article, and in the below video I will go through the steps of how to turn a blank D.I.Y Pop Custom Figure into a representation of yourself, or a loved one, or if you want to make a figure of a celebrity or character who the Funko people haven’t made an official one of yet.
Here’s the video of my review and how I made the figure into a mini me. Check it out and don’t forget to subscribe to the Extreme Improv Xstreamed YouTube Channel.
First things first, here’s what you’ll need:
- A blank D.I.Y Pop Custom Figure
- Some clay. I used the DAS air drying clay from Hobbycraft.
- Some tools to shape the clay. I used some wooden pottery carving tools also from Hobbycraft.
- Acrylic paints
- Fine paint brushes
The blank figure has the basic body shape, with clenched fists, slightly bent legs and the standard Funko Pop shaped head. It’s worth remembering that all Funko Pop figures have the same slightly square shaped head with the big round eyes that are usually a solid black without other colour or detail to them.
When designing how you will make the blank figure look like yourself, or whoever you wish it to resemble, you’ll have to mainly reply on the hair, shape of the eyebrows, and clothes to give the desired effect. Funko Pop figures don’t usually have mouths either, so it may be worth sketching your ideas out a bunch of times first to make sure you have the likeness.
In the instance of making a mini David Pustansky, my plan was to add what I normally wear in Extreme Improv shows – this being a branded baseball cap, and my classic open shirt over a branded T-Shirt.
The first thing I did with the clay was to add some hair to add shape to the figures head. In real life I have shaved my head for about 18 months, so I justify the inclusion of hair as this being the classic David Pustansky look. In a more practical sense it was becuase when planning to make the baseball cap I realised that following a pattern for shaping a baseball cap that I found online wouldn’t correctly fit the square head of the Funko Pop. The extra hair helped round things out for me.
Make sure you have a little pot of water for your finger tips near by, but always add a little at a time, as too much water can make the clay too slimy to shape.
I rolled out some clay to be quite thin, and again basically following the pattern of actual clothes I first added sleaves and then the back and front of the shirt.
You can use the wooden pottery tools to slice, smooth and poke the clay and don’t be afraid to use wire, tissue or card in with the clay to add shape without adding too much weight. Under the hat there is a casm of tissue which I stuffed in to hold the shape and now the clay is set I had the option to leave agap and with tweezers I could have pulled the excess tisue out.
You’ll want to be careful to handle the figure as much as you can by parts of it that don’t have clay put on them yet so not to mishape what you’ve already worked on, but if this is a concern you can always allow a few hours for each section of clay to dry. In the cas eof the DAS clay it says allow 24 hours per cm to dry, but found that I was happy the thin layers were dry even sooner than this.
Once the figure has dried you’ll want to get a few paint brushes and some acrylic paint, and I’d suggest you start with the flesh tone of your character and then the hair and then clothes are work upwards in layers.
It’s very easy to get extra splashes of the wrong colour of paint onto the wrong part of the figure if you’re not careful so make sure you have some tissue and water to dab things off. I found that I would get the shirt colour onto the neck and vice versa by mistake and had to paint over errors a few times. Having fine brushes helped avoid this.
The bove photo shows the near finished paint on the back of the shirt, (although this was before th final paint of the hair was completed. It’s important to allow a few minutes for layers of paint to dray before adding extra detail. Adding the phoenix and flames to the shirt took multiple layers as the yellow paint was fairly translucent and needed a few coats to show up clearly.
And there you have the (almost) finished figure. There are a few areas I have since touched up, and in the future I may redo the paint work on the front of the shirt where it has the Extreme Improv logo. Once again I found the metallic pink paint to require multiple layers to show up and with fine detail like you’d have on text this didn’t make it look as clear as I’d like.
As you’ll see in one of the above photos I also created a mini clay Extreme Improv Xstreamed Championship belt. I had planned to make it go around the figure’s waist, but this would have obscured the all important branding on the shirt, so decided to make it an accessory that could hang on my shoulder or hook onto the hand like it was being held.
This was my first time doing a custom figure, so let me know what you think! Leave a comment either here on the site, or on the Extreme Improv YouTube Channel on the tutorial video above. If you’d like to see me do more let me know if there’s a character or celebrity and I’ll see about doing mor ein the future.
In terms of this being a review of the blank D.I.Y Custom Pop Male Figure I will give it a 5 out of 5, as it’s the perfect blank canvas to allow your imagination to do with the figure whatever you want. I’ll hold of reviewing my own custom work, and again I’ll let you decide the results!
You can check out more reviews, news and previews of figures and collectibles at the Action Figure and Collectibles section of the site. You can also find more arty videos including the Xstreamed Totally Sketchy show on the Extreme Improv Xstreamed YouTube Channel!
