Author Archives: Doctor Zeus

At long last, my 1/6 action figure kitbash of Minsc and Boo is now complete! 😁

The painted sculpts for Minsc and Boo are still en route via the mail. But in the meantime I found a decent purple cape on eBay. I think I like it about as much as the red one I already have. Here’s a mockup using the photo that Mark Simpson provided.

Looks like Mark Simpson did a terrific job with Minsc and Boo! Should be arriving in a few weeks, hopefully.

It’s been so long anyone still following may have forgotten what the body looks like but to refresh your memory, here it is:

Just a quick update: I reached out to Mark Simpson who told me the head sculpt and two Boos got held up a bit in customs. But he’s got them and should be starting work on them in about a week or so.

I’m excited. Hoping that it looks amazing.

Just a little update here. Over the last few months I took a break from this project. I did however experiment with making a neck sleeve using Apoxie to fit over the Phicen body. This was in order to try to get a perfectly seamless fit between the neck and head sculpt. But that project turned out to be more trouble than it’s worth.

The fit between the head sculpt and the Phicen neck isn’t perfect but it’s close enough.

I guess I would add that if a poor fit bugs me over time I can still try modifying this neck kit piece I bought on eBay

to bore it out using the Dremel tool, thus creating sleeve. I might also perhaps need to saw part of the bottom of the sleeve off to that it sits at the proper height on the body.

Anyway, I think I can probably just use the red cape

and if necessary have it ride a bit high to cover any gaps, which I think would only be visible in the back. And that will probably be facing the wall anyway most of the time.

So I’m eagerly looking forward to what painter Mark Simpson does with this! It cost me a pretty penny to ship it priority, but I wanted to maximize the chance that he could complete it and get it back to me before Christmas. That’s a longshot I’m sure, but it’d be nice if it happens.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted about this project, so here’s a look at some of Mark’s work:

Most of these have a bit of grain to them because I stood around 6 feet away and zoomed x5 to avoid the usual closeup distortions for an iPhone. Most of the pics were pics taken at a distance show the proportions of the head to body more accurately than closeups do.

So as you can see, there’s a little bit of light sanding to be done on the areas of the head sculpt where a clear coat was added to (perhaps where they had sanded flaws?) on the back of the skull and on the lower jaw.

In order for the head to be resting on the ball joint at the proper height on the neck, there’s a bit of a “helmet” effect that results with the thickness of the back of the head sculpt in the back. I may end up trimming down the areas where the bottom of the head sculpt meets the neck to a thinner thickness using a Dremel tool. That should give it a more seamless look, hopefully.

On the other hand, on the shelf he’s going to be seen head-on, and the back of the skull won’t be visible, really.

Pedro Lujan of LUX Sculpt sent me some prints of different sizes and shapes for the head sculpt. The Hitman Agent 47 knock-off head sculpt is the basis for a head sculpt that fits well. Sorry that the resolution is low for these pics. I backed up about 4-5 ft away and zoomed in order to minimize angle distortion with closeups when using an iPhone.

The cavity inside the head sculpt needs to be deeper in order to see how well it actually fits. So Pedro adjusted the depth of the hollow inside the head sculpt to accommodate the metal ball joint on the Phicen. And I’m getting that printed by Craftcloud.

So although the head is resting too high on the ball joint in the following photos, and the head is titled downward, we still get a rough idea of the proportions for each sculpt. Again the Hitman Agent 47 sculpt serves as reference.

The best fit is the largest one. And it’s the best head shape as well. Craftcloud quoted me $19.46 shipping included so I decided to leave it as-is in terms of size to see how well it fits. It’s just slightly larger than the Hitman Agent 47 sculpt. But since some collectors on FB commented that they felt the Hitman Agent 47 sculpt might be a hair too small, I wanted to see how just a little bigger sculpt worked out. If it looks too big I can always resize it down just a smidgeon using the Chitubox app.

Finally here’s a better look at the STL file for the head sculpt shape I decided on.

Oh, and Boo!

The purple cape I ordered arrived but, sadly, for this figure it’s a poor fit. First, it’s too short. Second, it’s too wide and doesn’t drape properly. It’s ill-fitting.

Too bad, because it actually had some cool weathering added to the bottom (mud, dirt) and the material was nice.

It seems to be cut to fully cover the figure in the front. But even when worn that way it blouses or tents out along the sides all around.

And when you try to fold the cape to the back to display the front of the figure it billows out in back.

So unfortunately it’s not really useable for this figure of Minsc. I only paid around $13-14, so I didn’t waste much money on it.

I had a brief idea of maybe using it for Imoen. But then I remembered that ideally Imoen should have a purple hooded cloak, versus a cape.

Anyway, the way this thing is cut is a fail imho. ☹️

Edit: It helps a little to add the satchel and sword harness straps over the cape. But it still billows out in the back. And it’s too short.

Now properly sized, and with the two versions of Boo. These are just test prints, though. The toes broke off on the one one the right. I might be able to sand out some imperfections and use the Minsc sculpt. I’ll still have the files for each printed again by Craftcloud.

On left is the sculpt that was way too large. Middle is the first version. Right is a modified version using the Hitman Agent 47 knock-off sculpt as a reference for measurements. It gives him a wider head. Once I have them in hand I’ll be able to decide which to go with. Then I’ll get it printed as a finished product by Craftcloud and send it out to the painter, Mark Simpson.

Here’s my latest video! There’s neat bonus in this one: it features a sneak peak of the STL files for custom 1/6 Boo!

This video displays a third party head sculpt that’s similar in shape to Minsc’s that I purchased in order to get the correct proportions for the 3D print of the STL file for Minsc.

The next video will probably be the reveal the properly sized but unpainted custom head sculpt for Minsc. Although when the purple cape and maces I ordered arrive I’ll make a video for that as well.