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With the buzz created by the Basa Six Million Dollar Man head (I still want to do get a BASA head from BlackKnight and do one up someday) it stoked in me the desire I always had of doing a Mego style Steve Austin that would not resemble the Kenner version but how Mego might've done it had they gotten dibs on the license.
So, when I saw the Ebay auction for a home created Mego size Austin head, I got in touch and he was interested in my custom stuff. So, for a promise that I'd get going on doing a Mego style package for Steve Austin he sent me a head made with the same stuff he used for the internet ones (which looked vinyl like). I did a card because I think that's what would have been done but I still might do a box, especially if it is wanted.
The head has a little flexibility to it, although it is still quite hard. His usual procedure is to hollow out the neck hole so the give will be more there but he forgot to drill it for me so I instilled it in much the same way I do any resin head (by splitting the shoulders a bit to fit it in).
I showed the mostly finished version of the front of the card earlier here. It was the back that was really a lot of work. At one point, it had over 50 layers and the file size was a half gig (that included all the tossed elements I keep for a time in case I want to go back to them and the new stuff I was trying).
I came up with the double life of Steve Austin art taking Kenner art of Steve Austin and working it over.
In the end I wanted the line to have two different dressed Steve Austins and have the art allow for an easy dress with existing repro clothes either way. One in his flight suit with a space program emblem (actually a NASA logo with the NASA letters removed the actual orange background of the sticker matches more closely to the suit then the picture shows) and flag sticker on a CTVT Space:1999 spacesuit with boots and a black vinyl belt.
The other art is his undercover clothes. I made the undercover clothes resemble the gray Bruce Wayne suit with Peter Parker's red turtleneck.
I wanted my first Steve Austin to be the flight suit version.
Painting the head was a different experience because I would usually do the paint job like DaveMC. That is, put down a flesh color paint base and when the painting of the eyebrows, etc look ragged, use the same flesh color to refine them and straighten them out.
But this head really resembled the color and sheen of a Mego head and so I ended up painting the hair and eyebrows and using toothpicks dipped in rubbing alcohol as sort of an "eraser" to refine all that stuff. It took some getting used to but it worked out.
Anyway, those interested can email Joe about this particular Steve Austin head, he is planning (or maybe already has) to join up here but here is Joe's email:
jswoquinn@sbcglobal.net
The availability of the particular plastic he uses varies but I think he has enough at the moment.
I also wanted the body to have some Mego cheesy bionic detail. That came in the form of stickers to the lower legs and arms. There is clear tape ver the stickers because they just wouldn't stay down but I plan to cut away the excess just so it will have a rim over the perimeter of the sticker.
Here is the card art (I have to do a little adjustment on the white rim at the bottom but this is pretty much it) the sticker art
and here is Steve Austin
Again the color matching on the sticker to the orange of the suit is better in person.
It's a shame that the blue in the eyes doesn't show very well in this closeup.
So, when I saw the Ebay auction for a home created Mego size Austin head, I got in touch and he was interested in my custom stuff. So, for a promise that I'd get going on doing a Mego style package for Steve Austin he sent me a head made with the same stuff he used for the internet ones (which looked vinyl like). I did a card because I think that's what would have been done but I still might do a box, especially if it is wanted.
The head has a little flexibility to it, although it is still quite hard. His usual procedure is to hollow out the neck hole so the give will be more there but he forgot to drill it for me so I instilled it in much the same way I do any resin head (by splitting the shoulders a bit to fit it in).
I showed the mostly finished version of the front of the card earlier here. It was the back that was really a lot of work. At one point, it had over 50 layers and the file size was a half gig (that included all the tossed elements I keep for a time in case I want to go back to them and the new stuff I was trying).
I came up with the double life of Steve Austin art taking Kenner art of Steve Austin and working it over.
In the end I wanted the line to have two different dressed Steve Austins and have the art allow for an easy dress with existing repro clothes either way. One in his flight suit with a space program emblem (actually a NASA logo with the NASA letters removed the actual orange background of the sticker matches more closely to the suit then the picture shows) and flag sticker on a CTVT Space:1999 spacesuit with boots and a black vinyl belt.
The other art is his undercover clothes. I made the undercover clothes resemble the gray Bruce Wayne suit with Peter Parker's red turtleneck.
I wanted my first Steve Austin to be the flight suit version.
Painting the head was a different experience because I would usually do the paint job like DaveMC. That is, put down a flesh color paint base and when the painting of the eyebrows, etc look ragged, use the same flesh color to refine them and straighten them out.
But this head really resembled the color and sheen of a Mego head and so I ended up painting the hair and eyebrows and using toothpicks dipped in rubbing alcohol as sort of an "eraser" to refine all that stuff. It took some getting used to but it worked out.
Anyway, those interested can email Joe about this particular Steve Austin head, he is planning (or maybe already has) to join up here but here is Joe's email:
jswoquinn@sbcglobal.net
The availability of the particular plastic he uses varies but I think he has enough at the moment.
I also wanted the body to have some Mego cheesy bionic detail. That came in the form of stickers to the lower legs and arms. There is clear tape ver the stickers because they just wouldn't stay down but I plan to cut away the excess just so it will have a rim over the perimeter of the sticker.
Here is the card art (I have to do a little adjustment on the white rim at the bottom but this is pretty much it) the sticker art
and here is Steve Austin
Again the color matching on the sticker to the orange of the suit is better in person.
It's a shame that the blue in the eyes doesn't show very well in this closeup.
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