May I present to you my custom Marvel legends comic-accurate superarticulated Spider-carnage! This figure is the most articulated modern Marvel Legends after all the mods were added. It has pinless joints, modified range of articulation on the elbows, knees and legs, a better double ball peg on the neck with the addition of a single ball peg on the base of the neck, a double ball peg on the torso instead of a single, added toe joints (pinless too) a spider-carnage head made from scratch, two bendy webs, bendy symbiote effects, a Mark Bagley style Spider-man head and a complete set of hands. The design is based off Mark Bagley's artwork, but comic inconsistencies made it very difficult to capture into action figure form.
This figure was commissioned by a client after I uploaded some pictures of my Marvel Legends comic-accurate Lasher figure. The idea started on making just custom parts as accessories for the retro Ben Reilly, but my client wanted to have Spider-carnage as it´s own figure. So all was clear, symbiote veins sculpted into the body and a Spider-carnage head... But my client told me to make ¨my magic¨, as he wanted me to make whatever I could to the figure.
A while back I thought of making modifications to the retro Spider-man buck, such as modifying the ball joints on the neck so it could have a better range while avoiding the gapping when you move it, or sculpting over the shoulders so they weren´t as low as they are (those shoulders really look small, low, and just plain overall disproportionate). Then I figured out that I could do anything to the figure, as my limitations used to be over my fear of modifiying a figure so it looses it´s original value. I had to take that fear down and I started to plan on every single thing I would modify or add to the retro buck.
I went from the typical: pinless joints, better range of articulation on the hips, legs and elbows, modified double ball peg on the neck... To the more heavy mods: Toe articulation, ball jointed neck base, resculpted shoulders, adding a ball to the top of the ball torso (so it was a double ball joint).
I went all the way on these since I think those things are NECESSARY for ALL spider-man figures, I am very tired of seeing hasbro doing all of these articulation setups on their figures, but never getting those implemented on a specific figure. And since hasbro won´t/can´t make comic-accurate figures, I wanted to make this exactly what I wanted to see.
So I started by cracking the torso open and separating all the parts. I cut the portion of the neck to make a separated neck from the body and added the base of the joint. The double ball peg was modified to make the two balls meet at the top of the neck. The shoulders got added mass on the top, so they didn't look as low and small as they did. The portion that connects the lower torso to the upper torso got a bit more volume, so it could hide the gap better, as well as adding another ball at the top so it could make adjustments and hide the gap completely. Once the neck was in place, the neck and the head joints were added and adjusted. I sanded the head, the articulations and started to sculpt on the hands. The wall crawling hands became the clawed hands, the thwipping hands became pointing hands. The Spider-carnage head started as a blob of epoxy. I made the upper part of the head, the cut slits on the sides to add a wire to make the frame of the jaw. The white part is a paper sheet with superglue cover to make a base for the mouth. I made a slot for the ball to fit in, then added hot glue inside the slot to peg the ball. I covered the ball with a plastic wrap sheet. Then I put cut toothpicks on the mouth as teeth. This process was a real pain in the butt, as the toothpicks refused to stick and they weren't slim enough to make a cool mouth. I sculpted a bit over the teeth so they resisted a bit more. Then I sculpted the symbiote veins all over the blue portions. As I wasn't sure to add the red side of the boots, I let that part untouched. The head and veins were retouched by cutting and sanding. The toe joints were made by cutting the feet with a new blade. I screwed a hole big enough to fit a paper clip and the rest is adjusting and sculpting. I prepared the figure for priming. I didn't used the existing color of the figure, as the sculpted portions wouldn't match tones once painted, so I decided to have the figure in one tone. The painting was very straightforward. The heads had layers of red and white, followed by black outlines. The body was layers of red and black. I made the base of the spiders with a micron pen. Then I retouched with a brush. The Spider-carnage head was very difficult to nail, as the various comic interpretations had different styles of eyes, web patterns and outlines. Also, the mouth colors were orange in the covers, but pink inside the panels. So as a personal choice, it was decided to have the mouth being pink. The eyes resemble Mark Bagley's artwork as close as it could get. Comic inconsistencies made this very difficult to make. Finally, I added a mettalic blue dry brush to the blue portions of the suit to make highlights. The web pattern of the suit was made with a micron as steadily as possible. The web shooters were repainted and had a black wash added to make the lines more visible. I finished the figure with a gloss top coat, followed by a matte coat on the red portion of the suit (except for the veins).