Niamhime Geist is the main character in the novel, Clockwork Reaper written by Daniel Hellmund. She is a young girl born without the ability to use her legs until her scientist father cruelly experiments on her with a new metallic alloy. Replacing her arms and legs with this alloy, young Niamhime discovers to her horror that the mechanical limbs obey her every thought despite having no external power source, something unheard of in this steam-fueled realm. Believing she is merely a test subject in her father's eyes, Nia is tormented into near-insanity, convinced she is hearing voices in her head. She flees into a wicked and arrogant world that views her as a monster. In Nia's wake, disaster befalls the innocent as people she comes into contact with are killed, granting her the name "The Clockwork Reaper"...

I really wanted to create this character to see how she would actually look based on the descriptions within the novel. To begin, I used the movie April O'Neil figure due to her height. Nia is supposed to be in her late teens and is physically weaker than others her age due to a birth defect. She was born without the ability to walk, so her original legs were withered and useless. I wanted to first work on the figure's legs because Nia's real legs are amputated and replaced with artificial ones. April's legs are not articulated so I cut them, hand-sawed into the thighs, and then used a loop of wire and snipped paper clips to provide articulation at the knees. Her artificial legs provide much more mobility and she actually fights in the novel, so I wanted to be able to pose the figure. The knee-guards are crafted from aluminum pop tabs that have been snipped and re-glued into a new shape.

The next step was to work on Nia's arms. In the novel, her arms are heavily burned after she becomes trapped in the steam-powered wheel chair that her father had designed for her. In an attempt to 'fix' her and make her more perfect in the enlightened world, her father amputates her arms as well and replaces them with artificial ones using a newly discovered metallic alloy. To accomplish this, I cut off April's original arms, attached metal wires alongside of them, and painted them the green-black color of the metal. Toward the later part of the novel, however, she is able to manipulate the alloy and change its shape. To create the 'weaponized' hands that end in finger-scythes, I used fodder hands from an unknown male figure and cut plastic into the blades before attaching them to the fingers. The larger, manly hands have articulation in the wrists and fingers. On both sets of arms I glued small neodymium magnets. I then glued neodymium magnets to the upper arm stubs so I can easily switch her normal hands with the 'reaper' hands. To provide additional articulation in nearly all directions, I balled up gardening wire which happens to be the same color as the metallic alloy in the story. Placing these at the elbows allows more more motion. The original April figure had no articulation in the arms aside from the shoulders. I added red paint to the arms and legs to show where the flesh met the grafts of metal.

Nia's hair is black, so April's hair was darkened and her dress was changed to match Nia's clothing as well. The only thing missing from the figure is her full dress which is taking much longer than expected. She will have a full dress of cloth that has a tattered gown to match the upper body clothing.

Later in the novel, Nia comes across more of the material as the secret to it is revealed. Her madness peaks and she uses it to craft wings for herself. The wings have a base from a pair of severed wings from Gundam Wing Zero. The larger parts of the wings are cut from plastic packaging. The gears were purchased from a craft store in the scrap-booking section. To keep the wings together, they are connected via neodymium magnet to a steel ball. Around the steal ball is another set of gears (not pictured) all held together by air-dry clay. The Nia figure can attach to the wing crest via magnets. Nia has a larger neodymium magnet on her back which is attracted to the steel ball. A stand sits just below the wing crest and allows for posing- both flying and standing if wanted. The wings are also articulated and can rise and fold.

The stand is from a Disney Select Electro Marvel figure to match the steam-punk-like setting of the novel.

This is the very first time I had worked with an existing figure to perform a custom. I am more familiar with building models and figures from scratch, so this was very interesting and took much more time than I had originally figured. In the future, I know what works and what doesn't work, so I expect to get better over time. Not perfect, but I think this figure does the character justice. More information about the novel can be found at laria.weebly.

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