DEATH LIVES!

This kit of Judge Death has been around for ages but I've never bought it as I think the pose is crap. I think it was supposed to show him at the end of the first Death saga where the spirits of Deadworld make Death and co crumble.

And it's not a bad effort - if you haven't seen it, his heads thrown back and his arms are outstretched. Trouble is, the only way you could see his face was to stand above the figure so he ain't going to stand out on the shelf.

So, I bought one and decided to convert him - I had in mind to make a pose similar to the shot of Death on the recent graphic novel reprint.

First up, I cut the top of his head off, cutting along the tooth line to the back of the head. This was kind of tricky as the kit is made of soft vinyl apart from the head, which is resin. And that's nasty stuff to cut and sand.

I then re-positioned the head so his mouth was almost closed. Once the glue was set I resculpted the gaps with modelling clay.

I brought the upper arms down to his side and glued the forearms into a pose similar to the picture. It was helped by the repositioning at the shoulders was hidden by the shoulder pads which are attached separately.

Again, any gaps were filled and resculpted.

And that was him pretty much done. Next problem was what colour to do him? Over the years the colours have varied quite a bit and I really didn't know what to go for. I put it to the message borders and, going on the replies, decided to go with what you see here, keeping mostly to matt colours to give the impression of decay. I went with a dry, mummified skin appearance rather than zombie just cause I prefer it that way.

The only thing left to do is to find the right size ball, paint it black and stick it on his belt for a dimension jump.

MangaMax