Casual X-men

At Blackpool's recommendation (Ok, it's doesn't take much to convince me), here are a few shots of my plain clothes X-Men team.  I always loved the era of X-Men where they didn't bother with costumes, but I tried go with enough elements that they were still recognizable, and with some, a few nods to their costumes.  I need to do some full photo shoots with each, and I've since made some energy effects for Gambit, and of course, Colossus in his paint stained overalls ( https://onesixthfigures.forumotion.com/t59-colossus-the-painter-custom-x-men-diorama-photoshoot in case anyone missed it). These are also from 2017, before I invested in a decent camera, so bear with me on that.  But here's a few shots I took a little while back.

They look great! Of course I am a little biased, as I too like translating superheroes into more mundane looks and settings, but I think you did a good job keeping them familiar while at the same time changing their canon appearance. And as always, beautiful bakdrops/dioramas.

Excellent work, though I'm not surprised in the slightest by that! I love how you've used some familiar heads there but made them look incredibly unique! Also enjoy seeing them hanging out in that diorama.... I wonder if the Radio Kings will invite them over for a cup o' tea?

Excellent work, Rev. Nice use of Beckham as Gambit — who knew he was that versatile...

Great photos and backgrounds, and amazingly dynamic and natural poses.

Awesome!!! I had forgotten about your Gambit, such a masterpiece, you totally captured the essence of the character as he was designed by Kubert and Lee!

Seriously amazing work on all the team (and those moody vintage pictures sell them soooo well, love your style!)

That's fun, I don't know who the guy with the crazy hair is or the girl with the fireball is? I am afraid I'm behind on the comics in general, LOL

GubernatorFan wrote:They look great! Of course I am a little biased, as I too like translating superheroes into more mundane looks and settings, but I think you did a good job keeping them familiar while at the same time changing their canon appearance. And as always, beautiful bakdrops/dioramas.

Thank you! Yeah, that casual and human side of the genre was always so appealing to me, and really grounded them. Psylocke's dress is very inspired by her costume, Gambit's shirt tapped into some of his costume colors, as well as the iconic trench coat. Wolverine has definitely worn that outfit, And X-23 was wearing something in that vein in her early appearances, with the addition of a cut up Xavier's school t-shirt. You and I are totally on the same page with this.

skywalkersaga wrote:Excellent work, though I'm not surprised in the slightest by that! I love how you've used some familiar heads there but made them look incredibly unique! Also enjoy seeing them hanging out in that diorama.... I wonder if the Radio Kings will invite them over for a cup o' tea?

Thank much! That diorama is an easy go to background, although I need to keep expanding so nothing gets too overused. I would totally be in for an X-Men/Radio Kings crossover. Right out of the pages of "What if...?" Gambit and Saint Crow would start to wonder if they were related...

Stryker2011 wrote:Excellent work, Rev. Nice use of Beckham as Gambit — who knew he was that versatile...

Great photos and backgrounds, and amazingly dynamic and natural poses.

Thank you brother! Yeah, my love of Beckham head sculpts is is no joke (although it is admittedly pretty funny). And it's a really good fit for Gambit, right? I have 1 more Beckham head, lurking as a potential House of Seasons character. I may have a problem...

blackpool wrote:Awesome!!! I had forgotten about your Gambit, such a masterpiece, you totally captured the essence of the character as he was designed by Kubert and Lee!

Seriously amazing work on all the team (and those moody vintage pictures sell them soooo well, love your style!)

Thank you! Considering the style and swagger of all your pics, that means a ton. And ugh, Jim Lee's X-Men run will always be the highwater mark of the franchise for me! Totally the place I'm coming from on these.

Peaches wrote:That's fun, I don't know who the guy with the crazy hair is or the girl with the fireball is?  I am afraid I'm behind on the comics in general, LOL

Thanks Peaches! And oh no? Gambit goes back to 1990, and this incarnation of Psylocke probably goes back about a year or so before that. I'm way behind on my X-titles as well, although I still try to check in from time to time. Most of my X-knowledge was from the 80's and 90's, which is always kinda the definitive era for me, although I do love some more recent additions like X-23.

Your Casual X-men & diorama look Great! Indeed very cool photos.

BAD WOLF-787 wrote:Your Casual X-men & diorama look Great! Indeed very cool photos.

Thanks much Bad Wolf! Very appreciated.

Totally Cool bro. Always great work on every detail.

These photos are at a very different level...maybe we should have a Best Picture taken of a Figure award...you would have win it easy...

thks for sharing.

Everything looks amazing! I especially like the photo with the foot blade on x-23. My eye focuses on the head and knees in the center, then the socks draw you down to the blade. Can you show a tutorial on the eye shadow for x-23? I always have a hard time doing shading, whenever I try to do it, my females look like Domino or Petey from Little Rascals

actionfiguremovies2 wrote:Totally Cool bro. Always great work on every detail.

Thank you much man! Appreciated!

brassco wrote:These photos are at a very different level...maybe we should have a Best Picture taken of a Figure award...you would have win it easy...

thks for sharing.

Thank you Brasco! So appreciated. But would have to disagree on that being an easy win. I think there's some pretty fierce competition around here, although I'm proud as hell to even be a contender.

MerylAkiba wrote:Everything looks amazing! I especially like the photo with the foot blade on x-23. My eye focuses on the head and knees in the center, then the socks draw you down to the blade. Can you show a tutorial on the eye shadow for x-23? I always have a hard time doing shading, whenever I try to do it, my females look like Domino or Petey from Little Rascals

Thanks much MerylAkiba! My trick with the shadow is weathering powders:

https://www.micromark.com/Doc-ObrienS-Powders

I can't recommend this stuff enough in general, but the black is perfect for a more subtle shadow with diffused edges. I mask the eyes, so they don't get dulled, and so you don't have to repaint them, as well as masking off anything else you don't want to mess with (like the hair line). I's messy, and not precise. Then I'll either use dullcot or a brush on matte sealer where I want the powder to grab to. I use a soft brush to add the powder. You kinda build it up slowly, and you just need to play with it a bit to get a feel. You can even do stuff like use a wet brush, or a brush with some watered down matte sealer, and the wet powder is really dark, but you can kinda still work it. Again, a lot of it is trial and error getting a feel for the powder, but it's great to use. I even used it for Marrow's makeup:



Let us know if you give it a shot!

And since you dug it, here are a couple more shots of the foot blade:

Your Gambit is so good it pushed me to search again my stash as I had gathered some parts and started to build a gambit figure, I even had bought a winter soldier headsculpt to turn him into the cajun x-man...

Now seeing the level of yours lol, I feel like I should send you the armored chest piece I customized from a snake eye figure so you finish yours!

blackpool wrote:Your Gambit is so good it pushed me to search again my stash as I had gathered some parts and started to build a gambit figure, I even had bought a winter soldier headsculpt to turn him into the cajun x-man...

Now seeing the level of yours lol, I feel like I should send you the armored chest piece I customized from a snake eye figure so you finish yours!

IDK Blackpool, that sounds like a sign it's time for YOU to get back to your Gambit figure. Sebastian Stan is a really interesting choice for gambit too! And now you've got me dying to see your take, especially on the armor. Is it from the Retaliation Snake-eyes? Was just looking at pics and I can see that working awesome. If I wasn't firmly committed to no costumes for my X-men team, I'd steal that idea. I have to get some pics of the card effects too. Not sure how well they'll photograph, but they came out pretty slick, if I do say so myself...

Remy has quite the hairdo !!
Excellent cast of heroes in casuals !!
I'm bumping this back up to the top to make sure those that may have missed it do get a chance to see it !!

Allotropos wrote:Remy has quite the hairdo !!
Excellent cast of heroes in casuals !!
I'm bumping this back up to the top to make sure those that may have missed it do get a chance to see it !!

Thank you Allotropos, both for the kind words and the bump back into visibility! And I'll admit, I've always been a little envious of Remy's hair. He's a man of style.