Metal Cooler Dragon Ball Z Custom 500th custom SH Figuarts クウラ

It has take its time, but here it is, my 500th custom! I (of course) wanted to do something special for such a landmark in a customizer's career, and it took a long time for me to decide what could be that something so special. The opportunity appeared as a chroming powder I bought months ago and arrived just in time. Now I was sure; it would be a chromey custom that will be ultra-durable and ultra-poseable!

After -again- looking at various characters, I decided for Metal Cooler (bad luck for Silver Sable), the movie villain of Dragon Ball Z and brother of Freezer, in the metal form he returned with in the OVA "The Return of Coola". The base figure was Toyman DCUC (I think, there wasn't much left of him when I started) as it is slimer than a regular DCUC (which is my standard for normal superhero-villain). The hands were took from a Myth Cloth figure. One of the important parts of the custom (and surely, the most difficult) was making a tail. I didn't know what to use, as I didn't know of any that suited the purpose, and in the end I used a ball joint from Punisher and the made a solid one, so it has a good deal of movement and still looks good when posing.

I had to sculpt nearly all the surface of the figure, and of course, I made the head from zero too. The shoulder pad have a mechanism so it doesn't bother him for the movement.

For the chroming, I first applied a black coat of gloss Tamiya, then the chroming powder, gloss varnish, then Tamiya clear blue + green, then more chroming powder, and then more varnish. It is a bit darker than the original, but it gives a very nice gloss metal finish. 

I take the opportunity all the people that has left comments and feedback in this blog and everywhere ;) .

Dabura ダーブラ Darbura Dabra Dabla Dragon Ball Z Custom

Here is Dabura, King of Demons, that appears in the Buu saga in Dragon Ball Z. He fought Son Gohan to a standstill, and he was in the end defeated by Majin Buu. The more difficult thing of this custom was sculpting his anime head from zero, and getting a good resemblance. I used a Batman cloak and a Spawn sword modified and combined with a cheap sword. The belt was made with a rubber ring and is not glued to the body, so he can move his waist without breaking or having to cut the round belt.


One of the problems that I encountered doing Dabura, was the shoulders, as if I made it of solid magic sculpt it would have blocked completely the articulation, and I hadn't any similar rubber piece (it would have blocked partly the articulation all the same), so I used a blue cloth (it was quite similar to the Game Colour Blue I used, surprisingly), cut and glued to represent his weird outfit and enabling him a good range of articulation.

As it can be seen in the last pic, I sculpted boots, part of the trousers, and torso.

This is my first Dragon Ball Z custom (which is a shame since is my favourite series), which I made for the Figurealm contest "Japanimation", which won the first place; Results