CIRCUIT
BREAKER
PROJECT #3
CLASSIFICATION: KITBASH
BASE FIGURE: BATTLE BLASTER JEAN GREY (X-MEN SECRET WEAPON
FORCE)
MATERIALS USED: ALUMINUM FOIL, ACRYLIC PAINTS
FIRST APPEARANCE: TRANSFORMERS #9 (MARVEL COMICS)
"There are no good robots or bad robots—just
dead
robots!"
Preamble: Josie Beller was a brilliant
computer engineer under the employment of G. B. Blackrock before a power
surge fried her nervous system during a Decepticon attack. Determined
to get revenge on the robots who crippled her, she devised a bodysuit that
not only duplicated her ruined motor functions, but enabled her to fly (by
repelling herself magnetically from nearby metal objects) as well as
eject surges of electricity through her fingertips. She renamed herself
Circuit Breaker, and proceeded to cause trouble for all the Transformers,
regardless of allegiance. Later, she joined Blackrock's group of paranormal
freedom fighters and became a member of the Neo-Knights team.
While I didn't actually make any physical
modifications to the figure, I'm still classifying it as a kitbash due to
the painstakingly-arranged, strategically-placed tin foil.
Construction: The skin-tight outfit on
the original Jean Grey
figure was ideal, since you don't find too many ready-made naked female toys
on the market these days. (Well, not at retail, anyway.) The
figure cracked in two with minimal effort, allowing me to work on each piece
individually. Unfortunately, I made painting the figure far more difficult
than it needed to be. At first, I'd just been attempting to match the
flesh tone since I didn't want to have to repaint her face, but after several
batches that didn't quite match, I gave up and painted the whole figure except
her hair. This was probably a good thing, since the figure was made
from black plastic and needed several layers of paint anyway. Her hair
is actually four different shades of yellow, in an attempt to simulate highlights
and such. I painted her eyes and eyebrows with a sewing pin.
Next, I came up with a model sheet for Circuit
Breaker from the comic book, using issues #9, #23, and the cover of #45 for
reference. I ignored Andy Wildman's rendition of her in later issues,
in which she's drawn with a different, far more simplified outfit. To
my surprise, I found that some thought was actually given to her costume,
which could easily exist in three-dimensional space.
Now came the tricky part. After drawing
some light pencil marks on the figure to serve as a guide, I began the long,
tedious process of cutting tiny pieces of aluminum foil into the shapes for
her circuit armor. I found that as long as I was using a sharp knife,
I could cut the tin foil without tearing it, but I still spent a lot of time
slicing strips of circuitry, crumpling it into a little foil ball, and starting
over again just because I wasn't completely satisfied with the results. I
found it was easiest to glue tiny pieces of the circuitry in place, one at
a time, rather than trying to with with entire circuit strands since they
tended to rip easily. I knew any tin foil inside her joints would impede
movement and probably tear, so I was careful to securely glue down any foil
that touched the inside of a joint.
After that was done, all I had to do was glue
the figure back together. She retains all five points of articulation,
and looks particularly nice under strong lighting.
Comments: This was only my second
kitbash, but I'm still quite pleased with her. She stacks up quite
nicely against even my most recent projects, if you'll pardon the pun. |
(click for alternate view)
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