| DYNAMO
PROJECT #18
CLASSIFICATION: REPAINT
BASE FIGURE: ALPHA FLIGHT NORTHSTAR
MATERIALS USED: ACRYLIC PAINTS, MODELING PUTTY, HOBBY KNIFE
FIRST APPEARANCE: TRANSFORMERS #68
"This world has more power than you can imagine,
robot—power that I can tap...and turn against you!"
Preamble: Dynamo possesses a special
ability to channel natural energy through his body. After he managed
to single handedly take down the Micromaster Air Patrol, he was sought out
by G. B. Blackrock, who knew his powers would be invaluable in the fight
against the Decepticons. Both the lone Circuit Breaker and rogue Starscream
also attempted to recruit him for their own ends, but in the end Dynamo's
desire to become part of a team was the deciding factor, and both he and
Circuit Breaker joined forced with Blackrock, becoming Neo-Knights.
After I completed my Circuit Breaker kitbash,
I started hunting down action figures that I could use to build the rest
of the Neo-Knight characters. Dynamo was the first of these figures
I added to the group.
Construction: Dynamo's one of those
superheroes who looks like his costume was painted on. This works out
nicely when you're into customizing action figures, because basically all
you have to do is...paint the costume on.
The Northstar figure I
used did have a starburst pattern engraved into him, so I did have to
fill in the grooves on Northstar's costume with modeling putty before I began.
Also, I needed to alter Northstar's hair to bring it a bit closer to
Dynamo's hairdo. Basically, I gave him a haircut with my X-Acto knife,
whittling off the sideburns and some of his bangs. It's worth mentioning
that Geoff Senior drew the character's hair a little differently than Andy
Wildman, the two primary artists who depicted his appearance in the comics.
(I am completely ignoring Dwayne Turner's contributions because his
artwork was Just That Lousy.) Anyway, I ended up with a reasonable
amalgam of the other two artists' versions, since I figure Dynamo's true
hairstyle is somewhere in the middle of the two.
In painting the toy, I just slapped a coat of
primer on, drew some guidelines in with pencil, and followed them with a
very fine paintbrush. His headband is actually a very thin strip of
plastic that I sliced to the correct proportions and tucked behind his hair.
I should mention here that even though Hector Dialonzo is an immigrant
from Mexico, you wouldn't know it from his comic book appearance. I
chose a darker skin tone than colorist Nel Yomtov gave him for his comic
book appearance. I also cut off the tips of his elf ears and repainted
his eyebrows to make them a bit less Spock-like.
Comments: I discovered not too long
after I finished this project that Dynamo works very nicely with the energy
base that came with X-Man from the Marvel's Most Wanted series, enabling
me to pose and display the custom
figure as though he were in the middle of tapping the Earth's energy. |
