Started	:	January 14th, 2003 / 19:40
Finished	:	January 26th, 2003 / 1:59
Base	:	Duke Nukem (Captain Planet Line)
Parts	:	Arms & Legs of Verminous Skumm (Captain Planet Line)
Materials	:	Revell Colors, "Das Pronto", Hot Glue, Ductape, ALs, A bottlecap, , Kids Dough Clay, wire, "Marabu" laque, Plastic wire

Character & Intent

Remember "Eternal Champions" ?
Well, I didn't think so. Eternal Champions was a
fighting game on Sega's Mega Drive/Genesis and
Sega CD/Mega CD system's. And it was so far
ahead of it's time that the latest installment of
Mortal Kombat, Deadly Alliance, incorporates
elements that were originally in this 1994/95
released bad boy. (Most prominentely the
half serious, half absurd tone of some of the
fatalities). But it doesn't stop there. The game
mechanics actually required the players to study
the characters and their styles to achieve victory.
And there was a lot to study, considering that
each character even had a in-depth biographie
of himself and his or her respective, reality-
based fighting style (!) build into the game.
One of these very original characters
was MidKnight.

Mitchell Middleton Knight is a pretty tragic
character. Ridden by guild and effects of
the vampire virus he unintentionally created,
he is desperately searching for a cure while
vampires overrun earth. And his own clock
is running out even faster than that of mankind.
Because he restrains from killing
another human being for his blood, his
nosferatic body is rotting away with
every second. Only the telekinesis-
like abilities of the vampire brain
enable MidKnight to still move his
limbs while continuing his
struggle for a cure.

And he looks cool at it.

Creation

I was looking to make a MidKnight figure before I
even started customizing - So I didn't hesitate when I
saw those Captain Planet Figures on Ebay. You just have
to strike when you find such fitting parts. And I was plea-
sently suprised when the figures arrived - Judging from
the quality of the cartoon, I expected some crappy,
small figures. But they were actually slightly larger
then average (about 15 cm in height), pretty
solid, and had nice leg and neck articulation.
(ball joints)

After removing the limbs from Verminious, I really
learned how solid those things really are...
When trying to cut some of the clothing shreds from
one of the arms, I acidentally hacked my knife into my
thumb which caused an unwanted break from my
"work". Fortunately, the cut wasn't that bad... After
holding the thumb under streaming water for a few
minutes, applying some wound patches and holding
my hand above my head for a few hours, I just took
a new glove and continued the work.
Lessons learned from this:
1. When cutting, cut away from yourself, not towards
2. Sanding is better than cutting.

Anyway, after I sanded (or dremeled) away most
of the unwanted detail and some of the lower jaw
and some of the inside of the feet as well as the
chest (to fit them to the skeletal look), I stood be-
fore a problem.

I had used a blowdryer instead of boiling water
to remove the arms and the left arm of Scumm
had broken off. I struggled with the search for a
method to re-attach them for several days (or
rather: nights) until I came up with one that
worked. I made a little tutorial for that.

Now for the sculpting.
I exclusively used Das Pronto to sculpt the
shoulders (were originally a bit small), and
the base of the hair. As I had learned from
my experience with the Symbiotic Leela
figure, I stuck a metal bristle from an old
comb into the hairdo and let that dry.
Then I sculpted the actual ponytail using
Kids Dough Clay because of it's low
weight. The finishing touches for this
part of the figure were some hot glue
which both stabilized and sculpted
the tail and some black cable binding
wire to simulated the spot where the
hair had been "tied back".

The Vampire fangs were not really
sculpted. Instead, I cut some strips
from the safety seal of a bottle cap
and painted them white. I didn't even
have to glue them on. They were small
and light enough to stick just using the
paint.

The strips on the arms are painted tape,
The bloody streaks are partially the rest
of the original "clothing", partially en-
graved using my TopCraft TMW 40F
power tool.

The rest is no more than a paint job.
I used mostly revell colors - Exept for
the purple clothing which are done with
Marabu laque.