Started	:	~Unrecorded~
Finished	:	August10th, 2005
Base	:	Pirate Spawn (McFarlane)
Parts	:	Early Jakks WWF hand (unknown) resin cast, MOTU 2002 Tri-Klops Boots resin cast
Materials	:	Fimo, liquid latex, synthetic resin, string, Citadel Paint, Revell glow-in-the-dark paint, Pattex Repair Extreme and Blitz Plastik glues, kebab skewers, rubber band
Points of Articulation	:	11

Character & Intent

This may be somewhat of an odd choice for a custom
- After all, it's just a dime-a-dozen standard enemy
type in the games. Slash, eat soul, repeat a thousand
times.
But still.... something about those guys... Maybe
the design, maybe their nature, maybe even
the frankophile name... Something clicks.
And that little something sent me on a wild quest
to create a Revenant figure, all for myself.

You'll certainly notice that this custom appears a good
chunk buffer than the in-game model. Usually, I would
not make such a silly mistake, but since the Revenant
are entities possesing corpses (and occasionally
the living, but that's all the info I can give without
major spoilers), I find it perfectly reasonable
to assume that the body types would tend
to differ quite a bit.

 Creation

It's rather obvious that the first bit of work on this custom
was to boil the Pirate Spawn figure (by the way, what
kind of concept is that ?! Sure, it looks neat and all,
but has anybody ever wasted a single thought on the
practical implications ? Is that guy specialized on taking
down sea demons while simultaniously plundering royal
fleets ? Geez....) and pry all the ornamental stuff all
over his body. This also gave me the chance to indulge
in my new favorite hobby: Burning my fingers.

Removing the hook and was easy enough, the peg leg
required some heavy cutting. Then, I realized that I would
not be able to find a boot matching the present one, so that
had to go, as well. It wasn't close enough to the required design,
anyway. Another thing that head to go was the headgear, which
required heavy dremeling. It was fortunate for me that the Revenants
are entirely rotten, which made it not necessary to do anything
too elaborate on the spot that had previously been occupied by
the bandanna. The eyepatch, however, made it unavoidable to
sculpt that particular portion of the face. I know that my work
on this leaves much to be desired, but it does the job.

Another thing that had to be dremeled off was the oversized
belt. It was a bit of a pity to get rid of that nice crossbone
buckle, but that's the kind of sacrifice a customizer has to
live with. That, and some skin. And blood. And maybe his
perfect eyesight. And good health in general, sometimes.
Anyway, I carefully reconstructed what the pants would
be like underneath (plus the multiple belts) with a mix
of dremel ridges and light sculpting.

Speaking of sculpting, a lot of that and a corresponding
ammount of Fimo was needed to give the manly bare
chest of the Pirate that worn and torn shirt. As usual,
I built the thing up slowly and in portions, already
inserting an appropriate gap to be filled by the remarkably
purposeless big belt.

Speaking of which.... Originally, I was going to use
the one that came with the original figure, but remembering
to save ressources whereever possible, I made a duplicate
out of liquid latex, which works just as nicely. (If not better,
since it could be stretched a little to fit). I did the same thing
with the equally inexplicable arm band.

The area the proved to be the most difficult was
below the knees. The biggest problem was that
I needed quality latex to make duplicates of the
boots from my only Tri-Klops figure and had
to search for months until I found that particular
kind. Also, it wasn't too easy to attach those
things in a stable manner without ruining the
knee articulation. I ended up using wooden kebab
skewers which I glued into drilled holes both in
the figure and in the boots. From there, I had to
sculpt the calves/shins as well as the part of the
pants that hang above it. The upper edges of the
boots, however, required merely some squirts
of Pattex Repair Extreme glue which is one of
my favorite kinds of cheating.

The right hand is a cast taken from an old WWF figure.
I tried to make it look a little more decomposed by
strategically cutting ridges into the original before the
duplication process. The bracelet (or is that thing
supposed to be the remainder of a glove ?) is sculpted
and augmented with "strings" made from rubber bands.

The sword you can see held in that hand is the result of a
new, experimental way to create accessories that I've
come up with. Since I had a clear shot of what the
sword was supposed to look like, I printed that out,
glued the printout to some thick cardboard, cut it
out and covered it with glue. Then, I took a mold
if it using liquid latex (the glue was meant to prevent
the latex from sticking to the paper) and filled that up
with synthetic resin. The result is once again far
from perfect, but I see potential in the method.

The bizarre hair crown is no more than painted string,
made more durable through the layers of paint the
clear finish. I attached it after the priming stage in
order not to thicken it too much.

Speaking of paint... The paint job hardly required anything
special, but it was filled with layer after layer of washes
and drybrushing. It took an unholy ammount of different
color shades to get the decomposed, rotten and dirty
look that this figure truely needed. The part that I'm particulary
proud of are the eyes. In order to get them too look like they're
perpetually aglow, I build up layer after layer of narrowing
shades of green that got gradually lighter. I'm well aware
that McFarlane did this long before, but I added a little extra
by mixing the green with glow-in-the-dark paint. The lighter
the tone, the more glow. I think it works nicely both day
and night.

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