The head is from Foodchain Creations - Hobby Heads, bought at the 2006 Wonderfest. I was told it was "too big" for 1/6 scale figures. I didn't believe it until I tried...yep, it's too big for 1/6 scale figures.

The body is from Jakks Pacific, Inc., WWF - Federation Fighters F2 "The Undertaker", at 1/5.5 scale (too large for standard action figures), purchased at a garage sale at some point in the distant past.

Cleaning-off one of my "To-do" shelves one night, It struck me that the two objects might well fit together. They did...almost as if they were destined for each other.

Assembly and Painting:

The costume was an experiment: I sculpted the unitard and briefs by gluing 3M Indoor Window Insulation Film (that shrink-wrap plastic wrap used to cover windows in the winter) onto the figure and heating it with a hairdryer. While the result had a definite "fabric" look, with a proper suite of random folds and wrinkles, it proved to be very fragile, breaking and peeling-off 'way too easily. In the end, I sprayed several coats of Future Floor Wax over the body to build a thin layer of tough acrylic.

The belt was formed from construction paper and thin tape. The boots came with the wrestling figure (good thing, too, since the feet were so darn wide!), and were modified to include the V-shaped notch on the shins. The cape was formed of paper draped into position, and the covered with multiple layers of Elmer's White Glue.

White Krylon primer was sprayed over the entire figure, then Aves Apoxie Sculpt was used to fill the cracks and seams, and the figure was sanded and re-primed. The choice of costume colors were inspired by the darker, richer shades used in Superman: The Animated Series and Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. Polly-S acrylic paints were airbrushed on the model, mixed to provide general highlights and shadows, then individual wrinkles were dry-brushed. After this, the figure was gloss-coated with Future.

The Superman shield/emblem for the chest and cape were located on an Internet website, downloaded, edited a bit, and printed-off on decal paper. The decals were then applied to the figure with generous doses of Solvaset. Another layer of Future was then applied, to smooth-out the edges.

Having declared the costume complete, I dull-coated the figure and removed the Tamiya masking tape from head and hands, and painted the exposed skin with artist's oils over a base coat of acrylics.

In-progress photos:

Superman from the front: 1/5.5 scale figure, ~13 inches tall (odd scale because it is too large for 1/6 and too small for 1/5). Figure has just been primed.

Superman from the front quarter: The metal rod that will be used to support the model is apparent, hopefully covered to some extent by the cape.

Superman from the side: The figure is not yet glued to the rod, so it can be removed for painting and sealing. The figure is quite heavy, as it is almost completely solid.

Superman's front: After first phase of painting (costume only, highlighting/shading).

Superman's left side: Ditto.

Superman's back: Ditto.

Superman's right side: Ditto.

Superman's Cape

I read on-line that one way to make body armor for 1/6 scale action figures was to place a bit of tissue paper (the kind placed in packages and presents) over the form, and the start layering on gobs of white glue, like Elmer's (which is really a form of polyvinyl acetate - PVA - a thermoplastic polymer resin). It sounded intriguing. I had sculpted fabric on other 1/4 scale figures by mixing a witch's brew of plastic sprue dissolved into Testor's Liquid Glue, and the spreading this over tissue. The trouble is, this latter method tended to retain the texture of the original fabric, which is something I wanted to avoid with Superman's cape. So, I decided to give the method a try.

Cape #1

So, I wrapped the figure in Saran Wrap, made a template of the cape out of newspaper, and then cut a tissue copy from the template. Then I started taping the paper onto the figure. As you can see from these photos...

Front View, first cape attempt
Side View, first cape attempt
Back View, first cape attempt

...after eight layers of glue on the cape, the end result was a Good News/Bad News affair. The Good News is that the assemblage retained the original contour that I molded. The Bad News is that the tissue actually dissolved in spots (though leaving the glue in the same shape) and tended to contract a bit, leaving the "fabric" looking a rather "fluffy", like a baby's blanket just out of the dryer...not cool. It also contracted in funny ways when I put glue on the inside of the cape. The Good News is that the glue dries clear, and the cape had a good solid (if brittle) structure, like a giant plastic potato chip. Thus endith Cape Mod I.

Cape #2

Since the tissue paper was too light, I decided to try something heavier and see what happened. So, I cut a second copy of the cape out of a grocery bag. And as you can see from these photos...

Front View, second cape attempt.
Left Side View, second cape attempt.
Right Side View, second cape attempt.
Back View, first cape attempt.

...the results appear much more satisfactory. At the moment, I have about four layers of glue on the cape, and it is just starting to retain a milky sheen over the paper. The "drape" of the cape is much more characteristic of sheet of heavy fabric. Cape Mod II appears to be a winner.

The next step will be to pop the cape off the figure, put one or two layers of glue on the inside, and then start applying a coat of primer and the base color.

Primer coat
Base color coat
First level of shading and highlights
Finished cape, back view
Finished cape, side view

As you can see on the last two photos, I decided to add the yellow shield emblem (missing on half of the animated versions of the cape, as well as Brandon Routh's costume from Superman Returns).

Assembly and Completion:

Attaching the cape to his shoulders caused some problems, not the least of which was the fact the then long coils of fabric originally intended for that purpose warped during the curing phase. That, and I managed to scratch the paint in several places wedging the cape over various limbs and support (in the end, I had to cover those parts with a cloth and slide the cape into place). Once located, I used two-part epoxy to lock the cape into position, doing each point of contact (the shoulders and his right thigh) individually, allowing time to cure fully. And here is the final result:

Finished model, front view
Finished model, left side
Finished model, right side view
Finished model, back view
Finished model, showing the base

Well, this concludes the four-week project that turned into a fourteen-month project (I only do one or two models a year, due to time constraints). It turned out better than I expected, but not as good as I hoped. I guess that's a common feeling among modelers, isn't it?

Jeff Harris