Adam Strange (classic)

When Mattel first announced the DC Universe Classics 2-pack of Adam Strange and Starfire, I was pretty psyched. You see, I’m a big fan of  Cosmic Odyssey – in that comic, those two characters team up with Lightray of the New Gods to fight an aspect of the Anti-Life Entity. Adam Strange’s adopted planet, Rann, the Earth, and the rest of the universe are at stake! (I can’t believe how nerdy I sound.)

Then, when Mattel revealed that Strange and Starfire would be in their modern day costumes, I was crushed. Starfire’s close enough, but Strange? I knew I would have to do something about that.

This custom is a kitbash of a DC Direct Adam Strange (wonderfully classic!) and a DC Universe Classics Superman Red.  If I had any ability to delay gratification, I would have waited for a DCUC Flash, because Flash is mostly red, while Supes was a combo of red and white.  Plus, Flash has those yellow boots.  Ah yellow, how I hate you!

Here’s what I used from DCD Strange.  The head was hollowed out to fit on the Supes neck peg.  I also carved out his collar, which was no easy task, because it is part of the torso sculpt, and not separate like I was hoping.  It took a while to carve out the neck hole.  I also took Strange’s right hand, gun and holster, and jet pack.

I started on the Supes body by spraying him many times over with Duplicolor red vinyl dye.  The shoulders were problematic, because of the white shoulder discs.  Had to sand those down and colored them in with red sharpie.  Some sculpting required to match up Strange’s wrist with Supes’ forearm, as the forearm was cylindrical to accomodate a wrist swivel.  That’s held together with a peg fashioned from a wooden BBQ skewer with a glued on rubber band dremeled into a cone for the head of the peg.  I wanted there to be some give since I didn’t know how wide the socket really was.

The chest straps are white craft foam, which I love for straps so much more than rubber bands.  The belt is a sandwich of white plastic laces around black craft foam.  The laces are parallel to the ground, and the craft foam perpendicular, so that the white edges are raised.  I glued a sliver of clear plastic to the holster, and then glued the plastic under the belt, so it’s got some movement.  

The jetpack was attached with another segment of wooden skewer through where the original peg was.  That lined up conveniently with the gap from where Supes’ red flames attached – I filled that gap with some Sculpey, lined up the jetpack and poked a hole with the skewer.  After curing the Sculpey with a hair dryer, the peg hole was there for me to glue it all together.

Finally, I painted a ton of Apple Barrel Apricot over a base of Americana Shading Flesh for the boots and gloves.  When I got tired of adding layers, I gave it a top coat of Tamiya Clear Yellow.  Pain!  If Mattel and the Four Horsemen make a classic Adam Strange any time soon, I’m gonna send them the Anti-Life equation through email!