 Gorilla
Grodd is a funny old ape. Initially, I had no interest
in him as a
character. Gorillas as villains seemed silly to me. (Unless
they were cyborgs with bottled brains in Hellboy!) Like it
or not, Gorillas seem to run rampant in the Justice League
universe. Grodd’s first appearance in “The Brave
and the Bold” didn’t do much for me, but I loved
his part in “Secret Society.” That clinched the
deal. I had to figure out a reasonable way to make a Grodd.
When I first saw
the Ultra-Humanite figure (hereafter known as UH), my first
thought was converting him to Grodd. I quickly
talked myself out of that. Why? I really don’t know.
I then saw Doubledealer’s amazing Grodd custom/sculpt,
and the fire in me was once again lit. Alas, few of us mere
mortals can sculpt like Doubledealer. I was forced to think
of alternative methods.
I went back to
the UH figure. I was struck by how similar his legs, arms,
face and upper torso are to Grodd’s
model sheet and Grodd’s show appearances. So, UH went
under the Dremel.
Obviously, the
first thing to go was UH’s harness.
It’s stuck on there good, so be careful when trying
to remove it, kids. The head was then sliced off at the neck.
The biggest problem with UH, then, was his height. Mattel
made him far to short for UH, and thus Grodd, too. I split
the figure at the waist, then added a blob of plumbing
epoxy between the two halves, making sure to keep the leg
articulation working. Once solid, I added Kneadatite to fill
in the harness space along the torso. Grodd’s head
is higher on his chest than UH, so I crammed aluminum foil
into UH’s neck hole (to fill the chest cavity), then
layered on epoxy putty (and later, modeling paste) to create
a smooth and solid upper torso. Next, I created the protruding
tummy and his back with Super Sculpey. The arms and legs
needed to be beefed up, which I accomplished with Super Sculpey.
Lots of sanding on this one, folks.
To make
Grodd’s head, I started by obliterating UH’s
oversized cranium, slicing off chunks and then sanding
smooth with the Dremel, making sure to keep the ears. I
also removed UH’s nose, as it sits too high on the
face for Grodd. Using Super Sculpey and Kneadatite, I expanded/filled
in the facial shape, creating the “line” between
the eye and mouth. A new nose and “nose wrinkle” were
added, as well as the re-shaped brow. Finally, his crown
of hair was shaped with Super Sculpey. This took me at
least four tries, as Grodd’s hair appears differently
in almost every shot he’s in! (I’m still not
100% satisfied, but it’ll do.)
After
lots of sanding and a paint job later, he was finished.
The final product looked better than I expected, and surprisingly
on- model. Now to build more members of the Secret Society
so Grodd has someone to command.
Casimir
Fall
2004 |
