Creative Faces is a new weekly feature which will profile artists, customizers and other creative forces within the world wrestling and wrestling fandom. We plan to offer insights into the creative process, tutorials and so much more.
Last week, YouTube star, toy customizer and figure collecting legend Glenn Webb passed away suddenly in his sleep. Glenn was a champion of the hobby, creating exceptionally professional and endlessly entertaining videos for fans of WWE, Marvel Legends and several other toy lines. I didn’t personally know him, but having watched no less than 100 videos on his YouTube channel, I wanted to use our first edition of Creative Faces to celebrate a guy who inspired so many. If you were a fan of Glenn or at the end of this post you feel so inclined, please consider donating to the GoFundMe page created to assist his family with final costs. Even $1 helps!
Now, let’s learn a few things from the one and only, Glenn Webb…
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gM7hiVQqm48]
Above is Glenn’s Wrestling Custom 101. In less than 5 minutes, he gives a simple and straight forward intro to the hobby of WWE toy customizing. Customizing ultimately requires a lot of skill and patience. Glenn’s approach to teaching makes you feel like you can and should do this. He dares you to be creative. Here’s a run down of his method.
Swap Method: Heat with Hair Dryer
Some customizers use a method called Boil & Pop which requires boiling a pot of water. That method works and will be outlined in a future post, but for now we’ll go with the Heat option. For this, you’ll run a hair dryer over your figure for 3-5 minutes or until it’s a little rubbery. This allows you to pop the head right off!
You can apply this same method to the arms and legs. Heat the biceps until they’re rubbery and they’ll pull right off as seen in the video above. The legs are a little more tricky because they’ve got a peg that holds them together. Watch all of Glenn’s video so you can see the mechanism. It’s best to try this on a figure you’re not in love with first because if you don’t heat it enough, you do risk breaking or ripping your figure’s joint.
Stripping & Painting Method: Sandpaper with Citadel Paints
Glenn removes some of the unwanted decals on his figure with a little bit of sand paper. As he notes, you can paint over some decals (like Glenn does with the trunks) but it all depends on what color your painting with and painting over. Mr. Webb uses Games Workshop’s Citadel paint. This is a super popular pick among customizers. Unseen but implied in the video is using perhaps a painter’s tape to cover the torso as you paint trunks.
If your project is simple, you’re done after these few simple steps! Glenn doesn’t mention any sealers but I know many artists who use them to protect their completed work. Assuming most of you won’t play with your figure, we’ll save that detail for a future post.
Let’s take a look at some of Glenn’s custom work!
Mantaur! Check out Glenn’s video here!
Super cool that Glenn consistently shared his recipe and behind the scenes photos. He’s got several hundred custom videos, unboxing videos and reviews on his YouTube Page be sure to check them out! If you’ve found this enjoyable and helpful, please consider donating a few dollars to assist Glenn’s family. Rest easy Glenn. You’re an inspiration to thousands and I’m happy to have learned from you and laughed with you.
Advanced
Mr. Webb also put together another charming and thorough tutorial on sculpting. Though slightly more advanced, sculpting can be a powerful resource for articulating your creative vision! Below is the video and a link to the sculpting material he suggests.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKALo63iWbc]
[…] like our first two Creative Faces (Webb and Marciano), Maria DeLayo takes something we all love and creates something beautiful. When we […]
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