“Strangefate” is the net handle of a prolific 3D sculptor who makes his sculpts available for printing on the Shapeways website. He is the first guy I’ve seen online who makes the 6-inch articulated style figures that I like in the Shapeways store, and the characters and weapons he’s created are all very cool. I’ve bought a couple full figures he’s made available, but I’ve been waiting with much anticipation for this latest effort — a fully articulated skeleton!
The parts come printed from Shapeways in little baggies and attached together on a sprue.
Putting it together is reminiscent of putting together a very easy snap-together model kit and it makes for a fun hour-long project.
I separated all of the parts from the sprues with a sharp hobby knife.
The sharp knife helps to get the sprues off cleanly.
At this point I gave all the pieces a very light coat of a bleached bone color. I used a slightly watered down paint so the porous plastic absorbed the color well. The color absorption helps prevent paint rub.
Then I popped the pieces together and applied a wash. Every piece seems pretty clear where they should go; the only parts I had a little trouble with were the discs for the double knees. I figured that, basically, the slightly larger part went into the upper leg and the smaller part into the lower leg.
The articulation is as follows:
- Ball-and-socket shoulders, torso, neck, hips, ankles, and wrists
- Double-hinged knees
- Hinged shoulders
The skeleton doesn’t quite have the full Marvel Legends articulation, but it moves really nicely. I do miss the hip and bicep swivel, but the ball and socket hip and shoulders help you get close to that level of movement.
The sculpt has a fantastic level of detail and I love the look. His right hand holds a MOTUC sword well and the left has a great grasping gesture. I went for the classic skull, but Strangefate does have a more “Army of Darkness” or Harryhausen style skull that you can order.
I ordered the skeleton in the white, strong flexible and polished plastic, and it makes for a nice texture for bones. Unfortunately, the skull’s teeth didn’t retain the detail they had in the 3-d sculpt or they may have been polished away.
Overall, I’m very pleased with this figure and would like to order a few more to fill out my skeleton army ranks.
The figure fits in great with MOTUC and other 7-inch lines. It’s a little tall for a 6-inch figure, but I think it’s fudgeable.
Here is the skeleton compared to other articulated skeleton figures from left to right, Gentle Giant’s Hellboy Bust-Ups BAF skeleton, He-Mikes’ custom skeleton, Strangefate’s 3D printed skeleton, Revoltech Harryhausen skeleton, and October Toys’ Skeleton Warriors Titan Skeleton.
