Suiting-Up Illyria (September 2007)

For those unfamiliar with customising, the pale pink stuff is the colour of the 'super sculpey' sculpting clay that I put over the plastic figures. It can be translucent, so you can often see the original colour of the figure underneath. Once I've finished sculpting, I always completely repaint the whole figure.

I've had the idea to make this custom for ages, but I was waiting to find suitable parts to fit the scale of the DST Fred/Illyria.

This is the moment when Illyria has taken over Fred's body. She sheds her human clothes, touches her tomb, and her patchwork leather suit assembles itself onto her body, piece by piece.

Reference & Parts

I used an Illyria figure, with a Lost Sun torso and legs, and a Grindhouse Cherry right arm.

Thanks to McFarlane, NECA Toys & DST for the parts.

Sculpt

I moved her right leg out to give her a firmer stance. I smoothed over her right hip to be bare. I sculpted over part of the suit to make the body shape more naturalistic. I also sculpted her hair.

I painted a basic undercoat to see how the skin and suit worked. I happy with the smoothness of the skin and the shape of the suit.

Tomb

I only made the head section of the tomb, because it was so huge. I sculpted the tomb over two of Anya's blue boxes. I added some bits of coloured plastic for the time-bending crystals.

Paint

I found a great article in an old copy of the Buffy magazine, where the costume designer showed patterns and material samples for the Illyria suit. This meant I could be pretty accurate with the colours and patterns.

I painted Illyria's hair and body with the blue tinting. I closed her eyes and gave her full lips.