Super Shredder Custom Figure

Here’s my custom Super Shredder inspired by Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2. I made this custom Super Shredder using an 13″ Incredible Hulk figure from the 2003 movie.

I searched for a muscular figure on Ebay to use for this custom shredder modification and this Incredible Hulk I found was for sale at a really good price. Sure he had some bangs and bruises from being played with but broken and used figures work great for mods.

When planning my custom figure I determined pretty quickly that this was going to mostly be a polymer clay and fabric modification with acrylic paint. Having modified one of these 13″ Hulk figures in the past I knew that I could not sculpt the polymer clay directly on the figure and bake it because the vinyl that these figures are made of has a pretty low melting point. I needed to come up with a different strategy.

The first step I took was sealing up a number of the joints with an air-dry clay. The clay starts to dry really quickly so I used a wet rag to smooth it into areas. This saves a lot of sanding!

Once the clay was dry I sealed the clay and figure with a coat of purple spray paint.

The way I ended up creating Super Shredder’s blades and armored pieces was to sculpt the polymer clay directly onto the figure. Yes, I realize I said I couldn’t do that. The clay was still warm and pliable at this point. I would then take the figure and place it in the freezer for about 15 to 20 minutes. This caused the polymer clay to become firm and provided the opportunity for me to take a small sculpting tool and carefully pry the pieces off without them losing their shape. Then it was just a matter of putting the clay pieces in the oven for baking.

After Super Shredder’s helmet and armor was cooled I painted the pieces using dry brushing techniques. The next step was to actually go and fine tune the painting details on the figure. Once the colors seem ed Super Shredder-like, I started gluing and applying the various piece of armor onto the figure.

The last elements that I created were Super Shredder’s cape and his loin cloth. I used some spare fabric and sanded the edges after I cut it into the desired shape. Sanding the edges helped give the look of worn, torn clothing. To finish Shredder off I mixed some acrylic paints until I achieve the faded color that I wanted and dipped the cloth in the acrylic paint. After saturating and wringing out some of the paint I draped the cloth pieces into position and applied the final sections of armor.