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In case anyone was concerned that Starfire's sister, Blackfire, aka Komand'r, would not be represented, be concerned no more. Koriandr's vindictive, jealous,
power-mad (and yet beloved by her people. Go figure) sister started as a 21st Century Toys' "Matilda" figure.
Unlike my feeble attempt to replicate Alanis Morrissette's likeness with the same doll head, "Matilda's" features fit Blackfire's look much more readily.
The most challenging part for this figure was her torso armor. In the comics, it's drawn as a single, seamless
piece. I knew I'd have to sculpt it, either from Super Sculpey (oven bake) or MagicSculp (air dry, but sticky).
"Matilda," like all of the 1/6 action figures I use, is made of plastic and vinyl - not happy campers in a hot oven.
Ultimately I bit the bullet and sculpted the whole thing in Super Sculpey directly over the figure, black jumpsuit and all.
Rather than bake the whole piece with the doll inside, I sliced the "armor" into two halves as carefully as possible, then
baked the two halves, also being as careful as possible to retain their original shapes.
Komand'r's cape was fabric, albeit with teeny wires lining the borders to allow for dramatic poses in the wind.
Normally I shun A.C. Moore-type "doll hair" (specifically, the Mini Curls products made of acrylic or vinyl or whatever they
are), but I made an exception for Blackfire. The red Mini Curls (feel free to disagree) do a respectable job mimicking
the comic book look.
Last would be Blackfire's headdress, which was a fairly simple matter. First I cast the
front half of "Matilda's" head in resin, which CAN be put into an oven. I then sculpted the headdress directly onto
the cast and baked it. There was some minor sanding involved to get it to fit vinyl head (the resin may have shrunk
slightly), but then it fit nice and snugly.
Her onyx slippers
Komand'r in her black unitard, courtesy of "Matilda." MagicSculp armor is almost complete. Gauntlets plus
hand guards still to come.
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