Making a Better Sabretooth

Everyone knows Sabretooth. He's the evil Wolverine. He's big and mean. But his figures, unfortunately, aren't. There have only been three GOOD Sabretooth figures. Captive Sabretooth, AoA Sabretooth and the repainted Ninja Sabretooth. Only the repainted Ninja Sabretooth was the best Sabretooth in his current costume. But he was only released in Canada, a downside for us US collectors. So, we're gonna make our own Sabretooth figure. Let's begin.

The Base

First order of buisness is to find our base figure. Lesse what our choices are by reviewing each of the Sabretooth figures. It'll be easier if we stick with Sabretooth. First, there's Marauder Sabretooth. He's cool, but too scrawny. Move on to Chomping Jaw Sabretooth. Current costume, but again, too scrawny. Captive Sabretooth. Now THERE'S a thought. Wait, too much long hair. Next there's Ninja Sabretooth. He's good, but he looks like he stole Logan's hairstyle. What about X-Men vs Street Fighter Sabretooth? It's the same body as Chomping Jaw Sabretooth. So, that only leaves AoA Sabretooth. Perfect.....almost.

What You Need

• Age of Apocalypse Sabretooth figure
• X-Acto Knife
• Dremel Tool
• Acryllic Paints-red, brown, yellow, flesh, orange, white, silver (optional)
• 6 Toothpicks (Optional)
• Krylon's Automotive Spray Primer
• Clear Acryllic Sealer

Down to Buisness

Now, let's look at a picture of Sabretooth. Any issue of X-Factor (before he escaped) or Wolverine 126-128 will do. Now look at the figure. Creed doesn't have all that crap on his body. So let's get rid of it. First, we'll take a Dremel tool and begin sanding down the part of his hair where the headgear will go. Then we'll move on. His chest has that Magneto-like thing on it which all the AoA X-Men wore. Sand down only up to the shoulders. The fur collar will cover the rest up. Now, the gauntlets. Sand 'em down. Belt, sand it. Boots. Tricky. You can't sand down the boot line, but you CAN sand down the bottom of his pants. They're too baggy at the bottom. OK, now we've got a nice, flat figure.

Fun with Clay

Now, we'll take our clay. I recommend an air-drying clay such as Das Pronto. It's much cheaper than Sculpey and dries hard as a rock. Now, we'll sculpt the headgear. First, fill in that hole where the ponytail was. Then, begin to make the headgear all around his head and his forehead. Don't cover up the sideburns and the hair on top. Or the face. Here's the tough part. Take some clay and begin sculpting the fur collar. When you're done with that, take your X-Acto knife and make several slashes in the collar to make it look like fur. Now, just use clay for building up any areas that you may have cut away too much of.

Only for the Anal-Retentative

Now, Creed needs claws and those wierd pointy things on his elbows. You can skip this, but if you want a cool Sabretooth figure, you'll do as I say. So bake me a pie!!! OK, now back to the figure. Take 6 toothpicks. For 1 toothpick, cut off the ends of the toothpick, so that they will go on his elbows. Plack some clay on the elbows, then stick 'em in there. Now, the cat needs claws. This is REALLY challenging. Take the remaining five toothpicks, and only cut off the pointy ends of them. Now carefully dip the end in glue, and put each one on Creed's fingers. Wait till the glue dries.

Prime and Paint

Take your can of primer, and spray several light coats on Sabretooth. Once that dries, take some yellow paint and paint Creed's hair and fur collar. Now, take your flesh color and paint his face. Next, take some orange and yellow and mix it up to make the light color of his costume. Paint Creed's body. Then, mix up some brown and red. Paint the headgear, the gloves, and the stripe down the back of his arms and his chest and back. Also, paint those little triangles on his feet. Now, this next part is your choice. If you want a Sabretooth with bone claws, paint the claws white. If you want them to be adamantium (see Wolverine #126), then paint them silver. Take some white paint and carefully paint the eyes. Don't worry about eyeballs, since Creed doesn't usually have them. Now, take your can of acryllic sealer and spray several light coats, and you're done!! Pat yourself on the back for a good job. But make sure you put down the X-Acto knife and paintbrush first.