DJ's Den

[Podmark]

Great face. I feel like I've read something with her sometime.

[Deaths Jester]

Would've had to been DD # 363 or 364 under Karl Kesel's writing because when Joe Kelly took over DD at issue 365 he dropped the character completely. Was a bit interesting that he did that seeing as she had been a part of the Mr Fear story arc that Marvel had going at the time and Kelly continued building up. After Kesel left, Insomnia disappeared into comic book limbo - unused to this day.

[spydermann93]

Great face. I feel like I've read something with her sometime.

I've only read about her from the link DJ gave

[BentonGrey]

Another 'what might have been' of the comic book world.

[Deaths Jester]

Here's another WIP of one that will be knocking off a letter of my Marvel alphabet villains (down to D, G,L, N, U, and Z for those keeping track..and that's the only hint I'm giving on this one....seeing as you guys stink at guessing..). Let's see if anyone can guess who this one is:

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I've still got to do the flesh, face, hair, a bit of texturing, and some refl work on it but that's actually not that much to do....

[Deaths Jester]

Man, nobody knows the characters I do.  OH well, now she's done. Meet Death-Sting:

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Ortho

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Face up close

Now, you'll notice on the face that there is no discernible line on that black to red transition and that it's darker than a normal "shadow".  Reason is because in the Iron Fist comic she appeared in, there is no discernible line portrayed.  Nor does the "black" area seem to be portraying a shadow...as per the following examples from the comic:

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Multiple face shots from the Iron Fist comic

Want to know more about her?  Find out that she is secretly Iron Fist's half-sister here at the Marvel Appendix.


So now I'm down to five in the alphabet run.....G, L, N, U, and Z.....(it's amazing how few actual obscure Marvel villain name's start with the letter N)....

[BentonGrey]

Wow, I've never heard of her, but that is a LOVELY skin, DJ!    She's got a very interesting look.  Simple, but striking, and you've done a great job with her face, very distinctive.  Yeah, the black looks almost like a tattoo or something in the comics.

[daglob]

Yeow! I didn't know they had a female Scorpio. I preferred this version of the costume over the simpler later one.

Yeah, the "shadow" looks more like makeup; there is no shadow on her hair.

[Podmark]

Nicely done!

[naitvalis]

i like the character even if i haven't heard of her, you have done a great job as always Dj, i have reduced the emphasis on the nose however,  probably as a choice you haven't skinned  that little scorpion on the hood, but instead i think it would fit nicely to her.
(i type this little critiques just to help)

[Deaths Jester]

Yeah, the nose is a bit much. Part of that has to do with the mesh I used (I had to rework the wireframe a few times). As for the emblem,  I tried putting it on but it ended up having two stingers due to the mirroring of textures on the hood piece. I felt that if I couldn't recreate the emblem as it appeared in the comic that it was best to leave it off...bit of a personal choice there. 

[Podmark]

For the emblem you could skope a disk just above the hood. If you position it right it would probably look alright.

[Deaths Jester]

<grumble grumble>

Now I got to stop Epi from releasing the version I sent him, skope a cylinder to the hood, and skin the emblem...

<grumble grumble>

[Deaths Jester]

Alright...emblem added:

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Face up-close

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Finished/posed shot

..and now to go slave on something for BG.....

[BentonGrey]

The logo looks good, DJ, but that skin just looks fantastic.  It's just a very striking job.

Also, yay!   

[Podmark]

Looks great! I'm glad I forced you to do more work!

[Deaths Jester]

Someone out there will probably squee over this tease....who though we shall see...

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[Cyber Burn]

SQUEE!!!

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DCUG update!

[Deaths Jester]

This is not DCUG related, I finished what DCUG stuff BG has asked for up to this point last week...

[Cyber Burn]

 
For some reason, I had thought he was in the DCUG. But I'm still squealing!

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Stahlhelm

[Deaths Jester]

As the title suggests, this is a DCUG Exclusive skin/skope. You want it, go harangue (or is that meringue...mmm...pie) Benton about the DCUG mod.  Also big thanks to Detourne_Me for the work on the "key gun".

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Key Ortho

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Face up close

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Pew Pew

[deanjo2000]

Cool, he's been on my list for ages great work

[Deaths Jester]

I can't believe it's been almost 11 years since I first created this character and sparked my twenty character collab with Carr.  Back then he looked like this:

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Original Stahlhelm ortho

Well, I decided it was time to revisit him and get him closer to real-life German WW2 look..so now he looks like this:

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Revamp Stahlhelm ortho

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Action

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Face up-close

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Shield



Okay a few things I've got to point out:

1) You may notice that the uniform and most of his gear has a green tint to it compared tot eh older one - that's intentional. The WW2 German Waffen-SS (which Stahlhelm is wearing) and Army uniforms were issued in field grey (the Americans called them field green) which was a warm grey-green colour originally.  Once the war started and supplies started to get low, the German uniforms took on more of a grey colour with a slight green tint to it (much like this one) due in large part to a lack of good wool (which lead to an increase in rayon in the uniforms) and dye.  So this colour is actually a lot closer to the real world uniform during the war.

2) The pack is not historically correct.  Not until the very end of WW2 did the Germans start carrying backpack type packs like I have shown here. Instead most of their packs were assorted pieces clipped/hooked together to form a pack which was then clipped to troopers' military-issued braces/suspenders.  I felt that Stahlhelm, being a bit more mobile bound, would eschew that pack form for the backpack set up.  The horseshoe roll - the cylinder atop the pack - is actually historically correct as many of the troops carried a blanket or their overcoat - Stahlhelm carries his overcoat - this way while marching.

3) Notice the lack of medals on Stahlhem's uniform even though he should be sporting a ton of them?  That's intentional.  During WW2, the German military encouraged the troops to wear their awards and medals to help bolster morale. An unseen side effect of that though, was that often times the troops wore the awards into combat thus destroying the use of camo (if provided) or at the least giving the Allies information on what experience/specialties their opponents had.  I felt that Stahlhelm would be ordered NOT to wear his awards for that reason.  Add to that, I felt that Stahlhelm himself would be a morale booster to the troops anyways.

4) The lack of refl on the new helmet - Pre-war German forces wore polished helmets in field grey but once the war began, they swapped over to helmets that were painted with a matte field-grey colour.  Thus no refl would show up on matte painted metal.

Alright, I think that is enough history for today.

Okay..and now a tease:

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Don't try guessing on this one folks, as it's an original - based off the archetypes Car and I came up with during our collab.

[BentonGrey]

That's right, check out that awesome skin/Skope of the The Key!  He's starring in a brand new arc of my JLA campaign, and DJ really outdid himself with that great piece!  And he wonders why I keep hassling him to do things for me!

As for this new Stahlhelm, he is actually in the DCUG too!  Haha, apparently DJ forgot that he gave me permission to include his incredibly great looking evil superteam in my JLA/JSA crossover.  They get pride of place in a few missions, and I'll have to update this fellow now to this new excellent skin!

I love all of the historical accuracy and background packed into this guy!  I'm a big history buff, and this is super cool!  Wonderful, wonderful detail work, both in terms of accuracy and in terms of texture!

[Deaths Jester]

As for this new Stahlhelm, he is actually in the DCUG too!  Haha, apparently DJ forgot that he gave me permission to include his incredibly great look evil superteam in my JLA/JSA crossover.  They get pride of place in a few missions, and I'll have to update this fellow now to this new excellent skin!

I love all of the historical accuracy and background packed into this guy!  I'm a big history buff, and this is super cool!  Wonderful, wonderful detail work, both in terms of accuracy and in terms of texture!

Wait...whut!?!?!   

[Podmark]

Great looking skin, I especially like the addition of the backpack.

[BentonGrey]

Haha, yep, I thought you had forgotten!  They're the Nazi super soldiers that Per Degaton creates with his stolen technology.  I've got Stalhelm, Mer Tueful, the magician (can't spell it), de eisen soldat, and panzermann.  I think that's all of them.

[Deaths Jester]

Haha, yep, I thought you had forgotten!  They're the Nazi super soldiers that Per Degaton creates with his stolen technology.  I've got Stalhelm, Mer Tueful, the magician (can't spell it), de eisen soldat, and panzermann.  I think that's all of them.

So you've got Stahlhelm, Meer Tuefel, der Zauberer, die Eisen Soldat, and Panzermann but not Geistblitz or die Faust?  That's very weird seeing as everyone listed came before I ever did die Eisen Soldat.....he was one of the last ones I originally did....and I could've sworn I've kept everyone but Panzermann and Stahlhelm from being released anywhere (Panzermann and Stahlhelm were released at FRP for a time)....

Also add Herr Gummiband....

[BentonGrey]

Right!  I forgot them, but yep, they're in there as well!  .  I remember when you were making them.  It was right around when I had started working on the JLA/JSA crossover, and I was plotting the WWII portions.  The characters were so well designed and so interesting that I decided I really wanted to include them.  I suppose I probably asked about the time that you had finished.  I didn't use Car's, as they were more slick and superhero looking, more like a modern team, while yours seemed more period-approrpriate, historically fitting.  I like how they work in those couple of missions, plus they provide some fun RR foes for the WWII characters.

[Deaths Jester]

Alright, another tease/WIP of the one I teased earlier..

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IF you look at this one and back and Stahlhelm, you can see the point I was making about the awards/medals.  Unlike Stahlhelm, this guy wears his medals out loud and proud.  They are:  Knight's Cross (around collar area), Iron Cross Second Class (ribbon in button hole), Silver Close Combat Medal (over left pocket; awarded for 30 consecutive days of "hand-to-hand" combat without armour support), Silver Wound Badge (left side of left pocket; wounded 3 to 4 times in combat), Iron Cross First Class (center left pocket), and the Silver Anti-Partisan Medal (right left pocket; awarded for 30 consecutive days of combat against a partisan unit).  Also note the shoulder boards, Stahlhelm shows that he is a Captain in the Waffen-SS Infantry while this fellow is a Technical Sergeant  in the Waffen-SS Combat Engineer Unit (they were the only ones who regularly issued flamethrowers).  I've still got some work to do, as you can see..but this guy will be interesting when I get him done..I hope...