MOTU Classics - Custom Anti-Eternia He-Man in alternate colour scheme

Let me start by saying I don't feel there is anything wrong as such with the nearly all black colour scheme on the official AE He-Man figure, but I have always found the alternate colour schemes depicted in some fan art which use more red and sometimes grey, make for a more contrasting figure that is ultimately more interesting to look at. So it only makes sense I ended up doing a custom version that incorporates all these elements.

The base figure is another copy of the Chinese AE He-Man bootlegs. I used a spare set of Faker boots because I figured the purple would be a better base colour to paint red and if some paint rubs off, it would be less jarring. The loincloth, belt and wrist guards were repainted. The harness and weapons were moulded in red by Barbarossa customs, then painted, leaving the handles bear to avoid paint wear in that spot. I prefer to have the accessories as close as possible to the paint colour, so that eventual wear will not stand out (much). I also painted the hair to be slightly lighter and painted yellow in the centre of the eyes instead of the original white.

The original artwork that inspired the alternate colour scheme the most:

MOTU Classics - Custom Anti-Eternia He-Man in Hellskull Battle Armour

Having suffered defeat at the hands of Eternia's He-Man, Anti-He-Man descended in the deepest catacombs under Castle Hellskull in search of ancient weapons of power to enact his revenge. It is there that the spirit of the Castle bestowed on him the Hellskull Battle Armour, infused with all the evil of that place and a set of weapons to match. Armed with these, it is only a matter of time before Anti-He-Man will find his way back to Eternia and destroy his paleskinned double...

Anti-Eternia He-Man in Hellskull Battle Armor and enchanted weapons

I picked up a couple of those He-Man, Faker and Anti-He-Man figures from China that, according to some are factory rejects and to others bootlegs. He-Bro made a good case for the bootleg theory with some notable differences, so I'm going to go with that. Regardless, these make for some great custom fodder as they are relatively cheap basic bodies and there is no guilt over destroying an expensive collector figure.

I wanted to make a Battle Armor variant out of one of the Anti-Eternia He-Man figures, and was hesitating which armour set to use (Skeletor's or He-Man's), but then I saw a loose chest armour for sale from a Castle Greyskullman figure and I thought that would look great in dark red, plus the skull with wings motif also figures on the shield that comes with Anti-Eternia He-Man, so the choice was made. As a plus, no complete figure had to be (expensively) sourced and harmed in the process as this was likely leftover from someone else's custom work.

A quick proof of concept was done by painting over the green stone of the flexible armour pieces in diluted black. Then that was followed by a drybrush of dark burgundy red and topped with a drybrush of scarlet. The grey emblem was just drybrushed with a lighter shade of grey to bring out the detail and the same red from before was used in the eye sockets to give a red eye effect. I felt it looked good enough to soldier on.

A quick mock-up on the body told me the colour scheme was off balance, with all the red touches being in the upper half, so I decided to give the boots the same treatment as the armour, for a worn, scuffed red leather look.

Finally, his all black plastic weapons got some touches of red and grey. Normally I would aim for a smooth covering in successive thin layers, but here I decided to continue the rough stone theme from before, so I went with more drybrushing. Finally, to help protect the paint, all the repainted parts got sprayed with varnish and added back onto the figure.

A more heavily edited picture to get a movie poster effect, for fun.