1. Introduce yourself and let readers know where they can see your work.
Hi Everyone, my name is Nikki Nikole Chaney. I go by either Nikki or Nikole, hence the repetitive name for online purposes. Though I am by no means a good photographer (yet), I do enjoy photographing my work and displaying it on Instagram @NikkiNikole3704 and on the Mythic Legions Cabal Facebook group. I have a background in Biology and Anthropology, which you will definitely notice the influence of in my customs, bios, and stories.
2. How long have you been customizing action figures?
I did my first customs back when I was around 8 years old. My older brother and I would custom paint GI Joe figures, Star Trek ships, and Dungeons and Dragons minis. I even sculpted and painted a custom Cobra snake throne once! After childhood, I didn't get back into customizing until about 4 years ago, and I haven't been able to put down the brush!
3. What got you into Mythic Legions?
I've always enjoyed the fantasy-genre since childhood. I was heavily into Dungeons & Dragons/Sci-Fi/Fantasy novels, artwork, and gaming material. I was also into movies such as Clash of the Titans, Jason & the Argonauts, Sinbad, Krull, The Never Ending Story, Conan etc.
As soon as I saw the Mythic Legions line, I was thrilled and excited. I actually only intended to buy one knight to display with my Predator collection (as a hunting victim), but as I perused the character selections, I ended up going close to All-In during the first offering and decided to start a brand-new Fantasy collection!
4. Do you have what you would call a signature custom, or any favorite customs you have done?
It's difficult to pick just one, but my favorites and what I'm best known for include Dwarf, Orc, Feline, and Whisperling (green elf) customs, though I've done a wide variety of races and characters. One of my favorite customs I've done is a Beholder that fits in perfectly with my Mythic Legions figures.
5. What are your favorite kinds of Mythic Legions customs to do?
I'd say my favorites to work on have been the Dwarves and Orcs. I love doing customs that involve painting a new head for a figure (whether sculpted by a third party or a Mythic Legions part swap repaint), in addition to painting armor and adding small detail elements with soft goods, some simple sculpting work, or fodder from another action figure.
6. Are there any kinds of characters or figures you don’t care to work on?
Though I did this a few times when I first started out, I don't like to do full bare-body repaints unless the figure is close to the final color I'm going for. I really don't like to sand and modify joints to prevent paint rub, so these days I stick to customs that I can find a base body that's close to the final color. Also in general, I'm not SUPER into the unique skeleton characters of Mythic Legions, though I do have a handful for my undead display and as enemies for my heroes to battle.
7. Do you have any “wish list” character types or races that you would like to see from Mythic Legions, and which you would love to be able to work with as a customizer?
Only about a million! I'd like to see more gladiator-type figures offered (similar to Calavius, but more helmet & armor variety). I'd also love to see vikings, gorgons/naga, centaurs, lizard-men, kobolds, hobgoblins in the standard-figure scale; gnomes and halflings in a smaller-scale offering, and 2-headed ettins, frost half-giants, minotaurs, in the "ogre"-figure scale. Additionally I absolutely NEED griffon, wolf, boar, ram, bear, feline, reptile/amphibian mounts. It would also be cool to get more anthropomorphic beast-creatures in the line such as apes, mandrills, owl-bears and the like.
I know that cloth wearing spell-casters are in the works. I look forward to those, in addition to hopefully someday getting more armor variety, particularly expanding the leather/hide options.
As far as which ones I'd like to customize......all of the above!
8. What kinds of tools do you use your customs work, including paints and brushes?
I use primarily Vallejo and Citadel acrylics. Brushes I'll buy off Amazon or in the hobby shop which range from cheapies to the more expensive D'Artisan Shoppe Minute Series and Winsor & Newton offerings. Having a wide variety of good brushes is crucial to get the effects I want! Though I am not a good sculptor, sometimes I'll add small sculpted elements such as hair, beards, ears, fins, spikes and such. For this I use 2-part Apoxie Sculpt.
9. What would people be surprised to learn about your customizing or collecting hobby?
Since I customize mostly Mythic Legions, perhaps fans of my work would be surprised that I also collect and occasionally customize Star Wars Black Series, NECA Predator, Marvel MCU, TMNT, and DC Batman. I've recently acquired some Vitruvian HACKS which I've been dinking around with as well. Outside of the collector-community, most of my friends would probably be surprised at the size of my collection, because I usually do not have most of it displayed! Since I don't have a ton of shelf-space currently, I enjoy curating my collection which means rotating what's on display every 3 months or so. This helps me keep things organized as well.
10. Any tips or suggestions for Mythic fans looking to start customizing?
I'd say reach out to your favorite customizers for tips, but also utilize online videos and tutorial pages as guidance. There is a wealth of information out there! But at some point, just START and you'll learn and improve as you go!
11. Final question - who is your favorite non-customizing Mythic Legions figure?
So difficult to choose just one, but I'd have to go with Thallyn Frostbow. I love everything about her as-is. Such a stunning figure.
Published on 11.15.19