I’ve been working ever since I got this 1:6 scale resin head of Roger Delgado as the Master to make it into my mental image of him. Today I started on my third iteration of mods. The head came to me looking like this. >:-[ First iteration below, the constipated expression of which is enhanced by exaggerated wrinkles.

My first round of mods attacked the crabby-looking brows, bringing him to a :-[ expression, as shown below.

The next round of mods perked up his eyebrows and gave him more of a smile, as shown below.

The second iteration brought him closer to my mental concept of him, but there was still something amiss. 1) His skin was too brown. He’s a sepia person, not a light brown person! I needed to repaint him with more gold in his complexion. 2) After I stripped the paint from his face, I realized that the area between his brows was too stiff. See — here’s my mental image of the Master:

There’s actually a depression between his brows because his brows are moving to the sides.

The problem with my current iteration is that there’s no depression. The area outlined in black below still projects, as if he’s continuing to contract his brows together.

So I need to reduce the height of that area to allow a clearer separation between his brows. First I got as much paint as possible off his head and discovered all the wonderful details that were hiding beneath my thick paint layers. Then I used a sanding bit and low speed on my Dremel to begin to separate the brows. Here are some pics of my first attempt to improve the brows, as well as some mostly paintless shots, since I forgot to take some before modding. I also sanded down the Aves Apoxie Sculpt mods on the right side of his forehead.

In painting him this time, I went for as much of a match between head and body as possible. I also minimized the number of coats of paint and sealant, allowing the details of the sculpt to show through more. I mean, damn — the guy has PORES. I can at least show that off, right? As with my previous paint job, I overpainted the eyes to make them larger. I also went with purple lipstick because he looks really good in purple. In a change from previous paint jobs, I painted his eyebrows, rather than sculpting, which gave them more fluid shapes. I also painted the blazes in his hair instead of using just Prismacolor. They now stand out more. While I was at it, I touched up his fingertips so that they were glowing a more fluorescent magenta [because magenta is cool].

I’m so happy that he’s back together! The blazes in his beard need some de-regularization, and I think I’ll add some detailing to his face, especially the wrinkles, but he’s pretty much done. I understand that he is no longer a screen-accurate version of Roger Delgado as the Master, but that’s not what I was going for. I’m going for a representation of my fanfic version, who’s happier, dorkier, more playful, and more fun. This is as closest as I’ve gotten yet!