Three days, three customs! I'm on a roll! On the eve of the release of Marvel's latest cinematic masterpiece, let's check out the leading lady of their last great film! I am of course referring to The Guardians of the Galaxy, and I am of course listing their primary lady warrior, the most deadly woman in the galaxy, the daughter of Thanos himself, the only green-skinned space babe that Captain Kirk would ever look at and say, ". . . Nah, it ain't worth it," it's the magnificent Lady Gamora!

My original plan was to build only the original, first story arc team of Guardians. In the comic, that meant Star-Lord, Adam Warlock, Drax, Rocket, Quasar (Phyla-Vell), and Gamora. Groot was not on the first team, as he was still regenerating in a pot after Annihilation. Mantis, meanwhile, was on dispatch/tactical support, so she wasn't exactly official, and Cosmo was still security head of Knowhere, so he wasn't part of the team either. Ultimately, I broke down and made all of them and more, but the point is, Gamora was unquestionably early on in the project. And yet, I think she came out looking one of the best of the bunch.

Naturally, building a mostly naked green chick, you want to start with a mostly naked green chick. Savage She-Hulk was the obvious choice, once I carved down the string bikini she was wearing. In addition, I replaced her legs with a pair from Psylocke, for the blue knee and ankle joints and additional thigh rotation (since She-Hulk is, like Warlock, part of that Hasbro crap articulation phase), and I used Adam Warlock's cape because it already had a little skull charm at the neck, much like Gamora wore in the comics. The rest of the figure was just putty and paint. I'm especially proud of the detail work on her skull belt buckle, and the Godslayer sword, made from a Lord of the Rings weapon.

Gamora was an example of obvious parts choices and simple costume design coming together easily to make a quality whole. I wish all my figures went this smoothly. Unfortunately, my NEXT piece wasn't nearly so cooperative! But that's for another post.

Excelsior!