The very last Poke House and House of Presents in Quarantine (for now!)

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Pansy for Pansys House of Presents in Quarantine Aug 18 2020 by Suzanne ForbesPansy didn’t put on any drag for the last night of House of Presents in Quarantine.

She just appeared as herself, hot and tired after spending the day – GETTING PERMANENT RESIDENCE IN GERMANY! And there is other great news for the HoP crew.

Live, in-person Drag shows begin again at beloved Queer Berlin institution Monster Ronson’s on September 8! You can get tickets (they must be bought in advance and there are stringent protocols to follow) here.

House of Presents poster Fall 2020So the digital drag shows that have helped to support the incredible, intersectional cast of the House of Presents and Gieza‘s Poke House have come to an end.

As much as I have loved these shows – they have been so crucial to my sanity and that of so many others- I know performers need a stage and these beautiful creatures can’t thrive without an IRL audience.

I want the Queens and Quings and Drag Things of HoP and the Poke House to do what they love most! Pansy and Gieza plan to stream the IRL shows, and are working on how to do that, so I look forward to seeing these some of these amazing folx return to their home stage.

I am incredibly grateful to Pansy and Gieza for the work they did these five months, providing a virtual community and psychic anchor when so much else in Berlin was shut down.

Gieza Poke final Poke House in Quarantine Aug 18 2020 by Suzanne ForbesGieza Poke wore a Sacred Heart crown I made for her final digital show!

She came by our flat one more time to collect raffle prizes, and I gave her a box of mermaid jewels to give away to Berlin’s queer community. I have loved being able to contribute value to the Berlin Queerconomy this way!

If you look here, under the VIDEOS tab of Gieza’s twitch account, you can see so many incredible Quarantine performances.

Gieza Poke in Sacred Heart Crown by Suzanne Forbes on Aug 18 2020Here’s Gieza in her crown!

It was actually August 18, the date wasn’t updated! You can see us babbling supportively in the chat. I showed up for every single show!

 

I am so grateful to my Patreon Patrons, whose monthly financial support lets me keep documenting Berlin’s international, intersectional performers while I work safely at home.

 

New Mutants custom Magma: using UV resin on action figure customs!

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Magma New Mutants action figure custom by Suzanne Forbes July 2020Magma, Amara Acquilla, is one of the more problematic New Mutants.

Every character is someone’s favorite, but I personally never felt any emotional connection to her whatsoever. Which is funny, given how much I loved the other original New Mutants.

Magma New Mutants action figure custom in Danger Room by Suzanne Forbes July 2020So while I felt she should be represented in my X-Men dollhouse, along with Rahne and Dani and Shan and Doug and Warlock and Illyana and Bobby and Sam and Kitty, I figured I’d put her in the Danger Room.

In the Danger Room, her wild powers would be a great visual.

Magma New Mutants action figure custom WIP by Suzanne Forbes July 2020Since there is not yet a commercially available Magma in 1/12 scale, I had to make one.

I used the old Toy Biz Scarlet Witch as a base, since she has the same chunky glove and boot cuffs as the old school New Mutants. Amara’s costume details don’t show when her powers are active actually – the costume “disappears” because of “unstable molecules” like Rahne’s does – but I thought it would be funny to have them and also help signal who she is.

Magma New Mutants action figure custom close up by Suzanne Forbes July 2020I’m not a stickler for anything, really.

Including action figure customizer materials protocols! Many customizers use hot glue to form flame and power effects, if they’re not set up for casting resin. But I used UV resin to form Amara’s head spikes. I sculpted them in my beloved Apoxie Sculpt first, then painted the whole figure with artist’s tube acrylics thinned to the consistency of heavy cream. Three isolation coats of Mod Podge helped seal her paint nicely.

Then I added the resin, mixing three colors and sitting in the sun outside and letting it cure on the fly. This was before I had a powerful UV LED resin curing lamp, so to get fast curing the sun was my best plan. It was messy, because UV resin is goopy and hard to control, and I wound up getting thick drops at the ends. I had to sand them down and re-resin!

Next time I’ll use the technique miniaturists use for getting drips and streams of epoxy resin – a bit of clear nylon fishing line for the resin to cling to and follow along.

Magma New Mutants action figure custom outside by Suzanne Forbes July 2020But this one is close enough for government work, as my editor Margaret used to say when I worked on Star Trek!

Lots of real customizers have done Magmas, do check out how the professionals have visualized her 🙂  I like this one a lot, and this mod using the Carol Danvers head works well. I would have liked her to be clear like the Minimate, but I didn’t care enough to hunt down a clear Sue Storm who would work.

I did buy this amazing Figma base for her.

The crackly lava base is seen here with X-23 standing on it as a placeholder, I’ll have more actual Danger Room shots coming soon! Yes, X-23 isn’t part of “my” era of X-Men/New Mutants, but I love the character, so – don’t care! Not a stickler.

More New Mutants stuff on here:

My Rahne and Dani lovebird custom Marvel Legends action figures

Douglock action figures

Rahne and Dani slash art from the 80’s

The love story of me, P, the New Mutants, and Chris (trigger warning for really a lot of bad stuff)

Christopher Street Day ice cream party with gay X-Men!

How the New Mutants film re-connected me with my queerness