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e hobby he refers to is customizing athletic action figures into works of art of primarily Montana high school and college athletes. Brown estimates there are several hundred people across the nation involved in a similar hobby, although he believes he is the only one in Montana. For Brown, the leap from model builder to action figure customizer began with an article he read in the January 2005 Becke's Football magazine. e author listed the steps of taking an action figure and customizing it through disassembling, sculpting, decaling and painting. "I was already doing the painting on military miniature models because there wasn't much building, so I thought 'I can do this,'" says Brown. Brown was already collecting McFarlane toys before he started using them as a source to create custom figures. He uses McFarlane because they have much more detail in their designs versus other brands. Today, he estimates he owns well over 1,000 McFarlane toys to have on hand to use as customs. To construct a custom sports figure, Brown starts with photos. e more detailed photos he receives, the more customized the finished product will be. Team logos, uniform style, shoe design, helmet style, gloves, taoos, and birthmarks all help differentiate players. ese are the details Brown loves to include in his work. Based on the photos, a friend designs the graphics which Brown then sizes to the figure and prints as decals. Sometimes, to get the best body-style match or pose for the athlete, multiple toys are disassembled, and various parts are used. "en I clean them up, removing the mold lines from pouring the plastic into the steel molds. I use sculpting puy to add features and match different parts up," says Brown. en the priming and painting begins. Meanwhile, the tiniest details like a football player's kneebrace, may have to me made completely by hand. "A lot of times I'll be close to finishing but then spend another couple of hours doing all the lile touch up painting and final assembly," he says. Brown still works full-time at Malmstrom Air Force Base, but he finds this hobby deeply satisfying. Since he works with high school and college athletes, there is an emotional connection for each customization he works on…and for their families. He says, "I create the figurines and then give them to the player or their family. So I enjoy the building part and they enjoy the creation part. It MEANS a lot to them." Visit Brown's Facebook page, Big Sky Customs, at www.facebook.com/bigskycustoms. SiG MT 58 A fluorescent light along with jeweler's glasses and two additional lights help Brown work. Acrylic paints, alligator clips, sprue, and styrofoam blocks are his essentials for the painting process. Heather Bode is an award winning children's magazine writer. She's a non- fiction junkie who loves to tell the stories of people she meets and inter views. Heather lives in Helena with her husband and five children. Brown holds his first "custom" of his son wearing a Great Falls Bison uniform. S MT

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