Mandalorian Warrior


Ah yeah. Nothing in the galaxy is sexier than Mandalorian Armour...these guys have style. Anyway, I wanted to keep the basic elements intact, but play around with a few things to make this guy look clunkier and more "old-fashioned."



The base figure is the X3 Magneto. The helmet is an original sculpt, with vinyl panels added to give the design sharper edges. I'm actually much happier with how this helmet turned out compared to my Boba Fett.



The back pack is made from a bunch of crap from the fodder bucket. The spear/vibro-blade is made from an early McToys Gene Simmons figure accessory and a styrene sheet. The uniform is fabric, as is the skirting. The armor plates are styrene as well, and the shoulder pads are from a Legolas figure.




I wanted to give the armour more of a "personalized" look for the figure, almost like some sort of tribal insignia. The pattern is meaningless, but did end up sort of resembling the Mandalorian symbol that is on Fett's shoulder armour in the films.



I had a tough time deciding how much to add to this guy. Boba and Jango have all kinds of doo-dads on their armour, but I ended up pulling back on that a bit...all of the bits and pieces I considered adding just didn't look right.



Let me know what you think, and thanks for looking.

My goodness, Ron.

You really do work miracles at this scale.  The paint work is worthy of a 1/6 scale statue, and the modifications you make are always so realistic and sensible.  That Recon stormtrooper is a thing of beauty...seriously, the whole concept and the look of the cutaway helmet is simply phenomenal.  On the rebel trooper, again you prove how effective a preposed "vignette" can be...the soldier contemplating the helmet is just such a great scene that raises all kinds of questions...you manage to tell a story and infuse the figures with such life and realism.

Fantastic.

General Obi Wan Kenobi


When I was a kid, my imagination ran wild with the whole Clone Wars thing. A throwaway line from my favorite movie, and it pretty much grew to a massive epic, featuring thousands of Jedi fighting a bunch of guys in Boba Fett armor, while also fighting badass Dark Jedi, all in a desperate attempt to save the Republic from destruction. The creation of Darth Vader, the origins of the Mandalorian armor that Fett wore (was he a former Stormtrooper, and if not, what was his story?), and a whole lot of Jedi getting slaughtered against the backdrop of epic battles and destruction. I guess we kind of got this stuff in the prequels, but it just didn't seem as cool as what I imagined. It was all just so "meh"...which I guess could be attributed to the fact that I was, like, seven years old when I first worked myself up into a tizzy, and now I'm in my mid-twenties.

But I digress. For a while now, I've been toying with the idea of creating figures of characters from the Clone Wars that completely ignores the prequels and attempts to explore stuff that I would have liked to see. Obviously, I can't completely divorce my mind from the films, and the fact is I like Grievous and I like a lot of the Jedi character designs...but for this figure, I was looking more for a badass, armored and ready for battle Obi Wan.



The base figure is Theoden. I initially tried to rework the armor he had, but it was too bulky and too recognizable as Theoden's armor, so after wasting some time and epoxy putty, I simply removed the pieces of armor and built my own using styrene. Its actually very similar to Theoden's torso armor, but I made the design more angular and a little more industrial looking. I wanted to evoke a medieval knight, but I also wanted it to look like it could be some sort of retro-futuristic suit.



The Bernard Hill likeness is pretty good, which works against me separating the face from the character. But, I also saw a bit of Alec Guinness in the sculpt, so I tried to paint the face and eyes to look like Obi Wan from the first trilogy, but perhaps a bit younger (not too young though).



The idea that I had for this figure was that Jedi, while powerful, are not superheroes either, and would benefit from wearing protective gear in battle. I thought about making the armor white, but I want to save that for an idea I'm cooking up for a Clone Trooper. In this case, I decided that the black, tarnished armor was simple and functional, and that Kenobi had seen plenty of action throughout the war. He is, after all, a general.



Let me know what you think, and thanks for looking.

I have too many of these days.

I'm a graduate student, and as such am unemployed during the school year.  Unfortunately, the summer job hunt has not gone very well for me since April, which means no money but tonnes of free time (when I'm not pounding the pavement).  As a result, I pretty much work on customs and commissioned pieces in six hour chunks, with brief breaks to eat, make coffee, and converse with the people I live with.  I'd say that I have an all customs day about once a week...I do not recommend it, if only to preserve your sanity and health.

As a luxury, customizing time should be treasured.  As the norm, its bad news 

Oh, Glassman...I love when you customize the vintage stuff.

The Luke and Han look absolutely terrific.  The fact that you engineered a neck joint and a removable helmet is noth short of impressive. 

Daala and Isard look great too.  The paint on Isard's hair looks a *tad* rough, but aside from that, this pair of ladies look amazing.

As always, customs at this scale never cease to amaze me.

This was done well over a year ago, and is pretty much the only customizing I've done on the 3/34 " scale.  Its a repaint of the Episode II Slave 1 to look like the ESB color scheme:




I used images of the actual model for reference.



I did have a neutrally posed/modified Boba Fett, but he took a nose dive off the shelf a long time ago.  SO, here's the 300th figure Boba instead:


Let me know what you think, and thanks for looking.

Smartypants1635

Thanks for the kind feedback!  The slender look seems to be more a quality of the prequel designs...I guess this version of Threepio sort of combines those design elements that I like with the more weathered and battered look of the older films.  I prefer the used universe, but I must say the elegant touches of Ian McCaig and Doug Chiang are not without their charm.

jedistyle

Thanks for the feedback, man.  Yeah, Threepio's blade was a bit whimsical and unintended...originally it was much longer, but then I figured that would be too much.

BrentS

Thanks for commenting.  I'll be sure to post a group shot of  these customs together when they're all up...that should give you a sense of scale.  Heck, I'll throw in a shot with a Star Wars figure too  .  Thanks again.

Fritzkrieg

Thanks for the feedback, man.  These customs are in 1/12 scale (roughly 6").  I've provided a link of the base figure I used for Threepio:

http://www.youbuynow.com/img/items/110963359993326100.jpg

Hopefully it gives a sense of the changes I made and the things I kept.

speedermike

Thanks for posting in here, and for the kind words.  The Luke design that you mentioned is indeed the one that I used for inspiration...I'll be posting my Lady Luke next.  Thanks again.

glassman6

Thanks for the kind feedback, glassman.  Artoo was a fun challenge...I couldn't think of any Artoos in 6" scale, so I guess a bit of parts harvesting really was required.

RollaJedi

Thanks for the tips and for the feedback, man.  Pretty cool stuff there too.  For lightsabers, I found this clear, very small doweling at a model/hobby/railroad shop...they had green, blue, and red colors...perfect for sabers at this scale.  Check it out...it was with the railroad models.

Gregorbian

Thanks for the feedback, man.  It's a very nice thing to hear that you feel this stuff contributes to the boards in some way...thanks again for the kind welcome.

Thanks for checking out my customs, everyone!

Very cool stuff in here.

Shrumpel Thichna is one of my favorites.  I love the use of the Clown head...the scale really gives this character an alien appearance, and your paint really brings the whole thing together.  A great design that you have made work extremely well. 

The Jedi Council chamber is an impressive diorama...it looks beautiful.  The paint is clean and consistent, the colors look and feel right, and the whole production is very authentic.