No, I haven't completely fallen off the face of the planet. I haven't been posting here much and likely won't a whole lot more right now, but I've been getting some work done on something and wanted to post it: my long-planned Luke Skywalker figure.
Evidentially, I wasn't pleased with my first Luke, so of course I started planning a better one, got carried away, and a year after the first have a new- mostly intact- Luke Skywalker figure to show for it.
Behold custom #6: Luke Skywalker EU Jedi Master, New republic era! He might've looked like this in such great books as
Darksaber and
The Crystal Star or maybe even as early as
Jedi Search, almost none of which have I read. I like to pretend he could've looked like this in the Thrawn Trilogy but it's all but established that Luke mostly ran around in the same old ROTJ clothes (the books themselves mention it) and periodically ran around in manly tanktops to show off his force-filled biceps (according to the comic book adaptations).
Incidentally #5 was a Coruscant Guard Disguise Lando. If anyone really wants to know I'll post pictures, but it was indeed a POTF2 Lando head on the POTF2 Luke body.
Luke in an "out of the package" pose with his stuffSide ViewBack ViewLuke poses in his cloak (I was going for a ROTJ look and failed, I think. Curse you, my nemesis called gravity!)
Luke poses with his saber (without the cloak)
Luke with my (badly posed) earlier Han customLuke is WIP in that some things may need to be changed (like if my current "solution" to the head problem stops working) and that his paint job is disgustingly horrible. :ermm: I'm still using cheap acrylics and I've grown to hate them. Someday when I have real paint I want to finish him and do a nice job, but for the meanwhile I've crudely slapped on basic colors which aren't even quite the scheme I've since decided to go with- I want dark brown over black possibly with some gray, whereas he has more of an Anakin circa episode II color scheme now. Oh well. Additionally, the lightsaber needs work, and once I get better paint I want to do a hilt for him.
Luke is made from:
POTF2 EU Luke Skywalker from Dark Empire: Head
ROTS Kit Fisto: torso, arms, "skirt", lightsaber blade
ROTS Obi Wan Pilot Gear/Saga reprint: Hands, legs, cloak, lightsaber hilt
Luke has 14 points of articulation: "Swivel" Head, ball shoulders, ball elbows, swivel wrists, swivel waist, swivel hips, ball knees, and ball ankles. That's a ball head short of matching VOTC Han, if I'm not mistaken. ^.^
To get the head to fit, I pondered and pondered for several months with the stuff sitting in a bag packed away, or out to look at and "do something about". I got tired of it, so I got an idea and decided to do it; I cut down Luke's neckpost (via xacto) to fit the small hole in Kit Fisto's torso (Kit has a head on a hard plastic pin which is inserted into a hole). His head stays in there unless it's pushed on softly; then again, it stays in when you turn him upside down. As such he arguably has full POTF2 neck articulation. It's also removeable. It reminds me of the ROTS C3PO, except much looser.
I was going to get all fancy and give Luke's lightsaber a removeable blade, but I wound up with three Obi Wan sabers and two hilts, plus Kit Fisto's flimsy peg snapped off the first time I dropped the saber. So I lopped off Obi Wan's blade and glued on Kit Fisto's blade and tried to paint the handle with acrylics, which didn't really work that great. Like Luke, the paint needs redoing quite badly.
I also decided to sacrifice a ROTS Obi Wan to the cause, giving Luke better legs (in sculpt, superficial height, and articulation) and hands (Kit Fisto's are huge and green; I was almost going to try to lop off and glue their pegs onto a spare pair of Cantina Han hands. I'm rather glad I didn't.) It also gave me a good excuse to buy the Saga version with the cloth cloak. How the heck do you get the hoods on these to look right, though? It's humongous, and tends to want to either stand way up or poof out backwards when down. It looks okay when it's down and you're not looking at the back :pinch: But otherwise it's pretty cool, and I really like it.
Outfit wise, I was going for part old Jedi, part what Luke saw of the Jedi, part ROTJ; I would like the majority of his outfit (everything that's the original light brown color) to be black, the top layer (the parts that are black) to be dark brown, for the neck to stay the same, and the sleeve cuffs to be better painted and show white sleeves on the parts sculpted to go lower than the main droopy jedi sleeves. The turtleneck and layer immediately above it seen at the neck, I painted the same color, and am going for kind of an OT Jedi look (Obi Wan and Anakin's ghost both wore mock-ish turtlenecks with jedi tunic/robe thingss over them, basically). The boots should be black, the right hand should be black gloved, and the pants I'm not sure about (whatever works when I get there- if I can make the boots shiny, dull black pants would be cool).
Head wise, I got precisely what I wanted. I love the DE Luke head. Wonderful likeness, great crazy '80s hairdo that was never in any movie or on Mark Hammill's real head (though it might've looked kinda cute).
Lightsaber wise, I also got exactly what I wanted: a nice recent years-style flared green lightsaber blade on the awesome ROTS Obi Wan saber hilt sculpt (which is a near-total match for Luke's ROTJ saber). Too bad the paint is horrible.
I really, really like this figure. Sloppiness and removable head aside, he's one of my absolute favorite Star Wars figures. I'm really happy with where he's going, and think he's probably by far the best figure I've done (out of 6- though I rather like Han). Now I REALLY want to do an EU Leia- I have something of a plan for one. It's based on the HTTE comic book cover designs (the suit looked a bit different there, and I'm hoping to pull off maybe pregnant/maybe general purpose at the same time). Hasbro already made a wonderful Chewbacca (VOTC), C3PO (TSC ewok throne), and R2D2 (TSC because I didn't feel like spending $14 more for the VOTC's accessories) for me, and I now possess each ^.^ Complete Luke, actually work on my Mara WIP (something you may actually see in the next... sometime) make Leia, and finish Lando (Who will never work until I get real paint because I need to paint nearly everything), and I'll have my dream EU main bunch completed.
I'll keep track of this thread of course, and I'll post any progress or new customs that aren't looking completely dumpy and terrible, but otherwise I still won't be around a whole lot- a lot of my time is tied up with my (first) job, and what free time I do have I spend on other things a lot of the time. Sorry :pinch: I'd love to hear any advice or opinions about this figure or customizing in general, though. Thanks for reading/looking! ^.^
(PS: Thanks, BrentS ^.^ I finally used the Kit Fisto figure! Wow!! And only what, 7 months later?)
