jokabofe's customs updated 5/10 - Ultimate Vader and Anakin

[jokabofe]

Unfortunately, I don't have much time for customizing anymore. I used to work on projects constantly, but then "real life" just got in the way. Nowadays, I sit around and talk about figures that I want to make, and come up with loads of ideas, but just never get the time to sit down and actually work on any of them.

Today, I found the Jedi vs Sith Battle Pack, and was excited because it contained a figure that I had wanted for the longest time - General Obi Wan in Clone Wars Armor. But when I took the figure and the parts out of the pack, and tried to put him together, it was just... crap. Horrible. I remember seeing the figure at C3 and thinking it was ****, but hoping that when I actually got it in my hands, it would be better. But - it was worse.

So I decided to make my own, out of the parts that I could salvage from this crappy version (pretty much the head, helmet, cape, and lightsaber) and an extra ROTS #38 Tank Gunner body that I happened to have lying there. I dremeled out the inside of Obi's head a bit since the AT TE Gunner has a looong neck peg, then cut the "armor" from the cape. Put the head on the body, and put the cape over the top - done. The only thing I don't like about it, and I'm trying to figure out a way around it, is the belt that is molded onto the cape part. I'd like to get rid of it, but it would mean breaking the cape ends off, and then trying to fix that would take me another 18 months 

Oh, and just BTW - the last custom I made was back in March of 2004, I made this Clone Wars Animated Yoda.

[Gregorbian]

That looks like a good custom to me!
For the belt - maybe you could just trim down the belt on the Tank Gunner's body and then the belt on the robes might not stick out so much?  I don't think you would be able to easily cut out the robes without having to do some major retooling...

[CHEWIE]

It looks great, welcome back to the world of customizing! 

Do you have any pics around here of your previous work?

 

[Phrubruh]

You know I have this exact custom in mind when I bought the jedi vs sith pack. I was planning on using a #41 clone. I would then cut the front of the cape and remove the molded belt. I could then glue the front pieces back on. 

[Smartypants1635]

yah has anyone else noticed the battle pack helmet is jacked up its more material on one side than the other looks really weird so my paints apps are gonna be hard on it casuse of its screwed up shape d@?& u hasbro

[Ryan]

yah has anyone else noticed the battle pack helmet is jacked up its more material on one side than the other looks really weird so my paints apps are gonna be hard on it casuse of its screwed up shape d@?& u hasbro

Please use some commas, periods, and capital letters, in the correct places of course. Your posts are really hard to read...


Jokabofe, it looks great! I planned on doing this as soon as I bought one, I still haven't started on it.

I'd like to see some of your older customs too.

[CHEWIE]

SLC is right Smarty.  Just a little better grammar makes it a lot easier to read.  We try to be good about making our posts reader friendly.   

 

[jokabofe]

Hey guys, thanks for the comments. I'll have to look and see if I have any of my other older customs laying around, or if I have any pics on my hard drive somewhere.

And, just as an update to General Obi-Wan there, it looks like the customizing bug wasn't just a 24 hour bug  - I went back tonite and did a little re-working on him, mostly with the front of the cape and the skirt. I took Master_Phruby's little "idea" and put it to work. I cut the pieces of the skirt off, cut the belt off, and then glued the top and bottom pieces of the skirt back onto the body. I'm not crazy about how the top half looks, since it doesn't seem to fit that great (I'll have to go back and do a little cutting it looks like) but the bottom pieces of the skirt look so much better now. I'll see if I can get some pics up later.

And, that's not all... I'm sure you're all sick of seeing Clone repaints (but I'm not, I love those little guys) - but I started doing a few of my own. I did a body swap on a Commander Bacarra using an Ep2 SA Clone, I'm working on an ARC Trooper using an Ep3 SA Clone, and I took all the gear off a Red Clone Commander and did a little redesigning of his armor with some (crappy) paint apps. I'll see if I can snap a few shots of these guys as well.

Ahh, it feels good to be back 

[Smartypants1635]

Alright......got it

[jokabofe]

So I was able to do a little more work on a few more figures. Click on the small pic for a larger one:

Commander Baccara: took the Commanders head, skirt, and pauldron and placed them on an Episode 2 SA Clone body. The head actually wouldn't fit right with the pauldron, so it had to shaved down just a bit on that side. The Baccara body has to be one of, if not the worst, I've ever seen from Hasbro. God, it sucks. I think this works 110% better. The only problem I see is that the plastic from the helmet is just a tad whiter than the plastic on the body. Some weathering and dirtying up should fix that.

   

I took one of my Clone Commanders and stripped him of his gear, and tried to paint him up a little different. I'm not 100% happy with the way this turned out, it just looks... blech. I'll tell ya, painting them Clones is not as easy as it looks.

 

An update to my Clone Wars General Obi-Wan Kenobi. Seperated the rest of the molded in armor from the cape, and then cut the belt parts off as well. Glued the cape and skirt pieces back to the body where they belong. Looking at these pics it looks like I need to go back and clean up the inside of the cape around the chest are just a little bit more.

   

And finally, a little WIP of a SA ARC Trooper that I'm working on. I'm still trying to decide if I want to give him the Episode 2 helmet or the Episode 3 helmet. I can't make up my mind. I'm leaning a little more towards the Ep3 helmet only because I kinda painted his armor a little differently than the ARC Troopers from the cartoon and comics. And the one thing I absolutely hated about the ARC figures was the fact that Hasbro completely skimped on painting the belt and pouches area on the figure, so I went ahead and took care of that. He's not done just yet, hopefully this weekend.

   

[Darth_Ennis]

I'm liking the ARC trooper so far. The soft goods look sweet, and are a very nice touch. Personally I'd go with an EII clone head for him. But thats just a personal preferance. To me thats a ARC trooper. In any case which ever head you use it should look awesome. BTW you shouldnt down yourself about the red clone, I think it looks pretty good myself.

[Ner_vod]

cool arc. What did u use for the gauntlets?

[jokabofe]

I'm liking the ARC trooper so far. The soft goods look sweet, and are a very nice touch.

There are no soft goods there. I just re-painted the skirt that came with the ARC already 

cool arc. What did u use for the gauntlets?

They are from the Clone Wars Anakin figure, or the Mace... one of them. I just repainted them in "Mithril Silver" from Citadel.

Thanks guys 

[Darth_Ennis]

Are you serious from here they look like cloth. Excellent job.

[jokabofe]

Personally I'd go with an EII clone head for him.

Yeah, that's most likely what I'll end up doing for him. I've got the ARC head dremeled out to fit over the large neck-ball-thing so that it has the articulation of the newer SA style troops. I'm still working on the paint for it though...