The Imperial Shipyards
Imperial Creative Engineering => Custom Figures => Topic started by: DocOutlands on May 07, 2009, 09:00:26 PM
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Here's what Brendan whipped up today.
Base fig: Imperial Engineer (BFII card)
armor: Apartment Jango
helmet: Galactic Marine
He's looking at backpack options. He also glued up those blaster pieces *after* the pic was taken. Sheesh, timing. He's considering trimming off the holster and shaving away the buckle to make a smooth surface to hang a de-codpieced Apartment Jango gunbelt from. There's the matter of improving the helmet right off the bat - either a rangefinder or a Baccara-style helmet comm-link antenna. He's liking the guy a lot right now, but is looking forward to having him actually painted up right so as to present a blended whole, rather than an amalgamation of parts.
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That's a good starting point from my perspective. Either helmet mod will do but the antenna might be the easier mod. It always is for me. "I told you that my ability to post here, at the lake, would be limited."
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Good start to this figure. I wonder what a kama would look on this? All painted the same color or in the same scheme?
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You *knew* I'd have to post something to see if I could get a response from the lake... >:D
GO FISHING!!
I'm going to try and get some pics of my own customs taken over the weekend and posted. All my stuff is scrambled, tho, from a couple of moves and is awaiting me getting my shop put in order.
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Well in between bites, I'm going to need something to look at so, let's see em, Doc.
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I'll be out most of the afternoon - son has state wrestling tournament and I have to get him to his coach. On the PLUS side!! That puts me in a *real* city, wherein I can loot a TRU and a Hobby Lobby! I did locate my very first POTF2 customs in the shop yesterday, tho, so maybe I can get a pic or two posted before we pull out.
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Got 'em. Up first is a pitiful excuse of a general! It is SUPER BEN!! What was up with the "superhero" exaggerated bodies back then? Wow... Anyway, what if Ben had run with the Rebellion and been a General (again) in ROTJ? Maybe he'd look like this headswap onto a General Lando body. (but we hope not...)
Next up is a straigh headswap duo. Another what-if in the other direction. What if Han had squashed his conscience and stayed in the Navy? Here is Admiral Solo. Next up is a generic ex-Navy tramp-freighter captain, still wearing his officer's cap. Donors were POTF2 Admiral Piett and Bespin Han. I actually like these two and expect I'll use the genero-tramper in my Fixer stages/dios as a background fig.
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I really like the Admiral Solo. The Potf2 figures were sweet in thier day. Those pumped up bodies and superwide leg stances sure do date them today. Nice customs Doc.
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Nice update, Doc!
Yep, admiral Solo has got my vote, as well.
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Here's Brendan's "dirty pair" (which means something totally different to you old anime fans!), so named for being primarily a quick-n-dirty pair of parts swaps. He's pretty stoked with how they are looking and is eager to get them painted so the parts all blend together into a couple of unified wholes.
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They look pretty cool! What kind of paint apps to these two are considered?
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Basically, he's put them on his shelf to look at until his Muse kicks him up'side the head and yells, "HOLY CRAP, I'VE GOT IT!!" :o
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Basically, he's put them on his shelf to look at until his Muse kicks him up'side the head and yells, "HOLY CRAP, I'VE GOT IT!!" :o
Sometimes a little experimentation is required for deciding on paint apps. I still am pretty good with colors and shades from my graphic art school days. I could have been an interior decorator. "Where would you like this hyperdrive computer, Miss?" Some variety is nice to keep things looking more detailed but an app of the same color in two or three places on the figure in different places gives the eye something to help it travel up and down the figure. If you were to paint a figure's bootstraps, belt, and scarf with a matching color. It would be a good eye catcher
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Well, I screwed up and had a hysterically brilliant idea today. So Brendan is working on a pair of bounty hunters. I figure he really should have more than just two figs. Then it hit me - they were missing a Slicer! (SW equiv of a computer hacker) Then the hysterical part hit... For the base body, use a Dug!! Yes, Sebulba as slicer! Now I gotta start modding up gear to fit, assuming I *have* a Sebulba. But yeah... This should be good.
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Sounds interesting, Doc. I may have a sebulba fig you could use if you don't have one.
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Cool idea. I bet Chad has one too if you don't Clint.
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Had to open that high-dollar Mos Espa 3-pack to fish him out! Whoo... this is gonna be tougher than I thought... 8)
If I do it, we're gonna have basically a repaint with *maybe* a little clothing alteration on our hands. There's just not a lot of room to work on this guy. I'm tempted to get a Boonta Eve fig and see how that one looks, maybe combine parts from the two. Crud... there's also an exclusive fig in the podracer. I like the looks of his lower limbs. Great - three Dugs just to make ONE semi-unique looking Slicer! Oh, the pain... I don't want to buy a friggin podracer, so if somebody has the Sebulba from the pod...or just the arms...lemme know.
Oh, and I had an idea for Doc, the Outlands Station administrator. He won't look anything like me at all. ;D
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I would have to look to find mine, doc. I'm pretty sure that he isn't the racer fig.
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No worries, Brendan just happens to like the racing jacket that fig is wearing. The hand/arm positioning on the one I have is pretty good for what I'm envisioning.
You know that lil buggar of a son of mine is already developing a storyboard for a photocomic based around this trio! He wants to tie them into the Fixer stories too...
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Well, that's the proto-name, anyway. Did some test-fits for photos this morning. Here's what I got.
First up is an overall of the pair. The base is, obviously, a pair of Cmdr Faie figs. The spotter - on the right - is bone stock. The sniper has his headwrap painted with Krylon Fusion Ultra-Flat OD Green from their "Camouflage" line. The rifle is from a "Hulk-Busters" figure set and is the real-world model for the sniper-rifle from Bungie's Halo games for the Xbox. It is the South African NTW-20 anti-material rifle, real-world info available here: http://world.guns.ru/sniper/sn55-e.htm (http://world.guns.ru/sniper/sn55-e.htm)
The second shot is a close-up of the sniper's painted headwrap. So far, I like how the Fusion color applies to an action figure. I'm going to allow the paint to dry thoroughly - like over the weekend - and come back to start adding a camo pattern over the green. The front-runner for pattern-choice is a Brit DPM or Rhodesian Brushstroke pattern, prolly closer to the larger more open Rhodie pattern.
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I love camo smocks. The Rebel ponchos on Endor were great, imo. So, naturally, I want my Snipers to have something like that for themselves. The white softgoods on the Faie figs will have to go, so I'll be doing belt-replacement surgery as well. But I need an idea of what to replace them with. So, I snagged a Labria off the shelf and borrowed his cloak. The initial fit-test went fairly well. The cloak actually flares out in the right places for the Faie arms! I think maybe I'm on the right track. The cloak looks a bit...odd across the shoulders, tho. Maybe it makes Faie look more like a well-padded football player? (fig 1) However, the cloak has surface detail around the shoulders that look a bit like a 'Trooper's pauldron. I think I can work with that.
However, once I put the helmet on (fig 2), we can see fit issues appearing. The cape is a bit too thick at the neck for the Faie helmet to sit down properly. Not by much, mind you - but by just enough. I think a bit of judicious weight-loss surgery is in order and will let the helmet sit all the way down. The spotter is intended to have a macrovisor on his helmet, so his headwrap will go away. Instead, I'll fab up a pile around the shoulders of the cloak in front and back to replicate a headwrap that has been pushed back off the helmet.
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last shot...
I really want the sniper to have his full camo kit on, so I tried out the unpainted headwrap (for good contrast) as the last stage of a cloak fit-test. I knew it would fail (fig 1), but it failed BAD! However, I think surgery will allow the headwrap to fit down over the cape and blend in.
If I turn them into a Sharpshooter Squad instead of a Sniper Team, the rest of the guys will have more abbreviated ("hinted-at") camo rigs, like using the piece from a Fett-clone or from a Boushh fig. Make it look more like they have them tossed back for ventilation or somesuch. I think the two in the more complete rigs will look AWESOME, but they will be heartbreakers to get to that point. Besides, a well-done "hint" is as technically difficult as a properly-executed full kit, imo. Just different techniques.
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Now that's what I'm talking about, Doc!!
I love the mix of cloaks and wraps that you have used. That OD spray-on color looks good on the headwrap, as well. I like that hulk buster gun and overall, I know that you are on the right track to some killer customs. Dude, please, keep them pics coming! I am loving this!
Are you going to have to alter that head-wrap just at the shoulders or all the way around?
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I'm not sure yet what I'm going to have to tweak. I also have at least one other cloak I want to locate and test-fit before I commit blade to project, just to see if I can get a better fit or drape. I'll keep WIP pics coming as I make progress.
I feel like a bloody engineer now... :D
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That's all a part of it, buddy! The more you do it, the more problem solving solutions you file away to utilize for your next project.
More pics, please. 8)
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Heh, once I've done something I'll post it. Had to grill two meals today *and* go to the grocery store! Did pick up another color of Fusion - Burgandy - and an Irina Spalko for 99 CENTS!!! Ok, she was a dollar. ;D I *am* chasing some 99-cent fig auctions on ebay tonight, tho. Might have found something that will work better for the camo cloak - an Anakin/Sith tabard. The pic on it looks good, anyway. I dug my Garindin/Long-Snoot fig out (POTF2) and looked - but his cloak has the head mounted thru it - nonremovable. We'll see what works.
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I think that the Darth Revan hood looks pretty cool. Might be too small for a helmeted head, though. Now you know that you can scout those plastic cloaks and capes for a good cape mold. I also use a POTF Vader waistcape as a Kama mold which I have made for many customs.
I must be deep into those clones not to know who Irina Spalko is.
"sighs and shakes his head"
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ee-hee... She's the female villain from the latest Indy movie.
So you mold against the *inside* of suitable rigid cloaks? I bet wet tissue paper as a cloak will give me the thinness I need for a better fit & lay.
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Yep, I use the inside and the white glue soaked tissue doesnt stick too badly when it has dried and it's time to peel it off. Sometimes, I will wet the inside of the cape with water just to make it easier to get the tissue to stay in place. Then, I will drop a little glob of white glue in a corner, wet a brush in water and work it baby! Use the water and white glue to brandish the tissue to conform the the cape shape and dont worry about having too much tissue overlaying the edges. I just work it over the edge and onto the other side. That way is stays in place better. I use two layers of tissue and yes it is thin enough to conform with ease to the figure. Especially if you wet it, a bit with water or paint when you are fitting it to the figure. sometimes when I am painting on one, I will shape it a little to curl in or fan out depending on what I want.
that coller wire that I mount goes on after the first molding of the cape is dry and you have trimmed it around the edges and around the inside of the neck area. Just bend a U shape into a length of fine guage wire so that it will fit on the underside of the cape , in from the shoulders, around the neck hole, with the dead ends shooting out the front from under either side of the neck hole. two or three little drops of super glue hold it into place. Just rip some small strips of tissue and water and white glue it to cover up the wire on the inside of the cape.It wont take much tissue or white water.
for tissue, I stay away from the toilet paper with the floral pattern embossed into the surface. A napkin from a fast food place works pretty well and has an all over bumpy pattern which can be visually pleasing when you go to drybrush. It's that or something not embossed if you want it smoother.
Now, go find that cape mold!!
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I'm onto something! Ok, rereading your cape tutorial looking at it with my specific application in mind. Wire in the neck for a collar attachment - ok. But is there a better way? What about the shoulder pads from a GalMarine?? WOW!! Grabbed up Brendan's Faie and his GalMarine's shoulder armor. Faie's head and helmet fit over it just FINE! Looks sharp, too. Now, the headwrap will NOT fit over it! DAMN!! It sits jacked up off the GalMarine piece just about the same as off the Labria cape in the original fitting. But I betcha I can trim that headwrap down carefully to fit... I dunno - that may be a level of complication to the figure I don't want to introduce. Primarily, it may interfere with the sniper plate - which is a MAJOR no-no!! Have to find me Airborne Trooper and test-fit things, now.
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Poor Brendan, having to sacrifice parts up all of a sudden like that. I'll bet that your to-mold parts list will just keep growing bigger and bigger.
I was thinking of molding a gunship front gun barrel as I am short one and figure the ebayers would like it.
Also, after looking at the engineering neccecities for the training armor mold to work, I picked up the concept snowie and noticed the interesting over the head chest and back detail that he had. The over the head armor on the skinny space trooper would be a winner also. I may try to do that one. I have a couple of training clones so may mold two at once. That would make it easier to reach that 24 casted pieces and would make the chances of at least one working mold that much better. The piece is wider than a cigarette pack will allow so I might have to come up with something else. We shall see. i dont think the snowies helmet will be hard.
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Awrighty!! Thanks a BUNCH for that info! The bad part is the inside of the Labria cape is *smoooooooooth*! No wrinkles at all. That's ok, I can tweak things. Heck, it might be time to try and create a paper-mache headwrap and just create the wrinkles and folds wholesale.
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As for Brendan - he keeps his figs stored disassembled - all helmets over here, capes there, belts in this, backpacks in that... ??? He just started grabbing storage boxes and handing parts as called for. He loves watching my ideas take form.
You know, I was thinking (DUCK!!) last night about cloaks that are smooth on the inside but have nice folds on the out. I thought about making a cast of the outside of the cloak so I could have an "inside" to work the tissue into. Then when it all dries and IF it peels loose without tearing, presto - a tissue cape with folds on its outside.
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Sounds interesting about the cloak mold. I will take 3, please............
I like that Brendan seperates his figures like that. He has the heart of a custom guy. One can tell.
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Couple of pics tonight. First up is a "random Jedi chick." Simple headswap introduces a whole new figure. Head is from the McStarkiller, everything else is a comicpack Leia.
Second is an Otoga 222 pit-droid pair. The one on the right is untouched, the one on the left was painted with Krylon's Fusion Burgandy. This was basically a paint-app test to see how the non-ultra-flat paint would go on. I'll be doing up a docking-bay team of droids for the Yakfinities #29 "Teams" contest, with a 222 managing several other service droids. They'll be in company livery - the Burgandy base with some sort of contrasting bright color for accent - like a sunshine-yellow swoosh. We'll see.
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Nice pics, doc! I like that burgandy. It will look sharp with the accent color, as you said.
I just got done doing the prep work for the training armor chest piece. It was a pain and took a while but I think that I have covered all the bases with it. I will shoot some pics of it, tomorrow before I pour the mold.
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It just goes to show you that Hasbro could include a few different pack in with one regular fig (like an extra head) to give more play oppurtunity. Great work. I love different Jedis too. Looks like the paint on the pit droid worked out great too.
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Hasbro could include a few different pack in with one regular fig (like an extra head) to give more play oppurtunity.
Seriously - I mean, they did it with the Armored General Obi-Wan CW fig - swappable head and helmet. Hello, Hasbro - do it again!
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Good point there. We can only hope their hyprocracy knows some limits.
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hey doc, I wanted to throw you a bit of info. Apparently that high strength 3 has a limited shelf life as the end of my jar went bad on me, today. I had it all mixed with the cataylist and was about to start loading a mold box and I could just tell that it wasnt pouring right. The consistancy was wrong for some reason. I canceled the pour and 30 min later, it set up on me. Not 3 days, 30 min.
either it got too cold in the basement, this winter or, it was too old. I reccomend that you dont hold onto a jar any longer than 6 months. Pour that stuff into molds, my man, don't sit on it.
I have some molds to pour tomorrow. I will post about it in my casting thread.
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Roger, chief! Thanks for the warning - wifey would hate for me to waste the money by not using the stuff up fast enough.
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Started another droid yesterday - took one of the yellow "vacuum cleaner" Naboo Accessory droids and painted it Burgandy to match the pit-droid. Totally disassembled it, just to make sure. Letting it dry some more before I put on the contrasting "swoosh."
So today - I got some gray primer Rust-o-leum instead of Krylon - I wasn't paying attention - and a Krylon Metallic Blue. Here's the results. Fig1 is the sacrificial POTF2 4LOM. He appears to have taken the primer well.
Fig2 is the Skyhawk testbed. The tail shows the brown hammered texture, applied straight. The forward fuselage shows today's Metallic Blue.
(apologies if these pics are less than my normal quality - I took quick shots in the fading light with my cellphone.)
I figure the 4LOM will get the metallic blue treatment for his base color. So far, I'm pleased with how the paints I've grabbed are turning out!
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I like that blue, buddy. Looks like that spray-on primer is sticking pretty good. Is the surface texture fairly smooth?
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It is definitely a smooth finish, for sure. It seems to need a longer cure time than I would have thought, though, with a bit of tackiness still evident. I suppose I'll give it something close to 24hrs and then see what I can do with him. I'm wondering if Krylon primer would have been a better choice, as the metallic blue is already dry with no tackiness. I'm liking the Krylon colors.
In fact, I'm thinking about using the metallic blue as the "swoosh" color on top of the burgandy, for my docking-bay service crew.
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sounds good, buddy! You are in production!
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That blue looks pretty good!
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So I did some painting today. Ouch.
First up is the vacu-droid. This one turned out more or less ok. I masked off the corners to preserve the "caution stripes" on the body. I shot the body burgandy overall and let it dry overnight then came back and masked off the recessed areas I wanted to "swoosh" with the metallic blue. I don;t think the pics adequately capture the rich sparkly nature of the paint. Anyway, this and the 222 folowing are my first real efforts at masking off areas. So, I'm learning. A lot.
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Now for today's heartbreak. I mean - isn't it supposed to turn out perfect the first time? Every time?
The Otoga 222 pit droid who is the "crew boss" for this team of service droids. Again - I disassembled the droid and shot it all over with burgandy yesterday. This morning, I masked off certain sections for the blue "swoosh" and went to town. Here's how it looked this afternoon after the unmasking.
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So I've learned a few lessons.
1 - allow more dry time. I think the burgandy failure on the 222 was a result of my rushing the process.
2 - masks bleed, so keep touch-up paint handy for brush-work. Color-match ahead of time.
3 - the metallic blue tends to be shaded by what you apply it over. Primer is likely your friend here.
All in all, it was NOT a failure. I can always go back and strip off the paint (I think) without figure damage (I hope!) and reapply everything. After all, I'm going for an almost-pristine look for the droids on the crew. I'm planning to use another vac-droid, 2-3 of the "pie-dish" pit droids, and a Gonk droid. Quite the team, once I finish. Simple and straightforward.
During the work on the 222, I got to wondering why the limbs are not articulated. Look at the FX6, FX7, and Tredwell droids. I think the newer battle-droids are, as well. So now I'm wondering if I can create an articulated limb for a 222. I'll need two of each limb for a functional model, I think...plus plenty to learn on...
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That vacudroid turned out pretty sweet. I like that color on him.
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nice explanation of your processes, Doc! I have never had much experience with masking on figures or even on model kits, even. Your vacu-droid did turn out pretty well and I like both but it's my favorite.
All of this custom work is a learning process and the more you do, the more that you will know.
Once again, thanks for explaining what you are up to. It makes it like a working tutorial.
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For me as well as y'all!! I figure if I talk my way thru what I did, folks who know better will be able to correct me where I screw up.
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That red color is sweet. I wonder what the vacudroid's hoses would look like with the same yellow as the side stickers?
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Well, I haven't settled on a color for the hoses yet, so I may just experiment and see what works. Oh, and I found an ASP-7 labor droid in the boxes today while hunting for my Uncle Owen fig. He'll get the burgandy coat next, I think. Maybe tonight after supper. Give it plenty of time to dry. Maybe primer first then mask off the areas I want blue before hitting him with the burgandy.
There's plenty of story in that group, too. It'll get written one of these days.
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Same box that coughed up the ASP was holding back on a cloak, too. I *think* this is one of the earliest Hasbro Leia cloaks - tiny neck opening and all. I slapped that rascal onto my bad-boy Faie sniper, and the following pics show what we got. All in all, put the Labria cloak on one and the Leia? cloak on the other, both suitably camo'd, and I think we have winners! I also found two Boushh capes. I'm thinking about hanging one from a third Faie as a sniper security element. We'll see - that one will require more work. Altho, if I plan to hang a sniper-plate from Baccara or the ATTE gunner off the lad, that Boushh cape would do me far better on the sniper, since it exposes the right shoulder, where the plate would hang.
Anyway, as you can see, the new cloak will need some trimming as well - either on the cloak itself or on the ends of the headwrap - to make everything sit right. I think it will take less work than the Labria cloak, honestly.
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Brendan and I are Battlefront junkies, we admit it. We prefer the first one, because you can go prone and because you can play AOTC clones. Tonight, he was playing a Jet-Trooper most of the night, while I played a Clone Sniper. So, here's the Q&D customs of our team...
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Killer updates, Doc!! I can't decide which pic to put on the Front Page.
I really like the mix of cloak and headwrap that you chose for your Faie sniper! Man, this is going to turn out cool.
I would like to get a crack at your parts box. I'll bet you have all sorts of goodies in there.
The battlefront troopers are cool but that pic of you two playing......................I nearly fell of the couch when I seen it. Priceless, buddy!
BTW, I'm trying the new molds out and I am most happy with the results. Come and see.
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Cool pic of you and the son playing the Vgames!
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We had some pretty serious teamwork going yesterday. We've gotten to where we can "eye-hack" fairly well on a couple of splitscreen games, and we were setting up some major one-two punches against Sep forces.
("eye-hacking" is derived by us from the "Ghost In The Shell" anime, and refers to being able to look at the other person's part of the game-screen while still being able to run your own character.)
My parts boxes? Like these two?
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eye hacking, good stuff.
For priming and masking, I've found that going over the area lightly with fine sandpaper will make the primer stick more efficiently and less likely the mask will put it off. Basically, you want to avoid the tape being stronger than the primer's bond.
Also, sometimes I use silly putty to mask, silly yes, effective> Sometimes.
I like the droid team, what contest was this?
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hey is that a bat and juno eclipse in there?
If by any weird chance any of you guys don't want the belts that came with your bats, please let me know.
I bought seven chinese bats last summer and have been slowly making them legit(at the time, bats were very very hard to come by, lol).
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BAT=yes and Juno = yes. I bought the BAT for its plethora of spare parts. ;)
Thanks for the tip on the sandpaper. I think I just didn't give it enough time to cure before masking - maybe 12 hrs. The 4LOM I let sit for some 72 hrs seems to be in a lot better shape.
The contest is Yakfinities #29, over at the Yakface forums. Check out the contest thread @ http://www.yakfaceforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=4255 (http://www.yakfaceforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=4255).
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yes! I would like to root thru them boxes, for sure!! I'll bet that you have some great mold fodder in there.
Eye hacking, i like that.
Didn't know that you were also a ghost in the shell fan, Doc.
Did you read in the movie thread where dreamworks was talking about doing a live action version of either the anime movie or of the series?
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I'd heard that, yeah. I sure hope they DO IT!! I have a sealed dvd of Innocence that was *supposed* to be a Christmas present for a friend, but it took so long to arrive that I gave him a nerf gun and some ammo instead. I should crack it open and watch it one night... Yeah, the kids love GitS and Cowboy Bebop - they hijacked my Bebop collection and watched it thru completely TWICE before I got to start on it! My buddy is an anime snob and he won't let me watch the bad stuff. ;D
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I'd heard that, yeah. I sure hope they DO IT!! I have a sealed dvd of Innocence that was *supposed* to be a Christmas present for a friend, but it took so long to arrive that I gave him a nerf gun and some ammo instead. I should crack it open and watch it one night... Yeah, the kids love GitS and Cowboy Bebop - they hijacked my Bebop collection and watched it thru completely TWICE before I got to start on it! My buddy is an anime snob and he won't let me watch the bad stuff. ;D
My suitemate(in college) was like that. I hated anime, til he made me watch Ninja Scroll, no going back, now, lol.
If you like GITS, you must love resolute's(GIJOE)'s animation, looks like they are trying to rip it off, :)
Cough cough, anyone have any bat belts they don't want?
I can probably trade some good fodder bits, :)
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Here's the 4LOM, coming out of his first surgery...
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That is a nice blue!
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Oh now, that is a pretty blue. I like it. When can we see some eye color? I want to see it against that blue.
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I'll prolly make a hole on my desk tomorrow so I can bring him inside and work on him. He's REALLY close to being where I want him, so it is time to whip out the brush and get to work. Picked up some new Folkart colors today with him in mind...we'll see if I like them together or not.
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Sat down and did a little brush-work last night. First up is the vac-droid. He finally got his central eye! Nothing special, just a little Folkart #491 Metallic Christmas Green. It doesn't stand out as much as I would like, but it does ok.
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Next up is the 222. I *attempted* to color-match post-event. Not a good plan. The Folkart burgandy I bought turned out a good bit lighter than the Krylon spray-on, as you can see in some of the pics. However, the color is close enough that if I used it to brush-paint the 222, it would fit right in when stood alongside the ones painted with the Krylon. So no worries!
Details - I touched the eye-stalks with the Metallic Christmas Green, the audio-receptors with Olive Pearl, and the vocabulator grill with Metallic Sequin Black. Quite nice, I think!
Fig1 is an overall from the front/right, showing where I had to significantly touch up his right arm.
Fig2 is a closeup of his face.
Fig3 is an overall from behind, again showing an area of extensive touchup.
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As I mentioned, I need a generic door for my ISY.net entry. I've never seen doors codified! So, I hijacked my daughter's Bail Organa for a genero-human reference and went to work.
Fig1 - Doorway marked out on cardstock at 4"x2" - stood Senator Organa up against it and discovered it was waaaaaaay too small.
Fig2 - Upsized doorway to 5"x2.5" - rephoto'ed. Door now looks too tall, but width is good.
Fig3 - Trimmed a half-inch off height of door for a reshoot size of 4.5"x2.5" - looks just about right.
I think I want to add clipped corners to it, just for aesthetics.
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What? You want to see the 4LOM repaint? Greedy buggers...
Got the head and some minor detail-work done last night. I think he looks ok so far.
Fig1 - Overall shot; you can see I'm picking out arm & leg details in silver.
Fig2 - Right side of head; I painted the head Metallic Sequin Black and then gave it a "heavy drybrush" of silver.
Fig3 - Left side of head; The eyes are Olive Pearl over the gray primer base and touched up with the Sequin Black at the edges.
Fig4 - Overall from the back; More silver details.
I'll be detailing the abdominal area by painting it Sequin Black then painting the individual wiring-runs, probably in primary colors rather than metallics.
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Looks like you have some projects going on, today, Doc. I thought the eye on the vac droid looked just fine.
I am even more stoked about seeing your contest entry. And that 4-Lom is looking good and is set to turn out stunning. I can see it from here. Keep it up, buddy!!
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Yeah, I got a couple of things happening. ::)
Then there's the ASP out on the painting-rack with his first color-coat drying. The sniper cloak is probably dry, but I may give it a while yet. My micrometer claims the flip-down visor is too narrow to fit the Faie helmet, dadgumit! So I reckon sniper gets full cloak & wrap treatment and the Spotter gets just a cloak, but gets a rangefinder attached to his helmet. That part should be an FC&E tweak - Faie helmet + pinvise + loose Hunt for Grievous Arc Trooper rangefinder = spotter. I may try that hotglue sculpting trick to make a pushed-back headwrap that comes off. I need to start trimming the sniper's headwrap to fit over the cloak. I also need to work up some belts for them. I want to move away from the standard Clone or Stormie belts, as these guys are SpecOps. That means their gear should be...different. Once the headwrap is trimmed, I can start painting it and the cloaks in their camo pattern. Ooooh, means I need to basecoat the Labria cloak, as well. I want to get these guys done using existing pieces. Then when I can work out the papier-mache cloak technique, I'll come back and improve their gear.
With all these droids I'm working on, I need to figure out what I want to use as a restraining-bolt pattern. I think that would make for an interesting focal point on a fig - paint it something obnoxious, like safety orange or dayglo green. Means I need to make sure it is detailed nicely.
I also need to find my older GONK droid. He needs his primer coat applied. Also need to see if I have another Vac-droid to primer. That'll be quite a service crew - an Otoga 222 supervisor, an ASP-7 laborer, a pair of vac-droids, and a GONK. I'm tempted to toss in a DUM pit-droid or two as general helpers. All in the burgandy/blue-flake livery. Oh, and they'll have an astromech recharge station, a la the R2-B1 figure accessory. A Vehicle Maintenance Energizer would go great, too. AHHHH! It's a monster - it just keeps GROWING!!!! ;D
The entry is starting to run into rough ground - I need two straight cantina bar sections to pull off *exactly* what I have in mind, which I don't have (bar sections, not a mind), so I may have to rethink the counter-top portion... Only a minor disappointment, as the idea is so vivid, I'll be able to revisit it later.
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So, there's the Yakfinities #29: Teams! competition. So far, we've seen a team of Jedi, a team of Endor Rebels, and a team of "otherwise" Rebels. They look like a group of gaming PCs to me. All good stuff. I had intended to go with my hanger-bay service crew of droids. But now? With all those Rebel Scum?? No. No, the Imperial in me has come out. To that end, I picked up 2 more Cmdr Faie figs in town this evening. Yes, my 4-man Imperial Sniper team will be entered. Those rebel scum will rue the day they crossed blasters with the Empire, for our finest are about to take the field....
I also picked up a halogen desklamp to help find my figs on the desk, 3 paint palettes, and a brush-on metallic blue that is a fairly close match for the Krylon I use.
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Doc, I have a couple of straight bar sections that I could let you borrow, If you need them for your pic. that wouldn't be much of a problem. Of course the Post Office isnt open until Tuesday.
Man, you have a lot of stuff going on. That would be almost too much stuff at once for me to handle.
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Four Faie's. Now, that has my attention. Can't wait to see how that turns out.
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You have me looking at my Faie figures now, doc.
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No, worries, I can pull it off without the bar sections. It'll actually turn into a micro-dio on the 'Station once I get them, tho.
Yeah, I'll be walking back into the Faie's tomorrow, putting some stuff together. I kinda took today off.
??? WTF? No I didn't! I had a test-fit of a belt on Faie today and shopped hard for pieces. Grabbed an "Ultimate Bounty" Bossk for a "Teklet Tango" dio I have in mind from the Republic Commando books. Got several other loose figs for bits and pieces - 5 figs for under $13 from one. ;D Made me happy. 15 "cinema scene" stands - that'll let me get another 45 figs standing up. A TC14 protocol droid and a pair of pit droids with the engine analyzer accessory. Another early Leia for the cloak I'm painting. Gotta have a mold for the tissue-mache approach! I tell ya, once I get that worked out, I bet my figs look TONS better!
I need four Kashyyyk Trooper belts. ::) They look GOOD on the Faie sniper. Need to repaint them gloss white. I'm bidding on trooper lots out of Macau, just for the belts! :D
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let me know if you find any good bossk lots, :)
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"So then he was like, 'Hey! C'mere, you!'"
"Wow - so whaddya do?"
"I ran as fast as I could the other way!"
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You would too, right? ;D
This is the sniper. I added a rangefinder from a Hunt for Grievous battle-pack ARC Trooper to the helmet. The belt came off a Kashyyyk Trooper. The cloak, as was mentioned, is from the first Leia Hasbro released, I think. I'll be trying out that foil and hot-glue trick to see if I can fab-up a headwrap that has been pushed down. Ideally, he'll get a sniperplate of some type. Maybe I should go get the Baccara rig out of the shop and try it on real quick... ;D Addicted? Whachu talkin 'bout, Willis?? O0
The more I mess with him, the better it gets!! Reckon I should start painting his cloak details. But man! I was so blown away by how well things looked, even in several disparate color schemes, I had to share!!
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Doc, that sniper testfit is just rockin, dude! This one is just going to turn out cool. Sounds like you are feeling the same sort of excitement that I get when a custom project is shaping up cooler than I had hoped.
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It sure does look good. I can imagine how nice that is gonna look when it gets painted up.
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Happier'n a hound-dog on a scent!
;D
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Dog will hunt!!
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So I grabbed up my red Clone Commander and surgically removed his way-kool flip-down visor. Then I test-fitted that buggar onto the Faie helmet. Remember my micrometer said the helmet was too wide? It was right.
Fig1 - Top-down shot of the visor's splay-legged fit. I think shaving down the inside of each leg will allow a fit.
Fig2 - In yo' face!
Fig3 - Sniper and rough-up of Spotter.
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Not to be left out, here's the Team's commo-man and flank security.
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I like that vizor on that fig. I would love for them to add this type of feature to OTC figs. Daggone one would think we would see some adaptation of this for EU figs at least.
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So, the pieces are falling into place nicely! The pics are helping me figure out what I need to do to each figure to make them distinct from each other and visually interesting. I mean - we're dealing with clone/stormies here, so they start out with the disadvantage of being visually identical. Therefore, you gotta liven them up with distinctly different gear. Imo, anyway. So, I have the challenge of creating four distinct individuals from four identical faceless starting points. Oh, *and* insinuate a backstory, as well!
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looking daggone good to me Doc.
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The visor looks great on that Faie helmet, Doc. You should cast that visor and I will cast the Clone wars one.
This is going to be one killer looking team.
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Oh, that's one of the pieces I *must* cast! I think I found where the sprue/pourhole attached on it, too.
So anyway, I roughed out the camo. Nothing *nearly* as fancy and intricate as that snow-cape you painted, Clint!! But it is a camo cloak and does its job.
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I like it, I like it!! It's nice to see a diversity of styles, here. I am juiced about your project, buddy. Keep going.
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Just because I like to run my head about what I'm up to...
I wrapped one of the faie's in foil and started laying down hotglue!! I went for a pushed-back headwrap look.
Boy did it SUCK!!! Over an hour later, I'm STILL picking foil bits out of the inner wrinkles. Of course, in that time, I put on more foil and laid down another run of glue. Yeah, my first effort was full of voids, loops, strings, and so on. I'm trying to fill in the voids and otherwise sculpt the really bad first run. I'm letting the second one cool in place longer, too. I should prolly go back and reread the tutorial while I'm at it... ;D
Yes, there will be pics.
Actually, it may not look all that bad after I get it cleaned out and do some refinement sculpting and painting. It fits over the sniper helmet *quite* nicely. The kids think its the coolest thing since articulated knees and ball-joint heads. I plan to make them better and melt some brains. Peg the awesomeness meters. We'll see. Heck, at this point, I'll take "look nice"!!
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low temp glue gun?
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ayup - low-temp.
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Oh, I think once I finish off the snipers, I'm going to pose them in the side of a gunship, or just disembarking. Or WOW! Get one of the little Titanium-style gunships and have it in the background like its just dropped them off and is on its way elsewhere as the snipers fade into the brush...!
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I love the way these snipers look and am now envisioning a Ghillie suit made up for the shooter and spotter in this series. I like the idea of your pics too.
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That is a good pic idea. All you need is a convincing background and foreground and some support for the gunship and you are a go.
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So here are the DONE! shots of the 4LOM repaint. Simple, straightforward stuff. He's not yet been sealed w/ the matte spray. I figure that'll be tomorrow.
(http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u239/LosLejanos/4lom009frontdone.jpg)
(http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u239/LosLejanos/4lom010backdone.jpg)
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And now...the real excitement - the SNIPERS! Here's a full-team mock-up. I set this up to get a feel for the flow of the figs and see how things were working.
(http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u239/LosLejanos/sniperteammockfullleft.jpg)
(http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u239/LosLejanos/sniperteammockfullaway.jpg)
In the second pic, you can see the (crappy) attempts at thrown-back hoods on the spotter and sniper. I'm headed in the right direction, I just have a ways to go yet. You can also see why I like this fig sculpt - they look like they are walking! I love the poseability and inherent dynamic quality of this figure.
The other three cloaks are on the paint-rack, drying as I type. I plan to repaint the existing details so as to create more visual distance from the base fig. I need more Kashyyyk Trooper belts, too. I'd like to incorporate Baccara's sniper plate onto the sniper if possible (the cloak might disagree). I'd like to give the Flanker a pack. The battle-droid pack will be extra-detailed so as to not look like they just ripped off a skinny tinny. And there's a problem - the cloaks don't work well with packs. So I don't know if I'm going to scratch one or the other or take a whole new route on cloaks. For purposes of the competition, I suspect I'll scrap the packs.
I mean - a fig is NEVER really finally done until you're satisfied with it, right?
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That is if you are ever fully satisfied with it , Doc. As my skills improve, I still look at past figure projects and wonder what it might have went like had I done something more or different to it. I usually ignore that feeling as I plunge forward into other things.
I love the 4 lom, buddy and the sniper team mock-up has my mental wheels spinning, thats for sure.
I am really interested to see how those hot glue wraps turn out and how you progress using this technique.
Great work, buddy. You are going to give the other contestants a run for their money.
Speaking of contests, have you thought any more about your resin contest entry?
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the 4Lom looks good. I do like that sniper squad, especially the one with the vizor.
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Speaking of contests, have you thought any more about your resin contest entry?
I worked on it yesterday, actually. It is ALMOST ready for pics - prolly today.
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They look great! Good work man.
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Here's a door that I used in my diorama entry over in the 'Yards contest. Set your printer for 72dpi and it'll kick the door out to fit a 2.5"x4.5" opening.
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Here's Brendan's first-ever customs! I call them the "Dirty Pair." He did all the work other than drilling the hole in #1's back for the jetpack and spraypainting the awesome Clonehead-special Airborne Trooper helmet, also on on #1.
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I like that airborne custom. Looks pretty daggone good to me.
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Wow, those look cool! I really like the paint on that airborne helmet!! Is that your metallic blue spray on his visor??
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Looks very good.....nice choice of colours....
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Nope - its a Folkart brush-on I got as a touchup color-match. I got two different ones, I'll have to ask him exactly which one it was. I spraypainted the Airborne helmet for him with the Krylon Ultra-Flat Black from their camouflage line. Other than that, every paint app was by brush, by him.
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I may have to look for that color. Tell Brendan " good job!"
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He says it is "Metallic Blue Sapphire" #656.
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Yeah, yeah - I can hear you guys already... "Pics or it didn't happen!" or "You wretched tease, how'm I supposed to sleep tonight?!?" You saw the first run of the Boushh helmet. A second one came out as nice as the first. I repoured the visor and tried to get plenty of squeeze on to ease out air-bubbles. I WILL WIN!! Well, that second run turned out an ALMOST-PERFECT visor!!! I made a third pour on it tonight but it was the last item I poured and the plastic was setting up FAST at that point, so I had bubbles at the back of each leg. I'm tweaking it and I WILL WIN!! Well, so my next set of molds finally cured, so I socked the plastic to them - a Starkiller female head, an R2-L3 BAD dome, and an R7 BAD dome. Didn't do enough plastic to run the R5 dome, too. Which was a good thing, in the end. That mold is all but unmanageable with two domes poured. I figure I'll revisit the domes in the future and do each as a separate mold.
TINY TINY air bubbles!! Two little bitty ones in the chick's hair and air bubbles at the tips of the "eyes" on the droid domes. They look FABULOUS!! I'll take pics tomorrow sometime after church and have them up after lunch-ish.
My wife is trying to figure out how to build a pressure-casting rig so I can get rid of air-bubbles. :o That's lightyears ahead of a "That's nice, dear" that a lot of guys get when talking about their hobbies!
Anyhow, watch this space for a Sunday Afternoon Special!
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a pressure casting rig? That would be pretty awsome! I also have had troubles with how user friendly a mold is with a couple of castes pieces alredy within.
Keep mind that you are trapping the tiny bubbles within the resin as you mix the two parts. There's not much that you can do about that. Have you tried any sort of vibration method when pouring, yet?
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Nope, just squeezing.
...goes looking for an old sex-toy...
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Here's the latest goodies!
(http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u239/LosLejanos/first%20mold/parts-1.jpg)
(http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u239/LosLejanos/first%20mold/visors.jpg)
(http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u239/LosLejanos/first%20mold/head.jpg)
I'm getting REALLY CLOSER on the visors, I think! The fragmented pieces was the first pull - with masking tape still inside the mold. Pull two was almost PERFECT! Pull three had air bubbles at the back ends of both legs - it was the last item poured and the plastic started setting up hard during the pour. And it STILL came out good!
The Starkiller head looks great! Need to go get the body out of Workshop-2 for test-fit, but I'm confident. I sprayed the first Boushh helmet w/ Ultra-Flat khaki - the second is almost as nice. The R2 and R7 heads are really nice, but are solid pieces. That's fine for now.
So - there ya go.
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Nicely done, Doc!! I thought that the Bosch helmet turned out real nice! I am going to have to pick up some of that white resin, for sure! Consider my lust for some of those visors firey, now.
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Thought you might feel that way once I showed ya how they were turning out. I plan to try some more later tonight and see if I can beat the air out. I'll mix up a minimal bunch of plastic and make the visor the FIRST - and only? - pour. Devote my attention to working the plastic into the recesses.
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I had mentioned placing my airbrush compressor on my casting table and using it's vibrations , before.
I don't do that all the time as it is too noisy to do when the wife is sleeping but it does seem to help in some cases.
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Now you are getting the idea. Some molds just seem to require more attention than others.
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looks like you have it all figured out now Doc!
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How much vacume does it take to help with the air bubbles? You could get a simple air pump and convert it into a vacuum pump and afix it to a container and possibly get it to work...
something else that might work and I am just spouting off ideas as they come to me here, is one of those vacuum food savers which attach to canning jars. you could place your mold and resin in the jar and then turn it on to suck out the air bubbles... of course you'd have to be quick as fast as the resin starts setting up.
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have you ever tried to use clear resin clonehead? (sorry I'm kind hijacking the thread, great casts btw doc, I realy need to get on this myself!)
back on my question... they sell some clear resin stuff at hobby lobby and I was wondering if it would cast well enough for helmets and such. I think that a few clear helmets would be a great way to make some clear or opaque visors where you could actually see the face inside the helmet. That is something I have NEVER seen on any figures yet and I think would simply be awesome.
I know I'd buy them in a heartbeat if it worked ;) hint hint clint!
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I have thought about that but havent tried it yet, Spud. You are right, that would be a killer way to have a see through visor on a helmet. i know that some sellers use this stuff to make aftermarket lightsabers.
I think that you could apply see-through paint to the visor to add a tint as well.
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My understanding is there are different resins with different cure times so as to work with vacuum or pressure casting. Heck, at this point, all I've tried is squeezing the molds - I haven't even tried a vibrating surface yet! I remembered we do have a real (non-sex-toy) massager that gives off some pretty strong vibrations - it's still packed away at the trailer house (60 miles away) waiting to be brought south. I've still got tricks to try before hitting up the far more technical & production-oriented processes.
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That sounds like a possible winner, Doc. Remember that I watch and sometimes use a construction grade vibrator to work trapped air out of concrete during foundation or wall pours. Works like a charm.
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that is exactly what I was thinking. Use see through paint like with the hot glue flame effects and such. you could make light sabers, blast effects, visors etc using clear casting resin...
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that is exactly what I was thinking. Use see through paint like with the hot glue flame effects and such. you could make light sabers, blast effects, visors etc using clear casting resin...
I may have to keep an eye out for that clear resin. That would be pretty cool.
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oooh yeah, clear resin sabers would let us choose any color with that tamaiya paint.
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No worries, spud.
Ran another pull on the visor, playing with working the mold to squeeze the resin down into the corners. That WORKED by gum! Perfect legs on the visor!! The giant airbubble in the front of the visor kinda ruined it, tho...
I mixed just a tiny tiny dab of resin, managed to pour a flawed visor (proof of concept - WORKED), a perfect Starkiller head -PERFECT!, a flawed Boushh helmet, and a partial R7 dome I need for proof of concept on James' astro-ball-mech droid.
So, undaunted, I mixed up some more resin and repoured the visor!! It's curing now. I also poured an R5 head and am trying to "slush-mold" approach on an R2 head, trying for a hollow cast. Another proof of concept run.
Can't find a functional vibrator in the house!! ...heads for spencers.com... ;D
Undaunted!!
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It's kind of like a mass experiment, isn't it, Doc? At least you don't get frustrated.
That visor mold, is the visor cavity flat or do the legs point down?
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Can't find a functional vibrator in the house!! ...heads for spencers.com... ;D
Let me send my in laws over there, they can always find them, :)
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I hear in-laws are like that, Narce!
Clint - flat. I've considered remolding it where you pour in the slit of the visor, but I think I may have it, now. This last pour was damn near PERFECT! Add in a mold vibe to chase out the air and I'll be golden!
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Boushh helmet fits the Cmdr Cody head.
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His head is the smallest along with the comic pack faie and the endor rebel in biker scout armor from the attack on the shield generator bp. coming in at a little larger are the clone wars rex and cody heads.
How are those visors going, Doc?
I just got a request from a uk buyer for castings of one of the mixed helmets, again. I may try to butcher a couple of modded helmets together using stock hasbro parts for masters to mold from. I think that I told you that making molds using castings is not a good idea as a certain amount of detail is lost. Making a copy of a copy makes for a lesser quality of copy. I will mold that droidbait head helmet and visor, tomorrow, also. Don't know if I will get around to the chaingun this time or not. It's always on the to-mold list. I wanted to upgrade my veers helmet mold to the hs3 but might have to wait till next time and do the mixer of it and the gm, this time.
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waht chain gun?
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that is exactly what I was thinking. Use see through paint like with the hot glue flame effects and such. you could make light sabers, blast effects, visors etc using clear casting resin...
I may have to keep an eye out for that clear resin. That would be pretty cool.
I think the clear resin would be cool idea to do a cloaked clone trooper! ;D
oooh yeah, clear resin sabers would let us choose any color with that tamaiya paint.
I've always wanted someone to do this that way I could have yellow or orange Lightsabers!
The trouble is finding more then a few transparent colors for them. :-\
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there are a ton of semi transparent air brush paints, right?
Besides, check the craft section for those window hangy things, birds and stuff made of glass, all that paint is semi trans.
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waht chain gun?
The chain gun that the heavy gunner in the Hunt for Grievous BP is toting. I have tried molding it a couple of times in the past with very limited success. This time, I have the experience and skills to pull it off. Not today, though. I have other parts to mold.
that is exactly what I was thinking. Use see through paint like with the hot glue flame effects and such. you could make light sabers, blast effects, visors etc using clear casting resin...
I may have to keep an eye out for that clear resin. That would be pretty cool.
I think the clear resin would be cool idea to do a cloaked clone trooper! ;D
oooh yeah, clear resin sabers would let us choose any color with that tamaiya paint.
I've always wanted someone to do this that way I could have yellow or orange Lightsabers!
The trouble is finding more then a few transparent colors for them. :-\
A cloaked clone trooper..............That is a killer idea, Fett!
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A cloaked trooper is another idea that I'd completely forgot about! I had that same Idea while playing force unleashed! I have always wanted to see a half cloaked half exposed shadow trooper with the shock effects around him! Use that hot glue effect and some clear cast resin molding and there we go!!!! That'd be awesome!
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A cloaked trooper is another idea that I'd completely forgot about! I had that same Idea while playing force unleashed! I have always wanted to see a half cloaked half exposed shadow trooper with the shock effects around him! Use that hot glue effect and some clear cast resin molding and there we go!!!! That'd be awesome!
Another great Idea, Spud! That would look killer. I don't suppose anyone has a pic of that half cloaked trooper?
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So...the old one...the pattern got ragged on by the smarties over at banthaskull.com. I had a White Irish (White Russian, but replace the Vodka with Bailey's) and decided they were right. I had another and did something about it.
OLD
(http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u239/LosLejanos/snipercamo.jpg)
NEW
(http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u239/LosLejanos/customs/newcamo.jpg)
Too many White Irish and I grabbed the WRONG PAINT!! Originally, it was Trad. Raw Sienna for the lighter patches. My besotted fingers picked up Yellow Ocher and painted a "second coat" on. I wondered why it was so much...brighter... Halfway thru the cloak, I realized what had happened. I kept going. ;D The brown patches are prolly double what they were originally and the light patches are LIGHTER & BRIGHTER!.
Hey, I coulda gone Belgian and used Dark Cherry or Dark Plum...
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I still like it, buddy, alot! They ragged on the first one at Banthaskull? Why? I think it looks good.
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The "re"paint is getting approval now. Some of the negative comments - "The Camo looks good, but there should be more on there"... "To echo Dre's comment about the camo, I'd go more as well. Like really fill the cape in" ... "I'm going to agree that more camo would make these guys look much better." So, eh, whatever. I expanded the brown a little bit, accidentally used a brighter yellow...I likes it either way. I'll prolly go with #2, as I like being able to *see* the yellow and know it is there. ;D
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Well I think it looks pretty daggone good too. I also had two more ideas;
1. paint the whole thing white and do a snow camo version (yes, I know I am daggone biased)
2. Take a look at Darth C's custom Yoda house and do the cape like he did the outside of the house if you want the really vegetative look.
As is, I think it is great. I know I couldn't pull of something that looked that good.
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near-term:
IT-0 interrogation droid lower hemisphere
FX-7 (vintage) head
hollow-cast R2-L3 BAD head
BBI "Snake" US Ranger sniper head
RPG Indy head (to revisit Admiral Solo!)
Endor Rebel helmet
Solo's demo charges
Rangefinders (from Hunt for Grievous)
foreseeable future:
heads:
Scarlett (skydiver)
Juno Eclipse/Deena Shan imperial officer
Dark Woman
Bultar Swann comic-pack
Obi-Wan (ANH softgoods)
Endor Rebels (bearded and non-)
Uncle Owen (Droid purchase)
C-3PO (swappable heads w/ Battle Droid from Factory set)
under consideration:
Roadblock head (but its pretty small)
SSgt Rock-n-Roll head
R5 BAD head (depending on success of R2 head)
R7 BAD head (as above)
(maybe I *should* get out the c-card and order a couple of pounds of HS3...)
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I gather that the visor just isnt working out? My first attempt at that one failed, years ago. The clone wars one that I have is thicker and a little more forgiving. I may remold mine in a different way so that it doesnt require so much clean-up.
I need holsters and pouches, Doc. I know that you can come up with masters for those. Don't make me come down there.............
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Well, I haven't tried since the last real good run. Being sick has just shot my drive to do anything. :P I'm starting to feel better, tho, and the visor is at the top of the list of things to try.
I'm starting to wonder about disposable insulin needles to shoot resin into the crevices... but I need to try a vibrator first. ;D
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Custom cloner used to do that and claimed that it worked well and that the syringe wasnt that hard to clean.
Try it and see how it works.
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What did he use to clean the resin out? I assume you'd do it rather immediately, too - like *mix* *inject* *CLEAN* *activate vibrator* ;D
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I think that he let it harden and used a small screwdriver. Perhaps some kind of disposable small tube or cone could be used as an extension tip. You could roll up a strip of tape with the sticky side out or mabey even a piece of paper.
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*nod* definitely something to work with, then. That should go a long way to eliminating air bubbles and lack of flow into tight areas. Like on visor legs. 8)
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yep, you would have to work fast though, or in tandom with a partner.
I may need one of those syringes from you if it works out. Oh, I forgot to tell you that I have some accidental two piece molds where the hs2 molds broke in half on me that I still use. I will have to take some pics of those.
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Reminds me! We need a tutorial on 2-piece molds!
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Reminds me! We need a tutorial on 2-piece molds!
I know the steps and have the mold release compound but have never tried it. Are you going to field that one, doc? I think that it might work better with the yellow HS2.
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needles and vibrators, gotta love you custom guys! LOL.
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Never a dull moment, Tamer!
Clint, I reckon I can, eventually - unless someone else does it first. And my feelings won't be hurt if they do. ;D I have...a few projects that are prolly best handled by 2-piece molds. Open crates, for example.
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Yeah, I think seg and I will eventually try our hand at this.
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So while we were in chat earlier tonight, Tamer made the offhanded remark to the effect of "I wonder how those visors would look on modern troopers" - modern meaning Imperial Stormtroopers, I assumed. Being a man of practical ideas and action, I tried it out. Poor Hondo Karr.
side view
(http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u239/LosLejanos/customs/side.jpg)
back view
(http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u239/LosLejanos/customs/back.jpg)
front - MY NAME IS HONDO KARR, NOT JORDI LAFORGE!!
(http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u239/LosLejanos/customs/notjordi.jpg)
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Made some progress on the squad today! Here;s what I got.
First, I want to give you a frontal look at the sniper.
(http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u239/LosLejanos/customs/sniperfrontal.jpg)
He's carrying the old AT-ST Driver's rifle, wearing a belt-rig from a Kashyyyk Trooper, and sports a sniper's plate from Cmdr Baccara. The shoulder-bell and cloak go together like they were made for each other!
Next, here's the status of the camo cloaks. Almost done.
(http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u239/LosLejanos/customs/cloaks.jpg)
Finally, I opted to repaint the brown armor details. I used the colors from the camo pattern - Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna, and Olive Green. I think it'll do. For now.
(http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u239/LosLejanos/customs/details.jpg)
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Super cool, buddy! worth the wait. That frontal shot is a bit dark but looks so good. you are right, that cloak and the bacura plate and shoulder pad were made for each other. Nice job, buddy.
I like the camo colors that you used.
That visor needs a bit of cleaning and thinning the ears might make it fit the troopers helmet better. Of course, you could shave some of the trooper's helmet in the right places to make room, also. I'll bet that there is a nubbed stormie helmet that is smaller.
Nice close up shots on those.
Tamer, that's kind of like how I can see, without my contacts in. That is what my enhanced near-vision is like. big and focused.
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Great pics of the snipers!
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I can see what you mean about that stormy. Definately need different vizors, if at all.
Now those snipers are a different story. I love what you have done with em. That frontal shot looks sweet.
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As a place-holder, and probably for the competition, I'm using Kashyyyk Trooper belts. I expect I will not repaint them, but allow their Has-pat camo to stand. ("Has-pat" = Hasbro Pattern, a play on Marpat - Marines Pattern and Cadpat - Canadian Pattern, currently in use) This also allows me to return the belts to the proper figures later.
This means I'll be fabricating belts. I'm open to suggestions, here. I'd considered simply casting the Kashy belt, but it doesn't lay flat. Then there's the issue of finding a product to use in casting it so that it is flexible and still durable. Smooth-On's product is the front-runner, but it'll take time before I'm ready to drop some money on that.
What I'm thinking is to use cable-ties, trimmed thin to eliminate bulk, with a variety of pouches added, such as Wraith's fantastic W40k bitz and my piles of 1/35-scale military stuff. With cloaks on, you won't be able to see most of it, anyway, but I like the idea of making a unique belt pattern. Then I can cast it and sell it. Naturally.
Any suggestions?
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I have seen Clint use some cut plastic from the figure cases that he then doubles and triples to make some daggoen good looking belts. Take a look at that Fox he did where he utilized that method. Very nice imo. Course you need magnifying glass eyeballs.
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Doc, I have done it that way or I have used thin strips of typing paper to do it which is nice and flexable. Like you, I just glue pouches and such onto it and it looks fine. I bought some styrene stips at a hobby shop which I plan to use for this task, in the future.
Lets see some more pics of that sniper squad. I'm jonesing, buddy.
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Yeah, I think seg and I will eventually try our hand at this.
I hope you're not talking about the vibrator Tamer mentioned! lol ;D
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Yeah, I think seg and I will eventually try our hand at this.
I hope you're not talking about the vibrator Tamer mentioned! lol ;D
Here we go again! Clint was the one who brought up vibrators and then someone else brought up needles! Still, I always say, if it works USE it!
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I have no idea what Tamer is talking about.
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So naturally I hit a snag. I started assembling everybody for a quick look-see. The Commo trooper has his cloak basically wedged under the commo gear. It fits great! ... at least until I put his belt on and then tried to put the cloak back on... Here's a couple of pics to show ya what I'm dealing with.
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Couple more just so you can see an overall view of the fig from behind...
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So you can the fig really needs the cloak. I've got to work out a belt arrangement that will allow the cloak to fit. Anyway, here's a couple of quick shots of the flanker (still needs a belt) and the sniper (needs some minor paint retouching and sealing and his hood). The sniper pauldron only sorta fits - it doesn't fasten closed thanks to Faie's overdeveloped chest, but if you don't look behind his right shoulder, you can't tell. I repainted it to match the strappings and camo colors.
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I have no idea what Tamer is talking about.
LOL. I trained you right!
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I see Tamer likes the sniper's new look! ;D
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dude, those figures are looking so cool!! I thin think that I like the guy with the sniper plate, the most. I really like that yellow that you used on him. Its hard for me to decide. I do like the cape on that one guy with the belt. You might have to sacrifice the part of the belt that goes behind the cape. They will never see it and you can use that part on another project.
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I see Tamer likes the sniper's new look! ;D
Yes, I do!
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Just poured the molding compound on 6 heads, a helmet, and a cap.
Juno Eclipse
Dark Woman
Mara Jade (comic pack)
Old Indy (TotCS, carries RPG)
Ben Kenobi (latest release)
BBI's Snake (Ranger Sniper)
Cmdr Faie helmet
Juno Eclipse Imperial Cap
I doubt the last mold will actually turn out, as it was a "hurry and get a third mold together to use up the left-over molding goo!" The mold is leaking as I rushed the construction and left a small gap in the taping. Plus, the helmet didn't get completely covered to start with. ugh. The Cmdr Faie helmet and the officer's cap were just the closest things I had on the bench that were small enough to fit inside the tube. I rushed. ALWAYS have one more mold ready than what you think you'll need. ALWAYS.
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too bad on the juno cap, but we'll get'em next time, :)
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I might get lucky and have the cap section of the mold turn out to be actually useable. We'll see. All else fails, I'll just set up a mold to do just the caps.
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Just poured the molding compound on 6 heads, a helmet, and a cap.
Juno Eclipse
Dark Woman
Mara Jade (comic pack)
Old Indy (TotCS, carries RPG)
Ben Kenobi (latest release)
BBI's Snake (Ranger Sniper)
Cmdr Faie helmet
Juno Eclipse Imperial Cap
I doubt the last mold will actually turn out, as it was a "hurry and get a third mold together to use up the left-over molding goo!" The mold is leaking as I rushed the construction and left a small gap in the taping. Plus, the helmet didn't get completely covered to start with. ugh. The Cmdr Faie helmet and the officer's cap were just the closest things I had on the bench that were small enough to fit inside the tube. I rushed. ALWAYS have one more mold ready than what you think you'll need. ALWAYS.
That's good advice to have an extra ready. I have had to rush that last mold together on more than one occasion.
You and I still need to get a "to mold" list going so we can concentrate on seperate parts.
I have two different Faie helmets, buddy. I was going to do the Needa cap, next time.
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Yeah, Brendan pointed out there are two different Faie-type helmets - there's the Cmdr Faie that I'm using and a similar-looking head on the BFII Clone Engineer. Without looking, he explained the differences to me. I couldn't quite visualize what he was saying and pulled up a pic. I'll be durned...the boy was spot on. ;D
Right now, I'm making heads, as you seem to have helmets pretty well covered. Then, maybe Imperial Caps, as I have all three, but if you've got Needa's up on the block, run with it. I just had in mind to put all three in one mold for ease in locating them. Scenics like boxes and tools are high on my list, too. Armor *eventually* but you've got almost everything nailed that I could do other than Bultar Swann (Comic Pack) and the Death Star Gunner piece. Rahm Kota's breastplate should prolly be done with a flexible pour, as it has straps and belts to wrap.
Yeah, I need to make a list of the stuff I have than I plan to cast and the stuff I plan to get in order to cast.
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looks like you guys have the casting nailed down.
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security holo #003726; Concourse 2-Besh, Sector Isk-0992:
Routine scan; armed subjects identified as licensed bounty hunters. Incident files appended. No outstanding warrants. Status: transient passengers. Recommendation: Flag Yellow Protocol.
(http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u239/LosLejanos/customs/dirtypairfinal.jpg)
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Sweet! I take it that this is Brandan's team? I love em!
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Yep, that's his team. I provided exactly:
base-coating the Airborne helmet
drilling hole to mount rocket-pack
scout pistol, satchel, and datapad for slicer
Absolutely everything else was done by him. He's got a neat dio set up of a droid scrap-yard that we plan to photo and show off. I'm working on the background for it and we need to work out lighting issues. Then I get to learn how to take decent model shots... I gotta learn how to dink with the aperature to manage the depth-of-field so that everything is in focus where I want it.
My sniper-team won't be finished in time to submit for the Yakfinities - too much crap this month sapped my creative spark. This of course means I now have the time to do them RIGHT!!! It'll take a lot longer, but I think I'll like the figs a LOT BETTER in the end.
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Nice team effort there, Doc! Tell Brendan that he just made the front page.
I have missed a deadline on a creative contest before. It was a model car contest and if you seen my unfinished entry, you wouldn't believe it.
Bring on that improved sniper team when you get the chance.
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You talk about excited! I posted the two humans as WIP photos over on Yakface way back and he got a good bit of positive feedback which really pleased him...but having the trio up on ISY's front-page just flat made his day!!
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You talk about excited! I posted the two humans as WIP photos over on Yakface way back and he got a good bit of positive feedback which really pleased him...but having the trio up on ISY's front-page just flat made his day!!
good deal, buddy. Tell him they look great .
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I really do like that airborne mod a good bit. Tell Brendan he is doing some great work. Thanks for sharing the update with us.
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2nd gen customizer?
Rad!
So, is there going to be a station dio? Is it going to be a representation of your house or what?
I'm pretty interested to see it, really. Might make a decent dio comic, if nothing else, just to amuse the ISY, :)
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2nd gen customizer?
Rad!
So, is there going to be a station dio? Is it going to be a representation of your house or what?
I'm pretty interested to see it, really. Might make a decent dio comic, if nothing else, just to amuse the ISY, :)
Yep - we collaborate regularly.
And I'm figuring on there being dios of the station, for sure. A dio-comic would be interesting... I'm still trying to figure out exactly what the station looks like, but it is likely an XQ-series station. The other idea was a Regula-One type station from Trek...
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well, between schematics, models, and simple set pieces, I'm sure you can get the look you are going for in your dio story, :)
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I sure hope so! ;D
Here's a pic of the last month or so of fodder collecting...
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just playing with a lighting effect...
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That's cool looking, buddy. Looks like inspiration for a cool diorama to me.
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It's unabashed Tamer-baiting. ;D
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the last thing I want to do is put a light on a guy in his underwear.
Is that a digital effect or an actual light? I can never tell.
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It's unabashed Tamer-baiting. ;D
Well conisder your bait proven! That is an awesome effect!
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That is an actual light - I leave the digi-wiz stuff to Jules. It was really simple - I bought a pack of colored notebook dividers that included a blue. I then set the blue one down on a piece of styrofoam over a hole, then stood my LED flashlight up underneath it and the bacta tank atop it. poof!
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Ok, here's a placeholder dio-shot I slapped together today for the latest Fixer piece...
(http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u239/LosLejanos/fixer/placeholder.jpg)
This way, Tamer has a graphic for the front-page. ;D
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Sweet, I have a pic I can use for the front page. Gonna go add it now. great pic by the way.
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Oh, yeah!! ;D Glad you could work with that one, Tamer!!
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Since I had Fixer out and tweaking, it inspired me right into a brainstorm...
"OOPS!"
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I can't wait to see you add some tracks to Fixer, I am loving those stories.
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make sure he cleans it up!.....lol
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Oh yeah. I like that shot, Doc.
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DA - that would be funny!! If I had a push-broom the right size... hmmmmm.....
I think I'll retake the shot with a darker background, because the smoke kinda disappears. Keera helped out by starting in on coloring the smoke without any prompting. Yay, minions!!
The smoke is a cotton swab dipped in black waterpaint and then pulled into a cloud. I cut the stick just at the base of the poof and it fits the BAD head-socket *perfectly*! I think I'll paint the wall panzer grey for a good contrast color. That should let me show off the lighter grey smoke cloud better. Y'know...now I'm thinking...just how poseable *IS* that new Joe body? hmmmmmmmmm....
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Fixer is a fixing! That is a neat effect with that smoke. I think the darker grey will work as I had to go back and look at the BAD droid head and then I saw it easily. Still, a neat effect.
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awesome stuff. I think I'm going to have to get one of those med-bots now. I didn't know all those arms were articulated.
as far as the joe bodies, articulation is superb. They can do things that your star wars figs can only dream about.
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what do you dream about, spuda? Oh wait, slave asoka, right/?
Well, beats my dreams when I was your age, lol, it was slave leia lol.
What figure is fixer, exactly?
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I take it you haven't read the fiction pieces I posted the link to. Fixer is an FX-7, modded by a Verpine engineer. I need to actually do up a Fixer custom for illo purposes.
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what do you dream about, spuda? Oh wait, slave asoka, right/?
Well, beats my dreams when I was your age, lol, it was slave leia lol.
What figure is fixer, exactly?
My wife corrected me, I actually dream about natalie portman in the white uniform(she thought I was trying to be less obvious by picking leia, lol).
I retaliated by making her watch episodes I and II tonight, woot!
I need to run and get dvd copies of the clone wars, the OTC, and fanboys to complete my little geek movie fest, lol.
I will read your fic, fixer seems like a cool droid, :)
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... narc you have issues, idk if I want you staying here during the meet... :P j/k
sorry I hadn't seen the fan fic post, and I havn't read them. I saw a comment about the fixer droid having tank treads? the little droid that comes with the jawa in the legacy collection has a nice wheel/tread base that might work on the taller figure. it also has all those crazy arms that you could add to the one you've already got...
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Technically, he had wheels from a couple of MSE droids installed. Go to http://outlands.tripod.com/gallery (http://outlands.tripod.com/gallery) and read the SW fic I've posted. Then read the story I've started posting in the Library here. Fixer is, imo, a great character. The issue with Tredwell droid arms has actually been addressed in-character. ;D
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No customizing on this puppy yet, other than removing the guns on the arms. I did, however, try out a backdrop of plastic canvas painted with Krylon's Camouflage ultra-flat black.
(http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u239/LosLejanos/fixer/loadlifter.jpg)
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Oh yeah, I can see this moving some heavy frieght. Good addition.
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Doc,
I am really impressed with the customs and images here...I've justs spent a while looking through some of the wonderful creations.
I need a custom made for my PN, would you be interested?
I'm sending over a PM, I hope you can help me.
Regards,
Jules
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I'm stunned and flattered, Jules! I'll be more than happy to help as best as I can. This should be interesting...
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doc are you steeling my swoop bike transformer idea? i see parts laying on that newspaper that goes to that figure.... fett lol. hope you do something a little different than I did, don't paint it all black!
where did that mech come from? it looks alot like the fork lift mech from aliens... I like it, it needs to be a different color than yellow though. I'd paint it black/grey and put the yellow caution stripes on it somewhere. How articulated is the mech's legs and arms?
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Pretty much! ;D My wife found one - Reverb, I think? - so I'm borrowing your approach. My plan is for a much...flashier paintjob and probably some steering vanes either forward or back. Prolly back. Thanks for sharing the idea!! Right now, it is totally disassembled with primer drying on its various parts. I plan on reassembling it and gluing it together into a non-transforming solid whole.
The 'loader *IS* the USCM/Aliens loader - good call! Articulation is...nonexistent. The arms pivot at the shoulder and the claws open and close. The legs have no articulation at all. There are mounts for machine-guns on each upper arm and a platform for a weapon-station that rides against the back and pivots up and over the head. The cage on front opens to allow fig access.
I agree on it needing a different paint-job. I've got it sitting out and visible so I can jog my brain every time I walk by. I'm thinking maybe a Panzer Grey base with high-viz safety markings. It is hollow inside, so I'm wondering about slipping a lighting harness inside. That could be fun. I mean, I figure I'll be taking it apart anyway to prime and paint it. Heck, I might even give the arms some decent articulation in the deal!
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Hey doc,
have you considered putting the arms from that loader onto the GIJOE mech?
this one:
http://www.yojoe.com/vehicles/04/defensemech/ (http://www.yojoe.com/vehicles/04/defensemech/)
looks like it would be a good approximation for what you're going for:
(http://www.yojoe.com/vehicles/04/defensemech/front.jpg)
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I didn't know that one existed... Holy...!!! >:D
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Yeah, I'm just here as a guide to all things joe.
:)
Now, if I could only customize. . .
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Narceron, if only...... lol
yeah take those alien mech arms and puting it on the other one would be perfect, probably solve the articulation problem as well.
can't wait to see your swoop! I love that cycle, it's so easy to manipulate. I'm going to eventually make a swoop gang and I'll probably get a few more of those and do some different styles.
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Yeah, I'm just here as a guide to all things joe.
:)
Now, if I could only customize. . .
oh but you can, Simon. I have seen it. Let's see some more.
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Here's shots of today's action in the field surgery....
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Oops... sometimes you loose...
The fig on the left did fine...on the right...the peg ripped apart. I gotta drill it out or something.
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So KeKe hung out with me, watching and absorbing. She wandered off...then wandered back with this:
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Here's one I slapped together as a proof-of-concept checker for one of my Fixer characters...
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So my tauntaun came in today! Had to try "Tex" out in the saddle...
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Tex may be bowlegged, but as you can see from the middle pic, he does NOT sit well in the saddle! Well, the two gents who were on the paper-towel had their parts taken outside and base-coated. I want to let them dry overnight before I start in on their painting. I set several heads aside for molding, still need to fish out Maj. Bludd's head. Figure on setting up the masters tonight, pouring molds in the morning. Then, I'll prolly start serious painting on the two I worked up today. I need to cast a couple of heads for the bodies tomorrow, as well.
I spent quite a bit of time in Surgery working on one particular character concept that is just flat trying to elude me. I refuse to give in, of course. I may have found the right approach - following up on that is one of tomorrow's tasks.
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Lots of neat projects going on there, Doc.
I like the checker.
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I've wanted to do a paint job an a Taunton for ages...
It's great to see the operating table.
Jules
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That checker figure is pretty good. What character is that head from? Was that part of saga2 card with two figures? Bounty hunter if I remember? I like it.
Bummer about the Hoth rebel trooper not being able to sit on a taun taun. You would have thought thats why they gave him so wide a stance!
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hey doc, do you boil or microwave your figs before trying to pull out the rubber pegs? this is what I've learned helps, get a coffee mug and fill it with water, put the figure in with as much of the loose accessories removed as possible. Put the cup of water with the fig in it in the microwave for around 3 minutes or untill the water starts boiling. Then is the tricky part, you've got to carefully grab the figure out (which WILL be hot) and yank that crap out before the plastic cools and becomes hard again.
That should solve some of that pesky peg problem. My problem is that I get into a hurry wanting to see a concept through and just start yanking... I've ruined too many parts doing that I should have learned my lesson!
Something you might try with that hoth trooper is getting one of the hoth lukes that were meant to ride the taun taun and swap the parts out. Honestly I think the problem is the taun taun's sculpt. The boys have the one that was packed in with the luke that's supposed to be able to ride it and it is realy awkward looking.
good luck man, can't wait to see stuff finished up!
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Two-qt saucepan on an electric stovetop. I use tongs to fish figs out and hold with a dishtowel. I think I wrote up my steps for Kurgan somewhere - essentially what you said, but I use a stovetop, as we don't have a microwave (by choice).
I got confused when y'all referred to my checker fig! Had to reread my original post to see what I'd said! LOL He *does* look like a meat-market clerk! The head is from one of two 2-packs - either the Muftak and Kabe or Nabrun Leids and Kabe set. All three are Cantina "extras" - Kabe comes up to the bar at one point, chittering, and gets a drink. Leids may be a bounty hunter, not sure. Gasmask, 4 arms, silver spacesuit, beehive hairdo/head, really big gun. The apron is from the older Ugnaughts set. The rest of the fig is a recent Jawa - either the LIN or Treadwell versions, I think the latter. I plan on replacing the hands with the ones from the Kabe fig (which are non-articulated and will require some work and carving to fit right) and the feet with - of all things - the feet from a Teemto Pagalies podracer (with the big engine and "floating mushroom" droid). Grafting them onto the Jawa legs may get...interesting. Anyway - he's a later project...I just had all the parts at hand while I was B-n-P'ing yesterday, so I slapped him together to see how the parts looked as a whole. He's a good start.
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Well, I had a thought today, so I went from removing a single screw to having a pile of TWENTY-SEVEN PARTS!! Yeah, I was going to just remove 14 of the articulated arms to show Fixer in his "surplus property" plight. Then I started thinking why not go on and remove all the arms and get him ready for a repaint. Then I thought... let's remove this screw and separate as many of the pieces as possible for the best paintjob possible.....
When the Imperial Military originally sold off a quantity of FX-7 units as surplus, the more specialized medical instrument/appendages were removed for controlled disposal. This left the units with their main grasper arm and four fine manipulators, out of an original eighteen. Unfortunately, this left the units virtually useless. They could handle applying medpacks and diagnosing ailments and injuries, but with no specialized tools, there was little they could do. One unit, FX-0R8, found its way into the hands of a light-freighter owner who regularly carried passengers. Having the FX-droid aboard met the BoSS requirements of a medical attendant for a commercial vessel. After a particularly disastrous run, the ship's owner found himself at a salvage-yard, unable to pay for all the parts his ship needed. A fast-talking deal threw the droid into the payment and the two parted company. FX-0R8 then languished in the scrapyard, forgotten in one corner of a massive warehouse, until the chief engineer of the Macy Jade found the droid and made a deal with the scrapyard's owner to buy it. At this point, Z'zik began modifying and upgrading the droid - until this time left in its basic Imperial livery - so as to have an assistant engineer aboard the ship. The droid acquired a number of tool-attachments which were never intended for use on its frame, giving it the look of some mad scientist's experiment from the worst of horror holovids. FX-0R8 developed a reputation amongst the Macy Jade's crew as being able to fix anything, any time and they bestowed upon the droid the name "Fixer."
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The POTF2 FX-7 is easily one of the most impressive figures Hasbro has yet produced. It sports EIGHTEEN spindly arms around its cylindrical body, each of which is articulated in two places. Thankfully, Hasbro designers followed in the FX-7 style when they created the FX-6 figure. Now we have arms in a variety of designs, rather than in the single type of the FX-7, but only a few are articulated. The FX-6 arms are suitably strange-looking that they could easily serve as heavier tool-attachments rather than as medical appendages.
Here are the two brothers...
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So I disassembled the FX-7, as I said. Here's what I found:
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Great backstory... now lets see him in the million pieces. I didnt even know you could take them apart that far. Guess it has been a while since i have seen one up close.
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what are boss requirements?
I like this story, and I love a WIP log, :)
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HOLY FREEKIN SWEETNESS!!!!! I knew I *really liked* my FX-7's - all half-dozen or more of them - but WOW!!!!!
So naturally, I was really excited about laying out the FX-6!
Well...after much careful up-close magnified examination, I decided this one's base popped off to reveal the inner cavity, holding the take-down screw. Mr. Large Xacto and I set to work...
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Emboldened, I flipped the droid over and found...
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NOTHING!!!!! :'(
Apparently, Hasbro skimped. Looks like the lower body is press-fit into the arm-retaining collar. I've backed off the FX-6 for now. I think I'll be switching to the Dremel and a cut-off wheel or something similar in order to gain access to the droid's "waist" just above the arm-"barrel." What a shame - I'd really wanted to save the base figure. None of the lower arms are articulated, as I said, but they can provide a great source of parts to splice onto the -7 arms. Additionally, I figure I'll just drill holes into Fixer's "arm-collar" in order to hold -6 arms being redesignated as "tool-arms." I know already that one - which looks like a plasma-welder - fits into the hole for the -7 main grasper perfectly.
So, anyway, I need to decide on a color-scheme for Fixer's main housing so I can paint and reassemble in order to begin placing new tool-arms. He'll be getting a circular-saw from a "Data-port R2-D2" at some point - gotta figure out how articulated I want *that* to be...
So I'll keep pics going as I work on Fixer. I'll warn ya, tho - he's not at the top of the food-chain yet! I'm finishing up on 4 others, then have the speeder competition and the tank competition yet to go. But he's *there* and underway, which is higher on the list than yesterday! You guys feel free to leave feedback - keep in mind he *is* a character in quite a bit of fiction I've written and am writing. I'll end up using him in something like a photo-novel, too. If y'all have any suggestions or anything as to what you think he should have or could use, chime in! (color suggestions welcome, too!)
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Cool deal! I am glad to see you get started on this one. I am a bit miffed at the forums as this didn't show up on my unread posts list. I wonder how many others I missed. FP bound on this one Doc. What are you gonna use to give the dude some mobility, treadwell droid? I was looking at that Legacy droid with the Jawa today and thought those arms on it might make for some intresting Fixer splices.
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Well, since I do have *3* of those multi-armed tredwells, I'm sure a part or two will show up on Fixer eventually - esp. since in one of the stories he cannibalizes part of a ruined one...
Yeah - I was pretty sure you'd like to see Fixer getting started. ;D
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Cool beans, doc!! All you need is another project let alone, one of this magnitude. That fx-7 sure did have a lot of parts to it. Do you have any old model car kits that you can scrounge parts from? Those and jet plane kits always seem to have some nice fiddly detail bits in them.
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;D
Eh, I have a box or two of parts I can dig thru..... O0
One of the arms I plan on making... a fully-articulated welder arm like the one on the Star Tours DX-L2 or DL-X2 security droid! 4 points of articulation... plus a flexible hose...
:o
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you could probably fab some tools from joe high tech weapons if need be.
I'd put one of the IG droids clasper hands on it, like the ones bender has.
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HEY!! What the... there's a disassembled FX-7 on the front page??!??
;D
Thanks for the plugs, there, Tamer!
Narc, I'd totally forgotten the IG hands!! Talk *about* gettin' industrial! I'd say fabbing on an IG arm would be a heavy grasper. (that poor FX-7...)
So, anyone got any color-scheme ideas? I'm going to get this set of neon paint-pens WalMart carries so Fixer will have blacklight details. I've so far rejected a black body - too Imperial. Now, in Fixer's backstory I just posted, he was bought by a passenger-hauler and served there for a little while - I see it as being a matter of a few months - before being traded off to Downtime Station. I don't see either place as having an interest in painting him - heck, Tanner forgot she even *owned* an FX-7! So, any new paint-job would have been done by the crew of the Macy Jade, a crew of (mostly) legitimate cargo-haulers...
"Hey, Z'zik..."
"Yes, Trav - how can help you?"
"Z'zik, your droid scares Jash and Kecklin. You gotta do somethin' about that."
clack-clack The chief engineer worked his mouth mandibles in consternation. "What mean, Trav? FX-0R8 does not menace crew-members. Is good help in Engineering."
"It's the color, Chief. That heavy gray - it's too Imperial."
"Oh." The Verpine swiveled his insectile head to look at the droid in question, busily repairing a series of power shunts they had pulled that morning. He looked back at the gunner. "Trav has color suggestion for droid?"
Trav tapped a paint-gun lightly against his palm. "yeah, as a matter of fact, we do..."
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What about a metal flake blue color? Might look nice against grey/black/ silver arms and the neon lights
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yeah metalic blue would be cool... or make it look like it's been through about 50 different collor schemes, you know like those realy old book cases you see in schools and libraries that have so many peeling coats of paint it could almost double as psychadelic cammoflauge! I believe that there is a couple spray paint colors that actually is made to peel up like old paint, it's in with the textured paints I think....
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You could go a silver or bright gunmetal for the first coat and another color over that. Then you could scratch or scuff the top coat enough so that the under coat shows through. Kind of a forced weathering effect.
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Hmmmmm.....
First experimental coat underway.
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I could see Fixer having about a hundred different stickers and marks all over it. Kind of like an old washed up race car!
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He *is* scheduled to get a tattoo, later on, actually...
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Here's how Fixer looks in metallic blue, with his upper sections still in original gray for comparison...
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Ooohh I LIKE IT. you should do the top in a metalic red! HOT ROD fixer! ;) hell throw some flames on him too! lol to hell with the beat up look, make him look like something that a bunch of grease monkeys and space jockeys would paint up all fancy in their spare time.... oh... that gives me ideas....
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Yep, I like the blue.
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I like the blue too.
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Very nice! O0
Droids are some of my favorite.. so many of them!!
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Painted the rest of Fixer's body parts last night while heads were curing in their molds. Dunno when I'll pick up on him again, as I have some other figs higher on the list just yet.
Picked up my IG Lancer droid to look it over after seeing Sinje's mind-blowing ultra-articulated Grevious fig on RS. Found out the Lancer has a lotta removeable hoses and other greeblies I could tag onto Fixer and some others for nice detail.
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what is this grievous figure you speak of?
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Dude hacked up IG-86's to add INSANE amounts of articulation to a Gen Grevious fig. Check it out!
http://threads.rebelscum.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=3628788&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=93&fpart=1#3628788
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holy stone, that is one sweet figure.
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Pretty much what I thought. ;D I'm gonna try something like that with a 2-1B for arm articulation...
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wow I might have to copy that general grevious fig... that is freaking awesome! now I wish I'd gotten more ig-86s when they went on clearence... :(
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That is one bad a$$ grevious!!
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That GG is way cool!! I wish Hasbro would get it right!!
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B'arin Apma - pansy Hasbro exec turned older battled-experienced merc? I'm going to lighten the skin-tone, but I wanted to photo-test the wrinkles and hair coloring. He'll get some gray in his hair, too. Overall, tho, I think he's aged up a fair bit. What do y'all think?
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Oh yeah, looks slightly aged, but not overdone and wrinkly. We need more SW characters like that. Anyhow, looks good to me Doc.
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Looks good to me, Doc.
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This project called for two versions of the same character. No problem, right? Well, once you start adding in wrinkles and otherwise changing minute details... we'll see! Here's a couple of sneak-peeks at the heads.
First up, I'd basecoated the facial areas with Terra Cotta, then wiped it off, leaving paint in the wrinkle recesses. I think I'd actually done more painting than that, but had to restart. Either way, you can see the wrinkles quite vividly.
Second, here's the faces as they stand just a few minutes ago, posed alongside the practice "air-head" I used to the left. They are getting there!
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Doc are those the custom for me, if so GET A MOVE ON!!! I've got a photonovel to finish! ;D
p.s, The custom is so awesome that I have been blinded by it's awesomeness.
Jules
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Glad ya feel that way... those ways... erm, yeah! O0
And yes - those are the face that will heading your way soon!
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Very nice, Doc! Now those are the heads that a military modeler would paint.
Can't wait to see em done, buddy.
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:-[
(Jules, don't worry as you read this!)
11th-hour crisis!!! As I sat down to assemble the primed/painted/sealed parts for one of the figures Jules is eagerly awaiting - and upon which one of those heads will sit - I made a brutal discovery. The hips section was missing. To make a day-long story short, I searched the area inside around my workbench, I searched my workbench top... I searched UNDER my workbench. I went out to the shop and searched the area where I'd sealed the parts - which was half the shop, it's a small space.
ALL TO NO AVAIL!!!
The hips-section I'd labored on was GONE. I could either go buy another figure for JUST the hips part, or I could make a bit of an alteration in my design and use parts I had on-hand. I started digging and thinking. In the end, I used parts onhand that I *know* fit the torso. In the process, I've been able to add a hook from which to hang a lightsaber! That's what I just finished with and I had to back off the tiny-work and do something "large" for a bit and give my nerves time to settle. Next step - a hanger on the aft end of a saber!
The replacement hips are well underway to being finished, btw. One color drying before moving on to the second.
And I did so like the original design... I'm sure I'll find the lost hips later this week. That's the way things work, after all.
Except for that one part on that Pak-40's towing leg that popped away into the carpet.....
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That's interesting how the figure came around to it's current state. Nonetheless, I'm sure that it is going to turn out great.
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...and I took in-progress pics of how I did the hook.
;D
Back to the paint-stand!
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I always did hate custom deadlines, doc. It is a neccessary evil though that I deal with often in some way or another.
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Sculpting my own molds is something I want to work on next. You definitely have it down to an art. I would be able to make as many half naked girls as I want and make the guys face as ghoolish, alien, or hot as I would like. How do you do it? Have you been able to mold your own ships yet? This would be an art. Keep up the awesome work.
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Well, I'll tell ya, Jules is great to work with/for! Low-pressure even tho you *know* he's over there gnawing his nails off! A big factor in this project was that I had never actually timed how long a custom took! Plus, I tried out some new approaches, so there was some learning curves involved. I'm prolly rough on Jules' heart health! I've learned a lot on this project so far. I expect stage 2 to go a LOT more smoothly and quickly.
As for my moldings, so far all I've done are various existing heads and a few pieces of smaller equipment in single-piece molds. Basically, if you read Clint's casting thread, you'll see where I've learned everything that I know. I haven't tackled multi-part casts like the chain-gun nor ones with spaces in them like, well, like the trigger-guard of the chain-gun. The Clone Commander visor doesn't count, because I haven't made a successful pull from it *yet*! I think I may try remolding that piece and see if it is a problem with the mold.
I think a ship would best be done via two-part molds or vacu-forming, neither of which am I quite ready to tackle yet! I do have some ideas for things to make and then mold, one of these days. 8)
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First fig done! I'm not completely satisfied with his face - the paint still looks grainy, despite having been thinned.
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Looks pretty awsome to me, Doc! I can't see the grainy texture at all.
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Well, I *am* my own worst critic... 8)
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looks good to me, I will get this on the fp tomorrow Doc. I am just too front paged out today! Nice figure though Doc. I hope this is one of Jules' so we can see him in action in the next act! I don't think the face is grainy at all, looks awesome to me.
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Yep, this is one of the ones headed across the pond.
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that is solid work man, I would love to be able to paint so cleanly. . .in time, in time, :)
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Great work Doc. Looks good all around.
And we are now that much closer to seeing the end result of all your combined hard work.
Most excellent.
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Should have the second one up after supper. Final hair-wash, touch-ups, and final sealing then assembly is all that's left.
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Looking good DOC!
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Doc, that figure is AWESOME with a capital AWE!
Justice will be done my friend, justice will be done!
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Well, you know... Glad you like how he looks.
Back to the paint-bench!!
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The other body...ready for touch-up and final sealing. Same head as the first, as the other head is out on the rack with sealer drying on it.
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I must have missed the previous pictures of this figure. But now that I see, I must say that it is really well done. How did you get the lightsaber hilt clipped to the figure's belt?
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Hey, that belt did turn out pretty cool!
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A staple. I took pics and will have a tutorial on it posted later this week. Sorry - am taking stretch-breaks and checking the forums to see what's happening while I'm working. ;)
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Argh. During "final repainting," I discovered the last-minute replacement hips didn;t fint exactly right with the legs. I had to remove one leg for surgery and trim a bit on the other, as well. This is making a mess of the paintjob. *sigh* But at least I'm NOT screaming and throwing the figure across the room!
...yet...
;D
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Big fan of your work, Michael. It's nice to see alot of never before seen (by me, at least) pix.
Fantastic.
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Thankee, sir! Getting pics posted here is a good deal faster than on RS and looks better than at Yakface. So, *most* of my pics end up over here.
Well, gee-bees, I'm calling it a night. I *think* I've rescued the second figure - quite a bit of touch-up paint after having to remove both legs for trimming down a touch. It is on the paint rack now, with a coat of sealer drying on it. I'll check him over in the morning - likely need to add a bit more paint around his hips and reseal - and he'll be ready to cross the pond, as well.
While I was in the shop, I gathered up a few figs that might end up helping out with my speeder contest entry. More eye-teasers to hang around my desk until something meshes...
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Well, here's the final photos of figure #2! He's pkg'd up and about to head across the pond for future employment. I'm not *thrilled* with how he turned out because of the need to deviate - QUICKLY! - from the original design and I don't think the final result, while decent, is as neat as the original concept. You can see he has a functional hanging lightsaber - I'll write up a photo-tutorial on how I managed that later this week.
(http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u239/LosLejanos/customs/commissions/fig2002.jpg)
(http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u239/LosLejanos/customs/commissions/fig2003.jpg)
He could prolly have benefitted from a scarf or something... I see now the pics make him look rather like a ... giraffe or something. Sheesh. Anyway, they are DONE! And in a few minutes, I'll be carting them down to the post office to make their run to their new home. WOOT!!
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Looks good, buddy. I'll be looking forward to that lightsaber hanging tutorial.
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That is an awesome lightsaber effect. Cool deal Doc.
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excellent doc ...as always
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Excellent work on the figure. I think that lightsaber attachment is great, unlike the older figures with the holes to insert lightsaber hilts.
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Definitely looking forward to your tutorial on the lightsaber hook. Looks great.
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Trooper Corr, GAR, former EOD Tech - lost his hands during a failed attempt to disarm a UXD, fell in with Kal Skirata's boys while on convalescent/reconditioning/rehab assignment on Coruscant ("Triple Zero"). This is a stupidly-easy custom to make. Your biggest difficulty is going to be finding a GI Joe 25th BATS figure for the hands.
Fig1 - Trooper Corr, offduty attire
hands - 25th BAT
everything else - "apartment Jango"
Fig2 - Trooper Corr, gearing up prior to striking Sep cell on Coruscant in book "Triple Zero"
hands - 25th BAT
body - Death Star Gunner
armor - clone trooper in training fatigues
For this figure, I went with the DSGunner because their padded collar was a good visual match for the RC fig. Made sense to me that they'd all use the same bodysuit. Plus, I think they'd all be wearing arming caps under the buy'ce.
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niiiiice gotta love those bat figures hands... if I could I'd gather up about 100 of those bat figs.
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No kiddin, spud!! I saw a set on ebay recently that was like a BATS battle-pack - something like 5 different BAT figs with different attachments and such. THAT would have been a nifty haul!
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Damn, those hands really make this one Corr, Doc! Great job on both accounts!
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Very nice, Corr was a great char, from those books, A series I think would and could transition into much deeper spin off series if allowed.
The story line is ripe for a ton of custom figs and dios and has been in my head for future customs of my own but the time just isn't there, but your rendition is perfect.
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Sweet figure, Doc. Those hands are awsome!
Welcome to the shipyards, Incom!
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niiiiice gotta love those bat figures hands... if I could I'd gather up about 100 of those bat figs.
I have quite a few bats, actually, of all the different types, but the 25th is my fave.
I have all these parts, I think I'm gonna make this figure.
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Welcome Incom.
Doc, this is a killer character. I really like it.
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The story line is ripe for a ton of custom figs and dios
Wow, that's a lot of Corr-love, guys - thanks! I heartily agree, Sarge. Bren and I are working on accumulating figs that strike us as being ideal for the RC/IC series. That's a LOT, because yeah - the ideas abound. Niner taking down the Trando outside Teklett... the *entire* apartment scene from Triple Zero just before the raid - but we plan to have everyone in various stages from unarmored to fully armored with all the mentioned weapons... Kal and Vau, b/c neither of us are happy with any of the customs we've seen yet. ;)
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Awesome Corr figure, Doc! This whole thread is great, because I absolutely love the RC series, so seeing customs of everybody would be absolutely great!
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So, you may have noticed I've been a bit scarce of late. Well, I've been up to my eyeballs in a new project. Things are never dull around Outland Station and this is no exception. Seems one of the Station's commercial inhabitants has set up a production facility. For making armor. Mandalorian armor. Here's the scoop...
(taken from reports on the Mandalorian Mercs discussion forums...)
Well, ok, technically I bought supplies I'll need to begin production. I picked up two Sterilite 13g trash-cans in girl colors - a pink and a bright royal blue - and two pair of Peewee-sized Wilson shinguards. The beneficiaries are my two younger girls, 4yo and 9yo. Test-fitting reveals the shinguards look great on the 4yo and ridiculous on the 9yo. But they make decent gaunts for the 9yo. First problem solved. I'm thinking we'll start with the WOF extra-small Jango template and see what sort of scaling we need to do. If that will be a major screw-up, y'all have time to catch and correct me!! The girls wear size 6 and 12, respectively.
I expect to turn this into a school project for the kids, as we homeschool and are always looking for interesting projects. The 15-almost-16yo plans to eventually make a set of metal armor - but figures trashcans will make great practice material and allow him to work out how he wants his "final" set to look. ("Final set"!! hehe!! riiiiiiiiiight.....)
I'll take pics of the colored cans tomorrow when the sun is out.
=========
Well, there's an evening's work well-done. I printed out a set of WOF's "Jango Small" templates and just finished cutting them out and assembling them. I did them on regular printer paper - I figure to glue them to the trashcan tonight with rubber cement after my youngest comes in and I can "Dead Mando" her (ie: make her lay down in the floor and then lay the paper templates on her to check for fit/alignment). We may actually manage to cut some pieces out tonight! If so, I figure to focus on the pieces above the waist for now.
I located two airsoft rifles that had already made the move and retreived them from storage. The ideas are already flowing as to what's and how's for turning them into Mando warrior weaponry from all quarters. My son looked at them and declared them to look and handle better than he remembered and he promptly demanded one for his kit. Grin
=========
What good is an armor thread without pics, right? So here's today's work.
First, I printed and cut out all the templates.
(http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u239/LosLejanos/beskargam/002templatescut.jpg)
So then I checked them for fit on the verd'ike.
(http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u239/LosLejanos/beskargam/003deadmando1.jpg)
(http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u239/LosLejanos/beskargam/004deadmando2.jpg)
Suits us! So, we rubber-cemented the template to the first trashcan.
(http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u239/LosLejanos/beskargam/005gluingtemplatestocan.jpg)
Once all the pieces were done that I figured we really HAD to have, I started cutting them out with EMT shears. Boy, that hurt!! But now we have the first pile of beskar pieces to put on a vest...once Rebe makes the verd'ika a vest to put them on.
(http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u239/LosLejanos/beskargam/008piecescut.jpg)
Here's the girl who gets the purple set, practicing her room-clearing...
(http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u239/LosLejanos/beskargam/007mandochick.jpg)
===========
So that's what I've been up to the past few days. Needless to say, a a blonde baby girl who can sling a G36 is a hit with the Mandos!
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I love it, doc! I wear an extra large.
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I've got the templates for Jango armor from small thru XL... ^-^
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man one of these days I'm going to complete my helmet... and armor... lol one of these days I also plan on building a vacuform machine to complete said armor... more than likely though I'll be doing something similar to what your doing! The trash can idea is just genious. btw your kido's are too cute, I'll have to find the haloween pictures of my two guys in their boba and jango costumes! I built them custom jetpacks from junk cardboard and other random stuff. They looked awesome but I didn't have time to get the straps worked out right and they got tired of wearing them real quick....
can't wait to see it finished!
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Hi Doc,
it's great to see that you've not wasted any time after we spoke about the trashcan armor the other day.
That's the route I'm going to take for Sean's beskar'gam, too.
And hey, your little girl with the German HK rifle is just cool.
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That is absolutely awesome. Love the shot of that small gal swinging the weapon. Awesome.
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Well, now you guys will KNOW I like to play with my toys, not just customize. Had speeder parts scattered all over the kitchen last night, workin on contest entry. Then I started takin' pics. I kinda like this one...
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Nice pic, Doc. Is that bike body going to be part of your entry?
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It might - depends on how well the other projects turn out.
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Looks pretty good to me.
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Doc, those are some very excellent projects going on...Your Daughter looks like she means business with the weapon...My youngest son is very jealous of her large gun, he wants one!
BTW, you shouldn't be dissappointed with your custon, he's right on the money. For folks who have not ventured into the chill out room for a while here he is in action.
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2522/3853735663_bfc310ed76_b.jpg)
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hey doc, that bike looks familiar ;) lol. Can't wait to see it finished. Love that agent helix too, I've got a custom using her on the table right now. I have been wanting that darth tallon for a while too but never have gotten it.....
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;) You know artists - they are usually their own worst critic! He looks GREAT!! Must be his awesome surroundings bringing him to life... ;D
Yup - same bike! Well, mine was the Decepticon version - Rebound, I think? Great bike body! Still not entirely sure what I'm going to do with it yet. But I've got a PILE of different vehicles up for butchering. Heck, I might build a kriffin' speeder-truck!
I got this one Joe thing - a FANG II - that would make an AWESOME entry! But the one I got was a parts-pile...it's pretty busted up, so if I did anything with it, I'd be having to get pretty crazy with the trimming and rebuilding.
As for Helix - yeah, she won't be left unchanged by her time with me... mwahahahahaha!!!
Oh, Jules! That G36? That's one of my customizing projects... It's going to be part of my Mando outfit. I'm going to try and make it look similar to the ARC Trooper blaster-rifle.
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doc, what I did with my agent helix is used a tiny pin sized diamond ball on my dremel and gave her a little bit more cleavage and painted everything that was yellow a skin tone, and all of her arms. I'm going back and touching up the harness and giving her somekind of backpack... She's probably going to be a smuggler/merc for my 'verse.
I did see a fairly decent mando custom using her on e-bay though and I'd entertained the idea of doing a mando with her... The one on e-bay had a different head though, I'm pretty sure it was a juno fig's head, and the head sculpt on helix is one I realy like.
anyways can't wait to see that bike. Are you keeping it a transformer?!?
a side note one mine, do you remember the old 80's cartoon M.A.S.K.? I got the 25th joe version of Matt Trakker and though what vehicle does a transforming vehicle specialist need.... SWOOP DROID! so now I've got to come up with a good star wars name similar to Matt Trakker and fit him into my verse somehow, or at least give him a decent backstory so he gan have a chance on e-bay!
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No, I'm going to glue the bike down and have a go at seam-sealing. Certain mods/additions need to be attached in a way that precludes retaining the transforming functions. As for the smuggler character, check out "Platte O'Keefe" - she's a bloody close match already, I think. (old WEG D6 SWRPG character) I need to try this Scarlett (halo jumper) head on her body, just to see. Lotta room to work with this one! And I gotta say, a Mando would be a rockin' approach! But then - Mandos are like chocolate - adding some makes anything better!
Thanks for the suggestions on working with Helix - I was looking at going the "yellow = skin" route but wasn't real sure what I should do yet.
The MASK idea sounds interesting - I'd looked at grabbing some old MASK stuff recently, but haven;t gotten around to it. I'd love to get ahold of a 25th Matt Tracker eventually!
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doc you got anything you'd like to trade for matt trakker? the more I look at the fig I don't know that I have anything to do with him... kinda bums me out a little.
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Heck, I dunno... I reckon almost anything I got is fair game - almost. I been buyin scads of stuff up so as to have plenty o' parts for making folks to be background characters and stuff. Lookin for anything specific?
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I've discovered Windows Movie Maker. God help us all...
Figured I might as well start a video-specific thread.
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The Babbling Bounty Hunter (already posted once in my Gallery thread, but it is a video and this is the video thread...)
(http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u239/LosLejanos/videos/th_babblingbountyhunter.jpg) (http://s169.photobucket.com/albums/u239/LosLejanos/videos/?action=view¤t=babblingbountyhunter.flv)
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Portside (complete with music track)
first, unrelated pic thrown in to fill gap made by the voiceover ad created by the shareware sound editor
(http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u239/LosLejanos/videos/th_portside.jpg) (http://s169.photobucket.com/albums/u239/LosLejanos/videos/?action=view¤t=portside.flv)
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HAHA! man I used to mess around with video editing back in my spud gunning days. I used to have a bunch of video's out on you-tube of me blowing crap up in various ways... I think my favorite video I put out there was of a full soda can being launched out of my potato cannon and striking a cinder block... Blew that sucker to smitherines and created a realy cool looking coke vapor cloud...
anyways, can't wait to see your stuff. I'm going to probably start a new you-tube profile for my youngest son... he has discovered how to take movies with his digital camera and the resulting hilarity is too good to keep to ourselves! lol
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*boot* so Spud sees I have videos posted while he was replying!
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lol... yeah... I saw that.
Watched em too... what's with the babbling bounty hunter? should it be silent? I watched that and silently, to myself, went... WTF!!?? LOL!
that little chase sequence was funny too but I think a different sound track would be better.
FYI... google "star wars sound effects" and you'll get alot of good sound bits to use in videos like these.
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Yeah, he's silent - I don't have a mic for my computer. And his mouth moves too slow - but WMM only goes down to .5 second displays, so I can't make him talk faster. Yeah, I need to expand my selection of usable sound effects and music, for sure...
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You know, doc, if your mic jack on your pc is 3.5mm, you can use a pair of headphones with the same size jack as a mic. Kind of crude but it works.
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Interesting!
/looking/
Heh - holes are the same size... so I could use the earpiece as a low-rigged mic, then? I'll have to try that AFTER finishing up this contest.
Now, if I just had a QUALITY video- & audio-editing software pkg, I could make Photo-Dramas!
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Well, after getting the shots I needed for contest posting, I went back and kept shooting. Here's a couple of the better ones.
(http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u239/LosLejanos/customs/biker%20chick/1012.jpg)
(http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u239/LosLejanos/customs/biker%20chick/1016.jpg)
check out the SHADOW in #2!!!
details:
Laneena:
head: Aayla Secura (repainted green, as blues are supposed to be rare?)
everything else: RoC GI Joe "Desert Ambush Scarlett"
barricade: "Wild Grinders" skateboard-toy playset
swoop:
base: Transformers "Knockout" (iirc)
fins: glider-pack from some "Sigma 6" 2-fer pack I got on ebay and discovered they were 2" figs!
nose scoop: BARC Speeder
Pulled the Xformer apart and dumped the wheels and leg-parts. Trimmed missles off jetpack. Repainted. Shoved Speeder scoop in front. Glued jetpack in place. Voila!
I had SOOOO many ideas! A Mando on a speeder, a two-seater with swoop-ganger and biker b***h, a scout speeder or two - heck, even a speeder-truck... and I think every one of them will eventually get made! But, honestly, listening to folks discussing things early on, something that got mentioned (by spudafett, iirc) put the idea of a professional swoop racer in my head. Clean lines. Sleek paint-apps. Eye-catching. The only thing I didn;t manage - but that I don;t necessarily feel is missing - are the sponsor decals. ;D
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very....pink.... ;D
nice one
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LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
off to find more pics before making comments....
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Awsome, Doc! I just love the chick and the bikendoes rock!
I'm glad you shot some more picks.
Some sponsor decals would have been the capper.
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COOL!! She is pink and still look dangerous ;)
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Because I had this request...
Aww, you forgot the Megan Fox @$$ up in the air pose. :p
I can but try... ;D
(http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u239/LosLejanos/customs/biker%20chick/1006.jpg)
(http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u239/LosLejanos/customs/biker%20chick/1024.jpg)
(http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u239/LosLejanos/customs/biker%20chick/1020.jpg)
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Nice!! that is one hot babe good work, the speeder is very nice also.
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never noticed how much sense pitt commandos make for security troops, especially in SW, given their high tech gear.
Loved that vid, man.
Spuda, lets see a link to your videos.
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I've discovered Windows Movie Maker. God help us all...
Figured I might as well start a video-specific thread.
Dude, all my stuff is done on Windows Movie maker, if I can offer any support PM me.
I love your stuff BTW.
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i use only movie maker as well
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True sadness - repainting a POTF2 Boba Fett just to see how a certain color scheme would look...
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Lets see Doc. Painting bobas is great fun.
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Just a color-check
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lol what happens when you start chopping up potf bobas to make removable armor? ;)
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Er... you spend a fortune on 99-cent auctions on ebay for POTF2 Bobas? ;D
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Is that darker color a brown? I could see this being a cool paint scheme on an animated boba.
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idk... no offense doc but its not pleasing my eye. I think the arm and leg color is what is getting me. I like the black on orangeish colors you have going on the chest though. I'd run with that.
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Yeah, the armor plates are painted "Raw Umber" - a *very* dark brown. The idea was to use something like desert camo colors but not paint a camo pattern. The khaki undersuit isn't exactly working for me, either. But, then, I haven't painted gaunts, boots, belt, etc. yet. I'm considering Yellow Ochre for his gaunts (this is close to Afrika Mustard, Clint). Might paint his codpiece to match the chestpieces and go with a lighter brown for the belt. Boots - maybe black. We'll see.
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Now you got me curious. Sounds interesting. This fig is a test bed for a color scheme for that animated boba I sent you, isn't it?
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yeah with everything else painted it should come together nicely. Very interesting choice of colors... I'm so bad at making good decisions on color schemes. I use what I know works and usually wind up with a very generic looking fig.
I get myself worked up sometimes because I construct what I think is going to become an awesome figure or vehicle and then I screw the paint up on it by using a bad color scheme or just fraking it up somehow and ruin all my hardwork :(....
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Good possibility, Clint. I've got several Mando ideas going and figured the old POTF guys could help out as test-beds. In fact, I've considered using them as test-beds for armor colors for our full-scale outfits. "Look! I'm an action figure!"
Spud, I know exactly what ya mean!! That's happened more often than I care to admit on my own stuff.
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Did some work last night. Only thing I had a chance to do today was basecoat the jetpack. This reminds me of my days when I re-painted little green army men!
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couple more pics, Laneena with a salesman...
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and a video...
(http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u239/LosLejanos/videos/th_swoopbiker.jpg) (http://s169.photobucket.com/albums/u239/LosLejanos/videos/?action=view¤t=swoopbiker.flv)
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freaking rad, man.
I thought I was the one that mentioned a pro swoop racer. .oh well, great minds and all.
I still need to sit down and hammer out that dang ole swoop.
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oh yeah, that realy works! I'm digging that alot... get that guy a jetpack and a cape and a BFG!
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May well have been you, Narce! I just can't remember. But it struck a chord and I ran with it.
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Well, the jetpack is drying on the paintrack, the cape may just be the repainted "Standard Issue Boba" cape w/ Wook braids cut off, and the BFG... Well, with him being so buff (cartoon) and his paintjob (cartoon), he's really gotta have an over-the-top cannon, doncha think? Something in the "stupidly huge" category, maybe... Hafta see what I can find... ;D
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Nice video Doc. It just took me a bit to figure out the embed code. I like that bike rider!
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Brilliant work she looks fantastic, and the bike is great also. Good work I hope to see more in the future.
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hey guys I got a bunch of my videos posted that I was rambling on about eirlier. I started a thread over in the blog section
http://www.imperialshipyards.net/SMF/index.php?topic=1097.0
go check it out. I'm putting up some more vids today
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Doc,
Just been admiring your vid on the front page...GREAT WORK!!
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;D
Thankee!
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And here's why we love build-a-droid parts! Take an HK torso, add U-3PO limbs and RA-7 head then pose...
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lol I love the coke can containers!
I need to do me a couple custom backgroud dios for photographing my figs...
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Cool, Doc. Reminds me of Biotron from the Micronauts for some reason.
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Those cans are so tall, they look like they're Monsters! Nice parts swap on the droid, Michael.
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Y'know, Clint, I was thinking Micronauts after I got him assembled.
Spud, those coke-cans are Sprywalker's fault!! HE made me do it!! And actually...armorcast.com has can-toppers to turn anything up to a Pringles can into wargaming industrial scenery. One day, I shall own one of each set they offer.
R1bb1t - they are!! Irish Blend Java Monsters! The short 8oz Coke cans with actual top detailings were out in the shop...
I think I'm gonna give the RA-7 legs a try on him, I think the 3PO legs might look a touch too beefy on the narrowed hips, but he *is* a *labor* droid, after all.
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like he's in labor, with those birthing hips, :)
Armorcast, there's a name I've haven't heard in many years. . .
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Well and so! I made another table from a golf tee, a miscellaneous wooden bead (the long thing acting as a leg), and a wooden nickle. Paint is Krylon's H2O Black latex.
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Here's the new container-fodder I mentioned in LS's thread!
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Those look good Doc, can't wait to see them painted or with some greebies added on.
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Doc, I love your storage container ideas. I keep wondering what fodder you will dream up next.
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That table looks good, Doc. I'm seeing those storage containers as power distribution boxes like the ones with the conduit attatched next to the turrets in the rebel hoth trench scenes.
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Clint, that's what I was thinking they looked like.
As for the table, I think it's a WIP pic. It looks good as-is, but I'm thinking about a hammered-finish paint I have...
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Doc,
These images are great, I love all of your containers, they make excellent diorama fillers. I too am looking forward to the painted images.
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Some more tables and stools...
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Did some casting last night with the Smooth-On plastic. Air bubble issue was better, but still not acceptable. Humidity was about 70% inside. I also tried a technique called "slush-casting" - I dumped some resin into an R7 head mold. When it started "fogging up," I started rolling the mold and letting the liquid resin coat the interior surfaces of the mold. Ideally, this will result in a hollow cast with a fairly thin wall. Here's the result, with a black basecoat, next to the original...
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You can see the imperfections. :-\ Hopefully, a dehumidifier will improve that. Here's a couple of shots of the interiors...
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hmm that is an interesting result you got there doc...
I wonder... if you could make realy easy hollowed out helmets this way? you wouldn't have to worry about the internal part of the molding that way...?
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I think it prolly depends on the helmet and exactly how it is cast. But I'm betting something could be managed...
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well, if nothing else you could use this to make non bad droid heads into hollow heads real quick....
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Ok, this is going up out of order, so forgive me. Here's the re-tweaked labor droid: all BAD parts - RA-7 head and legs, U-3PO arms, HK torso. He'd benefit from a unifying paint-color.
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Good stuff! That last set of tables and stools are really nice. I can identify the parts and may make something similar now. Keep up the great work.
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just an idea doc... could you set the mold, on say a vibrating table to help bring the bubbles to the surface, only ask as i have seen concreters use a similar technique to level out their work and seen air rise from it, i think it will work wonders! ;D
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I have tried a couple of variations of that technique, Trevor, and thus far, haven't had much better results with it. In some molds with troublesome undercut areas, I find if I fill the mold 1/3 of the way up while runny and squeeze it so that the resin coats the inside and then fill the rest of the way that it will help.
Love the pics of the resin parts, Doc. Show us more, please.
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I tried a small sex-toy vibrator last time and did without it this time (ran the batt's down last time) and had *fewer* air-bubbles this time. So, for me, results are inconclusive as yet. The plastic I'm using has a lower viscosity than the Alumilite product I had, so air bubbles trapped out in the tips of things is much less of a problem. The killer on my pours is the suspended air that makes the tiny bubbles. And that, I am told, is due to high humidity. Being in the bloody SWAMPS, overcoming humidity will be a significant challenge.
Psyclone, just you wait, vod! I got a kriffing *wrought iron* tabletop underway!!! Yes, complete with real cutouts! Fast, cheap, AND easy!! Now, we just have to see if it looks GOOD! ;D
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Psyclone, just you wait, vod! I got a kriffing *wrought iron* tabletop underway!!! Yes, complete with real cutouts! Fast, cheap, AND easy!! Now, we just have to see if it looks GOOD! ;D
Looking forward to it.
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NOTE TO ADMIN.
SOMEONE CHANGE DOC OUTLANDS STATUS FROM SGT MAJOR TO
"MASTER MOLDSMAN"
Awesome Doc, simply awesome.
(It was odd joining this at the Sex toy post).
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I strive to make everyone's life a touch more...surreal. ^-^ Jules, take a look in my "Backstage" thread in Dios and see how I put your backgrounds to good use to make a mini-"pose box" for 1-2 figures!
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No comment on the vibrator, but if you want to get the air out and will be doing alot of castings there are a couple of ways,
1. Search Ebay for a used lab table top shaker, these are used in may ways but use catagory lab equipment
2. Make a vacuum vessle to draw the air out. can be difficlt to get right but once you do will produce manufactured quality, I would only recooment this is you plan on doing alot of casting in the future. You can find homebuilt plans on google I would assume.
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And option 3 is pressure-casting, which I was looking at last night. I plan to experiment with all three methods, unless one proves clearly superior fairly quickly. The big issue for me at the moment is that I have to use my planned workshop (the BIG one, not the shed) as storage while we get this trailer-house sold and the stuff sorted. My planned workshop will be made from a 48' refrigerated semi-trailer. ;D Insulated and everything.
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Oh,a nd I'm *far* from being able to claim "master moldsman"! I figure once I cure the bubble issue, I'll move up from Apprentice to Journeyman Moldsman... ;D
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Wait. .. what?
a 48 foot refridgerated trailer?
Do go on. . I'm intrigued.
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Oh, yah! My dad buys and sells "junque" of the type generally seen driving up and down the highways, hauling cargo. Back in the spring, he bought up several loads of stuff from a guy cleaning out what had become something of a junkyard. Said loads included a couple of damaged refrigerated ("reefer") trailers. Knowing I needed storage space, he offered them to me. As I was still working a pipeline gig at the time, I had the $$ to drop on them. So, I now own a couple of former food-hauling trailers and am filling them up with my own junque! One will be turned into a workshop for me and Rebe to ply our crafts - woodworking, molding, model-building, soap-making, sewing, and the like. The other... well, it might become storage for junque we can't bear to let go of or maybe a backup camper(!), or maybe even... a BARN! (one of them *is* a barn-red in color)
I'll have to take pics and put it in the "workspace" thread. ;)
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That sounds so cool Doc. You guys in the States have so much more room than us Europeans, especially here in the UK, it's just rows and rows of tiny houses, bollowing black smoke, horse and carts and people yelling ooooh aaarrrr!
I'll keep an eye on the Workspace forum! (oooh aaarrr)
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HA!! You lie! There's not enough room in the UK to HAVE a horse!! Much less a horse AND a cart! hehehehehehehe
Yeah, we're pretty sloppy with our space over here, once you get outside the huge cities. We are in no way as efficient as Europeans. We still have a *lot* of frontier-air about us.
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HA!! You lie! There's not enough room in the UK to HAVE a horse!! Much less a horse AND a cart! hehehehehehehe
Yeah, we're pretty sloppy with our space over here, once you get outside the huge cities. We are in no way as efficient as Europeans. We still have a *lot* of frontier-air about us.
Nay! tis only room enough for the gutters, for it is where pliteth my manure afore I goeth to the workhouse!
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Doc, those tables are great! You should put them into a cantina scene, they'd fit right in!
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Picked up the young Owen Lars fig last night and opened him up to get at the HK part today. So, not one to leave well enough alone, I started messing about with him. I discovered Owen's head fits quite well onto both Capt. Needa *and* our new Hoth Rebel Trooper! Needless to say, out came the camera for a series of shots...
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Some more of our good man Lars.
#1 - bare-headed
#2 - wearing Gen McQuarrie's cap
#3 - wearing Hoth Rebel's cap
#4 - Hoth Rebel's head on Needa's body
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So where the heck is Needa's head??!?? All shall be revealed, young grasshoppers...
#1 - "Random Cantina Patron #644" who is...
#2 - ...a 'Station maintenance worker by day, then...
#3 - a Jedi in hiding by night??!!
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LOL, now that was in informative head swapping session, Doc. Thanks for that. It wouldn't be too hard to drum up some diversity in between a few of the new hoth rebel troopers, I see. That helps.
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I've been meaning to reply for some time now on your work, Doc. You've got a knack for finding all kinds of everyday stuff and make it part of that GFFA. The coke cans and tables are just great, especially because of their simplicity.
I also like that labor droid a lot. And yes, paint it up, dude!
Great going on the Needa and Lars head swaps as well. Lars makes for a great extra Hoth Trooper 8)
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Oh what a great idea, I love the fact you are showing us different head swaps, I'm going to buy lars right now!
Thanks...
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Michael, I think you did an excellent job on all of these latest works. Owen's head fits perfectly on the Hoth soldier.
Also, that cantina patron/ maintenance worker/ Jedi looks great.
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Thanks, guys! That was one of those "Hmmm... I wonder if..." moments that worked out fairly well! I'll be making a mold of Owen's head (heck, I'll end up making molds of every head I own, ball-jointed or not!) so that I can mix things up a bit.
The real surprise was how well the Lars body works in a different setting! I prolly really will use that body as a 'Station denizen when I start putting together whatever it is I end up calling my sequence of diorama/playsets.
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The good Mr. Lars returns with us today, modeling two more headpieces...
#1 - Here he sports the headwrap packaged with Mr. Trinto Duaba. This headwrap is just the thing for those sudden sandstorms moisture farmers are often caught in.
#2 - Now we see him showing off the head-covering last worn by the comic-pack Mara Jade. Mr. Lars looks to be wearing a bit thin in the patience department, so perhaps we shall move on...
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I almost don't know if this one counts as a custom. I've been trying to find the right look for one of my characters in the Fixer ramblings and here was today's "effort." It is little more than a "Starkiller Hero" with everything removed and a Cesi Eiriss head swap. The baton was donated by a Bespin Guard. (we wanted to use his manacles as well, but Ms. Brood refused to allow him to remove them from her wrists in time for the photo-shoot)
This is Constable Xola.
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Finally, some Yak's Pub-style humor in honor of the fast-approaching Halloween...
"I swear, if I hear 'Oh, what a cute costume' one more time, I'm gonna KILL somebody!"
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I recently changed from being a joe fan to being a star wars fan. With that in mind, I'll be tossing out my old "verse" of customs and ideas and starting a new one.
I like reading about your "station" I'm pretty sure it'll be my road map, :)
And now looking at your head swaps, just looking at them give me ideas, lol.
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I do not like the term "headswap".... From now on I shall refer to this procedure as a "body transplant" procedure....
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LOL - I'm all for that! An you know... you can get some radically different figures without ANY painting if all you do is pull off certain accessories, pop on a new head, and fit on a new accessory or two. I mean, that Random Cantina Patron looks totally different from Owen Lars with nothing more than Needa's head and Luke's floppy hat.
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why dont we refer to head swaps as "The DOC Solution".....?
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That was cool putting that clone helmet on that figure.
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Just a quick couple of shots. The crates are from http://www.itarsworkshop.com/ (http://www.itarsworkshop.com/) - solid resin casts. In the first pic, I posed five basecoated paints with their untouched brothers alongside a droid for scale. In the second picture, the orange machine is a solid hydrostone cast from http://nalsworkshop.com/ (http://nalsworkshop.com/), built with blocks from one of Bruce's latest molds - Industrial Machinery Builder, I think. Right now, everything is just basecoated - the rest of the painting has yet to be done.
(http://images.yuku.com/image/jpeg/4dd26695c43bd62c330b1d777d2764a6cce0e210.jpg)
(http://images.yuku.com/image/jpeg/83336494536a398769df3029bb9b7296e87aee69.jpg)
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Doc,
I am new here and I have not got a chance to speak with you yet. Wanted to say I poked around through your customs all 29 pages and man I like what you are doing.
The Sniper's looked great and were fun to pillage through. Brendan I take is your son or something. His Airborne gang looked good also.
Nice job mate. Keep em coming.
Darth Creatine
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Thanks for the compliments, DC! Yeah, Brendan is my son. He and my middle daughter have a good time hunting thru pegs for good figures to customize.
Sorry for the lack of pics, folks! I'm having to use pics from a new hosting source and I copied the wrong url! Got 'er fixed this morning, tho. Enjoy!
(oh, the droid in the pics is just a mash-up of BAD parts with a RoC Elite Viper armor vest.)
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Looks like the casting has continued. Back on the front page!
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Aw, I haven't cast those (just the wall panels over in my blog) - I bought the crates from fellow casters. I'm working with them to design and produce some larger ones closer to scale with action fig's. They had no idea there might be a market outside the 1" wargame figures for their stuff. But yeah - I am back to casting stuff! Didn't realize how much I missed it until I broke out the molds and resin!
Pretty soon, I'll have a dockside "dio" built from cast pieces to use for a photo-prop to show off new fig's. I'm experimenting with layout and detail-pieces to get the look I really want.
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NIce custom
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This set up looks great Doc. You know I love the background fillers and these crates are awesome! Let us know when larger ones are available. Great to see you back!
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Luke, I got a mold for a crate that is 2"x2"x2.5"tall. I'll put one of those together over the weekend and let ya see it.
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cool customs! :)
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Doc, I've been wondering where you've been...you have been missed!
Great recent posts, I particularly like the headswap stuff as it's a good resource for budding customisers.
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Yeah! I was just wondering why I hadn't seen you around Yakface in a while! Glad you're still around! :D
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Well, Brendan rose to the challenge issued over at Echo Base Forums and their current contest for bounty hunters. His problem? He developed TWO.
Here's a look at them:
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Very nice figures!
They look pretty badass.
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they look wicked!
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not to be outdone ... WIP for developing a Legacy ARF! Base fig was the old Bacara fig "with action quick draw!", a belt from the Clone EVO set, and an ARF head from Clint. I think the new Bacara is super-arty? If so, I'll be nabbing one to use as the final base. It's promising... heck, I may enter him in the Trooper Contest!
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awesome mando!
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Nice bounty hunters and legasy ARF but that old body is poo doo! Put that awesome cast on anything else Doc, please? :P
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hehe - I will. That body just happened to be handy this evening. I'm tempted to go buy a new Bacara and ARF, so I can cut the neck-ball off Bacara and install the ARF neck-ball. That resizing exercise was frustrating!
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Thats a cool mando custom liking the rots arf concept cant wait to see it completed.
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Nice work, Doc! Cool to see you showing some new stuff. I do love seeing my parts on other people's customs.
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nice work!
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Cmdr Bacara was kind enough to give up his body for this project. The head is an ARF Trooper cast from Clint, as is the repeating blaster he's toting.
Ideally, I'll find some gloss white that I can go back over the helmet with, so that it will match his armor. This was my first shot at dremelling out a cast head/helmet to fit a larger neck-ball. I used my new "Dremel Workstation" for the first time - it held the Dremel up off the table and at an angle, so I could control just the position of the helmet. I need to give the helmet the "hot glue and vaseline treatment so that it will sit right without flopping about loosely.
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Nice one doc! Look at that chain gun!
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Looking good Doc but I agree it will look better in gloss. Loving that chain gun!
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coooool customs ;)
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this is nice stuff man!!! thanks for the link to itars workshop im buying A pump station with attached tank. cast in resin looks good for the underworld of coruscant factory type thing
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Excellent!! You should get one of those specimen containers from Nal's Workshop to go with it. Tell them OutlandStation sent ya!
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cool! ;D
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Great to see you back to work, Doc! I like that Chain Gun.
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oh that looks great and the minigun is really cool
I'll try to make a realistic ARF if I can find another ARF-trooper.
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or get a cast head from Clint...
Most of my local stores have them, so I considered getting one to make a wearable/hollowed out one.
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I'm actually planning on hollowing one out and then molding it so I can cast hollow ones.
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Good plan! (saves me from having to obtain one... ;D )
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i sure will!
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Thread necro!!
Has it really been that long? Apparently...
Ok, I have a couple of WIP's that I want to share. First up is my entry in the Fan-Fic Customs Contest. May I present...
FIXER!!!
(http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u239/LosLejanos/Outland%20Station/wips/fixerandfx7.jpg)
He's very close to being finished, but I'd shot the pic earlier today to see how it turned out "on film" to see where I needed to work on the fig. A standard FX7 is shown alongside for comparative purposes.
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Nest up is a POTF/POTJ Boba Fett who is doing extra duty trying out a new color scheme.
(http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u239/LosLejanos/Outland%20Station/wips/mando01.jpg)
(http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u239/LosLejanos/Outland%20Station/wips/mando02.jpg)
I might try and get a Vintage Fett to repaint in this scheme or I may just leave this ancient warrior as the armor-bearer and maybe slip him into some shots as a bystander later. We'll see...
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Awesome. Do both. I've got some of those Boba Fetts that I'm thinking of painting. Funny, I also thought of using them as guinea pigs for color schemes.
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awesome work love boba fett cool colors !!!!!!!!!
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Sweet Fixer Doc! You gonna add some apparatus so he can move?
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Thanks, guys! Tamer, I was looking at the FX7 base and *as yet* haven't figured out how or what I can do there. In the story, the wheels aren't very noticeable, so I *may* leave him as-is on that part and call it good. But we'll see...
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SWEET!! this is by far the awesomest fig i seen on here !
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Looking good Doc! I love Fixer!
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Amazing custom man!
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So I was looking at the Mando and showing him off - my wife liked the overall black look of him with just accents in red. So I got to wondering how a certain accent style would look... and here's the result...
(http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u239/LosLejanos/Outland%20Station/wips/DSCF2011.jpg)
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looks great doc !
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The Legacy ARF Trooper looks sweet. I may actually have to try one of those myself.
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Yes that does look like a great idea.
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your update looks great you wife was spot on !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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nice upgrade
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Merry Christmas!
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merry christmas doc i hope you have a great time!
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Thanks, guys! In addition to routine Christmas festivities, I spent the day working on non-toy customs. AM taking pics and will get them posted so you can see what else I do. ;)
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Ok, got my Fan-Fic entry off! As a final touch, I added some neon/uv-reactive details.
(http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u239/LosLejanos/Outland%20Station/competition%20pics/fan-fic%20competition/uvlook.jpg)
Not sure they show up real well - not at all happy with my current UV lightsource, as the camera tends to pick it up as a strong blue light and it washes out the glow from the neons.
I shot a *lot* of pics to get one I liked. Here's one of the better ones.
(http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u239/LosLejanos/Outland%20Station/competition%20pics/fan-fic%20competition/fullspread.jpg)
If you look closely, Fixer has a red faceted 2mm Austrian crystal on one eye-lens, as well. All the lower arms are functional in two joints and were created from FX-7 and FX-6 tool-arms. One arm has a huge claw on it courtesy an unnamed Clone Commander's grappling rope. I repainted most of the white panel-lines, but the markings are far from Jay's quality! ;) Fixer's holotat is not in evidence. The primary reason for this is because the location of the holotat does not exist on the figure. If you look at the FX-7 in shots from Hoth's med-bay, you can see the droid's "neck" is actually hollow - the head is supported on four panels. The figure has five recessed panels in the proper area, but the construction of the fig makes hollowing out and detailing the neck-stump problematic.
As I've been cleaning up my workbench and making jewelry, I've been finding bits and pieces that I may someday end up adding onto Fixer - much like Lucas, the droid may not be a completed work... ever...
8)
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Nice droids. I like the colors.
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Superb doc !
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AS I SAID ON THE CONTEST PAGE ! THIS IS AWESOME HAPPY NEW YEAR !!
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very cool. nice clean lines and such.
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Very nice additions to your droid Doc! He looks great!
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cool man its gonna be a close contest HAPPY NEW YEAR!
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I really like fixer what paint do you use
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Well, I totally disassembled the base FX-7 and painted it with a Krylon metallic blue spray-can. After that, the detail work was done with the basic WalMart craft paints - Ceramcoat, Americana, Delta, Folkart, and such. Even the UV/Neon colors were available in the craft-paint section.
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cool thanks
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Happy New Year!
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fixer is awesome Doc
the paintwork looks very nice
austrian crystal? do you mean Swarovski crystal?
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Thanks! And yup, that's what I meant.
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awesome droid sir. :)
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Thankee, sir! I kinda like him... ;D
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do love Fixer both as a character and as a custom
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So I've been a head-swapping fool for the contest, right. Here's one that's gonna need paint, but I think will likely end up a permanent custom. She'll need new arms, prolly from a comic-pack Mara Jade.
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Nice, I got one of those Joe chicks too. Just haven't done anything with her yet.
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Nice one Doc. I love that Helix body!
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great head swap . i like it
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Sweet one Doc. This kit bash contest is creating all sorts of great ideas.
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Love your Twi'lek smuggler!! She's awesome!!
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Yeah, she is officially a WIP pic. Tamer, I whole-heartedly agree - this no-paint contest has really inspired some new designs that may not have otherwise ever happened!
DD - y'all just wait til I get the "right" arms on her and get her a uniform skin-tone applied. Then I think she'll rival my other Twi'lek custom (the swoop-racer) - or maybe even surpass her! Hm, and now I just had an idea of where to use her left-over arms... excellent!!
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that is sweet ;D
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that Twi'lek smuggler looks great even without any permanent mods to it yet. interested in seeing what you decide to settle on after painting, etc.
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Nice twilek man!
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TAMER!!! I DID IT!!!
Ok, y'all remember from the NPKB, Tamer was looking for a Hoth trooper cap to fit a "snowbunnie Padme" head. The newest Rebel Trooper cap was too big (iirc) and didn't sit right. Well, as I was digging about in Production Platform 3 today, I found the perfect Hoth cap! It is the one that came with the General McQuarrie figure!
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Very nice, The Head swaps r really neat man. I'm lovin that Twi'lek, she looks great.
JW
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That cap looks sharp, doc. I can't remember if that one was molded on or removable.
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It is a regular removable helmet Clint. Doc, great find! She looks awesome!
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Doc that is spot on!
Makes me wish I had picked up all those Generals when I saw em at clearance. Are you gonna try to cast that puppy?
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Eventually, yes. I have plans to acquire some flex-resin so that my caps come out flexible rather than rigid, like the material I currently use. I'm kinda building up to that moment, tho. ;) I've been on a molding kick over the weekend, and with it raining here we may not make our supply-run today (50m each way), so I may have a go at pouring that cap up in a mold today - just to be ready.
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Oh, and I would have bought them ALL on clearance!! Great Rebel officer body!
@JediWolf - thanks! I think having figures with interchangeable heads is wonderful - that lets those of us who are inclined to tell stories with pics have a much larger cast of actors without having to go thru a lot of effort for the changes.
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great job i like it!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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excellent figure Doc
she looks great
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great work, it's awesome what a simple head swap can do.....
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She looks great!
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Thanks, guys! It's always nice when something simple and easy ends up looking really good. It's also REALLY nice when you have an idea that a particular part *should* work and then after weeks of hunting for the part, you find it and it IS perfect!
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wow, I like this figure very much! yeah, the simple things are often the most powerful :)
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Definitely a WIP. The Saga Veers body was the only one I've yet found that looks right under Darth Sinister's sculpt, but I really want to provide him with better articulation.
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That does look good even with less articulation. What head/who is that? I have not seen that sculpt before in Charles thread.
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the head looks like Lorne Green. You might remember him as Commander Adama from the original Battlestar Galactica.
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The head sculpt is great!!!
I must be really old I remember him as Ben Cartwright of Bonanza.
Can't wait to see the finished product!!
Rich
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If I correctly recall, DS told me at the time the head was an experiment? He was interested to see what I could come up with to match it. I'm not necessarily "old enough" but my grandpa used to watch Bonanza so he's as much Cartwright as Adama to me. I keep holding out, waiting to see what else I can find that looks right with that head on it... but so far, this is it! I find it rather humorous that so far he is pretty well cast as a high-ranking *Star Wars* military officer in my figure collection...
I think, after seeing him in pics, I'll leave him as-is and put him on the paint-desk for completion as Imperial Commander Adama.
Part of the sudden rise in "TV characters made into the SW Universe" theme we're seeing... ;)
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That's classic, doc!
I can't believe I didn't recognize him until his identity was revealed. That sculpt is pretty much spot-on
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Nice one!
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WOW thats really looks like Adama.
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If I correctly recall, DS told me at the time the head was an experiment? He was interested to see what I could come up with to match it. I'm not necessarily "old enough" but my grandpa used to watch Bonanza so he's as much Cartwright as Adama to me. I keep holding out, waiting to see what else I can find that looks right with that head on it... but so far, this is it! I find it rather humorous that so far he is pretty well cast as a high-ranking *Star Wars* military officer in my figure collection...
I think, after seeing him in pics, I'll leave him as-is and put him on the paint-desk for completion as Imperial Commander Adama.
Part of the sudden rise in "TV characters made into the SW Universe" theme we're seeing... ;)
I don't think Thundercats had a 3 3/4 line. Did they? It would be cool to use them in a SW line of figures.
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That is awesome! I knew it was a familure face but could not nail down who it was. I watched Bananza reruns all the time!
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Interesting to see how this turns out Doc. I'm too young for Bonanza or the original BSG, my first thought was this guy could be Ernest Borgnine...
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Anything more happen with that Twi'lek smuggler? I liked where that was going.
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Not at the moment - I've been busy with the mini-rig competition and with getting some molds made, particularly for the "iconic box" prop, and trying to get my wife and middle daughter revved up and off to Dallas, TX for a vocal competition this weekend. She's most assuredly NOT abandoned - just not the top priority at the moment.
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Hey Doc. That's a pretty good match! He may look good on the new General Lando body from the Vintage line as well.
That head is not my sculpt. That is actually a copy I cast off of a vintage Commander Adama figure I had as a kid. I always thought it was a dead on likeness. I fully intend on making all of the Cartwrights one day.
I loved that show! Still watch it today.
I have plans for TV show adaptions in the ArtThread. To go along with the character theme I've got going over there.
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Right on, and good luck to your wife and daughter!
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:thumbs-up: on the recast! I agree, it is spot-on. Man, if it fits the General Lando body, that could be some fun. The Commander, an Old Republic die-hard, isn't sure about this new "Galactic Empire" business and, during a long patrol in frontier-space, defects to the Alliance. I smell a photo-comic in there! (dunno if I want to pursue it or not, tho...)
My kids love watching the Bonanza dvd I got, too. I think it is the first few episodes?
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Are you talking about the pilot episode where the Cartwrights ride off singing the Bonanza theme song?
If so, please try to rip the song off the DVD for me. It is different from the song later published and very rare.
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I will check on it, Volker!
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As you know, I've got a lot of irons in the fire and customizing has taken a back-seat to everything else. Well, I changed that today, finally completing an idea that has been with me for well over a year. I love the build-a-droid concept and I want to create new "not-quite-SW" looks for droids - that *could* still pass as EU droid models. I have four specific concepts in mind that I want to pursue to those ends, hopefully even casting the heads to fit onto BAD torsos.
Here is the first realized design. I started with a U-3PO body and to it I added the head from a "Vader's Chopper Droid." The head had a bulge at the end of the neck-post that needed trimming to fit into the neck-socket. Other than that, no mods were made. Interestingly, the medical droid head actually has two distinct faces on opposing sides, allowing for even more customizing.
Here you can see the protocol droid, in the service of the Absynnian smuggler Myo, conferring with its master.
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I like the design and would love to see this guy repainted and weathered up!
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Dunno if this qualifies as a custom fig or not... Psyclone approached me about the possibility of taking a small figurine and molding and casting it to make a "holographic"style figure from it. Well, here's the result. I'd say it turned out ok. Fig is about half the size of an action figure. It is just the figurine recast in blue-tinted clear resin, lit from beneath by a white led booklight.
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Saw this on Facebook yesterday. So Awesome!
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Quick head-swap taking a head & tool from a kre-o Star Trek mini-fig and putting them on an Owen Lars body.
(http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u239/LosLejanos/Outland%20Station/20130430_220037_zps74ce865a.jpg) (http://s169.photobucket.com/user/LosLejanos/media/Outland%20Station/20130430_220037_zps74ce865a.jpg.html)
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Works very well. Love it when a simple something makes a good impact.
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that has worked really well !
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I like it, doc.
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Looks like it worked well, on the front page.
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Dang, that looks outstanding.
What stores are carrying Star Trek Kre-O? I haven't seen any yet.
0/
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Aw, Tamer! Thanks for the love!
My local backwoods TRU had several ST sets last night. I'll be picking up some more over the next couple of weeks to see what else I can come up with. I just wish the goggles were removable!
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I'm thinking the g/b above needs exposed, hairy forearms and more claw-like hands.
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Doc, I love the figure...great job!
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I may have just found some appropriate arms for him, based on a dio pic posted in a Facebook group. Now I have to dig into my collection this weekend and see what I can find...
Thanks for the love, guys! It's always fun to find parts that work out great in unexpected places!
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looks great hahahaha reminds me a characther of the Star trek movie
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Cause it *is*
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Looks cool,tattooine mechanic? Diorama character?
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This looks perfect Michael!
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Had to dig DEEP into cold-storage to find my thread!! Can't believe I only made *one* custom fig last year - and that was almost a year ago! Well, as of today, I'm at twice that for *this* year, and on track to rack up a few more.
Here's my entry I put in over at Yakface.com's Yakfinities 51 - Space Pirates. There's some pretty stunning entries over there, I encourage everyone to go check them out. Anyway, these two are a couple of pirates/privateers active during the pre-ANH time. I'll be making more of the crew, including their Alliance "handler" as part of the Joint Site Competition in the days to come, as well as providing a bit more of their backstory. Because you know me - there's always a story...
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They look good Doc. Off to share. Looking forward to reading your back stories too.
I need to give a shout out to YF's Custom Challenge too.
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I hear you - just dug out my customizing thread and realized it had been nearly a year since I had done any customs as well. Where does the time go?
I dig these two figures. They look great. Interested to see the rest of the crew.