Topic: Restoring Star Wars Action Figures: Neimoidian Commander - Revenge of the Sith

[Darth More]

Thank you very much (SID)! I was so tired that I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer. And I was also a bit frustrated by the result of my experiment. Thank you for your comment and your advice! I was also thinking of using a little paint so seal the edges, which would probably work better than glue. And I'm sure adding seams with a sewing machine would keep the fabric from fraying.
Once I can borrow a sewing machine from my sister I also think of sewing a octothorp pattern as seen on some other parts of the Hoth Rebel Soldiers' costume.
Anyhow the text edit is now complete on my lastest entry.

- Philipp

[Tamer]

The next time we ask Hasbro Questions we should ask them what type of material they use for the soft goods on their action figures. Hopefully I will remember this when the time comes.

This is a most excellent tutorial. I know you weren't satisfied with the results because of the fabric, but wow your method is just spot on. Off to share.

[customjedi]

A poly/cotton knit such as Interlock won't be as susceptible to fraying. The most recent version of the 3.75 Royal Guard used that type (or similar) fabric. The other thing you could do is apply a fray stop liquid to the cut edge, though you'd want to test that out first as it can affect the look of the edge of fabric in some cases.

[hemble]

Great looking soft goods mate. With the fraying I use PVA and get a brush and brush the PVA over the area's that you want to cut and let it dry and when you cut it, it won't fray as the PVA glue hold it in place.

Ron.

[Darth More]

@Tamer: Yes, that's actually an interesting question! But I suppose they won't answer that. At the most they will say, they use a variety of synthetic favrics. I'll remind you when the next opportunity comes. And I think customjedi knows the answer already!
And thank you for your thumbs up! That gives me motivation to try, again!


@customjedi: Thank you so much for this great advice! I'm just at the beginning of this topic and still got so much to learn about different fabrics, stencils and sewing. It seems you know quite a bit about this! I appreciate your feedback very much! I'll try to get differen fabrics and this liquid.



@hemble: Thank you mate! I'll try that out! I actually thought of adding acrylic paint to the damaged skirt. Or I'll get some PVA and do it all again, which will be a bit of work, but a lot of fun, too - that's for sure!



Thank you so much for your replies, gentlemen! And have a good weekend!

- Philipp

[FialaFernbrugg]

The soft goods skirt looks great so far.
Thank you for the detailed tutorial and the stencil.

You could try to remove the fringes with a lighter. I tried that on some of my customs.

[Darth More]

FialaFernbrugg: Thanks so much, buddy! I really need to finally finish that project and will definitely try to burn the fringes. I think I got the right cotton cloth that won't burn that easily.

[Darth More]

1/18 scale lightsabers cheap on ebay

I used to check ebay power sellers etoystores, cutesource and wiwus on a regular basis, but over the last months I got busy with other stuff. Meanwhile they listed more and more different sets of lightsabers and other accessories. The blue and green ones are sold as "genuine", but the red ones are nothing behind regarding quality.
They also seem to change their names on ebay on a regular basis or open dozens of different stores just to confuse you finding the best offer. So take your time and compare prices. It pays off!

So if you need to complete your action figures with lightsabers and blasters or need some acessories for your custom figures, they might have something for you!

I used a few of the red lightsabers for my latest custom figures of Darth Sion and General Grievous.


Unfortunately, all green lightsabers have sold out quickly, but I contacted etoyshop and he told me, that he's going to relist them again. All other sets can still be found. Until then you can also refer to purpletoy2008, but I don't have any experience with this seller and shipping is $4.99. The others offer FREE international shipping.





Here are some listings that I used and that pay off the most:






Beware the DC-17 blasters and red lightsabers are probably NOT AUTHENTIC!

[Tamer]

Thanks for taking the time to put this together. Off to share it on the front pages.

[Darth More]

Thanks for sharing this, Tamer! I think there are quite a few people out there looking for loose lightsabers. My order has passed the Dutch customs already. They arrived in Amsterdam, NL (interesting) and have been forwarded to Frankfurt a.M., DE. So I might receive them tomorrow and will share pictures. Cannot wait to paint the hilts of the blue ones!

[Tamer]

It will be great to see what you think of your order. Everyone needs a new lightsaber for their figures.

[Darth More]

The lot of loose lightsabers in red and blue arrived here by mail on Saturday.

The plastic of the red ones is clear. The material of the blue lightsabers is less translucent (like the one of ROTS & TLC General Grievous). They still glow when photographed with flash though (see second picture).
I don't remember ever seeing this red lightsaber on an official release by Hasbro, but I'm almost certain that the blue lightsabers are the real deal.

Most of the red lightsaber however came bent and with some small spots of black paint. The paint can be removed by rubbing them off and hot water will straighten them.

They came in the usual plastic envelope/folded plastic bag, which I didn't take a picture of.






I cannot wait to paint the hilts of some of the blue lightsabers and make a blue double-bladed one for a planned custom of Satele Shan!

- Darth More

[Starchaser]

Good for you! I'm excited that you are doing a Satele Shan custom, I've been contemplating her as well. As far as the red saber goes, I know there was a blue saber with that hilt released (just had it sitting on my desk last week - but it got put away), I'm not sure about a red version, though it vaguely runs in my mind that I've seen one. Anyway - no matter, you've got a great batch of sabers to work with.

[Darth More]

Starchaser: Thanks buddy! I thought the red ones looked quite similar to Obi-Wan's Ep. I hilt, but not quite. So your hint is extremely helpful because I now think that all lightsabers offered are made with the original molds. They probably just took red plastic instead of blue for these. I'm going to ask the seller for a little refund because none of the red lightsabers came flawless and I overpaid for them compared to their other offers. (I didn't discover the best ones before I had already purchased the first 10 red lightsabers, was too excited to have found them separately/without a Vader figure).
So now I can give all the red sabers back to the 10 Vaders and make four of them the official lightsabers of my dark side version of General Grievous.
I really hope some of these sellers will restock the green lightsabers, too. Meanwhile I try to find the perfect base for Satele Shan. Serra Keto is also on my list. At least I have all 3 lightsabers for both ladies to start with. lol
Thanks again and have a nice weekend!

- Philipp

[Starchaser]

Starchaser: Thanks buddy! I thought the red ones looked quite similar to Obi-Wan's Ep. I hilt, but not quite. So your hint is extremely helpful because I now think that all lightsabers offered are made with the original molds. They probably just took red plastic instead of blue for these. I'm going to ask the seller for a little refund because none of the red lightsabers came flawless and I overpaid for them compared to their other offers. (I didn't discover the best ones before I had already purchased the first 10 red lightsabers, was too excited to have found them separately/without a Vader figure).
So now I can give all the red sabers back to the 10 Vaders and make four of them the official lightsabers of my dark side version of General Grievous.
I really hope some of these sellers will restock the green lightsabers, too. Meanwhile I try to find the perfect base for Satele Shan. Serra Keto is also on my list. At least I have all 3 lightsabers for both ladies to start with. lol
Thanks again and have a nice weekend!

- Philipp

Serra's on mine as well - I wish Hasbro had gotten to these two figures.