Fooling around with more of Jabba's goons and some cantina patrons.
First up is Gauron Nas Tal.
Head, feet, forearms (modified): Saga Legends Bossk
Torso, upper arms: TVC Bom Vimdin
Lower arms (modified): TBS Vizam
Pelvis, legs: TVC Endor Rebel Commando
Cape: ROTLA Monkey Man
Lower tunic: KOTCS Russian soldier
I decided to make this guy because of all the extra Bossk bits and Bom torsos I've accumulated. The Bossk head fits the neck post without modification, so that was one less thing.
I sanded off the torso details and re-skinned it with Green Stuff, leaving a few "wrinkles" that I mashed in with rubber gloves. To make the turtleneck, I formed a cylinder of Green Stuff around Bom's raised collar, and pushed the cape into position to make a recess under the collar. Then I popped the head on and rolled it around, which pressed the Green Stuff down to kinda/sorta simulate the look I was going for. (Remember to keep the parts wet when dealing with Green Stuff so that they don't stick together.)
I wanted Gauron to look like he's wearing gloves, so I chose Vizam forearms because they matched the Bom shoulders fairly well, but narrowed down enough to "tuck" into the Bossk hands. After trimming the forearms, I superglued pegs carved/sanded from a KOTCS Russian solder, then drilled/Dremeled matching holes into the hands. I sanded most of the scaly texture off of the hands and added a Nintendo Gameboy to his left forearm. The gizmo was cut from the chest of a TAC concept Luke figure, contoured via sanding, and superglued into place.
Other than having prepped joints, the lower body is stock. I reversed the lower tunic from a KOTCS Russian soldier to better align with the torso peg. From the reference pic below Gauron's pants should have stripes too, but the Commando's leg sculpts are next-to-impossible to mask.
I sprayed the torso, tunic, and arms with Hi-Tech "Beige" dye. After masking the arm stripes, I sprayed them (many, many light "mist" coats to prevent bleeding) and the lower body with Meltonian "Green" dye and re-painted the lower legs with Tamiya "Flat Brown" acrylic. The hands were sprayed with Hi-Tech "Light Brown" and given a Testors "Leather" wash. I should've used a darker color because the hands are still too close of a color match to the head and feet. Will fix that at a later date. The Meltonian Green is very glossy so I gave everything a blast of Dullcote to tone it down a bit.
As a side note, I tried Testors, Tamiya, and Vallejo masking tape on the figures from this update. Testors is locally available, but has almost no tack. I only use it now to mark spacing. Tamiya is great for building dams when using Apoxie, but (in my experience) it didn't do much to prevent bleeding. Vallejo tape is the only thing I'll use for masking from here on.
The Jethro belt is a piece of 1/8" elastic dyed brown. After trimming, the tips were touched up with a Sharpie marker. The necklace chain is from Hobby Lobby, and the medallion is a 3D print from Shapeways. The medallion has a small indentation in the back, which I filled with JB Weld epoxy. I placed the ends of the chain in the epoxy and let it dry, then sanded the back flush, sprayed it with Tamiya gold lacquer, and painted the center with Testors "Insignia Red." I tried Tamiya "Clear Red" first, but didn't care for the results. The last step was to hit the medallion with Testors Gloss Clear.
I had planned to leave one end of the chain dangling below the medallion and attaching a smaller ornament to the end, but ultimately went with the simple look.
I stripped the factory paint from the cape using (what else) Winsor-Newton brush cleaner, then sprayed it with Hi-Tech "Burgundy" dye. I masked a 2mm strip around the robe's inner edge and sprayed it with VHT "Black" dye. After masking the diagonal lines on the black strip with 2mm masking tape, I dry-brushed the stripes with Folk Art "Copper" acrylic.
Finally, the eyes were repainted with Testors "Gloss Black."
"Swiggity swooty, I'm comin' for that booty!"
References:
Next is Arleil Schous.
Torso: TBS Ceremony Luke
Lower body/holster: TVC Bom Vimdin
Hands: TVC Ponda Baba
Head: Custom cast, thanks to your friend and mine!
Arleil should have a zipped-up jacket, but I couldn't figure out a better torso that wouldn't require sculpting. The body pieces are all stock with the exception of joint prep. The torso was sprayed with Hi-Tech "Flagstone," the jacket and sleeves with VHT "White," and the lower body with VHT "Dark Blue Satin." The boots were painted with Testors "Gloss Black." After some careful masking, the arm stripes were sprayed with VHT "Black." The head was sprayed with Tamiya "Black" lacquer, and the hands with VHT "Black" before getting dry-brushed with Testors "Ghost Gray." I dry-brushed the exposed flesh areas on the face and in the ears with Testors "Skin Tone Tint Base - Dark," then dry-brushed the teeth with Vallejo "Bone White." After investing in an illuminated stand-alone magnifying glass, I managed to dab on two red eyes with Testors "Insignia Red."
The belt is stock, and the blaster is from one of the old Saga Legends pack-in weapon crate assortments.
The last two are much, much simpler. Here's Beedo:
He's a Saga Legends Greedo with blue eyes and a TBS Toryn Farr vest. I did have... issues... with the vest.
As a surprise to no one, I prefer dyeing stuff versus painting. So, I bought Meltonian "Orange" dye and thought that would do it. Unfortunately, after letting the dye cure for a few days, I found that it had turned tacky. Never had this problem before - Don't know if I got a bad can, or if Meltonian doesn't work with the soft vest vinyl (although it is vinyl dye, so
) I stripped the vest and gave it a shot with Testors "International Orange" acrylic. Wasn't working too well, and I suspect it would've rubbed off like crazy. Stripped it again, and tried Rit Dye-More "Apricot." This stuff soaked in very quickly and looked really good. However, after putting on the vest, the dye began leaching out into the figure at an incredible rate. If the dye only soaked into the parts under the vest it wouldn't have mattered, but I don't think it would have stopped there. Stripped it again, scrounged another torso, and took one more shot. I couldn't find any other orange dyes, so I bought a can of SEM '69 Z-28 "Hugger Orange" interior paint. Quite satisfied with the results.
Last and most basic is moisture farmer Ariq Joanson from the cantina.
Torso - Saga carbonite Han
Head, lower tunic, legs: Comic pack Fixer
The default recipe. The torso and lower tunic were sprayed with VHT "White" for a color match, then the belt was repainted with Testors "Leather" and "Aluminum," then given a Tamiya "Flat Brown" wash. Hoping to obtain a better head down the line...
Thanks for looking!
