Topic: Echo_Six's customs

[Darth More]

Wow, this is a big one! Thank you for also sharing the sanding sticks in your previous update!
 
The human barge gunner looks so cool! This one has a brilliant use of parts and I never thought of how the Imperial Scanning Dude would look in beige. Also likes George's idea of these winter hats in the hot desert. To me the texture on the helmet looks like real fur, so cudos for that!

Schlock is an interesting word, which I didn't know before this post. Yotts Orren looks amazing! Always love the use of Giran's head because its details make it look so stunning.
Love the use of leather on his cape, pouch and shins! Love the general look of him with all the details on his costume. What a masterpiece! The picture of unpainted parts makes me think of the prototype figures sold on ebay. gorkoracing told me these were real ones on Instagram. If you can you should check him out, he only collects prototypes and was the one who got the unreleased Probe Droid for TVC from his sources.
Anyway I'm off back to your pictures admiring Yotts Orren a little longer...

Glad you could find so many Ponda the Babas! If I remember correctly they were $3.99 each on clearance back then? Your tooling skills impress me every time again and I'm glad you could make Han's head fit perfectly on that socket - he looks great!
Also like that you gave one of the Bespin Guards a whip. Well, it's technically Han's whip...poor Han.

These are all pristine customs mate, talk about nailing a project with that whipping sound in my head now.

[Tamer]

Wow, what an awesome update. I love your new goons! They look great.

Off to share all of this on the front pages. Thanks for sharing how you did all this and the recipes.

[Echo_Six]

Thanks for the comments guys, and thanks for the front page Tamer.   

[JDeck]

Awesome customs! They're simple but not really. I used to follow a car customizer named Chip Foose. He said the best compliment from anyone is, it looks great, but what did you do? The fact that you stripped the factory paint is mind boggling to me. Personally I'd never do that, cuz im lazy. But you did it because it makes your custom that much better and i respect that.
Also the Christmas Vacation reference is hilarious.

[(SID)]

Great work on these new figures. Especially inspired by the use of paint brush cleaner to strip the paint off the figures... Then how you dye them. That's something I've 100% tried to go for the last number of years... since painting (no matter application) only goes so far.

[Echo_Six]

Thanks for the kind words, guys.  I'm not sure if the factory paint would interfere with the chemical bond between the automotive dye and the plastic, but I remove it anyway to be on the safe side.  I used to do the same with Goof-Off, but accidentally destroyed a few pieces along the way.  The Winsor-Newton is much safer for the plastic in my experience.  On a related note, the paint on the VC161 jawa's bandoleer was far and away the toughest factory paint I've ever stripped.  I was certain that I'd melt the piece before the paint came off, but it worked out.

[Echo_Six]

Smuggler Lando got a mild update.



Base - TAC Smuggler Lando
Head, hands - TVC Bespin Lando
Upper arms - TVC Bom Vimdin
Lower arms - TBS Brock Starsher

I started by boiling the base Lando for disassembly.  After simmering Lando for a couple of minutes, I immediately ripped a shoulder loose from the shoulder disc.  At that point I realized the torso was hard plastic, and would need to be cracked.     You'd think I'd have checked first, but nooooo.  The shoulder sockets are enormous, which limited the arm possibilities.  I've got a few Boms lying around, so that's what I used.  Another possibility would be Dr. Evazan, but I only have one set of those and plan to use them for a Gela Yeens someday.  IMO, the Bom forearms are way too long for this fig, so I settled on Starsher's instead.  They have the same cuff style and the TVC Lando hands fit perfectly; however, Brock's forearms are way more wrinkled than Bom's shoulders.  I'll keep an eye out for forearms that are a better sculpted match.  TVC Lando's head needed some Dremeling, but nothing major. 





Fitting the shoulders was the biggest hurdle.  I trimmed Bom's shoulder pegs until both would fit in the torso, then ran into the next problem - They were too loose.  It's hard to see in the photo, but the thinner sections of the shoulder pegs have rounded and flat surfaces, so wrapping them with teflon tape wouldn't really work; in addition, the hard plastic sockets would have probably shredded the tape anyway.  Eventually, I used a small piece of plastic cut from a POTJ Rebel Fleet Trooper's vest (already partially mangled from a previous project) as a wedge between the pegs.  I gradually trimmed and test-fitted the piece until the torso halves finally fit back together.  There's also a peg in the other torso half that prevents the wedge from shifting down.  In other words, the wedge is held in place pretty well.  Crude, but it works.

Cracking the torso created a few stress marks.  No actual cracks, but I had to re-paint the torso.  I stripped the pieces with Winsor & Newton, sprayed them with Tamiya flat black, then painted the shirt with Testors flat white acrylic, and painted the neck.  The neck took a few tries, but eventually I settled on a roughly 2:1 mix of "Americana" (Michael's cheapo acrylic) cocoa and milk chocolate (sounds delicious!) with a single drop of Testors insignia red added to warm it up a bit.  After prepping the joints, I sprayed the arm pieces with VHT white vinyl dye.  When everything dried, I assembled the parts and hit the upper half with a few coats of Testors Dullcote.

I won't lie - Supergluing the torso back together while the arms were wedged in place and the lower torso dangled was a little intimidating.  I hate to think about how badly it could have gone, but luckily I got it on the first try.   



I did some work on the shoulders to ease the transition to the forearms.  I sanded the sculpted ridges along the tops of Bom's sleeves, smoothed down some large wrinkles at the elbows, and sanded down wrinkles on the backs of the shoulders so the arms could rest closer to the torso.



Thanks for looking!

[Tamer]

Nice Lando! Man you solved some problems on this one.

Off to share this to the front pages.

[Starchaser]

Lando looks really good. I hear you regarding the challenges of peicing back togther a hard plastic body - I really wish they'd stop using them. Thanks for sharing your process too.

[Echo_Six]

Thanks for the front page, Tamer.   

The hard torsos really can be a pain.  It doesn't matter how careful you are, cracking one without ruining it comes down to luck.  95% of the time when I'm dealing with a hard torso, it's just to steal the arms so I was really happy this one came apart cleanly.

[RC-1136]

It amazes me how great some of these kitbashes are.

[Echo_Six]

A skiff guard and a couple of throwaways this time.

First is Barada.  Dithered with this one for a long time trying to find a collar solution.  Needs more disco, but this is the best I can do without sculpting.



Head, bandoleer, boots: TVC Kithaba
Torso, arms, hands: TVC Endor Rebel
Pelvis, thighs, upper shins: TVC Bom Vimdin
Lower tunic: TVC Quinlan Vos (with medic pouch from MarauderGunRunners and holster cut from TVC Lando disguise)
Backpack: Saga Barada, added 1/8" elastic straps
Blaster and vibro axe (because why not?) from the fodder bin 



I prepped all the joints, then sprayed the shirt and lower tunic with Hi-Tech "Off White" vinyl dye, the pants with VHT "Dark Blue Satin", and the boots with Hi-Tech "Black."  Bom's pants have a sculpted seam that provides an easy-to-follow bloodstripe pattern.  I used Testors "Insignia Red" acrylic.  After trimming the tabbards from Quinlan's tunic piece, I painted the belt with Testors "Burnt Umber," the pouches with "Olive Drab," then added a pouch and holster.  The gloves got some Testors "Leather" detail work. 

The backpack's removable.  After cutting it from a Saga Barada, I sanded a channel for bandoleer clearance and rounded the edges to fit the Rebel's back before super gluing the elastic straps.  It took a few tries to get the straps the correct lengths, so that the pack wasn't pulled too far to either side.  I originally planned to use Cricut vinyl for the straps, but it creases easily.  A few pinches in the armpits and they'd look terrible in no time.  The pack should also be lower, more like a buttpack.  I cut the canteen from a KOTCS Russian soldier's belt and toyed with the idea of adding it to the top of the pack but in the pack's current location it looked weird.  If I can find another loose Barada or two I might revisit the idea of lowering the pack.

Although you can't see it here, I sanded a notch under the left armpit for the bandoleer.  Together with the collar tip, it holds the bandoleer in place and provides a bit of arm clearance. 



A few WIPs:

I sanded the original collar off, then cut the neck down a bit before re-attaching the post with a #2 screw.  The collar was cut and sanded from an Indiana Jones figure.



Before gluing, I built a "wall" at the three collar tips from six or seven layers of masking tape so that once I applied the super glue I could position the collar accurately.  The right collar flap was left unglued so the bandoleer could be tucked underneath it.



IMO Kithaba's legs are too skinny and awkward for a Barada base (Don't get any bright ideas, Hasbro!), but the boots are perfect.  I cut the boots, drilled and sanded holes into them, then gradually sanded Bom's shins into round pegs that fit very tightly.  The slight taper at the tops of the pegs (caused by the flexibly sanding sticks I use) match the taper I sanded into the top of the boot's opening.  Note the shin is hollow for most of its length.



For a bit more strength, I filled the hollow with a section of an older Darth Maul double saber blade super glued in place and sanded flush.  I used super glue to attach the boots to the shins.  Screwed up attaching one of the boots - After gluing the saber bits in place, one of the ankle pegs didn't have enough clearance.  Left about a 1/16" gap between the boot and shin.  Had to cut the shin away, re-drill and sand the boot, and make another shin.  I could've saved myself a lot of trouble by test-fitting. 



Also had to shorten the waist peg and reattach it with a screw.



Next up, I replaced some horrible joints on a Saga Legends Plo Koon.

(Fun fact:  This was the very last SW figure sold at the old Clairemont K-Mart before it went under.     Felt sorry for it just sitting there for so long.)



Torso, head, hands, lower tunic:  Saga Legends Plo Koon
Arms:  TAC Master Sev
Legs:  TVC Fi-Ek Sirch

Just for fun I added ball jointed arms from a TAC Master Sev.  Had to remove the hands from an earlier Jabba's Palace Aqualish custom and strip the paint with denatured alcohol.  After prep work I sprayed the torso and arms with Hi-Tech "Dark Red," then added inner tunic details with a mix of Testors "International Orange" toned down with "Leather" and Vallejo "Bone White" for the innermost layer.  A bunch of random colors were blended for the neck paint.  The upper parts then got a blast of Testors Dull-Cote.  I also added a more modern pair of legs to replace the original hinged monstrosities.  I  thought about prepping and dyeing the legs brown to more closely match the orginals, but this color combo grew on me immediately.  The downside is that I seem to have lost his lightsaber.    I'll keep looking, but worst case scenario I'll equip him with a spare blue blade from the fodder bin.



Lastly, I slapped together a Snivvian pathfinder just to use up a few Endor Rebel parts and keep Orrimarko and his crew company.



Base:  TVC Endor Rebel Trooper with shortened neck post
Head:  TVC Snaggletooth
Cloak & com link:  TLC Major Panno

Soaked the cloak in boiling water to remove the packaging dimples.



The torso was actually my first attempt at Barada, but I drilled the screw hole off-center and threw it in the bin.  Eventually I dug it out and salvaged it by drilling the hole larger, filling it with a super glued peg sanded from a POTJ Ponda Baba arm, and re-drilling the screw hole in the correct location.



Thanks for looking!

[Tamer]

Wow, all three are extremely impressive. Thanks for sharing how you did all of this. Just great stuff.

Off to share on the front pages.

[Don]

Love that Barada! He looks great! And I really appreciate your detailed write-ups.

[Starchaser]

Nice job with these. I like the Snivvian pathfinder. Barada turned out really well, nice job on all the details.