Topic: Clonehead's Custom Figures reloaded

[Clonehead]

I still got a ways to go with the arf sniper. In the last shot, you can see how the touch up painting will clean up the feet on the left to make them like the feet on the right. I have to do this to this whole figure.
I did get a couple of steps closer today, though.

[Clonehead]

After getting the copper foil onto the visor how I liked and much much much detail and touchup painting, I finially got the hardest part of the desert ops ARF sniper done. Now, it's time to get that multi-position optical rangefinder onto that helmet.

[Clonehead]

more shots

[Clonehead]

More shots: Dont forget to check the 4 shots on the previous page.

Optical rangefinder install coming up next.

[Clonehead]

Thank you all very much!! It feels good to be working on a figure again and although I may have had my doubts, this one is turning out about how I had envisioned him to.

Dawn, I haven't yet made the bigger desert dio for these guys but will get around to it soon. The ground work for it will look almost exactly like the desert dio offered in our build off contest but it will be bigger. I have chosen another craft wooden plaque for this bigger version, this time, from walmart. I too am looking forward to seeing your figure and contest entry. You and Devon have some real talent and you should keep doing what you are doing. I'm sure that Devon has told you that the more you do, the easier it gets and the more stunning things look.

Now for more pics:

I went ahead and focused on getting the mounting of that optical rangefinder out of the way. Starting out with a resin casting of the rangefinder and the trusty pin-vise, I drilled a hole where the mounting point would be in the stalk of the rangefinder. With it still on the drill bit, I held the rangefinder in place next to the helmet where I wanted its final position and used the drill bit to mark and drill a pilot hole into the helmet. I chose a slightly larger bit to bore the hole wider to receive a rubber sleeve to hold the post that I will glue into the hole I drilled through the stawk. If the wire fits tightly enough in the sleeve, the rangefinder will hold it's pose but allow it to swing down or up to either position. Some fine guage craft wire was used for the post and a length of wire insulation was used for the sleeve. If the post wire is too thin for it to fit tightly enough within the sleeve, the wire can always be made thicker with paint or superglue allowing it to dry before poking the wire into the sleeve.

The sleeve was cut and mounted into the helmet hole glued carefully and then trimmed a little closer to make the rangefinder sit closer. After test fitting, the post on the rangefinder was trimmed shorter and here you have it.

I have to throw some paint onto the rangefinder and touch up where I glued around the sleeve and then it's time to tackle that bandolier I had mentioned to give this guy a more equipped look.

I appreciate all of your comments and am glad to have gotten these tedious steps out of the way for this one.

[Clonehead]

pics: Thats my roll of fine craft wire in the first shot.

[Clonehead]

Here is the sleeve length mounted in the first shot. I ended up trimming it closer to the helmet after test fitting the rangefinder and deciding that I wanted it to sit closer to the helmet.

[Clonehead]

More pics; the first shot is before I trimmed the receiving sleeve shorter and the last shot is after. I just wanted the rangefinder to fit a bit closer to the helmet and not poke out so much.

[Clonehead]

4 more pics. I will visit the lightbox again for lighter shots after I get some paint on the rangefinder and perhaps after I get the bandolier made.

[Clonehead]

Got some time today, to work on the arf trooper's bandolier. I used the small partial bandolier cut from a stock clone commander's pauldron, a resin shoulder pad armor piece casted from the apartment Fett slip-on armor, a resin-cast sandtrooper ammo pouch, and some styrene strips. I got most of the painting done to the parts prior to assembly to make touchups afterward, easier. I started by gluing the cc bandolier piece to the shoulder pad and holding it to the position I liked till the glue dried. Then it was a matter of cutting a thin strip of styrene to flow along the inside of the shoulder pad over the curve of the shoulder, and then cut a couple of wider strips, one for the front, to extend from the end of the cc bandolier and to tuck behind his front stock belt ammo pouch, and then one for the back to extend from the back of the shoulder pad down the back, to the stock belt. I glued that resin ammo pouch onto a little box on his stock belt and it kinda looks like it's hanging from that back side strap.

[Clonehead]

pics

[Clonehead]

pics

[Tamer]

I am a day late and a dollar short with this one that Clint sent yesterday, but he is busy!

[Clonehead]

TY, Dan. Thanks for posting that pic, Tamer. That is to be a removable helmet version of the arf trooper like we seen recently in kri's photo comic. Looking at the pic in our referance pics thread, I thought that his camo looked more field grey to me which is more of a greenish grey. In the brighter light, it almost looks too green to me now but I think that I will leave it. After I get the main greenish part of the camo done, I may touch it up with white to try to get closer to the pattern seen in the clone wars movie.

[Clonehead]

One more shot of the arf trooper. I have gotten alot of resin orders over the weekend so I may not get any more work done on this figure until this coming weekend.

Also, I had mentioned that I wanted to try a future project where I cobbled together componants from a couple different figures to try to come up with a decent looking scuba mando. In the next few shots, I am just mixing and matching parts to get ideas for how I want to do it.