Black Series See-Threepio!
Years ago, I had pieced the torso and head of the Epic Force 3P0 together with some ML Spider-Man and Gambit parts I had used for a previous custom of the infamous protocol droid...and that's where it stopped. I finally figured 'hey, half the work is done...finish it up and you'll have a place holder until the official 3P0 figure comes out’.
The main bit of grunt work was the groin and pelvis. I had to grind away at that to fit the epic force crotch, which in turn had to be hollowed out. It was just a matter of patience and trial and error until I could fit the parts over the legs. This of course meant that the legs did not fit flush with the connection to the pelvis...but its a placeholder, and it isn't perfect.
The sculpt work on the arms and legs is old, and it is not without lots of flaws. The knees and shoulders...are off-model to put it generously. I could have sculpted over them, but I wanted to maintain what little articulation remained (though 3P0 wasn't all that articulated in the movies).
The paint job was a basecoat of silver lacquer with a top coat of Tamiya clear yellow. I painted the eyes white and did a precise drybrush in an attempt to get the grill effect over the white. It just looks mottled in the photos.
He's not perfect, but he looks great with R2 on the shelf. I'll be buying the official release, but since much of the work was done, it made sense to finish him. Maybe I'll turn him into U-3P0 or a protocol droid bounty hunter or something stupid.
Let me know what you think, and thanks for looking.
