Topic: Doc Outland's Custom Figures (updated 3/26/14)

[Clonehead]

That is one bad a$$ grevious!!

[customcloner]

That GG is way cool!! I wish Hasbro would get it right!!

[DocOutlands]

B'arin Apma - pansy Hasbro exec turned older battled-experienced merc?  I'm going to lighten the skin-tone, but I wanted to photo-test the wrinkles and hair coloring.  He'll get some gray in his hair, too.  Overall, tho, I think he's aged up a fair bit.  What do y'all think?

[Tamer]

Oh yeah, looks slightly aged, but not overdone and wrinkly. We need more SW characters like that. Anyhow, looks good to me Doc.

[Clonehead]

Looks good to me, Doc.

[DocOutlands]

This project called for two versions of the same character.  No problem, right?  Well, once you start adding in wrinkles and otherwise changing minute details... we'll see!  Here's a couple of sneak-peeks at the heads.

First up, I'd basecoated the facial areas with Terra Cotta, then wiped it off, leaving paint in the wrinkle recesses.  I think I'd actually done more painting than that, but had to restart.  Either way, you can see the wrinkles quite vividly.

Second, here's the faces as they stand just a few minutes ago, posed alongside the practice "air-head" I used to the left.  They are getting there!

[hangarbay94]

Doc are those the custom for me, if so GET A MOVE ON!!!  I've got a photonovel to finish!

p.s, The custom is so awesome that I have been blinded by it's awesomeness.

Jules

[DocOutlands]

Glad ya feel that way... those ways... erm, yeah!   

And yes - those are the face that will heading your way soon!

[Clonehead]

Very nice, Doc! Now those are the heads that a military modeler would paint.
  Can't wait to see em done, buddy.

[DocOutlands]

 

(Jules, don't worry as you read this!)

11th-hour crisis!!!  As I sat down to assemble the primed/painted/sealed parts for one of the figures Jules is eagerly awaiting - and upon which one of those heads will sit - I made a brutal discovery.  The hips section was missing.  To make a day-long story short, I searched the area inside around my workbench, I searched my workbench top... I searched UNDER my workbench.  I went out to the shop and searched the area where I'd sealed the parts - which was half the shop, it's a small space.

ALL TO NO AVAIL!!!

The hips-section I'd labored on was GONE.  I could either go buy another figure for JUST the hips part, or I could make a bit of an alteration in my design and use parts I had on-hand.  I started digging and thinking.  In the end, I used parts onhand that I *know* fit the torso.  In the process, I've been able to add a hook from which to hang a lightsaber!  That's what I just finished with and I had to back off the tiny-work and do something "large" for a bit and give my nerves time to settle.  Next step - a hanger on the aft end of a saber!

The replacement hips are well underway to being finished, btw.  One color drying before moving on to the second.

And I did so like the original design...  I'm sure I'll find the lost hips later this week.  That's the way things work, after all.

Except for that one part on that Pak-40's towing leg that popped away into the carpet.....

[UnitedStatesDemocrat]

That's interesting how the figure came around to it's current state.  Nonetheless, I'm sure that it is going to turn out great.

[DocOutlands]

...and I took in-progress pics of how I did the hook.

 

Back to the paint-stand!

[Clonehead]

I always did hate custom deadlines, doc. It is a neccessary evil though that I deal with often in some way or another.

[Frie-leK SlavE]

Sculpting my own molds is something I want to work on next.  You definitely have it down to an art.  I would be able to make as many half naked girls as I want and make the guys face as ghoolish, alien, or hot as I would like.  How do you do it?  Have you been able to mold your own ships yet?  This would be an art.  Keep up the awesome work.

[DocOutlands]

Well, I'll tell ya, Jules is great to work with/for!  Low-pressure even tho you *know* he's over there gnawing his nails off!  A big factor in this project was that I had never actually timed how long a custom took!  Plus, I tried out some new approaches, so there was some learning curves involved.  I'm prolly rough on Jules' heart health!  I've learned a lot on this project so far.  I expect stage 2 to go a LOT more smoothly and quickly.


As for my moldings, so far all I've done are various existing heads and a few pieces of smaller equipment in single-piece molds.  Basically, if you read Clint's casting thread, you'll see where I've learned everything that I know.  I haven't tackled multi-part casts like the chain-gun nor ones with spaces in them like, well, like the trigger-guard of the chain-gun.  The Clone Commander visor doesn't count, because I haven't made a successful pull from it *yet*!  I think I may try remolding that piece and see if it is a problem with the mold.

I think a ship would best be done via two-part molds or vacu-forming, neither of which am I quite ready to tackle yet!  I do have some ideas for things to make and then mold, one of these days.