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

[Tamer]

That blue looks pretty good!

[DocOutlands]

So I did some painting today.  Ouch.

First up is the vacu-droid.  This one turned out more or less ok.  I masked off the corners to preserve the "caution stripes" on the body.  I shot the body burgandy overall and let it dry overnight then came back and masked off the recessed areas I wanted to "swoosh" with the metallic blue.  I don;t think the pics adequately capture the rich sparkly nature of the paint.  Anyway, this and the 222 folowing are my first real efforts at masking off areas.  So, I'm learning.  A lot.

[DocOutlands]

Now for today's heartbreak.  I mean - isn't it supposed to turn out perfect the first time?  Every time?

The Otoga 222 pit droid who is the "crew boss" for this team of service droids.  Again - I disassembled the droid and shot it all over with burgandy yesterday.  This morning, I masked off certain sections for the blue "swoosh" and went to town.  Here's how it looked this afternoon after the unmasking.

[DocOutlands]

So I've learned a few lessons.

1 - allow more dry time.  I think the burgandy failure on the 222 was a result of my rushing the process.

2 - masks bleed, so keep touch-up paint handy for brush-work.  Color-match ahead of time.

3 - the metallic blue tends to be shaded by what you apply it over.  Primer is likely your friend here.



All in all, it was NOT a failure.  I can always go back and strip off the paint (I think) without figure damage (I hope!) and reapply everything.  After all, I'm going for an almost-pristine look for the droids on the crew.  I'm planning to use another vac-droid, 2-3 of the "pie-dish" pit droids, and a Gonk droid.  Quite the team, once I finish.  Simple and straightforward.

During the work on the 222, I got to wondering why the limbs are not articulated.  Look at the FX6, FX7, and Tredwell droids.  I think the newer battle-droids are, as well.  So now I'm wondering if I can create an articulated limb for a 222.  I'll need two of each limb for a functional model, I think...plus plenty to learn on...

[Tamer]

That vacudroid turned out pretty sweet. I like that color on him.

[Clonehead]

nice explanation of your processes, Doc! I have never had much experience with masking on figures or even on model kits, even. Your vacu-droid did turn out pretty well and I like both but it's my favorite.
  All of this custom work is a learning process and the more you do, the more that you will know.

Once again, thanks for explaining what you are up to. It makes it like a working tutorial.

[DocOutlands]

For me as well as y'all!!  I figure if I talk my way thru what I did, folks who know better will be able to correct me where I screw up.

[Tamer]

That red color is sweet. I wonder what the vacudroid's hoses would look like with the same yellow as the side stickers?

[DocOutlands]

Well, I haven't settled on a color for the hoses yet, so I may just experiment and see what works.  Oh, and I found an ASP-7 labor droid in the boxes today while hunting for my Uncle Owen fig.  He'll get the burgandy coat next, I think.  Maybe tonight after supper.  Give it plenty of time to dry.  Maybe primer first then mask off the areas I want blue before hitting him with the burgandy.

There's plenty of story in that group, too.  It'll get written one of these days.

[DocOutlands]

Same box that coughed up the ASP was holding back on a cloak, too.  I *think* this is one of the earliest Hasbro Leia cloaks - tiny neck opening and all.  I slapped that rascal onto my bad-boy Faie sniper, and the following pics show what we got.  All in all, put the Labria cloak on one and the Leia? cloak on the other, both suitably camo'd, and I think we have winners!  I also found two Boushh capes.  I'm thinking about hanging one from a third Faie as a sniper security element.  We'll see - that one will require more work.  Altho, if I plan to hang a sniper-plate from Baccara or the ATTE gunner off the lad, that Boushh cape would do me far better on the sniper, since it exposes the right shoulder, where the plate would hang.

Anyway, as you can see, the new cloak will need some trimming as well - either on the cloak itself or on the ends of the headwrap - to make everything sit right.  I think it will take less work than the Labria cloak, honestly.

[DocOutlands]

Brendan and I are Battlefront junkies, we admit it.  We prefer the first one, because you can go prone and because you can play AOTC clones.  Tonight, he was playing a Jet-Trooper most of the night, while I played a Clone Sniper.  So, here's the Q&D customs of our team...

[Clonehead]

Killer updates, Doc!! I can't decide which pic to put on the Front Page.

I really like the mix of cloak and headwrap that you chose for your Faie sniper! Man, this is going to turn out cool.
  I would like to get a crack at your parts box. I'll bet you have all sorts of goodies in there.
The battlefront troopers are cool but that pic of you two playing......................I nearly fell of the couch when I seen it. Priceless, buddy!

BTW, I'm trying the new molds out and I am most happy with the results. Come and see.

[Tamer]

Cool pic of you and the son playing the Vgames!

[DocOutlands]

We had some pretty serious teamwork going yesterday.  We've gotten to where we can "eye-hack" fairly well on a couple of splitscreen games, and we were setting up some major one-two punches against Sep forces.

("eye-hacking" is derived by us from the "Ghost In The Shell" anime, and refers to being able to look at the other person's part of the game-screen while still being able to run your own character.)

My parts boxes?  Like these two?

[narceron]

eye hacking, good stuff.


For priming and masking, I've found that going over the area lightly with fine sandpaper will make the primer stick more efficiently and less likely the mask will put it off.  Basically, you want to avoid the tape being stronger than the primer's bond.

Also, sometimes I use silly putty to mask, silly yes, effective>  Sometimes.

I like the droid team, what contest was this?