Well, I tried to post this yesterday and the whole thing disappeared halfway through, (phone problem) so I'll give this another try.
The other day I came across another kotobukiya chain base in the hobby section at Yodobashi Camera and snapped it up, assembled/painted/weathered it and attached it to my existing one for a bigger background. Then on the weekend the kid and I set up a big pirate base. Not an attempt at realism, mind you, just trying to create something big and cool with what we have lying around.
The chain base components are behind the 100% canon spinosaurus!
Back story for my custom Twi'lek:
Fel'eshk Dhigre
Enslaved by pirates after surviving an attack on her transport ship, Fel'eshk is put in compromising positions nightly in service to her captors, a surly and revolting lot. By day, they find alternate use for her nimble hands in their droid workshop, where she uses her innate aptitude for the mechanical and electrical engineering aspects of droid repair. Lacking in knowledge of binary programming languages, she often finds herself the custodian of droids that simply will not move, although physically in top condition. The pirates have a growing collection of Clone Wars-remnant battle droids with which Fel'eshk is charged with returning to combat-ready status.
(The battle droid is actually my son's first custom figure, dabbed with yellow paint, over which I applied a wash of grime.)
Because her time in the droid shop is not nearly as horrifying as every other aspect of her life in captivity, she takes a modicum
of pride in her work there, even to the point that she has been studying droid operating system code. She has refurbished several anti-personnel droids and hidden them at various stash points around the fortress, waiting for the day when her programming skills prove sufficient to modify their directives and facilitate her escape.
However, before those plans could actually come to fruition, the fortress came under attack by a detachment of Imperial walkers under the command of Captain Siina Esserlin (my female AT-AT commander) who operates within a special anti-piracy/slavery unit of the Imperial military, operating primarily in Corellian Sector.
Here is Captain Esserlin's back story:
Fiercely conscientious, she does whatever she can to free slaves and prevent them from being returned to their owners. Secretly skeptical of much of COMPNOR propaganda.
Constantly running afoul of ISB for interrupting protected smuggling and pirate networks.
Siina had the unfortunate experience as a child to have been on a vessel that was attacked and captured by pirates. Although she was relatively well treated by the Binayre pirates, several crew members of her vessel, and one faculty member of her school (a favorite teacher) were savagely murdered in front of her and her classmates, who had been on a school trip.
She rode Cracian thumpers as a child on trips to the countryside, but longed to ride larger, slower beasts after hearing stories of Dathomiri nightsisters mounted on rancors.
In her late teens she attempted to ride a Gronda, and sustained injuries that prevented her timely application to imperial officers' school, so she applied directly to the walker pilot program, having received nearly perfect scores on the pilot skills assessment tests.
Became a first class AT-AT pilot, and was later promoted to captain and given command of her own walker.
I'm probably going to do a little work on Siina's hairstyle and skin tone to make her look less like Leia, but that'll have to come later. That's it for now, guys! Thanks for checking these out!
