Topic: Star Wars TCW Custom Update (12/14/2016) WIP

[Luke Sprywalker]

Great looking clones and I really like Obi-Wan! Sculpting is tough to get right the first several times. I started with really small things and built my way up to full armor. You just need more practice and always have reference shots around you to look at while sculpting. A lot of work goes into refining after the sculpt has cured to get fine details and I also do a lot of sanding. Just take your time and think about layering your work work rather than doing everything in one shot.

[Rogue Jedi]

To me the key with the sculpting is to not get discouraged. When I first started customizing I was about 11 or 12 (I'm 29 now) and was inspired by some wicked awesome work I had stumbled across and wanted to do it myself especially a couple that were sculpt heavy but mine turned out just awful and I got real discouraged after a few more attempts that ended with similar results and pretty much stuck with painting and part swapping but because of that initial disappointment I never really got huge into customizing and it was really just a here and there kinda thing while the customs that I did attempt were real simple and easy.  It wasn't until about 6 or so years ago that I started to kick it up a notch by incorporating tools like dremmels while at the same time attempting to do more complex things. As my confidence grew so did my love of this hobby and I began to take it even further and started to also sculpt little details, like Sprywalker suggested, to get a feel for it and while I wasn't always happy with the results it was always a good learning experience on what not to do next time or maybe what to try next time. If you go to my thread you'll see in the most recent posts that I have begun to try my hand at sculpting from scratch and again while I'm not 100% happy some of them I'm learning as I go and if I stick with it I'll just keep getting better and better and happier with the finished product.

Also on top of getting discouraged I also think it's just as important to not compare yourself or try to measure up to anyone else and instead just focus on where your abilities are at in the now. For example I'm pretty happy with some of the sculpts I've done but if I were to compare my work against the work of someone like Stronox or any of the other customizers who do excellent sculpts I would never be satisfied with my own. A lot of these guys that do sculpt have been doing this a lot longer and some may even have some type of background in sculpting but at some point they were exactly where you or I am so instead of trying to sculpt something at their level I focus on my own stuff while striving for that level of craftsmanship present in their work knowing that as long as I don't get discouraged I'll get there eventually.

So best of luck on the sculpting but for some first time attempts it looks really great!

[butterfingers]

Thanks RogueJedi and Luke Sprywalker for the really encouraging advice. I think I'm going to take a break from sculpting for the time being as I have to head back to college soon. But you're right, you can always learn from your mistakes.

Thanks again!

Btw, really like some of your customs RogueJedi, was just browsing through some of them the other day, really like the kitbash ones. Keep up the great work.

[I-am-Boba-Fett]

Hey, I was just browsing through your thread of custom figures here. You have some really cool looking helmet designs for your custom troopers going on here! Some of them I wish they had used in The Clone Wars show. Don't beat yourself up over your sculpting ability. Just stay at it. Sculpt when you feel like doing it not when you feel like you have too and look at your symmetry on your left and right sides when you sculpt an object. Also, not sure if you have them or not but proper sculpting tools and a self standing magnifying glass help out tremendously. When I started sculpting I hated my sculpts but I kept at it and improved over time. Good job on what you have made so far and good luck in your future creations!

[butterfingers]

Thanks I-am-boba fett, I wish I had some sculpting tools but trying to prioritize what I need to buy first. Currently trying to save up some money to buy more color paints.

As I figured out a lot of my old customs look so awful because I tried painting so many times on a figure with limited paints (and over time it just got gloppy).


Btw does anyone know of a good way to remove gloppy model acrylic paint on a figure to start over.

(sanding helps a little but doesn't always work well and takes forever).

Any help would be appreciated.

[Rogue Jedi]

Thanks I-am-boba fett, I wish I had some sculpting tools but trying to prioritize what I need to buy first. Currently trying to save up some money to buy more color paints.

As I figured out a lot of my old customs look so awful because I tried painting so many times on a figure with limited paints (and over time it just got gloppy).


Btw does anyone know of a good way to remove gloppy model acrylic paint on a figure to start over.

(sanding helps a little but doesn't always work well and takes forever).

Any help would be appreciated.

Hey Butterfingers I just re-found a box of a lot of dental tools I had in storage which is what I and a lot of others use to sculpt and since I already have my own set of preferred sculpting instruments if you would like me to send you some of these re-found ones let me know. Keep in mind these tools (as well as the ones that I use) are no longer usable in a dental setting but they still work great for sculpting and like I said I already have my own "set" so if you want I'll go through what I found and then send you what I think may work for you; Also while it's slow going like with the sand paper some of these tools work really well to remove paint from crevices and also work well to make lines (aka clone trooper armor) more defined. And I get it about college and the budgeting; We were all there in some way or another once so don't worry about buying these tools...I got them for free and I'll give them for free if you want them. 

[Tamer]

Wow, what a nice offer Rogue Jedi! I like the conversation that is happening in here.

[butterfingers]

Thanks Rogue Jedi, I sent you a PM regarding the toys. It's really nice of you to do that. Thanks again.

[Rogue Jedi]

I got the PM; I'll go through everything in the box I found between now and Sunday and pick out what I think will work well for you and then send it your way.

[Rogue Jedi]

Hey I'll send those tools out sometime next week; When I do I'll let you know.

[butterfingers]

Alright, cool. Sounds good. I'll be looking forward to using them to improve my sculpts. Will post some pics of a WIP Captain Keeli soon.

[wraithnine]

now THIS is what the Imperial Shipyards is all about gentlemen

[butterfingers]

Hey all,

Haven't really had the time to be on the yards that much but I'm on winter break right now and started tinkering with some of my figures again. Had a clone figure who has a broken arm so trying to use the rest of the figure for parts.

I was wondering if any of you have any experience using the boil and pop method to remove the entire legs from the hip socket. I tried earlier and couldn't get both of them out. The joints are really loose now but still want to get them out and attach it to another figure that I screwed awhile back.

Any help is appreciated

[butterfingers]

Haven't really had time to look at Star Wars stuff do to school stuff, but I had some time over spring break and decided to try and redo my CW Commander Stone custom.

Wish I didn't screw up so many times when I first tried to do the custom like 3 years ago, but I tried to sand and clean up as much as I could. Any tips or suggestions on what I can do to try and clean up the figure so more would be greatly appreciated.

Anyway here it is.


















And here is a Mandalorian Death Watch trooper ( I believe he's part of Bo-Katan's Nite Owls but either way)

Screwed up a little on his helmet, couldn't decided what gray to use. But I'll try to fix it in the future and the yellow isn't quite right.






Any comments are appreciated, hope to be able to crank up more revised clones in the future. Definitely miss buying Clone Wars figures.


Currently working on Captain Keeli's clone trooper.

[Tamer]

Looks good to me. Off to share.