1/6 Boba Fett w/ self-made helmet sculpt (& other custom bounty hunters too)

[The_Darkness_Predator]

Awesome work. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Guer Toshav]

Fabulous Yoda !!! (I agree for the Yak hair !)

 

[ajp4mgs]

Ugh - just finished scratch-building the mouth breather unit for Zuckuss. I just really didn't like the headsculpt, armor and the body proportions on the SSC one, so I've resculpted the eyes and made the breather for the Hasbro head, but using the SSC coat and hands. I'm scratch building the rifle now - I missed out on it on Toy Anxiety.

Yeah, I've pretty much come to the conclusion that I have to build a rifle for Zuckuss too; the Hasbro one is off by too much. I also couldn't agree more about your thoughts on the SSC Zuckuss. In fact, the only SSC bounty hunter that I've been tempted to get is Dengar; the rest of them all have too many things that I would need to fix/replace/change to justify the cost.

Awesome build so far. Good stuff.

Thank you very much, Chakaman. When it comes to SW customs, your work is a gold standard and has been very inspirational, so your positive feedback means a lot. Much appreciated! I'll be happy if I just come close to the type of stuff you've done.

Brilliant idea ! Final result will blow mind !

Thank you. When I'm finished with the diorama, I hope it meets your expectations. I'm working hard on it.

Some awesome work going on here! Congratulations!

The hands and feet have been replaced (with Sideshow parts) and re-painted (as has the sculpt), and I have added the Hot Toys brown "under-garment" and necklace. I'm not so happy with the hair (I used cotton wool!), so I may try and replace this with some Tibetan Yak hair at some point...Let me know what you think!

Thank you. Great idea with the Yoda eyes; I don't think I would have thought of that. And I would definitely recommend the Tibetan lamb fur; it's what I used for my Yoda's hair, and it allows for longer and wilder strands. The tricky part is affixing the hair in tiny, scattered amounts without the glue becoming distracting.

Awesome work. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you for taking the time to post your feedback; I really appreciate it.

I prefer to post in this thread only when I have updates to share, but I haven't gotten far enough with the light-up boxes near Piett, so I'll just follow this post with a couple of shots of an updated Dengar and a WIP of a Navy Trooper (there needs to be one who stands on the left side of the arch in the bounty hunter scene).

Thanks again to everyone!

 

[ajp4mgs]

Since my first pics I posted of Dengar, I've switched the boots to the HT Bespin Luke boots (and those boots' straps over a pair of SSC shin guards). I also sculpted additions to the Hasbro midsection (thanks for the inspiration, TaliBane) and re-did the head wrap. Lastly, I did a little air-dry sculpting on the face to try for a bit more Dengar and a little less Churchill (added to the scar too). I still need to make a backpack, make a pistol, and touch up a few other things before calling Dengar finished.



As for the Navy Trooper, it's a re-tailored Hasbro Death Star Trooper uniform with new boots, a hand-made holster for one of the HT blasters, a belt I made, and a Hasbro helmet with modified chin strap over an ACE soldier head. Much more to do on the uniform before I'm happy with it, but this is where I'm at.

 

[Chakaman]

Nice mods to your Dengar. Looks good.

Great start on your Imperial Navy Trooper. I did one a few years ago, it's one of my favorites. I have the stuff for a second one I just need to have the time to do it.

Good stuff, thanks for sharing.

 

[TaliBane]

Love your Trooper - get him onto one of the HT display stands. I like the red/black combo.

And I scratch-built my Dengar backpack (though about 10% is the Hasbro pack) and have two words of advice: don't be tempted to use any of the hasbro backpack, and don't assume the Sideshow Dengar backpack is screen accurate for reference - it has a number of errors. There's a couple of decent ref pics of the costume pack so use those. I started trying to replicate the SSC one, and realized it wasn't correct in a number of key ways which then threw off other details.

Sideshow also has a weird habit of copying what other manufacturers have done (ie creative interpretations of ref material) for some silly reason as opposed to going back to the ref pics and trying to get it right. I'm building a Zuckuss right now and in closely studying all the previously done Zuckuss collectibles, you can see in certain places where SSC copied what say Gentle Giant did, I guess assuming those previous companies knew what they were doing (when many didn't and just made stuff up.)

 

[ajp4mgs]

Nice mods to your Dengar. Looks good.

Great start on your Imperial Navy Trooper. I did one a few years ago, it's one of my favorites. I have the stuff for a second one I just need to have the time to do it.

Good stuff, thanks for sharing.

Thank you. I probably wouldn't have done a Navy Trooper custom if not for the bounty hunter diorama, but I'm really glad to have him in the collection (anxious to finish him). Simple design, but looks quite cool next to other SW figures.

And I scratch-built my Dengar backpack (though about 10% is the Hasbro pack) and have two words of advice: don't be tempted to use any of the hasbro backpack, and don't assume the Sideshow Dengar backpack is screen accurate for reference - it has a number of errors. There's a couple of decent ref pics of the costume pack so use those. I started trying to replicate the SSC one, and realized it wasn't correct in a number of key ways which then threw off other details.

First of all: outstanding work and attention to detail (as always) on both your Dengar and your Trooper. Your trooper reminds me that the Navy version (as opposed to DS Trooper) has the belt boxes oriented horizontally on the belt instead of vertically. I need to re-position mine. As for the Dengar backpack, I always try to use movie reference material exclusively. I know that toy/collectible companies are far from reliable resources when it comes to screen accuracy.

The backpack only has one promo shot that I'm aware of which shows the whole thing (from behind, obviously). But, companies seem to forget that the backpack can be seen (although only partially) in the movie itself. By studying that section frame by frame, these companies could have learned enough to be more accurate than what has been released thus far. For example, the middle section is always represented as having simple ridged sides; but it's actually vents, not just basic ridges. In the shots below, I've isolated the area I'm referencing in order to illustrate it better. That middle section is hollow, and you can see through the vents to the opposite wall. Also, the rope wrapped on the bottom round part is substantially less than the amount used for the promo shot.



These details aren't a big deal (and I actually think SSC did a decent job with the backpack, all things considered), but every bit of accuracy helps, IMO.

Thanks for the help, and for your contributions to this thread, TaliBane. Very inspirational, and greatly appreciated.

 

[TaliBane]

Yeah, it definitely is vents, I realized that late and I kinda ran of steam and just glued on the Hasbro strips there. I couldnt find a set of vents that matched it in my scratch-build box and I just couldn't do another from-scratch styrene build of the vents (ie hand cutting them.) But I did it in a way that if I want to return to the custom, I can just peel off the glued-on Hasbro parts and replace them.

The backpack became so complex it kinda drove me crazy because I wanted the straps to be accurate in the way it connects to the costume. The straps alone were an utter nightmare.

But the starting point for the backpack is the Hoth Rebel frame, which has a slight angle the SSC doesn't have, so that throws off the angles of what's attached to the frame.

And yeah, I was looking for an ESb/ROTJ blend for my trooper - I always liked the logos on the shoulders like in ROTJ but I'm not a fan of the belt set-ups you find on most of the ROTJ troopers. I also figured the HT was ANH If it ever goes up for PO,) so keeping the custom one a bit different.

 

[ajp4mgs]

Given how huge the HT Vader helmet looked in the diorama photos that I posted on the previous page, I decided that now was a good time to try to finish customizing a Vader helmet that could look more screen accurate. The HT facemask was out of the question because I really dislike some of its features. The brow/eye lines, the cheek depths, and the height of the neck are my biggest nitpicks with it. The SSC mask is also out of the question for a number of reasons. So, I decided to try working with a Hasbro Titanium facemask since I don't mind wrecking one of those.

The pic below shows white air-dry compound layered over the stock Titanium facemask. I had to sand away some of the original plastic for this to work, and then still had to sand more away after doing the air-dry sculpting (mostly Vader's left cheek). I want to install new grids behind the "teeth" and under the chin, but I'm going to try casting this version in the hopes that I can avoid botching this original one.



After painting it, I took pics to compare to both the HT facemask and a screen-used helmet from ESB. I failed to precisely match the angle of the screen-used helmet because that helmet is tilted down a bit more than the 1/6 facemasks that I photographed. But still, the difference in neck size and brow/eye lines is evident. Now I have to refine it a bit more before figuring out how I'm going to make an accurate dome. The HT dome is too big, the SSC dome is shaped wrong (and maybe too small), the Titanium dome is all kinds of wrong, and the old Hasbro one flares too far in the back (and the sides don't drop far enough). I'll figure something out.



As for the diorama itself, it's slow-going because I need to mold faceplates for the wall boxes that light up. Although they're slightly different from one another, the basic structure of each is identical. I made a test box out of cardstock paper just to test the lighting. The castings of the sculpted faceplate should look sufficiently better (I hope so, anyway). Here's a side-by-side pic of the cardstock test box lit up, and unlit. The overall lighting is bad/dark this time because it had to be. Sorry.