Hot Toys Snowtrooper

[TonTon]

Looks great.

 

[davejames]

Yeah I think I might have to try that with mine now. Even though I'm not a big Snowtrooper expert, it did feel like something wasn't quite right color wise with this.

 

[TurdFurgusonsHat]

Looks great Craig! Interesting that it's SW Celebration, a new trilogy trailer was dropped and the hottest 1/6 SW thread is the Snowtroopers from a couple years ago

 

[Craig Walker]

 

[TonTon]

What did you do for the boots?

 

[Craig Walker]

What did you do for the boots?

Dry brushed the existing ones. Brown wash (watered down) and hit lightly w white dry brush again.

 

[TaliBane]

Now we are getting somewhere

Great work on your snowies!. While I do love the whiter Snowie look too, keep in mind the snowies did have quite a bit of variety in weathering as seen in the pics below, some of which do have a slightly yellow-ish look (though I'd agree HT went overboard with the peed-his-pants look.) Even Hasbro went with a pretty yellow look to the legs and boots for their BS 6" figure.

The pic I've shown on the left I think is the one that HT has used as color reference. You can see in these pics the backgrounds are quite white, so it's not yellowing of the pic that's making a few snowies look darker or yellower.

I have four snowies now - two are the "dirty" HT ones (with leg padding removed - that's essential) plus a modded Sideshow one that's a bit more straight white/greyish, and then a custom snowie that's quite bright white like in your pic, almost pre-battle. Together I like the variety of looks because it feels more like what's onscreen. BUt if you only have one or two I can understand going with the white look. It also for me conjures the Kenner Snowie.

One issue is that the color isn't the key problem I had with the HT snowie - he's also pretty short (like 11 1/2",) has too-long monkey arms and kind of stubby legs, making him look a bit odd in some poses. The HT boot/gaiters sculpt is also pretty weak (I've called it very Hasbro-ish-) I think it also might be that the shoe part is too small. For my custom I actually used the HT gaiters combined with the SSC boot part.

 

[Craig Walker]

Together I like the variety of looks because it feels more like what's onscreen.

Screen caps I posted few pages back: They look almost pure white. Like the uniform part is kinda off-white. As I said then, I think Lucas knew how they'd film. They would get lost in the background if pure white on pure white background, hence the 'tan' photos/stills. See Vader mask paint job in ANH.*. I need to take some photos with my Nikon for proper white balance too.

For my custom I actually used the HT gaiters combined with the SSC boot part.

I've been hunting SS boots. Hard to find obviously.

 

[ZE_501]

I've been hunting SS boots. Hard to find obviously.

I just paid through the nose for a pair from eBay.

 

[Craig Walker]

I just paid through the nose for a pair from eBay.

I keep surfing there and various sites like Toy Anxiety.

 

[Craig Walker]

Well, this is interesting:

Are the snowtroopers really white, or are they like the HT uniform?

The answer is “yes”. Opening scene after “rebel troops have entered the base” they are white white. Off white at worse.

Then there’s this scene right before the Falcon escapes:

Left trooper is as tan as HT one (darker?! ), and right one is almost white. So both are correct. I've been poking fun of the color, and it's not inaccurate.

I prefer the white look though. Although I may “dirty” one up slightly to distinguish them.


I wonder why Lucas made this choice? Seems odd to have such a wide swing in uniform.....as its not 'dirt'. The color is fairly consistent on the left one, and the right one. Maybe they practically couldn't find enough material/clothing so they settled (?) Interesting...

 

[ZE_501]

[...]

I wonder why Lucas made this choice? Seems odd to have such a wide swing in uniform.....as its not 'dirt'. The color is fairly consistent on the left one, and the right one. Maybe they practically couldn't find enough material/clothing so they settled (?) Interesting...

Timing/budget limitations + characters on-screen for mere seconds, is my guess. Went down this rabbit-hole back around 2011(!) and almost 8 years later all I know for sure is that props and costuming in the OT were all over the place. As I mentioned in another thread -- none of this was meant to withstand decades of our obsessive scrutiny.

 

[Craig Walker]

Lol, we wouldn’t do that, would we?

 

[TaliBane]

Yeah, they have a pretty wide spectrum of colors onscreen but I still like the snowy-white look best.

I think in 1/6 the Sideshow color is about right - its white but with a hint of grey/brown weathering. There are some elements of the Sideshow figure I prefer over the Ht version, though overall the HT figure is pretty kickass.

What's funny is that in looking closely at the costume, aspects (such as backpack, belt armor greebly) of the Sideshow are too big while the HT has them too small. The backpack in particular is a little too small on the HT and a little too big on the SSC.

 

[ZE_501]

Been working on a long awaited futzing for this figure.

I was initially okay with the fat suit but removed top and bottom. You can get away with leaving the top on as it’s mostly midriff padding, but the extra layers add up fast in 1/6 scale so I removed it, and feel as if the arms are better able to rest at his sides now.

Stripping and resetting the armour and suit have made it sit a touch more naturally, and I flipped the belt plate around.

It does look subtly better for the obsessive amongst us (ha ha) — now I’m just waiting on my SSC boots to arrive before any further mods.

I get the figures into dead-neutral poses to see if they hang right; not that I do much dynamic posing anyway when it comes to actual displays. If you guys haven’t removed the extra padding yet, I do recommend it.

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[Craig Walker]

Pants padding removal made a huge difference to my eyes.

 

[ZE_501]

Pants padding removal made a huge difference to my eyes.

Definitely. I put it off for a long time, but finally overcame my laziness.

I had thought I may need a body swap, but outside of slightly extending the ankles (need to add them anyway for SSC boots) I think it’s where I need it now in terms of ‘man-in-a-suit’ vibe.

Your bleach treatment remains an interesting option for me, but I may be okay as-is. I think there some variance in dye jobs. Mine are definitely tan but not as dark as some I’ve seen.

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[Big Mo]

Looks amazing

 

[TaliBane]

Nice work ZE. It really is a great figure, even just with the fat suit removals elevate it even more. I do like Craig's white-white snowie a bit more but the dirty look works nicely too.

The only other thing I'd do is try to lengthen the legs a tad - maybe just with those ebay ankle extenders. The arms do seem a bit too long in front-on neutral poses, but it might just be the stubby legs making the arms look too long.

 

[ZE_501]

Nice work ZE. It really is a great figure, even just with the fat suit removals elevate it even more. I do like Craig's white-white snowie a bit more but the dirty look works nicely too.

The only other thing I'd do is try to lengthen the legs a tad - maybe just with those ebay ankle extenders. The arms do seem a bit too long in front-on neutral poses, but it might just be the stubby legs making the arms look too long.

Not 'work' so much as aggressive futzing but thanks! I've noticed that whenever I get an HT figure with multi-layered armour and clothing, the factory set-up is often not quite right. It's a pain to take everything apart but not only does it improve the look, it gets you a look at where the body's joints are going to work best.

I did manage to get the proportions to improve by stripping and re-setting the figure, sans padding, but when I swap the boots with ankle extenders I think it'll improve more. I'm resisting the bleach treatment because I don't want to take it all apart again.