1/6 Hot Toys - TMS 023 - The Clone Wars: 501st Battalion Clone Trooper (DELUXE VERSION)

[agonistes86]

The front area of the helmet can be detached, made painting the grill easy.

I can share pictures of the helmet fully disassembled if any one wants them.

Yeah that would be much appreciated. I likely want to paint mine in an ARC Alpha paint scheme, so all paint needs to come off first.

 

[Magnusstewardson]

Ok here a couple general breakdown pictures.

 

[Magnusstewardson]

here’s the underside of the crown of the helmet. There’s two pegs glued into where those front and back arrows are. I drilled them out carefully and drilled that hole in the middle to pop out the fin. I’ve had to drill two holes on other helmets to pop the fin off. The last few clones I’ve gotten have been glued together way better than the first ones I got.

 

[Magnusstewardson]

I cut these pegs off and shallow drilled them out the rest of the way to pop the visor and faceplate off. This was a bit nerve racking since it’s so thin.

 

[MyenShi]

Thanks for this comparison. It made me rethink actually using the phase 1 helmet. I really wanted a clean phase 1 with the heavy repeater to represent Hevy.
View attachment 548794
I set out to lower the phase 1 and started by swapping the neck socket from a phase 2 helmet(right) for the phase 1 socket(left). It does a pretty good job of lowering the phase 1 helmet.
View attachment 548796
I needed the phase 2 socket so I did some surgery and cut down the mounts inside the phase 1 and lowered it that way.
stock and the one I lowered:
View attachment 548797

It’s both a subtle yet very noticeable improvement, especially with the repaint (depaint, I guess).

You are braver than most. Excellent work.

 

[Magnusstewardson]

Brave, no…..I just got this crazy idea to turn all my 501st into named clones. It started with deciding to turn one into Appo, easy quick mod adding that arrow.

 

[Magnusstewardson]

Then it devolved into breaking down all my clones and ordering more.
I needed Kix of course.

Tup and Dogma

And Hardcase

 

[Magnusstewardson]

And after the Bad Batch I had to turn an extra 501st into a Howzer

 

[MyenShi]

Brave, no…..I just got this crazy idea to turn all my 501st into named clones. It started with deciding to turn one into Appo, easy quick mod adding that arrow.

That’s not crazy. I was literally just thinking about doing that and was about to rewatch the Umbara arc after this.

I remembered that someone here had done that with the Sideshow Clones way back in the day and was inspired by that. But I’m inspired by this too now.

A lot of work, but you did the Clones proud.

 

[Magnusstewardson]

I was looking for Cody parts to make a Vaughn and what became Hevy started as my clone to make Jesse, and suddenly HTs pulls through and puts both up for order. Still might have to make a pre ARC Jesse. And now that I’ve figured out lowering the phase 1 helmet Echo and Fives might need to be made.

edit. I do remember seeing those old 501st custom clones too, was partially responsible for my choice to redo all these as well.

 

[agonistes86]

Great work, magnus.
And many thanks for those shots. So if I see it correctly, the "ears" on the Phase 1 are separate from the dome. Does that mean the ears could actually be reduced in height (through very careful sanding), or would that leave a gap in those grey parts on the side of the dome? That's another inaccuracy in the HT sculpt.

 

[Magnusstewardson]

Hold on, I think if I take a photo from the side you’ll get a better idea of that area.

edit. The grey part definitely fits over that ear. You could probably lower the ear and fill in and reshape it back over the ear.

 

[agonistes86]

Man, your shots are incredibly helpful!
It's probably way more trouble than it's worth since I could just order a custom Phase 1 sculpt from ebay that's probably more accurate, but I want to try this out just for the challenge. And while I'm at it, I might as well resculpt the mouth to be a bit more closed... I think it's good that I have 1.5 years until Jesse arrives and I actually need the helmet.

 

[Magnusstewardson]

If HTs puts a loaded version of a plain shiney up I’d probably have to sell a kidney. Or get a second job.

I started collecting after Sideshow had finished with clones. Well their last one was available when I started but the rest were long gone. I never realized how much I actually wanted those figures until now. Years of always looking but never pulling the trigger on them primed me for going overboard now that clones are here again.

 

[Chakaman]

Amazing work Magnus. Good stuff.

 

[Blindtruth85]

Thanks for the breakdowns Magnus. Extremely useful.

 

[Blindtruth85]

Just posting a couple of photos from a shoot.

 

[Darth Fail]

I've found that if you soak the helmet, or any armor, in isopropyl alcohol for a couple hours you can wipe the paint right off down to the plastic. The plastic actually has a white color that would make for an interesting "Shiny". The photo is from an Ahsoka helmet I broke down but I'd think the others would behave the same, that'll be my next project.

 

[bebe13junior]

501st pics look amazing!!!
This figure looks like it will be a Fight of the Year.

 

[Magnusstewardson]

I've found that if you soak the helmet, or any armor, in isopropyl alcohol for a couple hours you can wipe the paint right off down to the plastic. The plastic actually has a white color that would make for an interesting "Shiny". The photo is from an Ahsoka helmet I broke down but I'd think the others would behave the same, that'll be my next project.

View attachment 548968

The one Ahsoka helmet I stripped, the dome had 501st blue under a layer that matched the molded armor color, then the Ahsoka paint over that.