Custom Action Figures - Imperial Officers (Admiral Motti/Captain Piett)

For whatever reason, I absolutely love the Imperial Officers of the original Star Wars films. In recent years we have been lucky to get a fair few officers in one form or another and most of them have been pretty good. In fact I actually quite liked even the Admiral Motti figure that was made way back in POTJ. He had a tremendous facial sculpt and his articulation was clean and necessary, he could do exactly what he did in the movie.

Over the years though I was able to acquire a few extra Captain Needa bodies and said what the hell, Removing the old Motti head I dremelled it out and mounted it on the new body. I also cut away his rank plate and glued it into place on the Needa body, his hands were replaced with some from the spares box. Now he can take his place next to Grand Moff Tarkin as they threaten to blow up planets.

Admiral/Captain Piett is another figure who seems a bit underrepresented in the modern toy line. He had quite a role in two movies yet has only had one figure made of himself in all this time. Like Motti the sculpt is quite good on his one release so I figured I would simply repurpose the POTF2 head. Little else is done to him, his rank badge is adequate to depict him in either film and the Needa figure was wearing gloves so that essentially completed his look.

Overall, these were some simple and quick modifications that helped to bring these characters into the new millennium, and fit them into the modern lineup.

Custom Action Figure- Imperial Probe Droid

 A character that has been in dire need of an update for years... yet never seems to get one. The Imperial Probe droid or Probot is in my opinion one of the most maligned characters in the entire Star Wars line.  This isn't some cantina character or background player in Jabba's palace. This guy's appearance opens The Empire Strikes Back and he plays an integral role in the plot.

Fortunately in spite of it's many faults the oft released POTF2 Probot is actually quite a good base to begin modifying into a more accurate figurine. He has all the basic parts and really just needs a few basic tweaks to bring him up to snuff.

Beginning with removing his obtrusive action featureHe can then have his head mounted to the body and can be puttied and sanded to remove some of his larger glaring seams. At this point it is great to pull out the reference material and figure out where everything belongs and what needs to be added to  accurize him.

I worked on smoothing and adding an eye here or there which was definitely needed. Also I deepened some of the rivet holes peppering his armor plates. Then I proceeded to begin placing Greeblies around the perimeter of his main body.

Various parts like miniature tanks and wires were fabricated from styrene sheet and rod and glued to him using cyanoacrylate. His neck was extended with a styrene spacer.

 Again more details were added and holes were cleaned out with a pin vise.

This panel was cut out and deepened and a new faceplate was made for it which matched reference photography. Also greeblies were assembled to replicate his little blaster mounted on top of his body. A small underhanging greeblie was also built which hangs off the lower edge of his trunk.

Looking directly underneath a large styrene blank was cut and shaped to cover the large recess on the bottom of his body left over from his action feature. This area is relatively undetailed on the actual miniature so it was left smooth.

The legs were pretty great if unarticulated but they still feature some nice crisp detailing. However in the pursuit for more accuracy and a better looking figure, I drilled out all the pistons on his legs and replaced them with small steel nails. The legs were all removed and the bare metal nails masked before painting.

Finally it was time to paint! A base coat of Rustoleum Anodized Bronze was applied to the whole figure, this was left to dry for 24 hours. Ordinarily I wouldn't use enamel spray paint on an action figure due to it reacting poorly with the base plastics used. Luckily the Probe Droid is made of sterner stuff and could take the heavier paint. Once dry I applied a wash of acrylic black over the whole figure and then very lightly dry brushed with gunmetal over the whole figure. The details were picked out with gloss black for the eyes and the small technical markings throughout were painted with a bright orange. Finally it was all sealed and the figure was reassembled.

As a finishing touch, two pins were cut to length and glued in place as antennas. He turned out pretty good looking if I say so myself and makes for a great updated piece in my collection, for not much more than 10 dollars.

Custom Action Figure- The Emperor

Here's another very necessary custom. The Emperor! Hard to believe I had to resort to this, but I have just never been satisfied by any of the commercially available Emperor figures. In fact the closest thing to a fantastic toy he has had is actually the Hallmark ornament of him in his chair. I display that proudly amongst his many cronies. But as far as a standing emperor I had to customize to get what I wanted.

Starting with the VC79 Vintage Collection Darth Sidious as a base I proceeded to ditch his Palpatine head and replace it with something a little more withered. The best ROTJ sculpt I have seen is actually the SAGA release of the Emperor from 2003. Usually this sculpt is marred by a godawful paint job but underneath all that is is incredibly faithful to his onscreen look. Nice and crisp.  The only real problem is that it is an incomplete head. But once placed under the hood, it makes no difference.

Further alterations to the VC79 Sidious included trimming and shaping the plastic cowl around his head. Also adding his cane from the SAGA Figure. Finally his cloak was soaked in warm water then shaped and left to dry. Lastly all the flesh parts were painted to match his onscreen look. My favorite thing about him is the dry papery look that I achieved with his skin. I hated the way the prequels made him look rubbery and lumpy rather than ancient and dessicated.

Custom Action Figure - Jango Fett

My custom Jango Fett is something I have wanted to complete for a LONG time now. I loved the new Vintage Collection body, but I was sick of the removable helmet because it looks so squished and nothing like the one used in the movie. However the mission series figure had a great looking head. Nice and wide like the actual film helmet, also it had great bright silver paint apps and nice bright detailing. As a bonus it came with Jango's arena jetpack, of which I didn't have one yet.

After chopping off Jango's head (Look ma just like Mace Windu!) I dremelled out the underside and added a cavity for the neck balljoint to fit into.

His Arena Jetpack was relatively under detailed, so I wound up repainting the whole thing. It is worth noting that Testers Model Master Acrylic Steel is a perfect match for the factory silver color of Jango's armor. While I was dremelling his helmet I also drilled out his jetpack rocket nozzles.

 The only real tweaks I had to make to the helmet were to paint his blue stripe around the back and to
paint black on the underside that was ground out .

The final addition to this figure was sort of another bonus from the Mission series figure. Jango's blasters were replaced with those of the mission series figure. They had a great bright silver color to them and the only thing I did to change them was to add some clear orange to the tip and the sides of the barrels to give them a coppery look. I then cut off the Blades from his gauntlets and called this one finished. I finally have my ultimate Jango Fett figure and the best part is I can still swap his parts out with all his original bits.