Saturday, April 30, 2011

Updates, Final Five and Some Gear Reloaded...

First off would like to give my prayers and support to the people of Alabama and the surrounding states..many of my friends, that were affected by the barrage of severe weather over the past couple weeks..especially the last several days.

Alright guys! I have a TON of updates and other things to get to so let's not dawdel! LOL!

First the final five Male and Female characters I will be working on for the rest of the year. I gave you the first set of five last entry. The purpose of this is for my own benefit, to keep me focused on specific projects instead of randomly working on ideas I feel at the time would be "cool" or interesting, only to find myself asking "what was I thinking" weeks later. No frames to show for these as of yet - some I have constructed, others are still being figured out.



So naturally if I am going to do a Darth Krayt, I need to have a Darth Wyyrlok. As you know, I had created this figure once before but wasn't satisfied with it's articulation and armor sculpt. Much needed improvements will be made on the second go.

To continue the Force Unleashed Series, I have chosen the original Sith Stalker as seen in the Dark Side ending of The Force Unleashed video game - this figure will include an alternate head sculpt without the helmet.

With the Invasion Luke Skywalker complete, Finn Galfridian is next in line to do battle with the Vong. He will include his droid sidekick Prowl.

Treis Sinde - Imperial Knight from Legacy, sporting his Mon Calamari diving gear. A strange choice I know but a character I've been wanting to do since issue #32.

Finally "Bantha" Rawk - again from Legacy - Originally Nat Skywalker, descendant of Anakin and Luke Skywalker, the older brother of Jedi Council member Kol Skywalker, and uncle of Kol's son, Cade.

And the final females?.....



My first choice is Darth Wyyrlock's daughter, Saarai meaning "truth" in the ancient Sith language. She knows how to handle herself as we have seen with her duel with Darth Stryfe.

Darth Maladi, also from Legacy. Planning on an alternate head sculpt as she appears in Legacy War.

Kaye Galfridian is Finn's sister in Invasion and takes the battle to the Vong on the planet of Yammosk. Why Kaye?...I really dig the Enviro Suit Colin Wilson illustrated in the comic.

Eleena Daru, Darth Malgus' lover in the Paul S. Kemp novel Star Wars: The Old Republic "Deceived". No spoilers here but read the novel and you'll understand why I chose her.

Finally another Old Republic character from the "Hope" cinematic trailer, Jedi Master Satele Shan. Malgus has to have some sport right? LOL!

So there you have it, my final male and female figures I will be working on the rest of the year. I'm sure I won't complete all these by the end of the year - who knows. It will keep me busy though. Expect updates of these figures on a regular basis..as well as some suprises along the way. I don't like sticking exactly to the script.

Now onto the updates...First off is one taken off the shelf and back onto the workbench...Mandalore the Ultimate from Knights of the Old Republic.





Not sure when it was the last time I did an update on this figure...perhaps only once in a limited number of forums...not sure. Mandalore will appear per Brian Ching's illustrations in the Dark Horse comic series KOTOR. I started the figure awhile back before I began building frames - so I will need to revise the figure's just a bit, reducing the forearms, lower legs and resculpting the hands. I plan to have a mix of cloth and plastics for the cape.



Next up a quick update to both Jedi Shado Vao and Wolf Sazen from Star Wars Legacy...



I had Shado's sculpt primed and ready to go - like I said in my last entry. I decided to add ball hinged hips to the figure for added articulation. This past week I added back the fabric and belt, this time much more conservatively and using a "borrowed" belt instead of sculpting one. I will sculpt the drapped clothing over the top of the belt as well as additional details this week and proceed to painting. By the way - the fabric I used was that of a vintage Bib Fortuna's robe :)

Wolf Sazen is still being worked on - totally reworked the lower half of the figure, adding ball hinged hips and tooled around with his missing arm. Since the comic has Wolf obtaining a replacement arm from the one he lost to Darth Nihl, I decided to include that option with the help of the trusty magnets...



Below is a shot of Wolf's alternate cybernetic arm which is attached by the magnet.I am also working on an alternate head for Wolf...possibly stated this in an earlier entry. His current head has limited movement - I want to create one with his hair pulled back.




Next is the Imperial Trooper from Star Wars: The Old Republic. You guys that check into my facebook page from time to time got a glimpse of my work - Here's plenty more. Please recognize the sculpt is still a work in progress but I was excited to share and didn't want to wait till the final before molding. Much to be worked on but it's where I want to be - need to get to work on the backpack once the helmet is complete.







With FIXIT it takes a little at a time and working in layers to complete a helmet sculpt such as this...at least in my opinion.



Work in progress update to my Dark Lord Sith Stalker from The Force Unleashed: Ultimate Sith Edition. Made adjustments to the helmet - reduced the dome. Added the rib guard and (not shown) lowered the abdomen and reworked the hip articulation.











The blades that attached to the Sith Stalker's hands...I'm still working on a solution for those. Want to be able to manipulate the hands and arms without work of breaking them off.

How about some Boba Fett...

I am currently working on Boba's jumpsuit, will complete the suit before adding the armor. Was thinking of making the armor removable..to give Boba some "off" time so to speak. We'll see.







Boba will have an interchageable head sculpt, helmet and without. I will not make a removable helmet for this figure. Just not my cup of tea...





Here's an update to my first Imperial "Pin-Up" girl in Stormtrooper armor as mentioned in my last entry...





Not much to show right now but it gives you an idea. Haven't even come up with the head sculpt yet! LOL

A quick Tonnika Sister update! - The body sculpts are complete. Have begun adding clothing to the figures as well as the boots. First are images of the bodt sculpt, including a couple images of the hip/buttock joint that has been a challenge for me at this scale.





I will beging painting the head sculpts sometime this week.





While we are still on the subject of females, how about an update on my Deliah Blue from Star Wars Legacy!!...







Not much has changed since the last update - except for a little more meat on her bones and some hips to go with it. She was way to skinny! Hoping to have the same results as I did with the Tonnika Sisters.





This version of Blue will sport the duds she wore in Legacy issue #44! I have planned two other versions of this character.

Onto a Darth Malgus update and one of the reasons why I like to take Work In Progress images...why you ask, check out the image below...



I get a kick from the before and after pictures - shows the amount of work I put into the figure and helps me understand the adjustments I had to make to create the figure as accurate as possible. I encourage all of you that sculpt on a figure or wireframe to take early snapshots like these...it really benefits your work in the long run!

Now, onto Malgus...

Tested the articulation the other day and posted most of these images on Facebook - the last few are new images showing the sculpt detailing of the lower body armor of the hips and legs.















Working on the lower leg armor and the back some more. Am working on how to attached a cowl.

My final Star Wars themed update is of Savage Opress...who is becoming more and more a beast everyday.





The upper armor is complete, with some minor adjustments remaining...

Below are images with the leg armor and boots still being worked on - the soft goods (fabric) will be added soon.



Embo is still being worked on - side-by-side with Savage to show some scale.



I'll begin working on painting Savage's headsculpt this coming week. First though I will try to cast the crazy thing, making myself some additional plastic copies to form alternate head sculpts (battle damaged, screaming). Also considering building a Savage as he appeared before his transformation.

So that's it for the Star Wars themed work - anyone interested in a Metal Gear reload?



The above image is that of some of my existing figures in the works. I have set aside some time to work on Metal Gear figures on a regular basis now. Below I have made a list of five male characters and five female characters (similar to what I'm doing with the Star Wars figures) that I will begin working on as well as the existing figures.





Core figures come first I always say - which is why I chose multiple Snakes and multiple Raidens. Various females though - I look forward to begin work on them!!!

Below are some recent images I took of my existing Metal Gear figures...not much have been updated but plenty need to be reworked..



The Cyborg Ninja - I started this sculpt using a base microman figure several years ago and tabled it...which is a shame on my part. Too cool of a character to leave the figure half finished. I've learned much since beginning this sculpt and will be making some revisions to the body of Fox as well as the microman frame. Say goodbye to the microman hands - can't stand them. Horrible.







For both Vamp and Raiden, I used a microman body as their frame. I'm a little concerned about the stability, plus the joint setups are a little hard to look at in places. I need to rework them...just in some spots, not the entire frame.



My favorite sculpt so far - Raiden is a delicate figure in terms of detail and frame. I hope to strengthen the figure while building the sculpt up a bit more.







One last shot of Gray Fox - next time you see him you will notice the differences. Time to get to work on these guys - been way too long!

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More always on the way - especially now with Metal Gear in the regular rotation!!! You guys have questions, suggestions or comments, please feel free to contact me here, my facebook or my e-mail - sith_fire34@yahoo.com. Thanks guys - Long update, hope you made it through!



WAR.....has changed.....