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STAR WARS Sandtrooper kitbash/custom (updated with Part III, January 2022)

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GubernatorFan

GubernatorFan
Founding Father
Part I
For Part II (updated and modified figure), please see Post 18 below.
For Part III ("New Friends"), please see Post 28 below.

I'm very late to the sandtrooper party. For one thing, I prefer my stormtroopers clean and ship shape for the parade ground (who was it that said wars just mess up armies?). For another, I've always had a suspicion that sandtroopers were a combination of accident and post-fact rationalization: they were the first stormtroopers used and filmed for Star Wars (Episode IV/A New Hope), and the minor differences in their armor (not just equipment) may have been the result of changing design rather than pre-thought-out purpose (to wit, spacetroopers in the same film don't differ from regular troopers except when it comes to their equipment to breathe in space).

It didn't help that Marmit, Medicom, and Sideshow messed up the helmet in different ways (Marmit and Sideshow got the facial proportions wrong, Medicom used a regular stormtrooper's helmet of the hero variety). And all this was (mostly) before I was collecting high-end sixth-scale figures anyway. When Hot Toys released their sandtrooper, I was very tempted (apart from the most convincing weathering, they had finally gotten the helmet pretty much right -- improving on their standard ANH stormtrooper design which had perpetuated the same error as Marmit and Sideshow). But I was put off by their choice to depict what was definitely a costuming error, the upward arched brow band of one sandtrooper ("these are not the droids we are looking for"). Since then, I have come across photos of the various sandtroopers in all their glory, and have also come to realize that at least the finished HT product's helmet looked acceptable for my delicate sensibilities after all. Of course, by then these collectibles, which had been pricey (for their time) to begin with, were becoming rarer and grossly overpriced. So I kept putting it off or talking myself out of it.

But one by one I picked up pieces from broken down sets (still eschewing the HT helmet until it was too late) until I was gradually able to put together a makeshift complete sandtrooper with the purchase of the last few rare and overpriced pieces. You can see it below, both by itself and also compared with the Rogue One version of essentially the same thing (though less elaborately equipped), the "heavily weathered Jeddha Patrol."  My ANH sandtrooper kitbash/custom consists mostly of different parts from Hot Toys (sandtrooper lower body armor, stormtrooper long blaster rifle, Jeddha patrol upper body armor and helmet) and Marmit (undersuit, pouches, pauldron); I did some custom fitting, greeblies, and repainting.

starwars - STAR WARS Sandtrooper kitbash/custom (updated with Part III, January 2022) Swcsnd10

starwars - STAR WARS Sandtrooper kitbash/custom (updated with Part III, January 2022) Swcsnd11

starwars - STAR WARS Sandtrooper kitbash/custom (updated with Part III, January 2022) Swcsnd12

starwars - STAR WARS Sandtrooper kitbash/custom (updated with Part III, January 2022) Swcsnd13

starwars - STAR WARS Sandtrooper kitbash/custom (updated with Part III, January 2022) Swcsnd14

starwars - STAR WARS Sandtrooper kitbash/custom (updated with Part III, January 2022) Swcsnd15

Hope you liked it.

For Part II (updated and modified figure), please see Post 18 below.
For Part III ("New Friends"), please see Post 28 below.

#starwars #anewhope #sandtrooper #stormtrooper #rogueone #jeddha #patrol #custom #kitbash


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skywalkersaga

skywalkersaga
You did an excellent job with this one! I hadn't realized how difficult it's been to get an accurate Sandtrooper at this scale....that's nuts, considering how iconic this 'look' is. But your kitbash is very convincing, and your photography is excellent as usual. 

While I don't have plans at this time to 'bash Stormtroopers, I *DO* have hopes of eventually cobbling together some of my favourite Clone troopers/commanders, and I've admittedly been at a loss at times to figure out where to even start. So even though it's a different era and different armour, etc, it's still encouraging to see what you've accomplished here. Smile


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"The happy ending of the fairy tale, the myth, and the divine comedy of the soul, is to be read,
not as a contradiction, but as a transcendence of the universal tragedy of man."

Ignoring current 'official' Star Wars content for my own sanity.

PickleMunkey

PickleMunkey
Aw man those are some niiice lookin' troopers!

GubernatorFan

GubernatorFan
Founding Father
skywalkersaga wrote:You did an excellent job with this one! I hadn't realized how difficult it's been to get an accurate Sandtrooper at this scale....that's nuts, considering how iconic this 'look' is. But your kitbash is very convincing, and your photography is excellent as usual.

Thank you very much. Actually, it was very difficult to get an accurate stormtrooper of any kind in this (or any) scale, in particular because of subtle changes or differences in helmets (hero vs stunt, sandtrooper vs stormtrooper/spacetrooper, ANH vs ESB&ROTJ vs RO) and armor (likewise), even not taking into account errors in execution. HT's ANH sandtrooper and Rogue One troopers appear to be the first providing an exact or almost exact likeness to their respective subjects. I did pick up a bunch of the "classic" scale well-articulated Hasbro clone trooper figures years ago, but I don't know enough about them or their sixth-scale representations to offer advice on such a kitbash. Nevertheless, good luck!

PickleMunkey wrote:Aw man those are some niiice lookin' troopers!

Thank you very much. I also think he worked out well and can work with his Rogue One descendant (or is it precursor -- by minutes!). To be honest, I'm not sure I'm completely done with the (ANH) figure. Apart from possibly swapping the chest plate for an ANH one, I might change the pouches. You might get a kick out of that one -- the pouches used for sandtroopers in ANH (the Rogue One Jeddha patrols skipped that detail) were actually repainted WW2 German triple mag pouches (MP40), and I found some parted out from a recent German 9th Army Wehrmacht break down. They won't look quite as neat and slim as the plastic Marmit ones, but they would be more authentic, if I can dye them effectively.


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PickleMunkey

PickleMunkey
GubernatorFan wrote:
Thank you very much. I also think he worked out well and can work with his Rogue One descendant (or is it precursor -- by minutes!). To be honest, I'm not sure I'm completely done with the (ANH) figure. Apart from possibly swapping the chest plate for an ANH one, I might change the pouches. You might get a kick out of that one -- the pouches used for sandtroopers in ANH (the Rogue One Jeddha patrols skipped that detail) were actually repainted WW2 German triple mag pouches (MP40), and I found some parted out from a recent German 9th Army Wehrmacht break down. They won't look quite as neat and slim as the plastic Marmit ones, but they would be more authentic, if I can dye them effectively.

Aw man I know! I picked up on the pouch detail awhile ago! I think there are even some German Field Packs, the furred ones, on the Dewback Saddles.

So much WWII gear has been, and can be, used for Star Wars stuff so effectively. An FG42 makes an excellent blaster, for instance.

I think the cloth over the plastic pouch would look a lot nicer, definitely looking forward to seeing that upgrade.

skywalkersaga

skywalkersaga
GubernatorFan wrote:HT's ANH sandtrooper and Rogue One troopers appear to be the first providing an exact or almost exact likeness to their respective subjects.

Wow I had no idea... glad those exist now, at least. 


GubernatorFan wrote: I did pick up a bunch of the "classic" scale well-articulated Hasbro clone trooper figures years ago, but I don't know enough about them or their sixth-scale representations to offer advice on such a kitbash. Nevertheless, good luck!

No worries! I just meant that I sometimes forget about certain other companies that have put out versions such as Marmit, Medicom, etc., so I appreciated the reminder of alternative places to look other than SS and HT. Although, I do recall some of Medicom's SW figures having been criticized for being underscaled, which might be why I'd avoided looking there. I'm sure I'll be able to sort it all out...eventually. ;p  And for certain specific Clones, I might just have to bite the bullet and purchase some of the Sideshow ones that have already been made -- I can only hope that the prices of those might go down at some point.... hah. Razz


_________________
"The happy ending of the fairy tale, the myth, and the divine comedy of the soul, is to be read,
not as a contradiction, but as a transcendence of the universal tragedy of man."

Ignoring current 'official' Star Wars content for my own sanity.

GubernatorFan

GubernatorFan
Founding Father
PickleMunkey wrote:Aw man I know! I picked up on the pouch detail awhile ago! I think there are even some German Field Packs, the furred ones, on the Dewback Saddles.

So much WWII gear has been, and can be, used for Star Wars stuff so effectively. An FG42 makes an excellent blaster, for instance.

I think the cloth over the plastic pouch would look a lot nicer, definitely looking forward to seeing that upgrade.

Indeed, I should have known you'd know that, was just trying to impress you. Smile I have collected all three (one of them with the little side pouch) and they are waiting to get dyed.

skywalkersaga wrote:I just meant that I sometimes forget about certain other companies that have put out versions such as Marmit, Medicom, etc., so I appreciated the reminder of alternative places to look other than SS and HT. Although, I do recall some of Medicom's SW figures having been criticized for being underscaled, which might be why I'd avoided looking there. I'm sure I'll be able to sort it all out...eventually. 

Yes, Medicom tend to be under-scaled compared to other sixth-scale companies -- and Roger has discussed the misuse of the term (e.g., Sideshow isn't so much sixth-scale as 12-inch, etc). It is not completely consistent, but here is an example (Sideshow vs Medicom) :

starwars - STAR WARS Sandtrooper kitbash/custom (updated with Part III, January 2022) Funsw010

Just make sure you do your research and compare between companies, lines, products, and screen appearances and you'll be able to decide whether something is worth getting or not. And inevitably you will get some things that you will then decide to upgrade and replace with others...


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Stryker2011

Stryker2011
Founding Father
Pretty cool job, Guv. If I have perhaps one nitpick, it’s that the helmet looks a bit too clean compared to the rest of him. Otherwise, very cool bash, and I imagine a lot more expensive than when the figure would have been stock.


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He who dies with the most toys wins!

starwars - STAR WARS Sandtrooper kitbash/custom (updated with Part III, January 2022) C8485110

GubernatorFan

GubernatorFan
Founding Father
Stryker2011 wrote:Pretty cool job, Guv. If I have perhaps one nitpick, it’s that the helmet looks a bit too clean compared to the rest of him. Otherwise, very cool bash, and I imagine a lot more expensive than when the figure would have been stock.

Thank you very much. It was not inexpensive, but perhaps less expensive than the actual boxed set (which was $220 when it came out, if recall correctly, and that was quite a lot 4 years ago). I did pick up random pieces from several broken down sets when I found them on sale. It was only the damn pauldron (which is so hard to find) and pouches (before I realized the German WW2 ones were identical) that required me to track down and get the least expensive Marmit sandtrooper I could find -- and its excellent undersuit was an unexpected bonus. Toy Anxiety had recently broken down an HT sandtrooper set, but although I got various pieces from it (including the complete backpack), I stupidly did not follow through with several other things I might have used until it was too late (though some had already sold out instantaneously).

As for the clean-ish helmet, you make a good point, but my philosophy is that it would be the cleanest part of the trooper, since it would be the least likely part to get dirty (unless he was literally rolling around in the sand all day). So I didn't add any extra weathering to the HT Rogue One Jeddha patrol weathered helmet (I did fill in the line indents in the grey shapes and paint over them). If you look at the figure as a whole, you'll see the weathering progressively diminishes the higher up you go (the lower arm armor was completely white as it came from a regular stormtrooper, but I weathered it up to look dirtier than the upper arm armor, which came from a "heavy weathered" Jeddha patrol. It also occurs to me that the light in the photos bleached out the weathering just a little bit, so it probably looks cleaner than it is in hand.


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skywalkersaga

skywalkersaga
GubernatorFan wrote:
skywalkersaga wrote:I just meant that I sometimes forget about certain other companies that have put out versions such as Marmit, Medicom, etc., so I appreciated the reminder of alternative places to look other than SS and HT. Although, I do recall some of Medicom's SW figures having been criticized for being underscaled, which might be why I'd avoided looking there. I'm sure I'll be able to sort it all out...eventually. 

Yes, Medicom tend to be under-scaled compared to other sixth-scale companies -- and Roger has discussed the misuse of the term (e.g., Sideshow isn't so much sixth-scale as 12-inch, etc). It is not completely consistent, but here is an example (Sideshow vs Medicom) :

starwars - STAR WARS Sandtrooper kitbash/custom (updated with Part III, January 2022) Funsw010

Just make sure you do your research and compare between companies, lines, products, and screen appearances and you'll be able to decide whether something is worth getting or not. And inevitably you will get some things that you will then decide to upgrade and replace with others...


Thanks for the info! And that is quite a big difference between the Sideshow and Medicom figures for sure. I remember briefly considering getting the Medicom Anakin until I realized how tiny he'd be in comparison to the others. Razz 

Do you have a link to the scale discussion in question? I'd never realized there was an actual differentiation in how one categorized these things, but just sort of thought that some companies' figures were on the larger side, while some were on the smaller side of certain scales.


_________________
"The happy ending of the fairy tale, the myth, and the divine comedy of the soul, is to be read,
not as a contradiction, but as a transcendence of the universal tragedy of man."

Ignoring current 'official' Star Wars content for my own sanity.

GubernatorFan

GubernatorFan
Founding Father
PickleMunkey wrote:I think the cloth over the plastic pouch would look a lot nicer, definitely looking forward to seeing that upgrade.

Just as I started to modify mine, I realized they came from two different sets and were slightly different sizes. I preferred the smaller size for the custom, so now have to wait on a couple more to get here.

skywalkersaga wrote:Thanks for the info! And that is quite a big difference between the Sideshow and Medicom figures for sure. I remember briefly considering getting the Medicom Anakin until I realized how tiny he'd be in comparison to the others. Razz 

Do you have a link to the scale discussion in question? I'd never realized there was an actual differentiation in how one categorized these things, but just sort of thought that some companies' figures were on the larger side, while some were on the smaller side of certain scales.

You are welcome. Some Medicom stuff might be still be usable, depending on character and sizing. At any rate, check out my Star Wars HT Emperor's Royal Guard review for another example (Medicom vs HT) and Rogerbee's responses (there are several) relating to scale (to wit, 1/6 is not always 1/6 and that is not necessarily the same as 12 inches). Here's the link:
https://onesixthfigures.forumotion.com/t734-hot-toys-star-wars-royal-guard-review

Hope that helps.


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skywalkersaga

skywalkersaga
Thank you, I had missed that one. : )


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"The happy ending of the fairy tale, the myth, and the divine comedy of the soul, is to be read,
not as a contradiction, but as a transcendence of the universal tragedy of man."

Ignoring current 'official' Star Wars content for my own sanity.

GubernatorFan

GubernatorFan
Founding Father
skywalkersaga wrote:Thank you, I had missed that one. : )

No problem. I'd be curious to see what you think.


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skywalkersaga

skywalkersaga
GubernatorFan wrote:
skywalkersaga wrote:Thank you, I had missed that one. : )

No problem. I'd be curious to see what you think.
Just checked it out... I really like the figures in your review Very Happy, and I think that Roger makes a good point about Medicom. It's just unfortunate they put out so few of those RAH figures from certain lines , and that some of the quality was perhaps not ideal. And even if their figures were indeed just meant to be displayed beside one another as Roger has noted, then unfortunately even something like the Medicom Anakin still doesn't really work as there were hardly any other figures made to go along with him.  

It's also a good point about Sideshow perhaps not originally being intended as strictly 1/6 scale but rather 12" inch figures. Back in the day I always just thought of them as 'Sideshow-sized', lol, since I didn't really pay much attention to the various scales at the time. I think I viewed them as just more expensive versions of the Hasbro dolls. Razz  And while I'm not an expert on what is and what is not 'true' 1/6 scale, I can well believe that Hot Toys is not necessarily always true-to-scale either, even if they are [or at least attempt to be] more hyper-realistic than the others. It seems that being 100% precise to 1:6 ratio at all times is probably rather difficult, and perhaps sometimes dependent on certain practicalities like limitations of materials, etc. Though of course I'm sure sometimes it's also down to laziness... ;p


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"The happy ending of the fairy tale, the myth, and the divine comedy of the soul, is to be read,
not as a contradiction, but as a transcendence of the universal tragedy of man."

Ignoring current 'official' Star Wars content for my own sanity.

Ovy

Ovy
I guess those were the troopers you were looking for. As the Stryker mentioned, I also think the helmet could need a little bit of sand, at least. I mean there are sandstorms and grubby trooper hands to look out for. But better don't listen to me when it comes to weathering troopers. Otherwise I think it's perfect.

And it's a real science! I knew there were some differences in scale, but I learned about the different helmet and plate design only when I had the Bandai those 1/12 guys standing beside each other . It's funny how  tiny details like that dislocated rubberband on the forehead became canon/history/therealthing/thetruthandonlythetruth like those background characters in the Cantina or in Jabbas Palace/barge developed a life on their own. Or the mole on Ewan McGregors forehead. One might think this 'Space Wars' or how it is called became quite popular.

Ironic also how old Wehrmacht equipment was reused for Star Wars...AGAIN!

ThePhotogsBlog

ThePhotogsBlog
Good job. Nice and subtle weathering of the armor in just the right places

GubernatorFan

GubernatorFan
Founding Father
Ovy wrote:I guess those were the troopers you were looking for. As the Stryker mentioned, I also think the helmet could need a little bit of sand, at least. I mean there are sandstorms and grubby trooper hands to look out for. But better don't listen to me when it comes to weathering troopers. Otherwise I think it's perfect.

And it's a real science! I knew there were some differences in scale, but I learned about the different helmet and plate design only when I had the Bandai those 1/12 guys standing beside each other . It's funny how  tiny details like that dislocated rubberband on the forehead became canon/history/therealthing/thetruthandonlythetruth like those background characters in the Cantina or in Jabbas Palace/barge developed a life on their own. Or the mole on Ewan McGregors forehead. One might think this 'Space Wars' or how it is called became quite popular.

Ironic also how old Wehrmacht equipment was reused for Star Wars...AGAIN!

Thank you very much. Perhaps I will revisit the amount of weathering/dusting. Still waiting on the new ammo pouches that need to be repainted/dyed. The dislocated browband is indeed beyond me -- and it is only the case with one sandtrooper, but they decided to apply it to their figure; at least if it were adjustable (Roger would say like the 1/6 Bandai stormtroopers', but they were not really meant to be adjustable and it depends on the fit). What's this about Ewan McGregor's mole?

As for the reuse of real life (and WW2) equipment, I suppose it is the conjunction of Lucas' desire for realistic weaponry and what was available to the costumers at Elstree, etc.

ThePhotogsBlog wrote:Good job.  Nice and subtle weathering of the armor in just the right places

Thank you very much. Glad you liked it!


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GubernatorFan

GubernatorFan
Founding Father
Part II (update)

Here is the updated sandtrooper, which I was able to complete yesterday. Another HT part -- the correct chest/back armor with smooth connecting straps; swapped out the Marmit plastic pouches for repainted and modified German WW2 ones; added some additional weathering to chest armor and helmet; repainted Marmit pauldron black to make it look smaller (don't think that really worked) and get some variety (see below).

starwars - STAR WARS Sandtrooper kitbash/custom (updated with Part III, January 2022) Swcsnd16

And side views:

starwars - STAR WARS Sandtrooper kitbash/custom (updated with Part III, January 2022) Swcsnd17

I picked up an incomplete loose HT Sandtrooper and completed it a bit more, so here you can see the two together. The pauldrons and helmets are quite different if you look carefully, though in the latter instance, part of the problem is the use of a stunt vs hero helmet (besides the differences between companies and films for the source material) and the curved raised brow on the HT helmet. Comparing both helmets to the film, although HT fixed the spatial proportion above and below the brow for its sandtrooper (it was incorrect on their original ANH stormtrooper and space trooper), the helmet remained a little too wide and too snouty (is that a word?); the HT Rogue One helmet I used on the custom is more correct to its own movie, and, though inexact for ANH sandtroopers (in part because of the relatively low brow and the use of hero-type bulbous lenses that look larger -- the other differences I was able to fix), a bit more accurate as to proportions even for an ANH stormtrooper/sandtrooper.

starwars - STAR WARS Sandtrooper kitbash/custom (updated with Part III, January 2022) Swcsnd18

Here are some images trying to show off the details a little more clearly (the added weathering on the helmet, in particular, is much easier to see in hand than on the photos, for some reason; I based it on the recently released Avonos sandtrooper helmet) :

starwars - STAR WARS Sandtrooper kitbash/custom (updated with Part III, January 2022) Swcsnd19

starwars - STAR WARS Sandtrooper kitbash/custom (updated with Part III, January 2022) Swcsnd20

starwars - STAR WARS Sandtrooper kitbash/custom (updated with Part III, January 2022) Swcsnd21

Hope you liked it.


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Stryker2011

Stryker2011
Founding Father
Looks great. I have to admit the differences between the helmets is really noticeable in your pics, and it’s really the first time I was able to see what people are generally talking about.


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Mark

He who dies with the most toys wins!

starwars - STAR WARS Sandtrooper kitbash/custom (updated with Part III, January 2022) C8485110

Ovy

Ovy
Stryker2011 wrote:Looks great. I have to admit the differences between the helmets is really noticeable in your pics, and it’s really the first time I was able to see what people are generally talking about.

Hah yes I feel the same way!

The decent weathering did a lot, I think they can be described as perfect now.

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