Skywalkersaga's 1/12 scale Star Wars figures

Happy Star Wars Day, everyone!


It's been way too long since I shared any new custom SW figures here on OSF (a year exactly, ahhh), and I thought I'd better do something quick in time for this year's May the Fourth.

I tried my best to complete one of my 1/6 scale WIPs in time for today, but life is pretty stressful for me right now and it quickly became clear that it wasn't going to happen. It seemed better to hold off on finishing any 1/6 stuff until I was truly happy with it, rather than rush to finish something just for some silly made up deadline.

Since I don't have all that many 6 inch figures in my collection at this time, I thought it would make more sense to just create a single thread where I could post everything in one place.

The first are (no surprises here, lol), my custom Black Series Anakin and Padmé:

































Just some cheesy poses, as usual.

While I already have the really nice Figuarts AotC Anakin and Padme, I wanted something that would pass as vaguely Clone Wars/pre-RotS-era. I was not happy with either of the official Black Series figures for these characters, and had been wanting to do my own versions for a while. The Padmé has been complete since last summer, but I only just finished the Anakin a few days ago. They are both repainted Black Series figures, though Padmé has a Figuarts head, since the Black Series headsculpt looked nothing like the character to me (I'll cover that in a future post). I've also repainted her plain white/cream Geonosis outfit to look more like one of her Clone Wars styles.

To be a bit self-critical, I think Anakin could do with some improvements, as I was in a rush and didn't really bother with perfectionism in this instance. His clothing (which I completely repainted, even if it doesn't look like it) could maybe have a bit more weathering to bring out some details. And I only noticed belatedly that his hair ended up looking darker than Padme's in the photos, which is obviously not accurate at all, lol. In that, I blame Figuarts, as for some reason they made Padme's hair almost a reddish colour, and I have not had the heart to attempt to repaint it, as I'd rather not risk ruining the original (extremely rare and expensive) Figuarts head.

Nice of you to celebrate May the Fourth. And very nice custom figures, especially in this scale. Well done!

GubernatorFan wrote:Nice of you to celebrate May the Fourth. And very nice custom figures, especially in this scale. Well done!

Thank you so much, GF! Glad you like them. 



ETA: Had a delightful May the Fourth surprise.... my Black Series Ventress arrived!  














It's been a while since I purchased a Black Series figure, and it looks like the box art is a lot more elaborate and colourful, though the lopsided shape of the new boxes are rather odd. Ventress herself looks great -- a bit on the unhinged/crazed side, lol, but I guess that's appropriate. ;p  I haven't unboxed her yet, but when I do, I'll share some pics here.

Overall, it's still very surreal for me to see the 'Star Wars: The Clone Wars' label on a *Disney* action figure -- I'm so used to the original 3.75" Clone Wars collection line from the late Lucas era that it feels almost strange to have other styles and sizes of figures for that series. Don't get me wrong, part of me is glad they are finally giving The Clone Wars its due, but another part of me is still really pissed at Disney for how they handled the Clone Wars in general (cancelling it for years, and then reviving it only when it was more convenient and lucrative for them ), so it's hard for me to be as innocently enthusiastic about 'official' TCW-related figures as I might have been in the past.

Ultimately though, it's a good thing that there are going to be more 6 inch Black Series Clone Wars figures, as that means I don't have to make them all myself. I do have a few more potential 1/12 customs that I may do, simply because I had already collected the materials for them a while ago, but it depends on how quickly Hasbro puts out the equivalent official releases. Admittedly, I find 1/12 to be a very frustrating scale to work with, and at this point I'd rather save my customising time and energy for 1/6 figures.

not knowing any of the figures and their look, i would have taken the paintjob as an original one, so very well done, especially given the small size,
i struggle painting 1/6 zombie heads where literally anything goes, though 1/12 is even more finicky.

as for any deadline, i've given up rushing myself to any self proclaimed date to finish a diorama and adapted to the gaming mantra "when its done"
got quite a few resident evil figures from a still unfinished project and some printed accessories lay around for about three years now.
but as long as i enjoy working on my figures as a whole i'm good with being skittish jumping from one cool thing to another.
right now i'm torn between tmnt and fist of the north star in 1/12 (never thought i'd be into that small scale) and jump back and forth depending on my motivation for the theme.

star wars in particular is something i rather "enjoy" through your and others collection here on the forum than buying the figures myself. nice to look at but i can't open yet another room for my figures

Tjolnir wrote:not knowing any of the figures and their look, i would have taken the paintjob as an original one, so very well done, especially given the small size,
i struggle painting 1/6 zombie heads where literally anything goes, though 1/12 is even more finicky.

Thanks so much, Tjolnir! I guess I should have done a 'before' and 'after' for these, but I was in a hurry to get them posted. For comparison, here's a pic of the original Black Series Anakin from JediBusiness:



It was a notoriously 'bad' figure, lol. Or, at least, the original paintjob on the headsculpt was particularly terrible. This was a very early Black Series release (c. 2014), so I suppose it can be somewhat forgiven, but I also blame the awfulness of this figure for putting me off collecting Black Series for many years. Since Anakin is THE Star Wars character for me, I thought 'if they can't even get him right, why bother?' ;p

Thankfully, Black Series figures have improved a lot since then. And in all fairness, they did release a somewhat improved version a year or two ago. However, even that one was a bit 'off' to me...the skintone was ridiculously pale, for one.



They improved the face paint, but they didn't bother to do any further improvements on the outfit, which was lacking in detail and accuracy (the glove on his mechanical arm is totally the wrong colour, for instance).  So, in the end, I ended up just putting together my own.

(I'll cover the Padme in a coming post.)

Tjolnir wrote:as for any deadline, i've given up rushing myself to any self proclaimed date to finish a diorama and adapted to the gaming mantra "when its done"
got quite a few resident evil figures from a still unfinished project and some printed accessories lay around for about three years now.
but as long as i enjoy working on my figures as a whole i'm good with being skittish jumping from one cool thing to another.
right now i'm torn between tmnt and fist of the north star in 1/12 (never thought i'd be into that small scale) and jump back and forth depending on my motivation for the theme.

Yeah, that seems like the way I operate too, lol. 'jumping back and forth dpending on motivation' is exactly it.

Tjolnir wrote:star wars in particular is something i rather "enjoy" through your and others collection here on the forum than buying the figures myself. nice to look at but i can't open yet another room for my figures

Glad to provide some enjoyment for you, in that case! :')  And yes, SW action figure collections can swiftly become unmanageably large.

Those are two very nice figures! I'd love to see the before-pictures to be able to really comment on your paint-job, which I'm sure is great.
I agree that some weathering will be good, also to remove some of the gloss on especially the inner... tunic? Leaving the black parts shiny might be a nice contrast. But I'm sure you know exactly how they should look in the end and it will be good. Already is.

Diana wrote:Those are two very nice figures! I'd love to see the before-pictures to be able to really comment on your paint-job, which I'm sure is great.
I agree that some weathering will be good, also to remove some of the gloss on especially the inner... tunic? Leaving the black parts shiny might be a nice contrast. But I'm sure you know exactly how they should look in the end and it will be good. Already is.

Thanks for the kind words, Diana! Believe it or not, I had already used a matte medium on Anakin's clothing to try to get rid of the shine. The Black Series plastic is just ridiculous shiny. -_- The only  reason Anakin's head looks more matte is because I actually used a resin recast of the Black Series head for it (takes paint so much better than that horrible plastic). Otherwise, it, too, would have probably been extremely shiny....

ETA: for the 'before' pic of the Anakin figure, see the images I posted in my above reply to Tjolnir.

skywalkersaga wrote:Thanks for the kind words, Diana! Believe it or not, I had already used a matte medium on Anakin's clothing to try to get rid of the shine. The Black Series plastic is just ridiculous shiny. -_- The only  reason Anakin's head looks more matte is because I actually used a resin recast of the Black Series head for it (takes paint so much better than that horrible plastic). Otherwise, it, too, would have probably been extremely shiny....

ETA: for the 'before' pic of the Anakin figure, see the images I posted in my above reply to Tjolnir.

Your repaint is subtle but does make a big difference, especially in the face of course.

Very nice! I loved the Star Wars cartoons from a few years back, Ventress was awesome!

Diana wrote:

skywalkersaga wrote:Thanks for the kind words, Diana! Believe it or not, I had already used a matte medium on Anakin's clothing to try to get rid of the shine. The Black Series plastic is just ridiculous shiny. -_- The only  reason Anakin's head looks more matte is because I actually used a resin recast of the Black Series head for it (takes paint so much better than that horrible plastic). Otherwise, it, too, would have probably been extremely shiny....

ETA: for the 'before' pic of the Anakin figure, see the images I posted in my above reply to Tjolnir.

Your repaint is subtle but does make a big difference, especially in the face of course.

Thanks again!  :')

Adeno wrote:Very nice! I loved the Star Wars cartoons from a few years back, Ventress was awesome!

Appreciate you taking the time to comment, Adeno! And yes, the Clone Wars is a classic, and Ventress is definitely a fave!  I've been working on a couple 1/6 scale versions of her for a while now...maybe this will motivate me to finally finish one of them...  

I was going to wait a few days before adding more posts, but since there is interest, I'll try to give a little more context. The best way to do that is to show some comparison pics between the Black Series Padme and the Figuarts Padme:










For a long time now, the Figuarts Padme has been the best official Padme action figure available. Unless and until HT ever puts out their Padme, that will probably remain true. So, the poor Black Series figure probiably never stood a chance. Obviously, the Figuarts is going to have an edge for the simple fact that it is about six times the price.

Even so, the Black Series has a seriously glaring issue -- and that is the headsculpt. While the paint app is decent enough, it looks NOTHING like Padme:





I even tried both of the Figuarts headsculpt options next to it to show that it looks nothing like either of them.

There are other ways in which the Figuarts is far superior, such as the body sculpt and posing ability -- it is much more naturalistic than the somewhat stiff and awkward looking Black Series body.







Again, all that is expected, given the vast price difference between the two figures. I can live with the cheaper Black Series body, but I really didn't like the Black Series headsculpt, especially not beside the Figuarts.

Luckily, the Figuarts comes with two headsculpt options, so I decided to use one of these to improve the Black Series figure. Also, since I already had the AotC Geonosis Padme in the form of the Figuarts version, I didn't really want or need a second Geonosis Padme. Instead, I wanted a Padme that could stand alongside a RotS and/or Clone Wars Anakin. So I also decided to repaint her outfit to look more like Padme's early Clone Wars wardrobe (the purple cloak representing her status as Senator).

So, I repainted the cloak (which was very difficult, as it is made of an extremely soft plastic that the paint did not want to adhere to no matter how much primer I put on it), the boots, the belt (which I also only belatedly noticed had been put on the wrong way around on the factory figure -- I finally fixed it for the above pics with Anakin), and I also repainted the skintone of the hands and neck to match. I likewise had to modify the neck connector on the Figuarts head in order to fit onto the Black Series neck (very tricky because of the scale).

Once I was done, I took pics comparing the Figuarts Padme to my new and (hopefully somewhat) improved 'Black Series' Padme:






















Hope this helps explain more about what I changed on the figure and my reasons for doing so. ^.^

The red headed Padme has the better likeness, but it’s weird that they gave her red hair. Overall, nice haul. I’d love to have a 1/6 scale Asajj Ventress in the realistic style that HT has been doing with the Clone Wars figures.

Stryker2011 wrote:The red headed Padme has the better likeness, but it’s weird that they gave her red hair. Overall, nice haul. I’d love to have a 1/6 scale Asajj Ventress in the realistic style that HT has been doing with the Clone Wars figures.

Yeah, it was a weird choice.... though the bun in the back is brown, it's just the top of her hair that is red. I can sort of see the effect they were going for, but they just went a bit overboard on that, imo. I'd repaint the hair on those heads, but I don't dare risk messing up such an expensive figure (the Figuarts Padme goes for £250 on up these days, eep).

And yeah, I'm sure Hot Toys could do a great Ventress. There's probably a strong chance she'll get made, as she's a fairly popular character. (And there was that earlier Sideshow version of her which is long overdue an upgrade.) Though who knows with HT. ETA: I'm still committed to finishing mine, either way...

now that i've seen the comparison yours look even better by leaps and bounds. at least in that one particular picture anakin looks like he's suffering from a liver disease resulting in such paleness.

maybe i was too young when the kenner figures were in store, being a child of the 80s.
but star wars figures, even though i had lots of them, never caught on that nostalgia in later years like masters of the universe or ninja turtles. so this might  be a thing why i enjoy watching others project without the urge to possess them.

though one thing that stuck with a buddy of mine and myself is what we call "wildbau" (ludicrous architecture) , a complete and utter disregard to building safety standards, having skyscrapers miles high with no handrails or anything preventing someone to fall into the endless depths it's indeed something we chuckle about for the last 20 odd years:) so yeah, star wars "connects"

looking forward to more of your awesome star wars repaints
kind regards tjolnir

Ahh nice to see some love for the little people

Padme looks a bit like Sansa. Maybe the hair got so reddish because they were working with Geonosis photo references where everything is orange?

I think the Ventress looks great, good mix of stylized and realistic with the head.

Ovy wrote: Ahh nice to see some love for the little people

Padme looks a bit like Sansa. Maybe the hair got so reddish because they were working with Geonosis photo references where everything is orange?

I think the Ventress looks great, good mix of stylized and realistic with the head.

Ha, yeah... I only reluctantly dabble in this scale, but I'm glad I did with these. Though now that they are making Clone Wars figures, it seems unlikely I will attempt as many 1/12 customs as I'd originally intended, but we'll see.

That's probably the case with the Geonosis colouring -- good point!

The Black Series Ventress is indeed a very nice interpretation of the character. Looking forward to unboxing her soon. ^.^

Glad to hear you’re still planning to finish your Ventress figure, S.

Stryker2011 wrote:Glad to hear you’re still planning to finish your Ventress figure, S.

Thanks. I'm trying my hardest not to let whatever HT is doing affect my plans too much (even if it's easier said than done). I started 1/6 customising specifically to make Clone Wars and certain PT characters, since these were being overlooked by HT at the point that I joined the hobby. And since the majority of the SW world was focused on other eras at that time (the OT, Rogue One, Sequels, etc), there's no way I could have foreseen that they'd eventually start making loads of figures from the TCW and PT era. If I were to scrap one of my customs every time HT puts out their own version of the same character, it would likely mean eventually scrapping them all, since most of them will now probably be made by HT at some stage. And I've already put a ton of time and £££ into these (not to mention all the people, yourself included, who have so kindly helped me out on these projects) that it would feel futile indeed to give up now.

I agree with your thoughts on the twelfth-scale Padmes, Sky. Figuarts produces very nice pieces in this scale, and a little bit of modification can really make them shine. Congrats on getting Ventress.

Tjolnir wrote:now that i've seen the comparison yours look even better by leaps and bounds. at least in that one particular picture anakin looks like he's suffering from a liver disease resulting in such paleness.

LOL, right? It's pretty bad.    And thanks for the kind words.  

Tjolnir wrote:maybe i was too young when the kenner figures were in store, being a child of the 80s.
but star wars figures, even though i had lots of them, never caught on that nostalgia in later years like masters of the universe or ninja turtles. so this might  be a thing why i enjoy watching others project without the urge to possess them.

Alot of these things definitely depend on what you were immersed in most in childhood and/or certain formative years. I was born in the 80s, but was just a little kid for what I remember of it, and a pretty sheltered one at that. My Little Pony and The Last Unicorn were my big things at that point. ;p But in 1992, my dad got the 15th anniversary VHS set of the Original Trilogy, and I swiftly become a huge SW fan, lol. Return of the Jedi was my favourite film from the time I was 7 yrs old and onward. And I was a teenager in the late 90s/early 2000s when the Prequels came out, so I was pretty into those as well (until LotR and fantasy took over for me for a while, but I eventually found my way back to SW over the past decade).

There's nothing wrong with enjoying others' figures vicariously... we can't collect every single genre after all (unless you are a billionaire I guess?? lol). I absolutely love seeing blackpool's Hollywood film homages, for instance, even if I don't have any wish to collect that side of the hobby myself. Your TMNT collection is very nostalgic in its own right and I like seeing what you do with all your figures and dio's. :')

Tjolnir wrote:looking forward to more of your awesome star wars repaints
kind regards tjolnir

Thank you! ^.^

GubernatorFan wrote:I agree with your thoughts on the twelfth-scale Padmes, Sky. Figuarts produces very nice pieces in this scale, and a little bit of modification can really make them shine. Congrats on getting Ventress.

Thanks, GF. Figuarts are indeed very nice figures for the scale, especially when it comes to the 'all plastic' types (as opposed to the clothed Mezco style, or the 1/12 tbleague figures). It's not realistic for me to collect that many Figuarts, however, due to the price tag. Black Series have some nice figures too and have improved a lot, and as they are technically still a 'play line', I don't expect them to be on the Figuarts level. There's been plenty Black Series I've liked as they are (such as this Ventress), and there have been a couple of Figuarts I didn't like at all (not due to quality, but for design/likeness reasons). Everyone has different requirements for their figures, so for some people, the Black Series Padme may have been sufficient as-is. I just had something different in mind for it, and I'm glad the modification turned out more or less as I'd envisioned.

Very true. On the whole, Black Series is getting better. And they pulled off a miracle and ended up making the best twelfth-scale stormtroopers!

Very nice work, Skywalkersaga!  You’re painting skills are very impressive.  Me?  I could leave brushmarks with an airbrush.  

I know the Padme figures well as I have both of them, so I’m really impressed with the improvement you made on the Black Series version.  Anakin is very impressive as well, especially the flesh tones.  I remember what a disappointment that figure was to so many when it first came out.  You did a fantastic job on him!

I started at the very beginning with both the Black Series and S.H. Figuarts.  The first wave of Black Series figures was so good, but it went downhill quickly.  I had already given up on the line when S.H. Figuarts started releasing their figures.  I got interested in the Black Series again when they started using face printing technology, but they are still maddeningly inconsistent.   Figures like Grand Moff Tarkin were spectacular, but a lot of the others, especially the main cast, still fell short.  (Don’t even get me started on my platoon of pink Black Series First Order Stormtroopers.)

Another issue, believe it or not, is that Black Series figures are very difficult to find at retail here in the States.  The big box stores just don’t stock them with any regularity.  About the only ones I’ve seen this past year are Jar Jar Binks and Boba Fett.  I wish SHF would release some of those prototypes they’ve shown over the years but never got around to.

So Gubernatorfan, the Black Series Stormtrooper is really that good?  I’ve been wanting to get a couple of them, but like I said, I never see them in stores and they seem to sell out online  pretty quickly.  I’m a sucker for anything Stormtrooper as I’m guessing you are based on your avatar.  

Xavion2004 wrote:Very nice work, Skywalkersaga!  You’re painting skills are very impressive.  Me?  I could leave brushmarks with an airbrush.  

I know the Padme figures well as I have both of them, so I’m really impressed with the improvement you made on the Black Series version.  Anakin is very impressive as well, especially the flesh tones.  I remember what a disappointment that figure was to so many when it first came out.  You did a fantastic job on him!

Thanks, Xavion!

Xavion2004 wrote: I started at the very beginning with both the Black Series and S.H. Figuarts.  The first wave of Black Series figures was so good, but it went downhill quickly.  I had already given up on the line when S.H. Figuarts started releasing their figures.  I got interested in the Black Series again when they started using face printing technology, but they are still maddeningly inconsistent.   Figures like Grand Moff Tarkin were spectacular, but a lot of the others, especially the main cast, still fell short.  (Don’t even get me started on my platoon of pink Black Series First Order Stormtroopers.)

Another issue, believe it or not, is that Black Series figures are very difficult to find at retail here in the States.  The big box stores just don’t stock them with any regularity.  About the only ones I’ve seen this past year are Jar Jar Binks and Boba Fett.  I wish SHF would release some of those prototypes they’ve shown over the years but never got around to.

Agree that the paintjobs/printing on the Black Series faces has not been consistent in quality. And yes, it does seem they are difficult to find in-person. Being in the UK, I've never once actually purchased a Black Series in a store (only online), but people I've spoken to in the US have said that it can be hard to track down certain figures.

My personal biggest frustration is that more often than not, the only Black Series figures I actually want end up being some kind of Target or Walmart exclusive. Since those stores don't exist here, I have to wait until they trickle onto ebay, often at quite high prices from the get-go. That's been a very prohibitive factor to me collecting these in earnest. I'm not someone who just collects every SW figure, I'm very particular about which characters I want in my collection. So it's quite frustrating when the few characters I want are super rare and pricey to track down.

Xavion2004 wrote:So Gubernatorfan, the Black Series Stormtrooper is really that good?  I’ve been wanting to get a couple of them, but like I said, I never see them in stores and they seem to sell out online  pretty quickly.  I’m a sucker for anything Stormtrooper as I’m guessing you are based on your avatar.  

Well, between liking the classic stormtrooper design (for all its goofiness) and the need to army-build... yes. And by Black Series stormtrooper I mean the most recent, "Mandalorian" (actually Rogue One) version. The original Black Series stormtrooper is hideous (unlike, strangely, the Sand Trooper). Check out my comparative review of the twelfth-scale stromtroopers here:
https://onesixthfigures.forumotion.com/t3353-star-wars-new-and-old-twelfth-scale-stormtroopers-comparison

skywalkersaga wrote:My personal biggest frustration is that more often than not, the only Black Series figures I actually want end up being some kind of Target or Walmart exclusive. Since those stores don't exist here, I have to wait until they trickle onto ebay, often at quite high prices from the get-go. That's been a very prohibitive factor to me collecting these in earnest. I'm not someone who just collects every SW figure, I'm very particular about which characters I want in my collection. So it's quite frustrating when the few characters I want are super rare and pricey to track down.

Apparently, Hasbro's distribution sucks when it comes to consistency. If you shop in actual physical stores for your figures, you need to do a systematic search through several chains and locations -- there are whole YouTube videos of people doing exactly that. I have picked up a few figures off the shelf, but most have been online purchases for me too.

Does Wal-Mart not ship to the UK? Target may or may not, don’t know.