STAR WARS Updated Darth Maul Custom Part V Maul 3.0 (updated May 13 2021)

I can totally see him and Arnie fighting in a Soviet bathhouse,  with Arnie ripping off Mauls Robo leg, and inside: "Cocainum". Or spice. Whatever.

Great job, also great harmony with that deep dark universe background. Having a neutral and an aggressive expression head is just gold.

Looks great. Nice posing and recreation of the statue.

Haha, Ovy!

And apologies, I was on my phone earlier and couldn't see everything in detail.... I gotta agree that having two expressions really adds to the already-high visual interest here. The poses are very well done. This figure of yours oozes character!

I feel your frustration on stores being closed.... and it's not always feasible to order online, since only essentials are being given priority. But don't worry..... the belt looks ok as it is. I'm sure wire would indeed add that final touch, but it looks great the way it is already.

skywalkersaga wrote:Looks freaking awesome!!!

Thank you very much. If you approve of it, it must be good!

Ovy wrote:I can totally see him and Arnie fighting in a Soviet bathhouse,  with Arnie ripping off Mauls Robo leg, and inside: "Cocainum". Or spice. Whatever. Great job, also great harmony with that deep dark universe background. Having a neutral and an aggressive expression head is just gold.

Yes, but they can wrestle only after the protective powder has been applied (see the post in Painting Seamless Bodies); otherwise Arnie would end up with Maul's war paint imprinted on his body; of course it would probably be removable from a straight-up silicone surface... Thank you. And I agree, it's really good they provided both head sculpts; I don't much like the angry one, so if it was only that one (and if there were no good alternatives), I would have probably passed on the whole thing.

Stryker2011 wrote:Looks great. Nice posing and recreation of the statue.

Thank you very much!

skywalkersaga wrote:And apologies, I was on my phone earlier and couldn't see everything in detail.... I gotta agree that having two expressions really adds to the already-high visual interest here. The poses are very well done. This figure of yours oozes character!

I feel your frustration on stores being closed.... and it's not always feasible to order online, since only essentials are being given priority. But don't worry..... the belt looks ok as it is. I'm sure wire would indeed add that final touch, but it looks great the way it is already.

No need to apologize at all. Completely agree on the benefits of multiple facial expressions (it's like two figures in one ... especially if you end up putting the extra head on another body and have them fight each other; oh wait, I've done that... LOL). Thank you very much. Well, it being a matter of life and death, I can't get upset about stores being closed, or the mail being slower. My preliminary experiment with the (wrong color) wire wasn't very successful either, and actually the elastic cord I used does allow a modicum of shaping -- perhaps not accurately enough for specific poses, but enough to be able to adjust it somewhat.

He looks amazing, while I'm no Maul fanboy either I'm a sith one so... ‍�.

Theboo-bomb wrote:He looks amazing, while I'm no Maul fanboy either I'm a sith one so... ‍�.

Thank you so much! Glad you liked it.

Excellent DMaul custom, though I don't even want the think about how long it took you to draw out all the red markings with a degree of accuracy. I know I'd be going cross-eyed after a half-hour of it.

Nekk-ra wrote:Excellent DMaul custom, though I don't even want the think about how long it took you to draw out all the red markings with a degree of accuracy. I know I'd be going cross-eyed after a half-hour of it.

Thank you very much! It took a while, since I couldn't afford to make too many mistakes with the oil-based ink (which would not be undoable), and the Kotobukiya statue I used as my main point of reference was very strangely posed, so even a bunch of different angle views did not provide as much information as I wanted. It was a bit difficult to figure out where each line was going, but I had a couple of other reference materials that helped, although there was always a good chance that the different representations were not in fact identical in their details. To some extent the result is a bit of a hybrid, with a touch of creative choice on my part.

At first glance I thought the first photo was of the statue.
So obviously: WELL DONE! He looks stunning.

AerynDiana wrote:At first glance I thought the first photo was of the statue.
So obviously: WELL DONE! He looks stunning.

Thank you very much! I'm glad you liked it. Given how far from the statue it ended up, the fact that it fooled you for a split second is very encouraging.

Part III (Special Effects)

I applied some very basic special effects to several of the photos. Nothing worthy of Lucasfilm, of course, but I don't think it turned out too bad. What do you think?









Part I in Post 1 above; Part II in Post 15 above.

For the Further Adventures of Darth Maul, please see HERE.

Nice work!

Pretty cool. Maul Vs. Maul — nice!

Late to the party but this came out so great. I was seriously thinking out doing a Darth Maul upgrade but just couldn't swing getting all the parts. Glad I didn't do it because you nailed it. Is that a M33 body? Great job buddy.

skywalkersaga wrote:Nice work!

Stryker2011 wrote:Pretty cool. Maul Vs. Maul — nice!

Thank you very much, glad you liked it.

actionfiguremovies2 wrote:Late to the party but this came out so great. I was seriously thinking out doing a Darth Maul upgrade but just couldn't swing getting all the parts. Glad I didn't do it because you nailed it. Is that a M33 body? Great job buddy.  

Thank you, just like you always say, everything's better with a Phicen/TBLeague body, right? This was their first male seamless body, M30. It seemed appropriate, as Maul wasn't particularly tall; I also wanted muscular but not exceedingly so; and I had a few of these bodies from way back -- since their height and skin tone weren't ideal, I've been using them for my coloring seamless bodies experiments (like Yondu).

Does the crimson oil pastel stay on? Did you use any fixative?

Truly impressive work on the body coloring and the fine tattoos!
Gives me hope that one day i'll be able to bash a John Wesley Shipp TV Flash like what Buddy Dog posted over at OSW.
Or....
i'll just wish hard enough for TBL to make a red M34 body.

Looking forward to more action-pose pics or an appearance in OSF Funnies perhaps?

GubernatorFan wrote:

actionfiguremovies2 wrote:Late to the party but this came out so great. I was seriously thinking out doing a Darth Maul upgrade but just couldn't swing getting all the parts. Glad I didn't do it because you nailed it. Is that a M33 body? Great job buddy.  

Thank you, just like you always say, everything's better with a Phicen/TBLeague body, right? This was their first male seamless body, M30. It seemed appropriate, as Maul wasn't particularly tall; I also wanted muscular but not exceedingly so; and I had a few of these bodies from way back -- since their height and skin tone weren't ideal, I've been using them for my coloring seamless bodies experiments (like Yondu).

"Everything's better with a Phicen/TBLeague body, right?" LOL so true. M30 huh?. I used that one for my Wolverine. It was perfect there and it's perfect here. Out of the park buddy.

rollotomasi wrote:Does the crimson oil pastel stay on? Did you use any fixative?

Truly impressive work on the body coloring and the fine tattoos!
Gives me hope that one day i'll be able to bash a John Wesley Shipp TV Flash like what Buddy Dog posted over at OSW.
Or.... i'll just wish hard enough for TBL to make a red M34 body.

Looking forward to more action-pose pics or an appearance in OSF Funnies perhaps?

Thank you very much, Rollo, I'm glad you liked it.

Unless TBLeague decides to produce a specific colored-skin character (blue, purple, red, white, black, green, whatever), I kinda doubt they would be making such bodies. In fact, they already have black-, red- and white-skinned characters out there (Anubis, Purgatori, Lady Death, Bloodsot), but have not released these as base bodies.

Back to your question, basically yes, the crimson oil pastel does stay on, and I didn't use any fixative (I should probably look into that and experiment with it). The basic trick is to start by washing away any protective powder that would get in the way of the oil pastel as a first step, then cover the surface evenly and thoroughly with the oil pastel, then to rub it in very thoroughly with a makeup sponge. This ensconces some of the oil pastel into the silicone "flesh" while removing that part of it which is loose (or transferring it to another part of the surface). Then gently wash the colored body; test for color transfer and repeat with the makeup sponge and washing if needed, before covering up the body with the protective powder when you're done. Patience has never been one of my many virtues, so I could have done a better job of it. Probably because of that, I did get some more color transfer (onto my own hands) than usual while handling the body for the painting of the patterns process -- though I can't be sure whether that was from the crimson oil pastel, the black oil pastel, or the black oil-based ink -- and remember that while doing all this (and the initial photoshoots) I had not reapplied protective powder (at first because I was still drawing the patterns, later because I didn't want to dull the colors). As a result I did have to reapply a little bit of crimson oil pastel on a few spots here and there (they were still colored but had gotten paler), but in the end the result was pretty even and successful. A more patient and thorough approach in the early stages would have probably obviated the need for any such corrections.

We'll see about more action poses; maybe -- and I just got another Hasbro robe (the original one you see above was torn to pieces to make the "skirt") in the mail but am waiting a bit to open it as a basic precaution. Funnies are a definite possibility, perhaps harping on Maul's alleged sex appeal (and right off the bat I'm trademarking his "molten copper" glare).

actionfiguremovies2 wrote:"Everything's better with a Phicen/TBLeague body, right?" LOL so true. M30 huh?. I used that one for my Wolverine. It was perfect there and it's perfect here. Out of the park buddy.

Thank you again, and I'm glad you agree. This body does make good sense for Wolverine, even if a leaner one might also work for Hugh Jackman more specifically (although the ADD Toys one was probably too tall and lean).

GubernatorFan wrote:

actionfiguremovies2 wrote:"Everything's better with a Phicen/TBLeague body, right?" LOL so true. M30 huh?. I used that one for my Wolverine. It was perfect there and it's perfect here. Out of the park buddy.

Thank you again, and I'm glad you agree. This body does make good sense for Wolverine, even if a leaner one might also work for Hugh Jackman more specifically (although the ADD Toys one was probably too tall and lean).

My pleasure buddy. I went the total comic book version on Wolvie so the height was perfect. He has the mask on.

rollotomasi wrote:Looking forward to more action-pose pics or an appearance in OSF Funnies perhaps?

Well... I just started a thread called The Further Adventures of Darth Maul, which you can find HERE. So I guess there will be more action poses and funnies...

actionfiguremovies2 wrote:My pleasure buddy. I went the total comic book version on Wolvie so the height was perfect. He has the mask on.

Oh I remember your great Wolverine, and how he was true to the comics!

Absolute Great ! The two facial expressions give him a big potential for Storytelling. You really did a fantastic Job in TBL Body painting. I know it´s not easy to paint the Hand and Feet in the same skin tone like the rubber body. Excellent

Ephiane wrote:Absolute Great ! The two facial expressions give him a big potential for Storytelling. You really did a fantastic Job in TBL Body painting. I know it´s not easy to paint the Hand and Feet in the same skin tone like the rubber body. Excellent

Thank you very much. Coming from someone with your talent and skills, this is a huge compliment. It does look pretty good, but I've run into some disappointments. I finally got around to trying to apply a dull coat over the painted hard plastic parts and my first attempt (with brush-application of Testors Dullcote) reacted with the black ink, causing it to run -- so there will be a repaint and a spray-paint (with Tamiya's flat clear) down the road. Also, despite how promising the preliminary tests of using this particular oil-based ink on top of the oil-pastel-colored silicone body, after all this time and repeated applications of protective powder, I'm still getting some transfer of the black oil-based ink from it, which I find very annoying. Repeated careful rubdowns/massages with paper towels seem to get the issue under control and might be the way to solve it. Testing for an alternative solution (yet again) today.

Part IV Custom Maul 2.0

After the frustrating experience of getting the oil-based ink on Maul 1.0 to stop transferring (see Painting Seamless Bodies, Post 205 HERE, solved by vigorous massaging with clean dry paper towels), I decided that my first seamless Maul was getting a little used up; perhaps it was always so, but the base color seemed a little light and cold, possibly more so thanks to repeated treatments to deal with the oil-based ink. Also, while Maul was not particularly tall, the M30 used for Maul 1.0 was the wrong physical type. So, between this and seeking a better coloring and painting solution (which has always been my main goal in the project), on to Maul 2.0.



Here I used an M33 body -- still not too tall, but more appropriate for Ray Park's physique (yes, I realize we've only seen Maul showing skin as an animation). I used several different oil pastels for the base body, trying to blend them as best I could (a Sisyphean task), got carried away with the make-up sponge (to the point of damaging the surface of the chest and some other areas, which are no longer smooth, which made painting designs onto them more challenging and less sharp), and ended up with a leaner, taller Maul, with a warmer complexion. The body's skin tone now matches the harder-plastic hands and feet almost perfectly, and at least in some light (which is very variable), it works better with the head sculpt too. It occurs to me that Hot Toys may have made Maul's red just a little bit too dark. For the paint marker I used, see the Painting Seamless Bodies, Post 247 HERE.

Front and back views, for the markings (which are based on the animated look, the Kotobukiya statue, Maul 1.0, and some creative variation -- either by choice, or to integrate errors).



Comparison between Maul 2.0 (left) and Maul 1.0 (right). The makeshift loincloth I'm using on Maul 2.0 is not intended to be a permanent look, but since this is about showing off the customized body, it made sense; Maul 1.0's sarong is based on the Kotobukiya statue.



Apart from more lessons learned and some extra experience, I think it worked out pretty well. Below are a seven more images.















What do you think?

The Further Adventures of Darth Maul

He is absolute fantastic ! It must be a very hard Job th get the body paintings symetric to the other body side. You light sabre effects are amazing, they are better as in the older pictures. You masterd this

The red is so much better than the previous version (or is that partly because the color has faded a bit, as you mentioned)...? Looks really good.

Ephiane wrote:He is absolute fantastic ! It must be a very hard Job th get the body paintings symetric to the other body side. You light sabre effects are amazing, they are better than in the older pictures. You masterd this

Thank you very much! I'm glad you like it. Yes, symmetry is a problem. Sometimes I end up having to make extra designs to match mismatching elements. Sometimes I decide to let it slide (giving it a more "organic" look). I appreciate you like the light saber effects, because they are super basic -- and I'm partly too lazy and partly too unskilled to do better. I do change the length and perspective, but though I try I think I often fail to make the concave or convex curve where the "blade" comes out of the hilt curve just right.

Stryker2011 wrote:The red is so much better than the previous version (or is that partly because the color has faded a bit, as you mentioned)...? Looks really good.

Thank you very much, glad you liked it. Looking at the older photos above, I think Maul 1.0 was always less of a match and I'm not sure to what extent (if any) his base color has faded -- it does look a little messier to me, perhaps in part because I know how much effort I put into stopping the oil-based ink from transferring. Maul 2.0's base color is warmer, and that helps (certainly with the hands and feet, but even with the head). I wish it were just a little darker, but red, scarlet, and purple only got me this far -- plus I didn't want to do more damage to the chest and other areas where I was trying to blend them while ensconcing them more securely into the silicone. That's why (the resulting rougher surface) the edges of the designs there are less sharp than on Maul 1.0.

Great job on your Darth Maul custom, well done!

Love seeing your work buddy. So freaking cool. Great job.

Awesome!!! I agree, this red is really striking — like him a lot!