STAR WARS Customized Bloodfin or Darth Maul rides again

Besides the work on an experimental seamless Maul (version 2.0 is just about complete), I decided that the old rogue needed a ride. Seen briefly in The Phantom Menace, the speeder was apparently called the "Bloodfin" -- though I imagine that was invented, like so much else in Star Wars, after the fact. Even if I finally found the stunning Hot Toys version (from the deluxe set) parted out by itself, it was not money I could justify to myself spending on something like this. So I took a look at the Hasbro ride from the 12-inch figure line, produced in 1999, and decided that it was good enough to try to customize. These figures and accessories haven't held up well compared to more modern lines, and are both readily available and relatively cheap, while still being quite useful for the kitbasher. The size and proportions of this vehicle seemed about right, so I got one and the project began.

Keeping in mind that the real thing never existed as a physical object (the actor was filmed riding a blue-wrapped object later replaced with the machine digitally), I based my custom on the film and the Hot Toys version. The main thing was a repaint -- getting the colors to be darker and a little closer together, sprucing up the silverish metal parts with chrome, adding a wash and some chrome highlights for some of the internal chips and wires, adding a makeshift texture to the appropriate areas (seat, backrest, etc). The brush strokes and the uneven effects are partly unavoidable but in this instance largely intended to help create a worn, used look. I did not attempt to duplicate the very cool but actually unrealistic scratching on the Hot Toys version -- though I had a plan to do some scratches that fell through (who would have thought the acrylics would have been too tough this one time, failing to reveal the chrome layer I had painstakingly applied underneath them!). I had to use some hot-water/cold-water retraining for the controls, and tried to fill in the deep screw holes on the right side of the speeder with Kneadatite (which was tricky, as it tended to either bubble up above or sink below the surface level). The project suffered a setback when I tried to seal the painted vehicle with Dullcote, which caused some of the long-dry acrylic to bleed and transfer. While I managed to fix the more obvious problems, I have a feeling it doesn't look as well as it did before this.
So here it is...











Hope you liked it.

#starwars #darthmaul #bloodfin #speeder #machine #vehicle #accessory #scifi #fantasy

I think it looks great for an older model, a shade darker than the original (but perhaps more fitting for Sith colors in general). Fun fact: Darth Maul was my favorite as a kid; I have fond memories of going to Taco Bell almost every day when the Episode I toys were advertised in their kid's meals, always hoping to get a Darth Maul toy of some kind, and when I finally got the one of him on this speeder I was ecstatic. lol

I think it turned out really cool for what it is/started as, Ian. Nice job. I never would have known all the trouble you went through to accomplish that look, so your efforts really paid off.

AlKelAstra91 wrote:I think it looks great for an older model, a shade darker than the original (but perhaps more fitting for Sith colors in general). Fun fact: Darth Maul was my favorite as a kid; I have fond memories of going to Taco Bell almost every day when the Episode I toys were advertised in their kid's meals, always hoping to get a Darth Maul toy of some kind, and when I finally got the one of him on this speeder I was ecstatic. lol

Thanks, I'm glad you agree, and that it has brought back some fond memories for you. It is darker, less shiny, and more gritty, just as it should be. Apart from the HT version, this is what we have to go on:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIEHeV8dEKs

I'm still considering getting some scratches on it. But the digital imagery used for the actual film might not be the best guide. More Maul coming up in a couple of different topics.

Stryker2011 wrote:I think it turned out really cool for what it is/started as, Ian. Nice job. I never would have known all the trouble you went through to accomplish that look, so your efforts really paid off.

Thank you very much, Mark. Well, someone who knew what he was doing better than I would have had less trouble. For example, I tried to keep track of the proportions of paint I was mixing but every mistake meant some more or less substantial repaint, as the new application was never quite the same as the previous one; and I should have used Vallejo matte finish -- which is not very matte but would have been ok for the metal, instead of Dullcote. Still planning on some improvements for the lit-up elements (which don't actually light up here), which I will post in an update down the line.

You turn a Plastic surface into Metal. Looks Great ! And is has a .... Engine ? Energie Cell.... Star Wars Technologie. I used this in some bashes if You like a Light function. Very Ceap. It´s for selfmade Greeting Cards

Ephiane wrote:You turn a Plastic surface into Metal. Looks Great ! And is has a .... Engine ? Energie Cell.... Star Wars Technologie. I used this in some bashes if You like a Light function. Very Ceap. It´s for selfmade Greeting Cards

Thank you very much -- that's very flattering, and I'm glad you liked it. If I were shovelchop, I would probably find a way to integrate electronics into this, but I suspect it would involve more ingenuity and drilling than I'm comfortable with. Still, I will keep this in mind -- I have an extra Hasbro speeder, which had its controls bent out of shape but I largely repaired and painted like this one. My less ambitious plan for an upgrade is with phosphorescent acrylics. We'll see how it goes, they get here tomorrow.

This came out great!!! It's such an upgrade, and the new paint job looks awesome. I really dig how this came together.

ReverendSpooky wrote:This came out great!!!  It's such an upgrade, and the new paint job looks awesome.  I really dig how this came together.

Thank you very much, I'm glad and flattered you liked it. I do think the paint job works pretty well, although I confess I'm not entirely happy with the compartment doors on the two sides of the back (it was one of the areas that required repeated correction and repainting, to the point of becoming a bit of a mess; only one of them is functional, by the way). Still, I believe it is a lot closer to what we see on screen.

I've seen these float around the bay a few times and always thought they would be under scaled. I think that your repaint and overall work on it came out good and it totally changed it from something cheap looking to something cool looking.

Great job on your customized Bloodfin, it looks amazing!

Theboo-bomb wrote:I've seen these float around the bay a few times and always thought they would be under scaled. I think that your repaint and overall work on it came out good and it totally changed it from something cheap looking to something cool looking.

Thank you very much. I think if you find one conveniently priced and/or located, you could do something very cool with it for your custom creations.

BAD WOLF-787 wrote:Great job on your customized Bloodfin, it looks amazing!

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

Great paintjob, like how you fought the evil seams on the leather too! And the evil screws. Looks really high quality, pat yourself on the helmet for that (do you ever take that thing off you head?)

Still wonder why the went with that design, though. It looks a bit cute for a sinister dark bad boy as Maul. I mean his ship is long and evil, his blades are long and double evil...why not an evil long badass chopper? Maybe it's a statement about how he doesn't have to compensate.

Ovy wrote:Great paintjob, like how you fought the evil seams on the leather too! And the evil screws. Looks really high quality, pat yourself on the helmet for that (do you ever take that thing off you head?)

Still wonder why the went with that design, though. It looks a bit cute for a sinister dark bad boy as Maul. I mean his ship is long and evil, his blades are long and double evil...why not an evil long badass chopper? Maybe it's a statement about how he doesn't have to compensate.

I thought this bike design was a little silly myself— like a playground rocking horse.

I feel like the front half of the speeder's design works for the name, Bloodfin, like a bloodthirsty shark cruising through the desert sea looking for it's prey. Though I can also see how it resembles a magnet or child's toy. Would something like Anakin's in EP II have been better?

Ovy wrote:Great paintjob, like how you fought the evil seams on the leather too! And the evil screws. Looks really high quality, pat yourself on the helmet for that (do you ever take that thing off you head?)

Still wonder why the went with that design, though. It looks a bit cute for a sinister dark bad boy as Maul. I mean his ship is long and evil, his blades are long and double evil...why not an evil long badass chopper? Maybe it's a statement about how he doesn't have to compensate.

Thank you very much. Yes, I fought the evil seams, or rather screw holes -- twice over, since I did it on the first, test, subject as well. Sooner or later you will see that one too, as with so many Mauls I'm bound to have them riding side by side eventually. I'm not necessarily in love with the design, but it is what they had in the film. And since I got a Maul anyway, I was tempted by this accessory -- which HT did beautifully. But since I wasn't tempted by their prices, I decided to experiment...

Stryker2011 wrote:I thought this bike design was a little silly myself— like a playground rocking horse.

It is silly, like some of their other designs -- a bit like their trade federation command station, etc. And it does give me the same impression, of a playground rocking horse.

AlKelAstra91 wrote:I feel like the front half of the speeder's design works for the name, Bloodfin, like a bloodthirsty shark cruising through the desert sea looking for it's prey. Though I can also see how it resembles a magnet or child's toy. Would something like Anakin's in EP II have been better?

It might have been better, and Anakin's is much closer to what we might consider a classic Star Wars speeder (ROTJ type), but since I've invested in Maul, I figured I should stick to the machinery he is paired with in the film. And yes, I think you're right that they were going for a shark fin, but tried to subvert our expectations with the rest of the shape. Not to worry, the Aquatroopers don't subvert any expectations (except perhaps that the Empire is evil)
https://onesixthfigures.forumotion.com/t909-star-wars-new-imperial-unit-aquatrooper-part-two

Great paint job and brilliant pictures! I guess you're a pro at Photoshop, seamless integration into backgrounds that make it all look very professional!! I'll just stick with my black cardboard as my photobooth is literally folded away and stopping my couch cushion/seat from falling through the gaps! I'm sure you'd have no problem installing those LEDs. I'm pretty sure the speeder design was inspired by a monocycle and they then had to cut the top section of the 'wheel' for practical filming purposes or you wouldn't see his cool face and if it was spinning in sand you wouldn't be able to see anything! LOL. Don't forget General Grievous gor a working monocycle so someone in the design department must be a fan of them!

Great work on the upgrade Ian! It looks terrific!

shovelchop81 wrote:Great paint job and brilliant pictures! I guess you're a pro at Photoshop, seamless integration into backgrounds that make it all look very professional!! I'll just stick with my black cardboard as my photobooth is literally folded away and stopping my couch cushion/seat from falling through the gaps! I'm sure you'd have no problem installing those LEDs. I'm pretty sure the speeder design was inspired by a monocycle and they then had to cut the top section of the 'wheel' for practical filming purposes or you wouldn't see his cool face and if it was spinning in sand you wouldn't be able to see anything! LOL. Don't forget General Grievous gor a working monocycle so someone in the design department must be a fan of them!

Thank you very much, I'm glad you liked it; and given all your experiencing painting plastic (and other non-metal) to look like metal, I take this as a great compliment. I use Corel PhotoPaint, Photoshop's humbler cousin. But I didn't use it here -- I could have obscured the clear plastic supports. What you see in terms of ground and background are a piece of light beige cloth for ground and a desert landscape printed on matte-polymer paper for background. You do overestimate my ability and/or comfort working with electronics -- or even drilling through the Hasbro Bloodfin. Cool thing about Grievous' working monocycle.

BAMComix wrote:Great work on the upgrade Ian! It looks terrific!

Thank you very much, Dal, I'm very glad you liked it!

The picture? No, that predates Grievous's  creation by a long time, they've been making real world monocycles ever since the combustion engine was invented!!

That is very cool. Then again, Grievous was a long time ago...

GubernatorFan wrote:That is very cool. Then again, Grievous was a long time ago...

Yes.. very clever..the Farce is strong with this one..;-)

shovelchop81 wrote:Yes.. very clever..the Farce is strong with this one..;-)

Thank you kindly.

Somehow I missed this earlier (been busy, and the forum is busy, too, lately), but it turned out great! Your improvements are subtle but really do make a difference in terms of the realism.


As for the speeder Anakin rides in AotC, that would probably be the only SW vehicle I'd seriously consider collecting, if only so I could recreate that scene! Have previously considered trying to customise an existing Endor speeder, but even that seems like it would be fairly cost prohibitive (for me, at least).

skywalkersaga wrote:Somehow I missed this earlier (been busy, and the forum is busy, too, lately), but it turned out great! Your improvements are subtle but really do make a difference in terms of the realism.

As for the speeder Anakin rides in AotC, that would probably be the only SW vehicle I'd seriously consider collecting, if only so I could recreate that scene! Have previously considered trying to customise an existing Endor speeder, but even that seems like it would be fairly cost prohibitive (for me, at least).

Thank you very much, I'm glad you liked it, Sky. I think most of the credit goes to Hasbro (or was it still Kenner when they started?), for making a good sized and decently detailed rendition of the movie vehicle. The one part where the detail was definitely not fine enough -- judging by comparison with what I have seen of the HT one -- are the pedals, which are far more solid/wide here. I think the paint left something to be desired, and this is what I aimed at improving -- making it darker and more metallic. More patience and creativity would have done more justice to the wiring, etc., under the openable hatch, but I just settled for silvering up some of the details. They never actually made the Maul speeder in 1:1, I think, the actor rode a blue-packaged object of approximately that shape that was replaced with the speeder digitally in post-production.

Anakin's speeder is pretty cool, although it looks so much more like an exotic motorcycle to me (thereby reducing the sci fi otherworldliness in my mind). I am a little surprised Hasbro and Sideshow have failed to make one (I'm assuming they have indeed failed to make one). Perhaps HT will -- they have released Anakin figures, but I'm sure you've noticed how much they love to re-release stuff with minimal changes. Then again, by the time they do something like this, the prices might be astronomical. The Endor speeder by Hasbro was very nice. It was not as refined as the Sideshow one, but neither was quite perfect. Sideshow's was perhaps a little too short, Hasbro's was a little too wide; the truth lies somewhere in-between. My point was that if, like me, you can find the Hasbro speeder for a decent price, you can improve it or potentially use it to make the other one (I have no idea how easily, and don't imagine it to be easy). But prices on these have shot up over the years. There is (or was) one advertised in our own classifieds section. I think you already know all this, but here is Paul's (scalawag) thread again (can't find my own) --
https://onesixthfigures.forumotion.com/t191-sideshow-star-wars-speeder-bike-and-biker-scout

Man, I´m so envious on Your Darth Maul. . He has moveable eyes, different facial expressions ..... and now he has a speed bike.  

There are sooo many fantastic STAR WARS figures on the way. HT most. So expensive.... that will be a hard time for Your wallet. Ashoka Tano with moveable eyes, oh Hell i want her. I really like to see a Lightsabre duel Tano vs Maul. Hope You will show it to us.