BOBF Boba Fett Finished Custom Figure/ BOUNTY HUNTERS: STAR WARS SCUM AND VILLAINY BUILD THREAD

GubernatorFan wrote:I think you're about to nail it. Very good match.

Cheers GTF but don't jinx it!

BAMComix wrote:I agree with Ian, top work!

Thanks BAM!

Randam Hajile wrote:Very nice progress, shovelchop! I'm always impressed how bravely you take things apart to build something new. It's really inspiring.

Cheers Randam! It's more convenience and being tightfisted rather than bravery!

Stryker2011 wrote:The skin tone looks good. If you can manage it, add a bit of grey to the whites of the eyes, especially as you move toward the edges, and a thin dab of pink at the corners. If not, no worries.

I will attempt to tomorrow but I've been at these eyes and eyebrows (plus the odd skin repaint and clear coats etc..) all day and finally think I've got it right except for the sclera as you reminded me, cheers! I always forget the grey to add some 3D to the eyes.

Stressful day as far as painting a model can be.. so not very but frustrating is probably a better word. The arched eyebrow look I was going for just refused to work with this sculpt (probably because it's a neutral expression DOH!) but I gave it my best then gave up after (as you'll see below) going through a Mr. Bean look, then a Dr. Evil look and a 'The Rock' look
Finally settling on a more neutral look but with the eyes looking up a bit to get some attitude out of him.

Reference pics



























MORE WHAT I WAS GOING FOR HERE BUT LOOKS DAFT ON THE FIGURE









LOOKS OKAY HERE...



THEN OOPS...DR. EVIL OR THE ROCK..













LAST CHANGE AND WHAT I HAVE SETTLED ON AS A COMPROMISE OF AN EXPRESSION FOR HIM BY JUST USING THE EYES, NO CRAZY EYEBROWS!





















IT'S AMAZING HOW 0.001g OF PAINT ON ONE STRAY HAIR OF A TYPE '0' BRUSH CAN RUIN AN EYE PAINTJOB!!

I completely feel for you painting eyes. Such a pain. The likeness is definitely there, and the softer eyebrows are appropriate for his look. But I think you might want to work on the eyes a little more. Two suggestions:
1. Maybe you did it (or are yet to mess with it) and it just isn't apparent on my screen, but you don't want the white to be really white. When I do the white of the eyes, I mix just a little bit of ivory (or really anything to dirty it up) with it so it is a more natural color. Then, if one can, one could add a tiny spot of very watered-down reddish paint in each corner of the eyes.
2. The left and right pupils+irises are not quite the same size and looking quite in the same direction. One approach that might (might!) make the job easier is to apply the color as a new layer, then chip away the coverage you deem extra with the tip of a needle or something very tiny and sharp.

GubernatorFan wrote:I completely feel for you painting eyes. Such a pain. The likeness is definitely there, and the softer eyebrows are appropriate for his look. But I think you might want to work on the eyes a little more. Two suggestions:
1. Maybe you did it (or are yet to mess with it) and it just isn't apparent on my screen, but you don't want the white to be really white. When I do the white of the eyes, I mix just a little bit of ivory (or really anything to dirty it up) with it so it is a more natural color. Then, if one can, one could add a tiny spot of very watered-down reddish paint in each corner of the eyes.
2. The left and right pupils+irises are not quite the same size and looking quite in the same direction. One approach that might (might!) make the job easier is to apply the color as a new layer, then chip away the coverage you deem extra with the tip of a needle or something very tiny and sharp.  

All good tips GTF! I was planning in dealing with the sclera today and wasn't sure about the irises being different sizes as I'd been staring at them all day through a bloody magnifying glass!  Thought I'd take a fresh look today after a sleep and hope for some feedback from you guys I honestly can't tell which eye is looking a different way (I know technically they both are ) so if one is looking straight ahead, which one isn't? Please let me know, apparently I'm blind!

Yup I can definitely see the 'googly' eyes in these pics now!!

I feel your struggles with painting eyes. But I think overall you did a good job, Alex. At this scale it’s easy to get hung up sometimes on the details, especially when doing macro photos, but from normal viewing distance, a lot of this stuff looks fine. I think he looks really good. You have so much material left over to make so many more characters.

It may be more size than direction, actually. The camera right iris looks a little bit smaller than the camera left iris.

Stryker2011 wrote:I feel your struggles with painting eyes. But I think overall you did a good job, Alex. At this scale it’s easy to get hung up sometimes on the details, especially when doing macro photos, but from normal viewing distance, a lot of this stuff looks fine. I think he looks really good. You have so much material left over to make so many more characters.

Cheers Stryker! Yes they have always been my arch nemesis     ! The plan is to do plenty more SW builds as per my first post on this thread, I'll probably bounce back and forth between these and LOTR with perhaps the odd Iron Man build too as long as I don't burn out again. If I do I still have plenty of Gundam kits to build as a breather from 1/6.

GubernatorFan wrote:It may be more size than direction, actually. The camera right iris looks a little bit smaller than the camera left iris.

Pretty much what I was thinking too, I'll get on it in a bit

Redone the eyes with an even smaller brush I didn't even remember I had! Made him a longer more screen accurate skirt thingy and padded his helmet, started work on his brass belt buckle from what I believe is a flattened out bit of an old school car ariel piece I cut off for a gun project years ago lol!















I THINK THERE ARE SOME DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THESE ONES BELOW, TOUCHING UP AND ADDED GLOSS ETC...









SSC CLONE HEADS FOR COMPARISON



















HE DOESN'T COME ACROSS AS GRUMPY AS I'D LIKE...

Well, he can't be grumpy all of the time, Alex! Occasionally he scores and gets paid. Your cool custom would surely help him do precisely that. I have a 0000 brush, and even that is not precise enough for me when working on tiny eyes, especially if the sculpt is squinting; luckily this is not the case here. They are even now. That buckle you are working on will help complete the look.

GubernatorFan wrote:Well, he can't be grumpy all of the time, Alex! Occasionally he scores and gets paid. Your cool custom would surely help him do precisely that. I have a 0000 brush, and even that is not precise enough for me when working on tiny eyes, especially if the sculpt is squinting; luckily this is not the case here. They are even now. That buckle you are working on will help complete the look.

Very true! In fact I've found more reference pics of him looking relaxed etc.. in the show but still think his eyes need to be a tad smaller.













Okay this is from the set not filming but like the pic with Danny!




Some mods done but mostly painting his armour and equipment.





































RED AND YELLOW NEXT, THEN DETAILING AND WEATHERING ETC..

With Danny and a Rancor head. Can anything be cooler than that? Yes, ideally, the eyes can be smaller, although that would be even harder to paint. It occurs to me that maybe (maybe!) more dark lining on the inside edge of the eyeball may help (perhaps with a very sharpened pencil), reducing the area of the white, although that would also define the eye more, which might produce the opposite effect -- I'm just not sure. Nice work on the armor and jetpack.

GubernatorFan wrote:With Danny and a Rancor head. Can anything be cooler than that? Yes, ideally, the eyes can be smaller, although that would be even harder to paint. It occurs to me that maybe (maybe!) more dark lining on the inside edge of the eyeball may help (perhaps with a very sharpened pencil), reducing the area of the white, although that would also define the eye more, which might produce the opposite effect -- I'm just not sure. Nice work on the armor and jetpack.

I'm going to try lifting up the lower lids slightly and bringing down the top ones a smidge at angle, should fix it hopefully!

I don't envy you the frustration and effort, but you are never one to shirk from a challenge. Speaking of which... How about you try to make a sixth-scale Rancor?

GubernatorFan wrote:I don't envy you the frustration and effort, but you are never one to shirk from a challenge. Speaking of which... How about you try to make a sixth-scale Rancor?

I think it would be a bit too big!!!! (I do have the 3&3/4 scale one). Although you have thinking now...Just the head and shoulders would make brilliant diorama with Boba riding it like one of those giant sand/spice worms in Dune!! I mean Lucas took so much inspiration from that book and the first film as it is to create Tatooine and other parts of the SW universe, that this would look right at home. We haven't actually seen him ride it yet and with only one episode to go and it being so young we may not but who cares? It would look cool as hell on display!

He looks great, eyes are my greatest weakness which is why I generally try to keep them as is but it's not always possible.


One thing that I tried recently since I had to paint some eyes was to use a pastry chef technique that I learned at 1 am from a pastry video on youtube (no clue how I got there) and it is to pinch your tongue with your teeth and hold your breath, for me it worked good enough and I hope to show that soon.... tusken raider's take time to put together.

There’s a guy over at the Freaks who actually did make his one 1/6 Rancor, and it’s amazing — but, yes, pretty huge, and bigger than the one Sideshow claimed was 1/6, but is actually closer to 1/7th.

Theboo-bomb wrote:He looks great, eyes are my greatest weakness which is why I generally try to keep them as is but it's not always possible.


One thing that I tried recently since I had to paint some eyes was to use a pastry chef technique that I learned at 1 am from a pastry video on youtube (no clue how I got there) and it is to pinch your tongue with your teeth and hold your breath, for me it worked good enough and I hope to show that soon.... tusken raider's take time to put together.

Well I do a lot of target shooting so controlling my breathing is 2nd nature to me but that is an interesting technique you've come across there!LOL, funnily enough a lot of people do that anyway subconsciously whilst concentrating (a child drawing for example often does it, probably an inherited survival trait to keep us quiet while hunting or stalking prey, perhaps even hiding?) and has to be trained out of new shooters lest they bite their tongues off due to recoil!!

Stryker2011 wrote:There’s a guy over at the Freaks who actually did make his one 1/6 Rancor, and it’s amazing — but, yes, pretty huge, and bigger than the one Sideshow claimed was 1/6, but is actually closer to 1/7th.

Never saw that, great achievement so must have a look if it's still there after all that SSC BS that got the owner to remove the entire customs section of the forum

Redone the eyelids and the eyes, need pupils and gloss again still. Painted all the red and yellow/orange armour, added silver and weathering is placed as exact as I could from new reference pics. Decided to build his screen accurate blaster, pain in the neck! Very fiddly with tiny parts and super glue... Redid the brown on his gators and need to do the tips of his gloves, some details I missed on his clothing have been brought to light with HT's new 1/4 scale figure pics (AARGH!) that I might address.











































NOT FINISHED!!



WEATHERING REFERENCES (when you zoom in lol)







































ARROWS SHOULD BE RED AND BLUE, MY BAD..

Coming along very nicely. Love the worn metal/weathering.

GubernatorFan wrote:Coming along very nicely. Love the worn metal/weathering.

Cheers GTF! Super tame weathering by my normal standards but he has just repainted his armour recently and I put the scrapes and scratches where they are shown in the pics. I plan to do some sand weathering using super fine sand mixed with heavily diluted PVA to 'paint' into all the cracks and crevices as we all know that it gets everywhere! Should make him look more realistic too.

Oh, I realize you're not quite done, but still looking very nice.

GubernatorFan wrote:Oh, I realize you're not quite done, but still looking very nice.

Cheers GTF! I have finally finished him, so much for a quick simple build!
Thought I'd post these last build pics before I did a finished thread as I tackled some really tiny custom parts to make his new blaster that you'll probably never see otherwise. I painted, weathered and clear coated the guns, PVA'd real sifted fine sand onto him, let it dry then attacked him with a toothbrush to thin it out and crumble where it wanted to, same for jetpack and helmet. Fixed wonky jetpack, painted and attached helmet sight system, repainted it's mounting and little arrows to more series accurate colours, then matte clear coated everything again. Made his brass buckle filing in the patterns as best I could then did a gloss black coat of paint which I then rubbed off to expose the patterns. I redid his eyes for the last bloody time! Now he has pupils and rings around his dark brown irises. Then I made a Tatooine inspired base using sandpaper, PVA, real sand to make a more realistic looking surface, not finished in these pics as I add more sand and PVA later. Apart from modding the holster a bit I think that's it....about bloody time too...







































OH YEAH, THESE PLEATED PARTS THAT SHOWED UP ON THE 1/4 SCALE HT FIGURE PROTOTYPE, MISSED THEM IN THE STILLS.





PRE-TOOTHBRUSH!







POST TOOTHBRUSH









































CRAP...FORGOT HIS RED CHEST LIGHTS.. I'LL DO THAT IN A BIT...

Wow, your attention to detail, while familiar, never ceases to impress. I can't help but think there were easier ways to do some of this (like the round element on the gun), but this is very cool, and the results look great.

I like how you did the sand on his boots and the base. Nice details.

GubernatorFan wrote:Wow, your attention to detail, while familiar, never ceases to impress. I can't help but think there were easier ways to do some of this (like the round element on the gun), but this is very cool, and the results look great.

Stryker2011 wrote:I like how you did the sand on his boots and the base. Nice details.

Cheers guys! Attention to detail feels like a curse sometimes as there are so many builds I want to be done with! LOL. I gloss coated his visor and did the red light strips on his chest armour. Now got find some figures to pose him with for his finished thread, I'm thinking my two proper Gamorian guards (TBOBF ones looked kind of wimpy, I guess Bib Fortuna hadn't been feeding them properly), my custom Tusken raider and maybe a sail barge thug or two? Oh and cute Jawas!! Not exactly Tatooine weather here in Wales (the land of rain and sheep) but at least I have sand in my garden (my local area is called Sandfields! ) so I can dig some up and dry it out on the heaters to make a temporary indoor dio.

The thought of you gathering sand and drying it on heaters made me chuckle. We just had our first rain (and sleet and hail) for over a month (and it's winter!) and have a freeze warning for a few nights in a row. We had to bring in plants, but can't complain, we really do need the rain in these parts. Still, no sand. I do have some kinetic sand but still packed away. I've been using some sack cloth with cotton balls under it to simulate it, or paper sheets with printed sand. Jawas cute? I don't think C-3PO would agree, but I did reconstitute a couple from HT and other parts recently. Anyway, I'd love to see them all together.

You can also buy hobby sand, if so inclined. That’s what I did when I made my Jabba diorama. Sprayed the floor with a mix of glue and water and then poured the sand over the top, let it dry, and then knocked off the excess.

GubernatorFan wrote:The thought of you gathering sand and drying it on heaters made me chuckle. We just had our first rain (and sleet and hail) for over a month (and it's winter!) and have a freeze warning for a few nights in a row. We had to bring in plants, but can't complain, we really do need the rain in these parts. Still, no sand. I do have some kinetic sand but still packed away. I've been using some sack cloth with cotton balls under it to simulate it, or paper sheets with printed sand. Jawas cute? I don't think C-3PO would agree, but I did reconstitute a couple from HT and other parts recently. Anyway, I'd love to see them all together.

Stryker2011 wrote:You can also buy hobby sand, if so inclined. That’s what I did when I made my Jabba diorama. Sprayed the floor with a mix of glue and water and then poured the sand over the top, let it dry, and then knocked off the excess.

So I'm lazy...he's found a home in my collection and is staying there (I'm in the middle of reorganising my Ironman Dio and LOTR collection so a bit tired of balancing in strange places, crawling on the ground under tables looking for fallen parts and generally posing and reposing figures then watching them drop things on eachother!) so I've taken pics of him in just this pose now he's stopped dropping his helmet behind one of my large rifle displays.... I'm sort of balancing over another display while trying to take these pics so sorry any lousy shots, I had to zoom in a lot too. Maybe I'll do something grander later but I just want to get on with the next build, whether I'm going back to TKOTD or taking a break and build an HMM ZOID kit for a change, we'll see. Still wish he had an arched eyebrow!







































Hope to do better and more dynamic pics with other characters I'm going to build in the near future when I'm less burnt out!

Aww he looks great!! He certainly stands out on that shelf, in a good way. It is clearly a great character design, even if I initially thought the coloring is a little cartoonish. I actually like it better in your build, which is interesting... Thank you once again for sharing your process!

He looks right at home with all the others! top work!

Well, her certainly has gone through a lot now, time for some rest! Was fun watching his head evolve.