Gubernator's various new Star Wars customs (updated 27 September 2024)

BAMComix wrote:Great work indeed!

Thank you Dal, I'm glad you liked it.

Wow, these repaints look fantastic!! Especially the Guard of course. Very inspiring. (she says, still having ten unpainted heads in her cupboard. )

The Gamorrean is definitely more screen-accurate now. The "before" photos looked like he was halfway through applying The Kiss makeup.

Diana wrote:Wow, these repaints look fantastic!! Especially the Guard of course. Very inspiring. (she says, still having ten unpainted heads in her cupboard. )

Thank you so much, Diana. I'm glad you enjoyed them. As for unfinished customs, don't feel bad: I'm sure any of us who customize or kitbash anything have a bunch of those somewhere: in a box... in a cupboard... in our heads... on our desks. Oh yeah, in addition to a couple of partly painted human heads, as of yesterday's package arrival from same excellent dude who is responsible for most of the 3D printed heads above, I now have another six heads to paint starting me down from just beyond my keyboard. These include three new renditions of alien species! And I got so inspired, I just ordered more. It's an addiction!

Visisonor wrote:The Gamorrean is definitely more screen-accurate now. The "before" photos looked like he was halfway through applying The Kiss makeup.

I'm glad you agree. And I think you nailed your characterization of the "before" look. I'm glad that I finally looked past that very cartoonish paintjob and decided to give it a chance. If I had done so a couple of years ago, I might have gotten them much more inexpensively (although the prices were still negligible compared to modern high end figures); of course I might have gotten some Sideshow ones too. But I was holding off on the Jabba stuff in this scale for too long.

That original paintjob is so strange, did they think the 'KISS makeup' made them look more 'scary' or something?? Well, whatever the reason, you made it look so much better now!

skywalkersaga wrote:That original paintjob is so strange, did they think the 'KISS makeup' made them look more 'scary' or something?? Well, whatever the reason, you made it look so much better now!

Indeed. I think it seriously undermined what was obviously a pretty decent likeness. I still wish the vambraces were either (properly) separate pieces or had been sculpted rotated to the side as they should be.

Nice job on the Gamorion! I've been too lazy to paint the two I have! LOL. The other heads are looking Great too! I see you are on a ROTJ binge! ;-)

shovelchop81 wrote:Nice job on the Gamorion! I've been too lazy to paint the two I have! LOL. The other heads are looking Great too! I see you are on a ROTJ binge! ;-)

Thank you very much, Alex, coming from you a big endorsement for sure. Yes, I'm on a binge. The 3D-printers are enabling it!

So one of my gripes with the Hasbro rendition of the Gamorrean Guard was the less than ideal positioning of the vambraces, protecting primarily the top rather than outer side of the lower arms... Guess what? Perhaps I was being too dismissive. Or perhaps another wardrobe oversight (or even behind the scenes photo) had given Hasbro the idea to sculpt it this way. Because I chanced upon this in a bit of footage from the set in the youtube video:


So perhaps in a sense, in this respect, the Hasbro Gamorrean is screen accurate after all...

GubernatorFan wrote:So one of my gripes with the Hasbro rendition of the Gamorrean Guard was the less than ideal positioning of the vambraces, protecting primarily the top rather than outer side of the lower arms... Guess what? Perhaps I was being too dismissive. Or perhaps another wardrobe oversight (or even behind the scenes photo) had given Hasbro the idea to sculpt it this way. Because I chanced upon this in a bit of footage from the set in the youtube video:


So perhaps in a sense, in this respect, the Hasbro Gamorrean is screen accurate after all...

Could just be personal preference by the guards, they also used a variety of weapons from the vibro bladed staffs, hatchets, short Russian bardiche and Philippine Panabas short swords, each might require the hand guards to be moved for different blocking moves.

I envy your 3D prints, Ian - just masterful!

Do you have a preference to printer brand that is reliable?

shovelchop81 wrote:

GubernatorFan wrote:So one of my gripes with the Hasbro rendition of the Gamorrean Guard was the less than ideal positioning of the vambraces, protecting primarily the top rather than outer side of the lower arms... Guess what? Perhaps I was being too dismissive. Or perhaps another wardrobe oversight (or even behind the scenes photo) had given Hasbro the idea to sculpt it this way. Because I chanced upon this in a bit of footage from the set in the youtube video:

So perhaps in a sense, in this respect, the Hasbro Gamorrean is screen accurate after all...

Could just be personal preference by the guards, they also used a variety of weapons from the vibro bladed staffs, hatchets, short Russian bardiche and Philippine  Panabas short swords, each might require the hand guards to be moved for different blocking moves.

Indeed. I have to look more carefully at movie stills and set photos. I know the vambraces on the ones I have noticed besides this one appeared to be more conventionally placed. It is not very clear on the screen grab, but the video made it clear that at least this porkster, in this behind the scenes footage, had them on this way. There are indeed at least three different weapons associated with the Gamorrean Guards. The Hasbro figures I got were slightly incomplete, but between them I have the two axes. Unfortunately I haven't found the staff weapon yet (and a 1:1 scale model my 3D printer friend found would not scale well according to its creator).

rootleaf wrote:I envy your 3D prints, Ian - just masterful!

Do you have a preference to printer brand that is reliable?

Thank you for your kind words. Perhaps my phrasing was misleading, but you can find them mentioned and linked in both Part I and Part II, these are other people printing and selling 3D-printed heads, weapons, accessories, and other pieces. I don't have a 3D printer myself and the one time I tried to find my way around a 3D design software I got easily lost. Now 2D, anytime!
There are persons here that are much more knowledgeable about 3D printing, for example Ovy and valentin, and several others.

Yeah awwesome work on the G...Guard

I especially like the new color but also the leather texture and the new fur hair look. Big improvement. I think much can be done with older figures.

And as always perfectly presented in comparison with the unchanced model - which is just so super helpful to really see the differences here!

Valiarde wrote:Yeah awwesome work on the G...Guard  

I especially like the new color but also the leather texture and the new fur hair look. Big improvement. I think much can be done with older figures.

And as always perfectly presented in comparison with the unchanced model - which is just so super helpful to really see the differences here!

Thank you very much, Simon, I'm glad you liked it. Yeah, I had to hold myself back from starting modifications on the second one before taking the comparison photos. Actually I still haven't gotten started on him.

One more of my favorite porkster, in a different, diffused natural light that might reflect some details differently.


I don't blame Leia at all!

Still blown away by how much you improved him! Also that drool really is just the perfect touch.

Yeah that daylight non flash photography can do a lot to help show how your work really looks, getting rid of oversaturation and and false shines etc... green looks more like it should and probably how you were trying to convey it before then with your camera stabbing you in the back like mine does, especially with group shots!

Your repaint looks great, Ian! It's very clean and accurate. Outstanding work!

skywalkersaga wrote:Still blown away by how much you improved him! Also that drool really is just the perfect touch.

Thank you very much. I just hope I paint the next one as well or similarly -- this one took a ton of tries to get "right."

shovelchop81 wrote:Yeah that daylight non flash photography can do a lot to help show how your work really looks, getting rid of oversaturation and and false shines etc... green looks more like it should and probably how you were trying to convey it before then with your camera stabbing you in the back like mine does, especially with group shots!

Glad you like it, Alex. Indeed, it is a balance between light and too much light, real and artificial. Group shots are always a bit tricky, but new multiple-focus (with face recognition) functions tend to help.

Randam Hajile wrote:Your repaint looks great, Ian! It's very clean and accurate. Outstanding work!

Thank you very much, Ralf (and welcome back -- I hope you were gone on some awesome vacation and all is well). I'm glad you liked them, and I have a third installment of Jabba critters coming up with all new heads I've just begun to paint. Also, there's bit more Star Wars stuff in my random photos thread if you're interested (more experimenting with night sky on screen and front-lighting).

Part III - more and different...


A minor update. Remember those words from When the Earth stood still that were borrowed to designate characters or alien species in Star Wars? What were they...



Klaatu (as those of us who collected the old Kenner action figures would still remember him) was a bit of a grail for me, not sure why. In the end, I ended up with two. Technically only the second, smaller head (here Klaatu B) was actually the character named Klaatu, as the first Klaatu was meant to be called Wooof (yes, 3 o's makes it so genuinely alien!), and Hasbro eventually renamed him that. And to confuse things, they labeled him a Green Nikto as a species, as opposed to the proper Nikto (Red Nikto) also seen here. All the 3D printed heads you see in this post are by Poison3DHarleyCstms on Etsy, except for Klaatu B, which by enrive on eBay. I have done versions of Barada and Nikto before, but these are different ones.



The Barada sculpt didn't have the ridges on the head, so I sculpted them out of green stuff. Since then, enrive has actually posted what looks like the same head, but with minor ridges.



I'm pretty happy with both Klaatu's, even if Klaatu B's size is inspiring me to think up of some "take your kid to work" sketches. The first lacing of the helmet for Klaatu A (Wooof) proved too thick, both visually, and in terms of fitting the head inside it quite right, so I re-laced it with thinner leather cord.



If Klaatu B's head is a bit undersized (not so much in and of itself as by comparison), Klaatu A's is a bit oversized. But some of that is ascribable to the helmet.



Barada C (or is it his cousin Kithaba?) is probably the best of the three versions I have so far (you can see him compared to Barada B from Part II, below). In case I have not yet shared my dismay, these guys have been identified as members of the Klattoonian species, adding yet more Klaatu-related confusion. (Red) Nikto B is quite different from the previous version, (Red) Nikto A, and in this color scheme (which is based on newer depictions by Lucasfilm/Disney) ended up looking a bit more cartoonish than I would have wanted. Technically, I should have swapped the coloring between this (Red) Nikto B and the previous variant, (Red) Nikto A. But that will happen later, as I have (or am getting) two of each head. In the end, I will have a bit of variation, with several characters from each species.



And then something different. I've only seen a little bit of the game's video on YouTube, but I liked the head and wanted to give it a try...



The forehead is a bit low, and my red hair ended up a bit too orange, but considering this model is probably blown up from something meant for a much smaller scale, I think it worked out decently. Though more patience and skill with sanding/filling the model's surface would have been advisable. Not surprisingly, it looks better in hand than in a macrophoto.



For Part IV see HERE.

I hope this is useful or you can learn from my experience.
As always, what do you think?

Nice painting skills Ian!

The Alien type heads look awesome , any chance of sharing your painting techniques in stages with photos next time ? They all seem to have necks so assuming you will be using jointed figures for them ? Do you have outfits for them ? Great work Gube .

Very cool work!! No Weekeways yet? Braiding their dreads is fun! Do it before attaching the hair!

Nicely painted heads, and so many of them. The aliens especially look very detailed.

Nice work, Ian. You’ve been busy. So many variants to choose from.

BAMComix wrote:Nice painting skills Ian!

Thank you, Dal, I appreciate it.

Chip wrote:The Alien type heads look awesome , any chance of sharing your painting techniques in stages with photos next time ? They all seem to have necks so assuming you will be using jointed figures for them ? Do you have outfits for them ? Great work Gube .

Thank you, Mark, I'm glad you like them. 
Well... there is priming, which is pretty important to help your upper layers adhere, and then multiple thin layers from dark to light (especially for human or one-color skin). Getting the colors about right (virtually impossible, given the differences in different sources for the same thing, and Lucas' manipulation of contrast, etc.) meant a lot of tries (layers) in some cases. Finally, clear coat: if you want it to be strong, apparently you need to put in a Vallejo Gloss Finish first, then (as needed) their Matt Finish. Even so, squeezing Klaatu A into the helmet meant a bit of paint might rub off; luckily, no visible damage this time.
I am not very far with the bodies and outfits, except for another figure I have not yet shown. Yes, jointed hard-plastic bodies for sure. The necks sometimes required a bit of love from my Dremel, as the heck holes were not always as big as they should be.

shovelchop81 wrote:Very cool work!! No Weekeways yet? Braiding their dreads is fun! Do it before attaching the hair!

Thanks Alex, I'm glad you like them. Weequay was in Part I (and, repainted, in Part II), feel free to revisit him. I'm getting a second head so I could make (eventually) two of them. Haven't attached any dreads yet, but planning on it. Will try to scruff up and distress some thin shoelaces I bought for that purpose. But I appreciate the tip.

Visisonor wrote:Nicely painted heads, and so many of them. The aliens especially look very detailed.

Thank you, I appreciate it. Yep, I enjoyed doing them, except sometimes the pain of achieving a color reasonably close to multiple and divergent references. Now I have to look into completing them as figures.

Stryker2012 wrote:Nice work, Ian. You’ve been busy. So many variants to choose from.

Thank you Mark, glad you liked them. I kept looking for better Baradas, so I ended up with three variants; with Nikto I have two, which are viable side by side; with Klaatu two as well. Weequay is the only one where I haven't come across a second version I want. With multiple heads of each, one could (theoretically) build up a little posse to serve Jabba.

GubernatorFan wrote:

Stryker2012 wrote:Nice work, Ian. You’ve been busy. So many variants to choose from.

Thank you Mark, glad you liked them. I kept looking for better Baradas, so I ended up with three variants; with Nikto I have two, which are viable side by side; with Klaatu two as well. Weequay is the only one where I haven't come across a second version I want. With multiple heads of each, one could (theoretically) build up a little posse to serve Jabba.

True. The only problem would then be the clothes and weapons, etc. I’ve watched a few of the customizer threads over at the Freaks, some of the ones I posted links to you earlier, and it just seems like such a daunting task to source all that. I’d still like to get back into my Western stuff, as well, but I’ve been sidelined over the last few months with health stuff. I wish you luck, however, in your attempts to goon army build yourself.

Stryker2012 wrote:True. The only problem would then be the clothes and weapons, etc. I’ve watched a few of the customizer threads over at the Freaks, some of the ones I posted links to you earlier, and it just seems like such a daunting task to source all that. I’d still like to get back into my Western stuff, as well, but I’ve been sidelined over the last few months with health stuff. I wish you luck, however, in your attempts to goon army build yourself.

Thanks, I'm gonna need it. I am having enough trouble with one, which I haven't shown yet, I think these guys might have to end up in company retreat uniform or something, at least at first.