The Star Wars Underworld

Showing posts with label Darth Daddy's Customizing Corner. Show all posts

Saturday, February 11, 2017

DARTH DADDY'S CUSTOMIZING CORNER: FOCUS ON SOME FANGIRLS

Posted by Unknown on 2/11/2017 0 comments

This time around, I thought it would be cool to feature some custom art from some female Star Wars artists for a change. Contrary to the stereotype, Star Wars customizing is not just practiced by nerdy, awkward men working diligently in their man caves. There is also a thriving contingent of female fans hard at work producing some extremely noteworthy additions to the customizing community as well. While their creations may contain the standard 3.75" or 6" action figure creation, some of their work stretches outside the usual parameters we are all used to seeing in my column.

For a few years now, I have been featuring the work of these artists on my blog on our "Customs for the Fangirls" page, but I thought it was about time I opened up their work to a much larger audience by displaying a sample of some of the art I feature there. These are just a few of the artists whose work can be found there.

DARTH DADDY's CUSTOMIZING CORNER: ERIC BERRY "CAPTAIN REX's AT-TE"

Posted by Unknown on 1/17/2017 1 comments

This Rebels version of Captain Rex's AT-TE is a custom that many artist wanted to build ever since season 2 of Rebels premiered. Probably the coolest custom I came across since the start of the new year, Eric Berry's Rebels AT-TE with all the add-ons gave an already large vehicle an even bigger presence. There’s so many delicate parts and an abundance of details crammed into this lush playset. Eric admits that he had to “split the difference” on some things, as the toy is close to 80% in scale to the figures. As a result, some things like the cannon are somewhat bigger than they should be, even after compressing the parts in size. For example, he stated that you can’t pivot the cannon too far or it eventually hits the antennae. Most of it was scratch built. Lots of tiny little parts and details. Other cool features are a working rear door, cranes that rotate and pivot, and a folding rear ladder. My favorite part of the build was the work he did on the interior. He made only one bunk since they’d sleep in shifts, on the floor, or in hammocks in the command center. Then he tossed in a couple chairs, and a dejarik table. Opposite the bunk is a small galley and up on the wall they have a mounted battle droid head, “Clanker”, as a joke from their former days in the Grand Army. Other features inside include a rifle rack, welding gear, and storage above the bunk. Almost all parts are plastic except for some cargo boxes that were wood and skinned in styrene.

DARTH DADDY's CUSTOMIZING CORNER: clubobiwan

Posted by Unknown on 12/24/2016 0 comments

Jason Peterson aka clubobiwan doesn't like to recreate what we've all seen on screen before. He more or less explores the gaps between the stories, and even creates his own with original characters. He started off displaying his builds in the art cabinet at his local toy store. He received lots of favorable feedback from the store employees about patrons reactions to his work, but always seemed to miss them viewing his builds.

DARTH DADDY's CUSTOMIZING CORNER: "CUSTOMIZING THE CLONE WARS" SHOW

Posted by Unknown on 9/27/2016 0 comments

So if you are a fan of The Clone Wars animated series. then I highly recommend you watch a new Star Wars themed videocast that started earlier this year. The YouTube series is hosted by Chad Peak aka Peak-OB1 Custom Creations and Darth Daddy and Elias from Customs for the Kid. We're all Star Wars custom action figure artists that were showcased at Star Wars Celebration Anaheim last year in the "Star Wars Custom Action Figure Panel". The Star Wars Underworld audience may already be familiar with me from my "Darth Daddy's Customizing Corner" column that I have been writing here since the beginning of 2014.

In our show, we pay tribute to The Clone Wars TV series through plastic. Action figure art to be exact. The Clone Wars was one of our favorite installments from Star Wars franchise and me and Chad were both big supporters of the "Save The Clone Wars" movement. Now, we understand that all things come to pass, and while we accepted the show's demise, we decided that although the show was no more, we can keep the show alive in our own way.

In each show, we spend a little time talking about the content in the episodes, and take the time to point out the easter eggs too. In this way, we aren't very different from your average Star Wars review show. Well, the similarities stop there. The unique thing about "Customizing The Clone Wars", is that little something extra.

"What is so special about it?" you ask.

Well, we showcase Clone Wars custom action figures that were never produced from each Clone Wars episode. So many interesting characters never made it into action figure form and out onto store pegs, but many of these characters were compelling enough that we wish that they did. In each episode we try to feature at least five action figures per episode that we made ourselves. On the plus side, even if you are very familiar with our work, you can still see an action figure that you never saw before because we're still actively making new ones. Sometimes we find ourselves making a new figure the week before our next episode airs and you can get an exclusive reveal of a new piece when you tune in.

We also take the time to show the work of other action figure artists, and their noteworthy contributions to the Clone Wars 3.75" action figure line. While we share images of our creations, the audience receives details about the fabrication of each figure including action figure recipes, as well as the tools, mediums and techniques used.

The photos pictured below are only a small sample of what is on display.

CLICK HERE TO START WATCHING

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Thursday, June 23, 2016

DARTH DADDY's CUSTOMIZING CORNER: TheRealMarch4th

Posted by Unknown on 6/23/2016 0 comments

TheRealMarch4th has been customizing for 2 years now. His work immediately caught our eye because he was one of the few artists out there making Clone Wars custom action figures. He paints, he kitbashes, and he sculpts too. The entire customizing package. He loves customizing figures from the Star Wars animated TV shows and making Mandalorians. The scope of his work even dives into the Expanded Universe/Legends. His early work like most customizers focused on making Jedi action figures, but once his skill set expanded so did his character choices from which he drew his inspiration. He is hoping to create more figures from Star Wars Rebels, Clone Wars and even the old Droids series in the upcoming months. We talk to this customizer frequently and his enthusiasm for the hobby is infectious.

Also check out the feature on TheRealMarch4th over at the Customs for the Kid blog where he was recently added to "Customs I Wish I Owned".

To see more of his work in the future visit his Instagram page:

https://www.instagram.com/therealmarch4th/

DARTH DADDY's CUSTOMIZING CORNER: OLDBOY CTTS

Posted by Unknown on 5/28/2016 0 comments

Oldboy Custom Tattoo Shop are a small pack of Thai tattooists located in Bangkok, Thailand that have followed their interest in action figures and collectibles to create some truly original custom sculpt work with realistic details and paint apps. They started off a few years ago in 2012 collecting 1/6th scale figures. After collecting for a while, they explored different techniques of sculpting and painting figures heads with the objective of trying to achieve the most realistic effects possible. They told us that it took a very long time to refine their techniques, but during that time their interests moved down to the 6" scale due to there being very limited artists/customizers for this scale. They wanted to position themselves as a recognizable and distinctive 6" scale customs maker. For now, their focus is totally on 6" scale headsculpts and soft goods for mainly the Star Wars line (Black Series/Bandai S.H. Figuarts) due to their passion and love for the movie. They also have plans in the future to explore the Marvel line and have speculated moving into the Art/Designer toys industry.

As for materials and techniques used to achieve their works, Oldboy CTTS sculpting is done with Super Sculpey Firm, along with carving/sculpting tools that are all available online. Their head repaints/paint are done purely with a hand brush using a variety of different paint types (acrylics mostly, and washes/enamels) to achieve different effects desired.

As for their future work, they will be striving to accomplish the very challenging work of creating characters from the Star Wars universe that have not received the attention that many fans that they talk to really want! Therefore, a few characters shortlisted are Qui-Gon Jinn, variations of Obi-Wan Kenobi, and as for the Marvel line, they really want to have a take on Tony Stark. Also some projects on hand that are really close to going on pre-order within the next few months are their Daniel Craig headsculpt. Last but not least, they will be doing a special give-away when their Facebook page reaches the 5k "likes" milestone, which will be their George Lucas headsculpt. This will be a really limited piece ( >10 worldwide). They will be announcing a small activity for all their fans to have a chance to receive it!