AGE APPROPRIATE WARNING

*ADULT SUPERVISION & PROPER SAFETY EQUIPMENT ARE REQUIRED WHEN UTILIZING THE TOOLS, PRODUCTS & TECHNIQUES DESCRIBED HERE ON OUR BLOG TO CREATE STAR WARS CUSTOMS.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Patrolian Jedi


Dad said this custom action figure was the hardest custom he ever made and took him over 16 hours to make. To make the Patrolian Jedi, Dad used a Robonino action figure from the Clone Wars line. The hard part wasn't the paint application on this one, but instead was getting rid of Robonino's eye patch and making an eye that would be symmetrical to the existing one. Dad recently bought some wood carving tools and well he drew blood twice while working to get it just right. It was a labor of love, but in the end, he couldn't be happier with the results. The Jedi robe was from an Even Piell action figure.


PATROLIAN JEDI

Click on the picture to zoom in so you can get a closer look. This picture needs to be blown up to see the figure better.


The eye that was carved from Robonino's eye patch.









SILLOF ADDED TO "CUSTOMS I WISH I OWNED"

Sillof is pronouced "Si" (like Psi or Sci-fi ) and "llof" (like cough or pilaf) and no it is not his real name. He's a high school history and film teacher. He has no formal art training, other then art classes in middle school. If something turns out good, he says it is just from years of practice, or luck. He started building custom figures and dioramas when he was a kid. He opened a website in 1999. It was then called "The Wookie's Workshop" and "The Wook's Workshop". before he had his current website www.Sillof.com.

His work has been featured online on blogs, websites, and online news services, newspapers at the local, national and international levels, in books and magazines nationally and world wide. His customs have even been featured on television in local news, national news, cable, and overseas, in independent films as props, costumes, and set designs. His action figures have been publicly displayed at contests, fairs, & conventions including 3 of the 4 Star Wars Celebrations. Most recently his work has been seen in Toyfare and Star Wars Insider Magazines.

Unlike other customizers, Sillof has gotten away from faithfully creating characters and has begun to redesign these figures in various time periods or aesthetics. He creates these works out of admiration for their original designs, but rather then just recreate someone else's work he enjoys putting his own spin on classic characters, as well as creating his own new characters. This is all just the creations of his spare time. He starts with a general concept or direction (samurai for example) Then he brainstorms what he wants. This is mostly done in his brain. Then he makes a list of adjectives and descriptions of the character, maybe a little back story and the physical elements he wants to include in the figure.

He then begins the actual construction. He usually works on all of them at once. So while the glue or paint is drying on one he works on another. Some parts of the figures are recycled from existing toys. They are cut off and glued together. Sometimes he sculpts over the old toy parts. Sometimes he dremels down the part using it more as an armature and sculpts over it. Often times, he will sculpt an entire new piece. Some of the figures are completely built from scratch. It really just depends on what he wants, needs, and what he has on hand in his various drawers of parts.

He sculpts using a 2 part epoxy polymer sculpting compound called Apoxie by Aves Studios. You mix 2 parts together and then in few hours it is hard a rock. It is not as easy to work with as sculpey but more then makes up for with it's durability. Sillof says it gets easier to work with practice.

His action figures are just incredible...customizing genius that is better seen then explained. Therefore, head to the video and let him show you what he's got.



SILLOF




You can see more custom action figures created by SILLOF here:



We also recommend checking out his "Toy Wars" film series where he brings his action figures and dioramas to life at this link here:



Monday, February 7, 2011

Nautolan Female

Dad made this action figure today. Originally he was using a different body, but no matter what he did as he painted the other body he just couldn't get it right. So he went into our fodder box and pulled out the Bultar Swan body we had in there, pulled the head off the project he was working on, switched out the accessories and made this Nautolan female to salvage the project. The head is from a Kit Fisto and was repainted, the dagger is from Shahan Alama, and the machete is from an Indiana Jones action figure. The harness is from the Starkiller Ralph McQuarrie action figure.



NAUTOLAN FEMALE





Friday, February 4, 2011

STAR WARS ARTIST JOE HOGAN BLOGS ABOUT OUR SITE

DEATH TROOPER by JOE HOGAN


A few months ago we did CUSTOMIZER SPOTLIGHT #11 on Star Wars action figure customizer darthjohnboystoys. In the photos we posted in the blog entry, Dad used Joe Hogan's "Death Trooper" picture as the background image. At the time Dad found the image on the internet, he did not know who the artist was, but a few weeks ago Dad discovered the blog of Star Wars artist Joe Hogan and reached out to let him know about the post we did and that we used his Death Trooper image. Dad even added links to Joe Hogan's other Star Wars projects by editing our original posts to direct you, our fans to another great Star Wars artist. Today Joe Hogan posted about Customs for the Kid and we wanted to return the favor just in case any of you missed his art the first time around. Be sure to subscribe while you're there so you don't miss out on his future projects!



You can read his Customs for the Kid article here:




Background image created by Star Wars artist Joe Hogan. Death Trooper action figure created by darthjohnboystoys.







You can see more of Joe Hogan's great Star Wars art at his blog located at
: