This project was another commission, and one that I was sad to see leave. Over the course of this project, I found myself meeting unique challenges and learning new things that I'll always have in my tool box. I'm grateful for the opportunity to bring life to such a cool character, and for all the skills I learned along the way.
The parts required for this figure were a Clone Wars Plo Koon, a season three Clone Wars Obi Wan, and the garments were taken from a 30th anniversary Hawkbat Battalion Clone Trooper. Plo Koon's head remained mostly unmodified, except for his specialized mask, which was hand sculpted. The torso of the Plo Koon was sanded smooth with a Dremel and re-sculpted to feature his breastplate armor and layered robes. The pouches were hand sculpted and then applied to the belt. The skirt was cut short using an X-Acto knife and smoothed with the Dremel to appear as a single piece. Aside from armor pads on each thigh, the legs remained mostly unmodified. In order to increase the articulation of the figure, I took the knees from a Clone Wars Obi Wan and inserted them into the knees of the Plo Koon. I did so by cutting the boots off of the Plo Koon and removing the knee region from the remaining leg. This was to create room for the new knee joints so they would fit proportionately in relation to the rest of the leg, making the modification nearly undetectable.
The head scarf was made from the hood which came with the Plo Koon. The lower shoulder scarf was completely hand sculpted. I did this using a simple disk of nearly dry sculpting material, and cutting a neck hole into the center of it. I then draped it over the figure and waited for it to dry completely. After that, I had a base to sculpt onto, which allowed me to add all the details in my second sculpting pass. The poncho from the Hawkbat Clone Trooper originally didn't fit the Plo Koon, so I removed the original stitching and hand sewed darts into the shoulders for a more satisfying form fitted appearance. I took a piece of fabric and cut it into a disk-like shape which I used as the second layer of the poncho. I repeated the process, custom cutting it to fit and hand sewing darts into the shoulders.
Once the sewing and sculpting were complete, I painted the figure completely to match Plo Koon as he was depicted on screen. After painting the fabrics to the desired colors and adding the embroidery on the edge of the upper poncho, I cut the holes and tears into the edges of both ponchos, giving them their aged appearance they had in the episode of The Clone Wars.
Even though this figure won't be staying with me, I still feel happy to have brought the character to life. Most importantly, before sending it away, molds were made of the head sculpt, hood, and shoulder scarf which will soon be available on the Rebel Kid Creations store. With the casts available, I'm hoping to add him to my own collection one of these days as well!
