"CUSTOMS FOR THE KID" - 2021 YEAR IN REVIEW

Another year comes to a close. This year was a little quieter than previous years due to me wrapping up high school this Spring. Focus was more on school than the blog unfortunately. The silver lining was that for my Senior year, I did a Capstone Project exploring turning my custom action figure creative process into a full-blown business. I was also sure to include 3D design as part of my curriculum to add to my skillset. By the end of the school year, I had a few original digital designs under my belt and a fully functioning business model.

Senior Capstone Presentation (Audio quality could be better)

After graduating high school, I started to do commissions for full-time work and entered into business with Rebel Kid Creations the exclusive retailer for casts of my sculpts. It is mainly just a storefront full of resin casts and kits available to our readers so they can replicate some of our custom action figure projects for themselves in their own homes. 

Click store logo to visit

To make it happen, most of the summer was spent molding our older sculpts for casting. To do so we added a pressure pot, air compressor, vacuum chamber and pump to our workshop. Thankfully we are now completely done with our mold making and going forward the store will be carrying all new never seen before designs.

As you can expect with such a heavy workload, making customs for the blog took a backseat, While we were still able to do a lot of fully sculpted figures this year, we also took the opportunity to introduce our readers to other Star Wars artists in the community who currently offer parts and kits to make your customizing projects a little easier and a lot less time consuming. The custom pieces we shared from these artists definitely helped us provide you all with new content every month without losing too much sleep making it happen. It was because of them, we were able to keep you all entertained and coming back for more.

That said, check out the video below for a slideshow of what we were able to add to our own collections as well as a few figures that we were commissioned to add to other people's collections. Here's to another year of Star Wars custom action figure art!

2021

STAR WARS 

CUSTOMS

created by "Customs for the Kid"

Sadly, at the beginning of this year, we lost one of our most prolific customizers to the pandemic. Friends of Stanley Opiel II knew him to be an incredibly gifted Star Wars custom action figure artist who breathed so much life into the Star Wars customizing community. His steadfast determination to bring the definitive versions of all the unreleased characters to fruition was truly admirable. He will be truly missed by his friends and Stan will forever stand as an inspiration to us all.

Customizers gathered from all over the world to pay their respects.

Dad put together a video to commemorate Stan's contributions to the artform.

Customs for the Kid's

Last Custom for 2021

Duchess Satine Kryze

"THE CLONE WARS" DUCHESS SATINE KRYZE ("THE LAWLESS") created by Elias

This isn't the first Satine Kryze action figure in our collection, and it likely won't be the last one that we add to the collection either. The first was made by our friend Chad Peak aka Peak-OB1 Custom Creations that Dad bought for me as a gift. The Satine pictured below is the first custom action figure of the character made by Customs for the Kid.  

To make her, I used a resin printed head we purchased from Moff Glidden's Customs. To make the body, we used the torso, upper arms and thighs of a Clone Wars Assaj Ventress action figure with the forearms and boots of a Clone Wars Aayla Secura action figure. Once the parts were assembled, the sculpt was completely modified with a Dremel and ProCreate sculpting putty to make the torn dress of the Duchess from her appearance in The Clone Wars episode "The Lawless". The action figure was specifically from when Darth Maul confronts Obi-Wan Kenobi on Mandalore in her presence. It was one the most memorable scenes from the entire show and making her ourselves was the only way we would see her represented in our collection at home. 

It took about 24 hours to bring her to life from start to finish so it wasn't a quick and easy project, but well worth the time invested to make it happen. We couldn't be happier with the final result.

"THE CLONE WARS"

DUCHESS SATINE KRYZE

created by Elias

SKILL LEVEL: ADVANCED

OBI-WAN KENOBI
in MAUL MANDO ARMOR

HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM "CUSTOMS FOR THE KID"

"STAR WARS RESISTANCE" NEEKU VOZO painted by "Customs for the Kid"

Earlier this year, we made a Star Wars Rebels Ursa Wren from a 3D printed model kit from Angry Racoon Miniatures that we purchased from his Etsy store. The kit arrives attached to the scaffolding from the print and once clipped free and sanded it's ready for paint. This kit was one of several of his resin printed figure kits we bought and we have been thrilled with the quality of his offerings. The sculpts are incredibly well done and this kit in particular really helps fill out the underserved Star Wars Resistance action figure collection line. Neeku really deserved an action figure release so getting to add him to the collection was thrilling. Now we just need a Tamara Ryvora on our shelf to make the collection feel more complete.

Highly recommend checking out the other model kits from the Etsy store of Angry Racoon Miniatures. You won't be disappointed!

"STAR WARS RESISTANCE"

NEEKU VOZO

painted by Customs for the Kid

SKILL LEVEL: BEGINNER

"THE BAD BATCH" ECHO in DROID DISGUISE created by Elias

We are so happy to be posting our first custom action figure from the new Star Wars animated series Star Wars: The Bad Batch. We would have loved to have shown you all one sooner, but these figures take quite a lot of time to create and since we don't get advanced pictures from Lucasfilm the way Hasbro does, we are apt to move at a much slower pace as a result.

The particular figure came about because a patron commissioned us to make this one-of-a-kind piece.

This figure was so much fun to do because I got to incorporate a unique action feature into the design. Dad had an idea of how to pull it off and his plan worked wonderfully. To make our head that hides Echo's likeness underneath an articulating visor, I molded a cast of the droid head that my client purchased from Audes_Workshop with MOLD MAX 14NV and then heavily modified the casts I pulled from my mold to create something completely new and different for my client. From the mold, I ran two casts of the original sculpt our client provided in two different types of resin. The first resin headcast was poured from the rigid SMOOTH-CAST 321 resin. The second one I made from the more flexible SMOOTH-CAST 61D resin.

Once both casts were produced, I used a Dremel to isolate the sculpt of the front visor from the 61D cast freeing the piece completely from the rest of the rubbery sculpt. I kept the visor, cleaned it up and the rest of the cast was discarded.

With the 321 cast, I also used the Dremel but this time to sand the visor off completely, saving the rear and sides of the original sculpt. After sanding off the visor from the sculpt of the 321 cast, I then bored out the front of the cast so it could accept the facial likeness of Echo that we borrowed from a Clone headcast we had on hand in our fodder. I married the two elements together with my ProCreate sculpting putty fusing the Clone headcast with the remainder of the Smooth On 321 cast.

Once the sculpt dried and the figure had been fully painted, I utilized some extremely powerful, small magnets that were inserted in the head and visor so the visor could attach and articulate. I then hid the magnets in the head under some Aves Fixit sculpt and some more black paint.

The rest of the figure was fully hand sculpted onto a Clone Wars Captain Rex action figure with some ProCreate. I used several different shades of grey while painting him to make the figure appear more dynamic in his final form.

For the record, the droid arm was also acquired from Audes_Workshop and was not part of the sculpt that was done by me.

"STAR WARS: THE BAD BATCH"

ECHO in DROID DISGUISE

created by Elias

SKILL LEVEL: ADVANCED

Head available for purchase from Rebel Kid Creations. Just click the image above to buy.

"YOUNGLING" HEAD BUNDLE - NOW AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE FROM REBEL KID CREATIONS STORE!

For many months now, only the male younglings were available to sell, but as of today, the girls are included in the youngling headcast bundle as well!  Due to Katooni and Ganodi’s thin tendril forms, molding them without breaking them was a huge obstacle, but thanks to CAD modeling and 3D printing technology, they were obstacles easy to overcome.  I completely re-sculpted Katooni and Ganodi in Blender for a better likeness to the character and then printed the heads in Siraya Tech’s Tenacious 3D printing resin.  Tenacious resin allowed me to remove the heads from the mold without breaking them as it has a rubbery consistency when cured, much like any other Hasbro figure.  To ensure the durability of Katooni and Ganodi casts, they are made in a semi-rigid resin which is extremely durable and able to survive shipping, or accidents that could occur at home.

As for my own collection, I’m so happy to have the complete set of younglings on my shelf.  I wasn’t always satisfied with my Katooni or Ganodi head sculpts, and it’s such a relief to be able to finally lay these projects to rest.  Even more satisfying, I get to share my sculpts with all the fans through the Rebel Kid Creations Store!

CLICK LOGO TO PURCHASE

"THE CLONE WARS - LOST MISSIONS" PLO KOON created by Elias

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!

"THE CLONE WARS - LOST MISSIONS"

PLO KOON

created by Elias

SKILL LEVEL: ADVANCED

PURCHASE HEAD HERE