DARTH DADDY'S CUSTOMIZING CORNER: FOCUS ON SOME FANGIRLS

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.

First up is Jedi Ash Designs run by Ashley M. Kalfas from Colorado Springs, Colorado.  She makes some really unique Star Wars poseable dolls inspired by the Monster High line that are just extraordinary.  Her work is so eye catching I strongly considered running over to her Etsy store to pick up one of her figures to add to our home collection.

Her work can also be found at these links:

JEDI ASH DESIGNS ETSY STORE

JEDI ASH DESIGNS FACEBOOK PAGE

JEDI ASH DESIGNS WEBPAGE

The next artist on display I discovered on Instagram.  I saw a one-of-a-kind handmade "Youngling Ahsoka Tano" doll that was made by missupsetter that I wish was available for purchase.  I would have bought it on the spot.  She details the build process she went through and documents the countless hours she invested into creating this beautiful piece.  This is something I wish we could see mass produced one day.  

missupsetter on Instagram

Our last artist is well known in the Star Wars super fan community. For the longest time now, we thought that we were only one of two individuals who owned a Sabine Tie Fighter from the Star Wars Rebels television series. That is until we saw the newly painted Tie Fighter created by The Dorky Diva, Savanna Kiefer who created her stellar creation as a gift. 

www.thedorkydiva.com

We're always on the hunt for more female customizers so if you have some work that you'd like to share feel free to send it my way.  My email can be located in the sidebar of the blog.  

If you want to see more Fangirl related customs, click the link below:

CUSTOMS FOR THE FANGIRLS

DARTH DADDY's CUSTOMIZING CORNER: "CAPTAIN REX's AT-TE" by ERIC BERRY aka HOLE IN THE GROUND PRODUCTIONS

This Rebels version of Captain Rex's AT-TE is a custom that many artists wanted to build ever since season 2 of Rebels premiered. Yet you need more than just desire to make it happen. Probably the coolest custom I came across since the start of the new year, Eric Berry's Rebels AT-TE has all the add-ons that give 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. 

This is one beautiful piece. Museum worthy. I hope one day he offers casts of all the accessories he created for this piece so he can make AT-TE conversion kits for sale in his diorama parts webpage so we can make our own at home. 

Oldboy CTTS Added to "Customs I Wish I Owned"

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 Oldboy CTTS' 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, Oldboy CTTS 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!

Oldboy CTTS

Painted alternate headcasts for The Black Series 6" Kylo Ren.

OLDBOY CTTS on FACEBOOK

Also check out Darth Daddy's feature on Oldboy CTTS over at The Star Wars Underworld  in Darth Daddy's Customizing Corner.

Brad Harris Added to "Customs I Wish I Owned"

With 3-D printing now becoming more and more popular, Star Wars fans are quickly approaching a new golden era where artists can manufacture their own custom toy designs and make them look just as good as the large manufacturers.  

One of these artists, Industrial Designer Brad Harris, has had some of his work make the rounds on some Star Wars fan sites recently and for good reason.  His designs and execution were just top notch!  Not only did he create some pretty awesome additions to any Star Wars collection, but he even took the time to do the packaging for his creations.  Harris is definitely a designer we'd love to see working for Hasbro in the near future.  The Krayt Dragon, Rathtar, Rancor, and TIE Defender he produced are some must see designs!  I don't know about you, but I will be bookmarking his webpage to see what else this amazing artist will produce.  I envy his skills!

"Rathtar"

created by Brad Harris

"Rancor"

created by Brad Harris

"Krayt Dragon"

created by Brad Harris

"TIE Defender"

created by Brad Harris

http://www.bradharris.co