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.

Sunday, November 15, 2015

"Hedji" created by Darth Daddy

Working on High Adventure's "High Five" album cover gave me the opportunity to work on some Star Wars characters that I only recently learned of. Prior to starting the project, I knew only of Jaxxon the giant green rabbit.  Hedji was an all new character for me.  The pictures I was able to find of the character were incredibly diverse.  It would have been difficult to make the character if I didn't have to stick to his look on the Marvel comic cover.  Lots of sculpting on this one, but for the look of the face I went off of his look as he appears on the comic cover mashed up with the picture of him located below.  This Star Wars character definitely has that early Marvel comic look.


"Hedji"
created by Darth Daddy








Hedji was a member of the near-extinct Spiner species who found work as a mercenary during the Imperial Period. In 0 ABY, Hedji joined the Star-Hoppers of Aduba-3, a ragtag team of warriors formed by Captain Han Solo to defend the Aduban village of Onacra from the Cloud-Riders, a gang of marauders under the command of Serji-X Arrogantus. Stoic and humorless, Hedji stipulated to Solo that his reasons for joining the team would remain unquestioned—in truth, the Spiner held to a rigid moral code.




Hedji journeyed with Solo and the rest of the Star-Hoppers to Onacra, where they did battle with the Cloud-Riders. Hedji put his naturally grown quills to good use, using them to kill the opponents. Although Arrogantus was overcome during the engagement, a giant monster—the Behemoth from Below—emerged and wreaked havoc. When one Star-Hopper, faux-Jedi Knight Don-Wan Kihotay, attempted to confront the monster by himself, Hedji rushed to his aid. The Spiner was consequently killed by a lightning blast from the creature.











SKILL LEVEL: ADVANCED


Wednesday, November 11, 2015

HIGH ADVENTURE "HIGH FIVE" ALBUM COVER




High Adventure is a Fan-Rock band, based out of Connecticut. Since 2008, these musicians have gathered a worldwide following of fanboys and fangirls with their passionate music about comic books, movies, video games, loving life and the fandom experience. The band has already been featured on NPR, "The Force-Cast," "RebelForce Radio," "The Indy-Cast," and "TechnoRetro Dads". They have played high profile shows like New York Comic ConStar Wars CelebrationComiCONNRhode Island Comic Con and Boston Super Mega Fest!  High Adventure's music was also featured in the soundtrack of the Star Wars documentary "The Force Within Us".

High Adventure have recently finished their PledgeMusic campaign, and wrapped up the finishing touches to their fifth album entitled “High Five”. It is the first album to feature the entire 8-piece band together in the studio. All 14 songs are mastered, the digital files have been released, and the album art has now been submitted for publishing for the official upcoming CD release. High Adventure can’t wait to share their new music with all their fans! 

Customs for the Kid was really honored to have been asked to contribute to the album art for their "Eight Against A World!" inspired cover. Lead singer Glen Nelson just told me what he was looking for and I set to work. It took a few months to bang it all out, but with some careful planning and hard work, I finished the project just as the album was being mastered.

It was an extremely tight time frame, so we outsourced the head sculpts for the band to the web based company thatsmyface.com. From one (to two) photos of yourself, ThatsMyFace, will utilize patent-pending 3-D modeling techniques previously reserved to film studios and professional 3-D designers, to reconstruct your face in 3-D. Then using cutting-edge manufacturing technologies pioneered by the car prototyping industry, ThatsMyFace lets you either choose to order your head only and fit it onto your existing action figure bodies, or buy their complete action-figures pre-fitted and fully clothed. Your lifelike action-figure head is created out of a hard resin composite in full 24-bit color. For our project, we only needed the heads produced.  Creating eight one-of-a-kind head sculpts for each of the band members would have taken me a year to complete with all my additional duties maintaining the Customs for the Kid blog.

With all the sculpt-work I already had to do on the bodies of these characters, shortcuts needed to be applied wherever possible. Already I had to sculpt three unique head sculpts for Jaxxon, Hedji, and Chewbacca.  Even though the three heads would only be held under the action figures arms, or in their hands, it was important to communicate to the viewer that the High Adventure band members were just getting out of their costumes after completing their comic book cover shoot for Marvel. I even went as far as creating wigs out of cotton for the Amaiza Foxtrain and Don-Wan Kihotay figures.  Every last detail was considered as I made these figures to recreate the look of the cover of the Marvel edition of Star Wars #8: Eight for Aduba-3.  It was lots of fun bringing these misfit spacers to life as I mashed them up with the band members of High Adventure.

It was really cool that High Adventure gave a nod to the niche artwork of the Star Wars custom action figure community.  It's an aspect of fandom that is often overlooked, but offers plenty of thrills once discovered. The artform has really received some positive press these last few years on Star Wars fan sites around the web.  Panels featuring Star Wars custom action figures and the work of a few number of select artists were showcased at the last two Star Wars Celebrations.  It's really cool when fans from different sides of the Star Wars community can collaborate to make something truly special.












Album cover photographer Andrew Kraemer photographing Darth Daddy's diorama.














High Adventure gave "Customs for the Kid" a signed copy from the band of the Marvel edition of Star Wars #8: Eight for Aduba-3.



 







Friday, November 6, 2015

RebelForce Radio and Customs for the Kid: "Star Wars Smuggler's Bounty" Custom Action Figure Contest - WINNER ANNOUNCED




The judges for the contest, Jimmy McInernyJason SwankKyle NewmanF.J. DeSantoPaul BatemanSam Witwer, and David Collins have chosen the winner of the "Star Wars Smuggler's Bounty" custom action figure contest.  

The official winner of the contest is Star Wars customizer, mousedroidhoojib for his Treya Lanic custom action figure entry.  He has won a signed script donated by author Kyle Newman, a "Force Awakens" teaser poster, official Star Wars 8x10's, Star Wars Hot Wheel Cars, and several Black Series 3 3/4" figures (Boushh Leia, Commander Wolffe, Han in Carbonite, and Mosep Binneed).

Congratulations to the winner and a big thanks to all who participated!



"TREYA LANIC"
created by mousedroidhoojib



The "Star Wars: Smuggler’s Bounty" custom action figure contest commemorated the "Star Wars: Smuggler’s Bounty", the radio drama recorded live at Celebration Anaheim.  The radio drama is based on an original script by Kyle Newman and F.J. DeSanto. "Star Wars: Smuggler’s Bounty" was directed by Kyle Newman (Fanboys) and produced by Jimmy “Mac” McInerney of RebelForce Radio, live onstage featuring some of the best Star Wars voice actors around today who performed to a packed audience of die hard fans at Star Wars Celebration Anaheim



Sunday, November 1, 2015

"ECHO BASE COMPUTER CONSOLES" painted by Elias

Elias was really happy to embellish his Echo Base shelf with some new accessories to enhance his display.  These beefy computer consoles have engraved detail on front and sides. We chose to grab a monitor offset to both the left and right. The monitors included decals for 4 different consoles so we could mix and match for tons of options! The consoles measure 2.25" wide x 2" deep x 4.75" tall.  

Elias recently purchased and customized Hole In the Ground's "Echo Base Computer Consoles" and he couldn't be happier with his decision.  For those active in fan forums, you are probably already familiar with the awesome diorama pieces that Hole In the Ground Productions offers to fellow collectors. Hole In the Ground's offerings are just too cool to not be part of any Star Wars 3.75″ collection. 



"ECHO BASE COMPUTER CONSOLES"
painted by Elias












SKILL LEVEL: BEGINNER



PURCHASE CASTS BELOW:








Thursday, October 22, 2015

RebelForce Radio and Customs for the Kid: "Star Wars Smuggler's Bounty" Custom Action Figure Contest - ENDING HALLOWEEN DAY!



CONTEST INFORMATION

Jimmy McInerney (Jimmy Mac) and Jason Swank of RebelForce Radio are once again teaming up with the "Customs for the Kid" blog to host a "Star Wars: Smuggler’s Bounty" custom action figure contest to commemorate the "Star Wars: Smuggler’s Bounty", the radio drama that was recorded live at Celebration Anaheim.  The radio drama is based on an original script by Kyle Newman and F.J. DeSanto. "Star Wars: Smuggler’s Bounty" was directed by Kyle Newman (Fanboys) and produced by Jimmy “Mac” McInerney of RebelForce Radio, who whipped up over 100 sound effects and music cues that were blasted live onstage alongside some of the best Star Wars voice actors around today live to a packed audience of diehard fans at Star Wars Celebration Anaheim.   The last custom action figure contest that was held for "Star Wars: Smuggler's Gambit" was a huge success, so this one is sure to be fun for all involved.  Show us what you can do!  




First time customizers are greatly encouraged to jump in on the fun. We want as many entries as possible. This is an ALL AGES event. 





RULES

-All custom action figure entries must be of characters that appear in the Star Wars radio drama "Smuggler's Bounty". Custom action figures can be in any scale. 

-Participants are encouraged to submit as many entries as they wish. Please include 1 - 4 photos per custom action figure submitted (Front, Back, Left, and Right). 

-Photoshop manipulations such as glowing lightsabers and blaster fire will not be accepted. We want the focus to be on the customs and not on their digital enhancement. 

-Include your email, name, and mailing address, with your entry. 

-All photo entries must be sent to the following email address: show@rebelforceradio.com with the Subject line "Smuggler's Bounty Customs".

Notice that nowhere in the rules does the contest say that it has to be a "brand new" custom. If you made a custom years ago that appeared in the "Smuggler's Bounty" story just enter it. It only takes a few seconds to email a few pictures. Especially if you have already photographed it. SHOW US YOUR STAR WARS ART!

Make sure your picture(s) are attached in your email and all the contest's rules have been complied with before you send your email.




JUDGES

Jimmy McInernyJason SwankKyle NewmanF.J. DeSantoPaul BatemanSam Witwer, and David Collins.


PRIZES

Signed script donated by author Kyle Newman"The Force Awakens" Teaser Poster, Official Star Wars 8x10's, Star Wars Hot Wheel Cars, and several Black Series 3 3/4" figures (Boushh Leia, Commander Wolffe, Han Carbonite, and Mosep Binneed).


DEADLINE

October 31, 2015
























All photo entries must be sent to the following email address: 
show@rebelforceradio.com with the Subject line "Smuggler's Bounty Customs"