Audes_Workshop Added to "Customs I Wish I Owned"

 

Cal of Audes_Workshop is a customizer from the Midwest US. He grew up watching the original trilogy on VHS but was never aware that there were toys to be had until the third grade. When a friend brought an older sibling’s AT-AT to school one day for a class presentation, he was in awe. He bought his first Star Wars figure, a TIE Fighter Pilot, soon afterward, and has been collecting ever since.

Although Cal enjoyed swapping character accessories, action figure outfits and reading through the custom submissions in ToyFare magazine growing up, the process of building figures himself always felt a bit daunting. Having only performed head swaps and repaints previously, he made his first true custom figures to properly populate the TVC Tatooine Skiffs. The positive feedback and guidance he received after sharing them with the community at Imperial Shipyards encouraged him to continue his customizing journey.

What began as a sort of completist’s compulsion has become a therapeutic pastime (perhaps it is still sometimes a compulsion). Cal has come to love working with soft goods and experimenting with mixed media and plans to continue expanding his print selection. He feels honored to be in the company of so many talented artists and passionate fans. The ability to share his love for Star Wars with others has provided a wonderful respite in current times.

Dad said that Audes_Workshop is one of the best 3.75" figure makers out in the community today. What he loves about him is his ability to mix all the best elements of his favorite customizers. A true standout artist, his soft goods work is just amazing and some of the best we have seen this year. The 3D resin casts that are available in his eBay store are superior sculpts that are all must purchase items for some great Clone Wars customizing projects at home. 

What we love most about this artist is how generous he is with his recipes and his process which are listed in detail on his Imperial Shipyards thread in their forums. 

His talent is just off the charts and he is an artist who will have a lot of great customs in his future!

His custom action figures from The Mandalorian are just phenomenal and we felt his work would be a fitting way to celebrate the release of Season 2 of on Disney+ today.

Audes_Workshop

eBay page: Audes_Workshop

Audes_Workshop on Instagram

Audes_Workshop on Facebook

Audes_Workshop on Imperial Shipyards

STAR WARS REBELS "AZMORIGAN" created by Customs for the Kid

Azmorigan was a male Jablogian who was a criminal leader operating in the Outer Rim Territories about four years before the Battle of Yavin. On one occasion, the "galactic entrepreneur" Lando Calrissian tricked him into selling a puffer pig in return for the Twi'lek captain Hera Syndulla. However, Hera escaped and rejoined Lando and her Rebel crew aboard the Ghost. An enraged Azmorigan pursued Calrissian and his rebel associates to Lothal and attempted to exact revenge on Calrissian. However, the rebels fought off Azmorigan and his henchmen; forcing him to retreat.

Later, Azmorigan purchased five power generators from the Devaronian crime lord Cikatro Vizago and arranged to rendezvous with him on Nixus Hub 218. However, the Weequay pirate Hondo Ohnaka took over Vizago's ship the Broken Horn. Together with the Rebels Ezra Bridger and Chopper, Hondo traveled to Nixus only to be captured by Azmorigan and his henchmen. Seeking to settle scores with both Hondo and Ezra, Azmorigan decided to use a loading dolly to fire them into space. However, his plans were foiled by Chopper who attacked his henchmen, creating a commotion that allowed Ezra and Hondo to free themselves and turn the tables on him. Azmorigan and his surviving henchmen were forced to flee, with the criminal leader resulting in him losing his credits.

Despite his adversarial encounters with Hondo and the Ghost crew, he joined forces with the two parties in order to loot treasure from an Imperial Class four container transport. Azmorigan and Hondo were solely motivated by pecuniary gain but managed to convince the Rebels to help them after pointing out the presence of proton bombs aboard the ship. Following a harrowing mission, Azmorigan, Hondo, and the Ghost crew were able to obtain their goals.

This was a figure that Dad had parted out, assembled. and even had a preliminary sculpt for the body going before I took over. I added a headsculpt, refined his sculpt, and painted the finished product. The upper torso and arms were from a Clone Wars Castas action figure and the legs were from a Clone Wars Even Piel. The thighs were once a Force Link Chewbacca's before being completely reshaped.  The hands of a Clone Wars Aurra Sing were modified so that a finger was removed off each hand before being added to the custom to finish it off. 

While this is most likely stating the obvious, it should be noted that the torso was completely re-sculpted, and the headsculpt for Azmorigan was made completely from scratch.  Constructing the head in layers, allowing forms to dry before sculpting the next layer, the head was slowly constructed step by step, which allowed for more control over the sculpting process. 

As a character, I find Azmorigan pretty gross, but I wanted to make him as a gift on a special occasion for my Dad, and he's over the moon about it.  Despite how I feel about Azmorigan's looks, I must say I'm pretty happy with the way it came out.

STAR WARS REBELS

"AZMORIGAN"

created by Customs for the Kid

 

SKILL LEVEL: ADVANCED

STAR WARS REBELS "Cikatro Vizago"  

created by SWK Kustoms

STAR WARS REBELS "Hondo Ohnaka"

created by Customs for the Kid

STAR WARS REBELS "Cikatro Vizago's Droid"
created by Customs for the Kid

CUSTOMIZER SPOTLIGHT #54: 3.75" "ORRAY" created by Lord Sixth Customs

Lord Sixth Customs has been making amazing customs for many years now. Dad once featured his customs back in 2015 in one of his features for "Darth Daddy's Customizing Corner". What we always loved about this artist was his focus on the creatures of the Star Wars universe. When he recently made one of his latest creations available to a small number of collectors, we jumped at the chance to own one of his creations. 

The Orray were one of the cooler creatures to appear in "Attack of the Clones". The Geonosian battle arena was filled with several eye-catching beasts, but while Hasbro did a stellar job bringing the gladiatorial creatures to life, the larger service creatures like the Orray were not found on toy store shelves. Orrays appeared across the screen present in the background amid all the action both being ridden by their Geonosian mounts as well as being seen pulling the chariot transporting Senator Padmé Amidala and Jedi Anakin Skywalker into the arena as they openly confessed their love for each other and shared a kiss.

When building a diorama and recreating the scene at home, we felt that the Orray made by Lord Sixth Customs was a necessary addition to any Prequel collection. The paint and handcrafted accessories are meticulously executed in this piece. From the detailed paintwork on the creature's eye's down to the leather work throughout. We can't express how fortunate we feel to have this piece added to our collection. 

We heavily suggest using the links below to stay on top of this artists work in case another offering like this rolls along. I would hate for anyone to miss out on a future release.

"ORRAY"

created by Lord Sixth Customs

LOOKS GREAT WITH AN "ATTACK OF THE CLONES" BATTLE ARENA TOO!

You can see Lord Sixth Customs on display at Sideshow Collectors:

http://www.sideshowcollectors.com/forums/star-wars-custom-figures-and-dioramas/142239-coleccionismosw-1-6-customs.html 

Lord Sixth Customs Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/lordsixthcustoms

 

Lord Sixth Customs on Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/lordsixthcustoms

@the.lost.waves Added to "CUSTOMS I WISH I OWNED"

It has been quite a while since we featured a digital action figure customizer. Truth is, there aren't many out there. What is a digital customizer you ask?  Well, a digital custom isn't something you can exactly hold in your hand. It is more conceptual, but no less fun. These customs were not created on a workbench, but were the products of a skilled artist that slaved away for hours on Photoshop. 

@the.lost.waves has been taking time between college courses to promote a "what could have been" action figure line if the animated Clone Wars action figure had returned with Season 7 of the show being launched on Disney+. In addition to that, he plans to venture into other Star Wars properties such as making battle packs for Battlefront II, and plans for The Mandalorian.

The animated Clone Wars toy line was Hasbro's most popular toy line. Hundreds of figures were made to support the show. Unfortunately, the toys that were made only covered the early seasons of the show and the later seasons being the most popular had little representation in plastic. Dedicated collectors of the toy line still fantasize about its return so they can one day achieve a complete collection. 

He hopes to venture into the world of physical customs himself, saying "I want to make a Clone Wars figure CW28 (custom) no one has ever done before."

Here at home we have been doing our part to achieve that goal and have always chopping at the bit for a Kalani action figure. Especially after him appearing in Star Wars Rebels later down the road. So when we saw his version of the droid he earned a lifelong follower. 

So many important characters were never released.  The artist states that he created the characters he did "because they never had their debut in any way. I find it really weird that they are such iconic characters and don't have their action figure yet."

We have been closely watching his Instagram feed of @the.lost.waves for months now. Every new post, he drops another release we would have snatched up in seconds if they were available in stores. 

With all things Clone Wars being such a hot property it is a real missed opportunity on Hasbro's part to not reintroduce them in the animated 3.75" scale. This artist shares our pain and that is what inspired him to create these images. That and the reduction of quality in the 3.75" action figure line.

As for the artist's plans for the future, he's most excited to create a General Pong Krell and Admiral Trench. To follow his work, you can find him on Instagram @the.lost.waves and on Twitter @waves_lost

@the.lost.waves

@the.lost.waves

STAR WARS REBELS "HONDO OHNAKA" created by CUSTOMS FOR THE KID

This was a figure that my Dad had started prior to stepping down from his role here at the blog. He did both the build and the sculpt for the figure. To build the frame, he used the lower arms of The Clone Wars Hondo Ohnaka, the upper arms of a Clone Wars Obi-Wan Kenobi (heavily re-sculpted), the upper torso of an Indiana Jones & The Crystal Skull Mutt Williams action figure (heavily re-sculpted), the thighs of a Clone Wars Admiral Yularen and the lower legs and feet from a Black Series Force Awakens Leia Organa (heavily re-sculpted).

Seeing Dad's almost completed work just sitting there inspired me to pick up where he left off and add some color to his sculpt. By the time I put the figure down he was fully painted, Hondo symbol painted on his back and all. Dad couldn't be more excited to see this one finished. Hondo is one of Dad's favorite Star Wars characters!

The head was a 3-D resin printed cast from Watto's Scrapyard. It was a lot of fun to start bringing one of his heads to life with some paint. When it painted up as well as it did, I wanted to get going on the other fifty or so heads we received from Wattos.

For Hondo's eyes, I first painted his flesh tone, the whites of his eyes, his pupil and the light reflection in his pupil. Once his eyes were painted, I applied three coats of Pledge Future Floor Wax where the glass of his goggles would be letting each layer dry before adding another coat. Then I did a single layer of a green wash to tint the surface, and then sealed it in with one last coast of the floor wax.

STAR WARS REBELS 

"HONDO OHNAKA" 

created by Customs for the Kid

 

SKILL LEVEL: ADVANCED

STAR WARS REBELS "EZRA BRIDGER" 

created by SWK Kustoms

STAR WARS REBELS "CIKATRO VIZAGO"  

created by SWK Kustoms

STAR WARS REBELS "Cikatro Vizago's Droid"
created by Customs for the Kid

STAR WARS REBELS 
"Hondo Ohnaka" Headcast
created by Watto's Scrapyard