DARTH PHANTOM'S CUSTOM FIGURES - *** HUGE UPDATE ***

[mercuryartstudios]

trial and error my man!!

What i do is thin down the paint just enough to where all i have to do is layer it, about 3-4 layers of paint does it's justifice for me, then like in certain figures that i want to create shading i thin down some darker paint a bit more just before its too thin and i paint and wipe away the paint with a damp paper towel!!! BEST TECHNIQUE I LEARNED WHILE BUILDING MODEL KITS AS A KID LOL!!

Just remember if your paint is too thick it will always look globbed and slapped on your figure and will look tacky.

anyway great job man your paint apps have definetly come along way believe me!!

hope to see more of your customs.

Mike

[Darth Phantom]

As you know I do custom Marvel Star Wars Characters, and I have to say that is quite a striking Lumiya I like it, and like Chewie said for this one it worked well.

AS for the other characters you have done they are great, and I am pleased to see your painting techniques improving keep up the good work.

Hi Michael. Sorry, but I just realized to reply on your post. Many thanks for the feedback. Of course I do know about your Marvel characters and your ingenious idea of giving them a more modern touch. Still trying to succeed in weathering clones. Will show my results in a few weeks, probably.

trial and error my man!!

What i do is thin down the paint just enough to where all i have to do is layer it, about 3-4 layers of paint does it's justifice for me, then like in certain figures that i want to create shading i thin down some darker paint a bit more just before its too thin and i paint and wipe away the paint with a damp paper towel!!! BEST TECHNIQUE I LEARNED WHILE BUILDING MODEL KITS AS A KID LOL!!

Just remember if your paint is too thick it will always look globbed and slapped on your figure and will look tacky.

anyway great job man your paint apps have definetly come along way believe me!!

hope to see more of your customs.

Mike

Yeah, your right, Mike. I had to learn that using too much paint will end up spoiling the details on a figure. Although it sometimes still happens that the applied paint is a bit too thick, it happens less often than before.


As the end of June is coming closer (and the final exams likewise) I intend to make my first major steps into
(a) sculpting and
(b) making Star Wars dioramas.

I always wanted my very own Star Wars "The Emperor's throne room" diorama and found that pic a few days ago:



Emperor's Throne Room diorama (by Niubniub)

Here's my QUESTION:
Are there any people out there who want to share their experiences with sculpting and diorama making?
Please remember, I am a total beginner at those things and thus need some good ideas on how to get started.

Thanks in advance and best wishes
Stefan

[commanderCharlie]

aweome customs!!!

[jeditaz]

Great to see all of your work in one place DP (Stefan). For those who dont know...I met up with Stefan a few years back on ebay when I was selling my customs. The guy was an absolute pleasure to talk to, bought some of my stuff, commissioned more. But in the end, it was all about the friendship I developed with him. One of the nicest people I have ever had the pleasure of talking to in my entire life. Definitely like a brother from another mother. I just wish one of us had the opportunity to travel to the others country so we could meet up. He is like one of the family now...my wife asks about him, he asks about her and my kids. Its awesome. To top it all off...I have been so behind on commissions....finally catching up tho...but Stefan has been absolutely easy to deal with through it all. Even sent me some of his customs....man....let me tell you, from the first customs he showed me to the ones he has done since, he has come a long way. Matter of fact, I cant wait to see what he manages to cobble together when he gets the fixit sculpt im sending him. I think he has some great potential. And from what I can tell, the guys here at Yakface have been awesome in helping him progress. Looking through all of the customs here, let me just say bro, you are doing awesome work. And you truly have a collection to behold with so many customs in it. My collection now feels generic by comparison!

[Incom]

Just recently have I found a pic of a great Sidious Senate Duel made by Herb some time ago:



It looks absolutely awesome and I will probably do something similar.
Does anyone know which parts he used?

Many thanks again, my friends. If you can help me on some of the points mentioned, I will be glad.

Best wishes
Stefan

Don't know which Sidious parts he used, but those arms are from the Saga Lobot figure. I may have some, will check that out for you tonight!

I agree with the rest of the gang: you have come a long way and at a pretty fast rate too. Just looked back at your first posts and it's great to see how your painting skills have grown! Reminds me a bit of me, haha! Speaking of first posts, any chance you're going to do some more vintage customs?

[Darth Phantom]

aweome customs!!!

Hi commanderCharlie. Welcome to the forums and many thanks for your feedback. Glad you like the customs.

Great to see all of your work in one place DP (Stefan). For those who dont know...I met up with Stefan a few years back on ebay when I was selling my customs. The guy was an absolute pleasure to talk to, bought some of my stuff, commissioned more. But in the end, it was all about the friendship I developed with him. One of the nicest people I have ever had the pleasure of talking to in my entire life. Definitely like a brother from another mother [...] He is like one of the family now...my wife asks about him, he asks about her and my kids. Its awesome.

Wow jeditaz. Many thanks for your kind words; I really feel honoured. It is true: We have known each other for quite some time by now, even if we actually never met, but who knows: the day might come. I really have to say the very same about you: You have become a great friend and it is always a great pleasure to me talking to you via email. It is good to know to have a brother and a wonderful family in the US of A.

I just wish one of us had the opportunity to travel to the others country so we could meet up.

Right now, still being financial dependent due to my year-long studies in order to get my job hopefully sometime next year, I cannot afford to travel for fun yet. However, I will keep in touch with you and will think about a way to make my way to your place, probably with a bag full of customs stuff to help you get your own custom Star Wars collection

To top it all off...I have been so behind on commissions....finally catching up tho...but Stefan has been absolutely easy to deal with through it all. Even sent me some of his customs....

No worries here as you know. All the good things cannot be made in a jiffy; instead they need their time to progress.

man....let me tell you, from the first customs he showed me to the ones he has done since, he has come a long way. Matter of fact, I cant wait to see what he manages to cobble together when he gets the fixit sculpt im sending him. I think he has some great potential. And from what I can tell, the guys here at Yakface have been awesome in helping him progress. Looking through all of the customs here, let me just say bro, you are doing awesome work. And you truly have a collection to behold with so many customs in it. My collection now feels generic by comparison!

Many thanks to you yet again. Some of my early customs, when looking back on the first pages of this thread, now make me shudder (just think of the horrible first versions of Komari Vosa Darth Zannah that I made):


Ugly Vosa


Ugly Zannah

Both probably are related to:

Quasimodo (The Hunchback of Notre Dame)

I am also curious to see if I ever find a way to get into scultping more professionally. A long way to go, I suppose.
And yes, without the help of a lot of people here on the boards, I would not have been able to progress so quickly.
A big T-H-A-N-K Y-O-U to all supporters of my work.
About the collections: I always wanted a Star Wars collection (mainly figures because I lack space for bigger models)
that consists of unique figures which are either custom figures or - for the most part - customized Hasbro figures.
I saw your collection pics and I was overwhelmed (and still am). It is a very huge collection not only consisting of
3.75" scale figures but also of vehicles, creatures and more. You also have lots of imperial and rebel troopers.
I am just glad that I have every figure at least once (although I am still in search of an Tie Pilot).

Anyway, thanks a million for your nice words, my friend and looking forward to talking to you again quite soon.

Don't know which Sidious parts he used, but those arms are from the Saga Lobot figure. I may have some, will check that out for you tonight!

Thanks, Remco. I tried to figure out the various parts Herb used. The base figure seems to be a ROTS "Supreme Chancellor Palpatine" (black version) with the head of a ROTS "Supreme Chancellor Palpatine" (red version). The hood could be from the Sith Evolutions multipack "Darth Maul". As for the arms: you are probably right but I think some "Marion" arms from the Indy toyline might work better because they are ball-hinged. The "collar" might be taken from the AOTC "Boba Fett" (child version).

I agree with the rest of the gang: you have come a long way and at a pretty fast rate too. Just looked back at your first posts and it's great to see how your painting skills have grown! Reminds me a bit of me, haha! Speaking of first posts, any chance you're going to do some more vintage customs?

Thanks Incom, I owe a lot to the people on the forums and I am always glad for getting hints and clues that help me to elevate my skills to a new level. About vintage customs: Actually never thought about it but it could be interesting to make some changes here and there although I do not have many vintage figures left (I met a 12-year old boy a few weeks ago who told me about his love for Star Wars; in the end he received a huge bag full of (vintage) figures, creatures and vehicles...and let me tell you he was over the moon). Remco, I promise that I will see what I can do.

[Incom]

As the end of June is coming closer (and the final exams likewise) I intend to make my first major steps into
(a) sculpting and
(b) making Star Wars dioramas.

Here's my QUESTION:
Are there any people out there who want to share their experiences with sculpting and diorama making?
Please remember, I am a total beginner at those things and thus need some good ideas on how to get started.

Thanks in advance and best wishes
Stefan

I've done my share of sculpting additional features, mostly armour. You've seen my work on the Old Jedi Master (the furry one ). But here's a couple more examples of my er.... results with Fixit Sculpt:





(well, you have her in the flesh, right?)



I suggest taking a look at Ruprecht's excellent three part tutorial on sculpting add ons to your figures. For me, the key is working in little areas, segments. Because of this, you can easily sculpt on three, four customs at the same time. And you have to be patient. Don't slab on a piece of Fixit, shape it and detail it in 10 minutes. With sculpting you can add some pretty cool and detailed stuff to your customs, but rushing things, can make it look ugly all the more.

I once asked Sithfire for some pointers and he was very helpful and detailed in giving them.

There are some great tutorials on sculpting at Hisstank, ProCustomizers and the net basically too. I found some cool info on sculpting with Greenstuff through some searches on sculpting dragon wings.

Jin Saotome also has a couple of tutorials on using Fixit. Check 'em out.

I haven't made too many dioramas yet, but I do take pride in my Ko Sai diorama. Daigo_Bah helped me out explaining how to use foamboard and the result was pretty satisfying.

I also made some mini dios, using cheap photo frames and a mixture of plaster of Paris, sand, woodglue and water. All courtesy of Hemble.

You say you owe a lot to the people who helped you, but helping each other out in this community is what it's all about. We all get better at what we do, because we ask, listen and apply the helpful hints we get from each other.

Shoot me a pm if you need any detailed info, it'd be my pleasure to help out.

Oh, by the way, Marion's arms would indeed be better, because of posability. Good call!

[Darth Phantom]

Hey Incom. Many thanks for your help. I will probably get in contact with you soon.
Of course I know you brilliant work. Checked your website some time ago and directly recognized your great Krath Trooper.
Excellent sculpting work. Windu's head is not easy to identify which proves how good you really are.

Same is for TFU Shaak Ti. Indeed I got it from you a year ago. It was the "all-in" YAK auction, do you remember

Hope to find my way into sculpting to get results that are just half as good as yours.


All right, the following custom figures will be my last entries for this round of YAKfinities. Funnily, both of the following figures a version2 customs of the character:







TFU Royal Guard (red)

Recipe:
Head: SAGA "Royal Guard"
Torso, arms, legs, belt: VOTC "Stormtrooper"
Skirt: TPM "Darth Maul"

And here is a character from The Old Republic video game:







Lord Angral v.2.0

Recipe:
Head: POTF2 "Dengar"
Torso, upper arms, upper legs: GI Joe R.O.C. "Duke"
Lower arms, lower legs: GI Joe R.O.C. "Cobra Viper"
Skirt: Evolutions "Darth Maul"
Cloak/Cape: ROTS "Bail Organa"

[Darth_Cuddles]

Hey DP, like I said on Yakfinities, I really like these guys a lot! The correct armour on the TFU Royal Guard is nice, and a really nice paint job on him too! Lord Angral is brilliant, the use of the G.I. Joe armours always make the Old Republic figures stand out, but I like the more subdued look on this guy! Nice work all round!

[Darth Phantom]

Hi folks,

after some time of working at university, I have finally found the time to go back to customizing and have a new update of pics to share with all of you.

I trained myself for quite a while in giving Clones their "battle-worn" looks. I made quite some repaints of my battle-worn Clone Army:







Utapau Clone Trooper

Recipe:
Whole figure: ROTS "Utapau Clone Trooper"








501st Trooper

Recipe:
Whole figure: SAGA "501st Clone Trooper"








501st Commander

Recipe:
Whole figure: TAC"Commander Bow"








Shocktrooper

Recipe:
Helmet, Head: TAC "Commander Thire"
Arms, legs, torso: ROTS "Shocktrooper"








Shocktrooper Commander

Recipe:
Helmet: ROTS "Shocktrooper"
Arms, legs, torso, pauldron (skirt removed): TAC "Commander Thire"








Captain Fordo No. 1

Recipe:
Whole figure: Hunt for Grievous "Captain Fordo"








Captain Fordo No. 2

Recipe:
Whole figure: TAC "Commander Neyo"








Commander Neyo

Recipe:
Whole figure: TAC "Commander Neyo"








Sgt. Kano

Recipe:
Whole figure: AOTC "Clone Trooper"










Cpt. Rex Ultimate

Recipe:
Head: ???
Helmet, whole figure: Comic pack "Clone Alpha"
Skirt: ROTS "Clone Commander"








Spacetrooper

Recipe:
Whole figure: TLC "Spacetrooper"


Well, so much about simple repaints. What I can also offer are some new or re-worked customs consisting of more figure parts:







AT-ST Driver

Recipe:
Whole figure: TLC "Scanning Crew Member"
Head: POTF2 "AT-ST Driver"
Gloves: from a Wolverine figure










Clone General Obi-Wan Kenobi

Recipe:
Head: ROTS "Obi-Wan Kenobi"
Whole figure: TLC "General Kenobi"
Cape: TAC Concept "Han Solo"








Clone General Anakin Skywalker

Recipe:
Head: SAGA "Anakin Skywalker"
Torso, skirt: Clone Wars "Anakin Skywalker"
Upper arms: Comic pack "Ganner Krieg"
Lower arms: TLC "Captain Typho"
Upper legs: ???
Lower legs: SAGA "Anakin Skywalker"










TFU 2 - Dark Lord of the Sith "Galen Marek"

Recipe:
Helmet, head: Comic pack "Darth Vader"
Torso, upper arms, legs, skirt: any super-articulated Darth Vader figure
Lower arms: Comic pack "Darth Vader"








Darth Sion

Recipe:
Head: Evolutions "Darth Bane"
Torso, upper arms: Comic pack "Clone Emperor"
Lower arms: TAC "Anakin Skywalker"
Upper legs: VOTC "Tusken Raider"
Lower legs: Evolutions "Mandalore"
Skirt: Evolutions "Darth Nihilus"


Next are my re-worked Luke ROTJ and my definite ultimate Vader ROTJ:

(1) Luke ROTJ:
I found some good new legs and a better belt but cannot remember which figure it originally belonged to. I repainted his hair and also added glossy effects to his boots, belt and glove.








(2) Vader ROTJ:
I made no parts changes to this guy but did a complete paint job. I added glossy effects to his gloves, boots, helmet, mask, shoulder pads and chest plate. Additionally, I also tried to get better effects on the various lights of his breathing system and belt.










And finally, here is my entry for the latest YAKfinities:







Rykrof Enloe Jedi Knight

Recipe:
Head: Comic pack "Antares Draco"
Hood: Palpatine Bust-up
Arms, torso: POTC "Sao Feng"
Skirt: SAGA Kitik Keed'Kak
Legs: TAC "Concept Obi-Wan-Kenobi"


Please guys, let me know what you think!

[DanOfTheDead]

WOW, huge update. Lots of amazing stuff.

[Incom]

Slow down there, Stefan! You're killing us with updates like this. Not only in quantity, but again in quality!

I really dig that Rykrof Enloe Jedi figure. Amazing combination of parts and a daring choice for the head. Works really well. I wonder if it's true about him becoming a saber jockey, or do you have some secret inside information from Chewie Great paint apps too, although you might want to sand down the elbows a bit more

Your work on Vader is simple, yet highly effective. Ever since the first Kenner Vader figure, most of them have had dull paint jobs. It's a shame we have to polish his armour ourselves, to make it as seen in ESB and ROTJ. But like I said, you did a great job on this.

Dark Lord Galen is very nice , but I'd have used Galen's own saber hilt, you know And no shiny armour? What gives?

Clone General Anakin is a great mix of "real" and animated parts. Very nice work there.

The rest look just as cool, your weathering reminds me a bit of Darth Nirvana's work. A bit too heavy for my taste, but that's just me I like your Rex a lot too, with that five o'clock shadow he's got.

I'll run upstairs now, to see what I've got in my bins for ya!

[LadyIrithyl]

I really like the cape change on Obi-wan. Its simple yet effective.

Battle worn clones are done nicely too.

The Rykof figure is just all around great.

[Darth Phantom]

WOW, huge update. Lots of amazing stuff.

Thanks DOTD, glad you like them. Hope to see you posting some new stuff soon again, too.

Slow down there, Stefan! You're killing us with updates like this. Not only in quantity, but again in quality!

I really dig that Rykrof Enloe Jedi figure. Amazing combination of parts and a daring choice for the head. Works really well. I wonder if it's true about him becoming a saber jockey, or do you have some secret inside information from Chewie

Thanks Incom. I also like the recipe for that particular figure. However, it originally came from Chewie. I liked the figure he made ages ago so much that I decided to make a Jedi Rykrof out of it. And no, I do not have any secret inside information from Chewie but even if I had, I would not tell anyone because I do not want to spoil the surprise of his Chapter 32

Vader: One of my favourites. As you stated, he is quite simple to do (TLC Vader figure with skirt from ROTS "Deluxe Vader" and cape from POTJ "Darth Vader Dagobah") but I think he looks as good as hell/heaven.

Dark Lord Galen is very nice , but I'd have used Galen's own saber hilt, you know And no shiny armour? What gives?

All right! You got a point here. I will give him the right saber hilt and also add the shiny armour. Good call!

Clone General Anakin: I had a problem with my first version. The arms were smaller than those of Maris Brood which was so ridiculous. I had to think about the right parts and ended with the Anakin you see here. Glad you like him.

The Clones are heavily painted, you are right. However, that is the way I like it. Looks as if they had been in a lot of battles, no rookies at all

Rex: The coolest clone out there. Although not a Commander, he is the one to wear the pants. A badass soldier from head to toe.
I replaced the cloth skirt with a solid one and made a new head for him (5 o'clock shadow - that sounds really nice ).

I'll run upstairs now, to see what I've got in my bins for ya!

That sounds absolutely great. I really am in need for fodder and am very grateful for any help I get. Thanks a million, Incom!

I really like the cape change on Obi-wan. Its simple yet effective.

Battle worn clones are done nicely too.

The Rykof figure is just all around great.

Thanks for your feedback, LadyIrithyl. The need for exchanging the cape for General Kenobi was because it did not look right. And the cape from Concept Han Solo worked well after I removed the collar of the cape.

The battle worn clones were a real pain in the neck. For the first 5-7 clones, it took a long time to get them - more a less - right. Really like how Sgt. Kano and Commander Neyo turned out though. Sometimes it works perfectly, sometimes it does not.

Thanks for your good opinion about Jedi Rykrof. The idea for the parts choice came from Chewie, however.

Many thanks. Looking forward to more ideas from all of you

[Darth_Cuddles]

Wow DP, that's a lot of new stuff, and they're fantastic!

I love the weathering, heavily weathered troops always look so cool!

My favorites here are the 2 Captain Fordo's and the realistic Clone Wars Stuff, especially Rex! That said however, they're all great!