Custom Hasbro Rey and BB-8 diorama

Hey folks,
i thought I'd share some pics of my latest figure commission, done for a good friend off mine - I did a quick version of Rey for myself, and when he saw it, he wanted one too- buy for him, I needed to make it into more of a statue, as he doesn't like action figures with joints. The figure is from Hasbro's cheap excuse for a large action figure line, you know the ones! - I must say, some of them really suck.....But, occasionally, some are really great, so give the Star Wars and Rebels line a second look like I did, after I saw what was done to the Darth Maul and rebels figures here (I apologize for forgetting who did it, but thanks for the inspiration!!) I now have a stack of them. A good paint job and a little reposing can turn them into something unique - For very little money! For Rey, the portrait is very good, but the worst aspect of her is those horrible sideburns they gave her, and the fact that her thumbs are stumpy and just way too small. I carved away both offenders, and sanded smooth the face and hands. I used a few strands of sewing thread twisted together with white glue, and attached them with superglue - Loc-tite works the best on this plastic. I also added to the bottom back of her head- Too much was missing, so I built it with scraps of vinyl carved to shape. The thumbs were built up using a piece of twist tie wire glued into the thumb area, and fleshed out with superlue and baby powder paste, and carved to shape. Then the leg joints were filled and smoothed out with Magic-Sculpt epoxy putty. The strap on the staff was carved off and a new one made with thin green ribbon, and wire for the rings, and solder wire for the buckle. BB-8 was fantastic, all Idid to him was use some plastic included with him for pop on accessories to plug the attachment holes in his sides, touch up the lights and lenses, and give him a black panel wash, and Future for his lenses. The base was made from scraps of Balsa Foam hot glued together, with hot glue used to putty the seams and crumbled foam sprinkled on this to texture it. Everything was painted with Apple barrel and Folk-Art acrylics, and Prismacolor pastels to do some shading. I used Micro-Scale flat airbrushed over everything to seal it, followed by Future for the eyes and lenses, to gloss them. This was a blast to work on, hope you like it!

Beautiful job. They look absolutely stunning. Rey'a face looks awesome and bb8 too. You should be very proud of these masterpieces.

Amazing paintwork & composition

J

Thank you both! I come from the military miniature side of the hobby, those guys taught me an awful lot

Awesome job ! I did this with a Boba Fett figure a while back.....(linked in my signature below)

Awesome work!

That figure of Rey is really well done and a good likeness

Thanks guys! I want to do more of these, it's a lot of fun. I bought a couple of the cheap-o Black Widow figures to convert into Hera and Sabine from Rebels, so I'll have the whole set - I doubt Hasbro will do them.....

so beautiful...

whats the base figure here?

theyrenotdolls said:

so beautiful...

whats the base figure here?

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Hard to believe, but I'm pretty sure it's this one:




HUGE improvement! :thumbsup

Thank you all for your kind praise! Yup, that's the one! I looked all over for it last winter, but no luck. Then one day my son found two of them in a sale bin at Toys R Us, for $7.50!! Now, they're all over the place. She's pretty basic but if you compare her to the pics of Rey from the movie, she's really a very good likeness - even her stance, and structure is good, albeit a bit stiff in pose. Bending the arms helped, and like I said, the sideburns had to go. The plastic on the figure seems to be a styrene / abs type material that takes superglue and epoxy putty, as well as 'krazy-paste', you know, superglue and talcum powder - really well. the head is some sort of pvc vinyl, and sands well and accepts glue , paste and putty pretty good. The arms didn't take the glue too well, i had to force a pin into the parts to keep the bend in place as I glued it, but it did work. The hands are a nice vinyl that sands well and accepts superglue really well, i would have preferred the whole figure in this stuff..... BB-8 is all made of an ABS/ styrene, and is so nicely molded, I didn't even repaint him, aside from some details and weathering.

That's an amazing reworking, it's amazing how a little paint can change things on a toy. You've made it look like a 200.00 statue.

Thank you sir!

I also want to add that your photography is top notch. Any details on that?

What's crazy paste?

Premium,thank you! 'Krazy-paste' is super glue mixed with baby powder into a paste. It hardens pretty quick, but you can vary it by thinner or thicker consistancy. I use an old coffee can lid, dump a pile of powder, and using a tooth pic, mix a pea size clump with a couple of drops of glue (I found that Lock-tite brand works best for me) and apply it where you want. Experiment with the consistancy. When it hardens, it looks like and acts like abs plastic. you can carve and sand it to shape like plastic, and build it up by adding more. Quick, and cheap! And strong, you can reinforce things with it, fill seams, and if you have a part you can't seem to get the glue to stick, just use the paste! It takes any type of paint too, and I've used it on plastic, metal, wood and vinyl. Cornstarch baby powder is harder to work with, I like the regular one from the $$ store!
As for the photography, it's really basic too. The background is a piece of poster board glued to a cardboard frame.....It looks better with a lighter blue than what i could find. I just started using my i-phone 5 to take the pics, but the most important thing is the lighting. These pics should have been taken during the daytime - My office has two big windows that let in a lot of natural light, and I also use an Ott light, with a color balanced florescent bulb as fill in from above. The light is coming from one side, and i use a piece of white paper opposite this to bounce a bit of light into the shadows. You can play around with this until you get results you like. The best light to do this in is outside on a cloudy overcast day, when the light is soft and diffused. Hope this helps

Amazing job. As I read through your build description I was thinking this was the Black series 6 inch figure. I am even more impressed seeing that you did this with the 12 inch "value line" figure. I picked up the BB-8 from this line and had been looking for a custom to get some "pointers" for upgrading mine, and yours is certainly A+ work.

I didn't even know Rey was available in this line, gonna have to start looking.

Thanks Jimmer! Feel free to ask me anything you need help doing. You can find her at Toys R Us and Walmart, she's all over the place now, at least on Long Island......Try Amazon too.

mcusanelli said:

Thank you both! I come from the military miniature side of the hobby, those guys taught me an awful lot

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So you're not Mike Cusanelli of Solarwind then....who's sculpting skills are such that mere mortals can only dream of??
I have thought of re-working some of the Hasbro figures at times, but I don't think my skills are anywhere near yours. The face painting, especially what you've done to her eyes, makes a big difference to the overall look. Did you modify anymore of the face apart from the sideburns? Overall, absolutely amazing work! :thumbsup :thumbsup

Actually, I am, but your kind estimation of my skills are more than I deserve, but thank you none the less! I really did come from the military miniature side of the hobby, but my main interest was fantasy / sci fi - I do love history though, and did do many military subjects. Solarwind is no more, as my partner decided to retire - but, I'm not out of the figure business yet!
As far as Rey's face is concerned, I didn't do anything to it other than the sideburn removal, and a repaint. Don't hesitate to have a go at it, I would recommend Shep Paine's book on building dioramas and figure painting, his explanation on how to paint figures is without equal, and so easy to understand, because he always took a common sense approach..Just keep in mind that when painting a woman's face, be very subtle, no harsh shadows or shading - I now use pastels, they're the easiest way to shade a face ever, you can build up in layers, and if you hate it, wipe it off with a wet brush, and start over! And in the case of an actor, like this subject, look at photos and see how light, shade, and make-up look on her face and try to emulate it.

So did BB8 also come with the base figure of Rey?

Contec said:

So did BB8 also come with the base figure of Rey?

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BB-8 is from the same figure line as Rey, but is sold seperately. Think I've only ever seen 1 on a shop shelf.