Star Wars customs
Last updated: 3·21·2003
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Last updated: 3·21·2003
Not much to show now as I haven't really been into Star Wars these days. Here's an old project for now, though.
My nearly-finished "battle damaged" R5-D4. A little history lesson on collecting... these vintage R2 and R5 figures had a nicely detailed sticker on their barrel "chest" showing their doors and gadgetry. Unfortunately for many a kid, the nice, clean sticker would turn brown and eventually rub off after being played with a lot.
I bought the beat-up figure for a buck or two. What you see now is not what he looked like before I took my dremel drill and paints to him. Here's a comparison shot of an "unaltered" R5-D4 with the one that I "charred." (In that picture, you can see the back of the "charred" R5, and the sticker starting to turn yellowish on the "normal" R5.) And here's a picture of the Epsiode 2 figure R3-T7, probably not feeling so bad about having electricity coursing around his body after seeing an R5 unit without a head. Or maybe someone told him there's no such thing as Silicon Heaven ;)
To make this, first I removed the head -- easy enough, it is attached with a screw. Then I cut some gouges into R5's chest with a drill, and finished the body (chest and legs) with a "wash" of black paint so he looks like he got burned. You can't see it too well here, but what was left of the sticker I kept in place. I put a bolt through his chest, where the screw once held his head. I made a ring with a bunch of small wires tied on it, and "locked down" the ring using a washer and nut on the bolt. Finally I crowned the figure with some kind of screw point cover. I like to think that it's his "brain," which we might see if his head was taken apart. I planned to make a new R5-D4 using this one's old head and a newer R2-D2 figure's body... still in progress though...
