Simple Hasbro customs. Star wars models. Repaints and re-builds. Most of the customized figures shown on this page are fairly simple mods and I hope that encourages people to try their own hand at customs. You know you want to!

Click on thumbnails and close the window when done looking. ENJOY!

HUMANS

Eat your heart out, Hasbro Star Wars figure fans! Forget George Lucas! Forget Ralph McQuarrie! I have my own action figure! This is me, myself and I as Salokin Hawkbreeze, an old and wise Jedi Knight dedicated to maintaining peace and harmony in the galaxy! In fact, my dear friends, I can do one better than those 'other' figures I mentioned because I have my very own R2 unit, a beat up model who is permanently scanning the environment for trouble! Meet R2-NK! R2-NK's finish is inspired by the Berlin camouflage used by the British Army in Germany. This was designed as an urban camouflage scheme and was used on Chieftain tanks and Scorpion reconnaissance vehicles. (You can see examples in the movie 'Children of Men'.) I was also influenced by the metallic look of the McQuarrie prototype R2-D2.

Adi Gallia has been freed from her speeder and given a green lightsaber. Thus she joins the ranks of the Jedi - and plastic figure - immortals. Nice on the bike, though apparently LFL changed the speeder for the film, with a (now-easy) arm reposition Adi joins the Jedi fighters! (Hmmm Thinks! She might look good in a cloak! This gives me ideas!)

Too many Bespin guards with the same head! Time for head swapping. That's a POTF Lando General head with the moustache shaved off, the original, and then one with POTF Tarkin's head with re-painted hair. Tarkin sure makes one mean-looking guard eh?

The infamous cantina guy. Obviously this is a repainted BoShek. Since this guy always has his helmet on I glued it in place and saved the head for future use! Note the gloves he is carrying in his hand. All pilots in Star Wars have these huge gloves and BoShek had none. I used a hand from a cheap (99 cent) figure trimmed down to resemble gloves.

CLONES! The first picture is a repaint of the nicely articulated red clonetrooper officer to a regular all-white clone. FINALLY I was able to score a bunch of the red clonetroopers at Kay-Bee for $1.99 each, so I got busy painting many all-white troopers plus some officers - navy, blue, green and yellow. Hasbro really dropped the ball with the clonetrooper action figures and has only just come out with white trooper multi-packs. The red trooper has much more articulation so I have only bought one multi-pack so far to get a kneeling and prone trooper. I will take some shots of my whole clone army soon! I make my total count 30 including 5 pilot figures and 2 speeder bikes. I have a feeling Star Wars action figures are an addiction! I also seem to have 33 stormtroopers, 13 sandtroopers, 16 snowtroopers, 10 Imperial guards, 15 Endor troopers, 12 ewoks, 24 Hoth troopers of various kinds plus 2 Luke's (carded and taun-taun versions) and 3 Han's (POTF2 and Saga versions), 7 Bespin guards and a measly 5 Rebel Fleet troopers. Phew! And that's not counting the various Tie pilots and Imperial techs and officers and Rebel pilots and... Is there a cure?

You've heard of headswap, well this is coat swap to create General Dodonna as seen in the ANH rebel briefing. A little blue paint on the badge and there you go. You knew about this already, right? Other guy becomes generic rebel. Hey, it beats being choked by Vader so don't knock it! (Didn't even use the Force... talk about going out like a punk!)

AMT vinyl Emperor kit given the Salokin Hawkbreeze treatment! It sure makes a change from model tanks to do a vinyl figure. This one is mostly black robes, so I tried to get a lot of character in the face, which is not too hard for the Emp! Came out looking pretty good I think, which is to say pretty old, wrinkly, pasty and with evil lurking just beneath the surface!

Ah, the POTF2 Endor trooper. Not too bad of a figure except for one very annoying feature. He can't hold his gun like he means to use it! What's the point of an action figure with no action? I figured out how to cut the arms at an angle and join them together with a short piece of wire - I used small nails cut to length. The left hand was also cut off and re-joined with wire - a paper clip this time - so that it can properly support the gun. Much nicer!

A custom POTJ Endor trooper with head swapped out for Bespin guard head.

Another headswap this time creating a Han in stormtooper disguise. The original Luke trooper is behind.

Han Solo as a an AMT vinyl model. I think he comes out quite nice though the matte clear spray still seems plenty shiny. I might paint over in Humbrol clear matt. You can paint over these vinyl figures in plastic enamel as long as it is well sealed with acrylic first. Do not apply enamel on the bare vinyl!

Did you notice that Hasbro only gave us non-human Jedi younglings? So I've created 2 new younglings for Yoda to teach! Man I wanted to do these customs for ages, and then the youngling 2-pack was hidden away in a box when we moved. Finally did it though...

Another Han, this time the new Saga Hoth Han with a taun-taun from the 'Luke with taun-taun' set with the broken horn fixed. This sucker looks good! I always wanted a Han with taun-taun but could never find one. Check out the close-up shot of the horn! Can't see where I fixed it eh? I used a piece of wire in the end of the broken horn as support and built up the horn end with Testors contour putty, the kind sold for filling holes and seams in plastic models. A carefully matched paint job with a little extra "snow" completes the job. Note that because of the wire and putty this is a display piece, not a toy.

Troopers! Hoth troopers - customized! Ok, I bought a case of 12 Hoth troopers off eBay to beef up the rebel side in my on-going Hoth war. (Am I addicted, or what!) But as I am sure you already know, the Saga Hoth guy ain't too hot, and dammit Hasbro! Another frickin' trooper that can't fire his weapon? Really!! OK, I'm calm now. First up, head swapped with taun-taun Luke. 2 has repositioned arm/hand and a beard! Number 3 has repositioned arm/hand. 4 has repo'd arm and scarf! Number 5 has repo'd arm in different place plus hand. Finally, number 6 (aren't yah tired of numbers? Let's name him Sven!) has taun-taun Luke body. See, none of these guys is too earth-shattering but each gives variety. Hey, who wants 12 identical troopers *not firing* at the empire? No wonder they lost that battle!

Imperial driver figure. Not exciting unless like me you always love more imperials! There always seemed to be tons of imperial lackeys hanging around or bent over control panels in the movies. I decided to use the AT-ST helmet included in the Endor accessory set to create a new imperial. Very similar to an AT-ST driver but with the short gloves. How about we designate him a Tie tank driver? Anyway, this is Ponda Baba body and legs with a ring attached to make that high imperial collar. Since this is the old-style action figure with a hard polystyrene body you use plastic modeling techniques to glue on a collar ring and fill 'n' file with body putty. Arms are from Han Solo, Endor trooper head with beard shaved off, suitable paint and the aforementioned helmet. What I like about this figure is that you can pose him with helmet off for a more casual pose.

Gold Leader. This is a generic 12" body with flight suit and custom painted helmet. Another pilot figure and one of the few 12" customs I have tried.

Here we have an Imperial security officer. This was a Tarkin body with rank badges removed and repainted. The boots were left original so they have a little shine. The head comes from a cheap soldier figure I scored for 99 cents at Big Lots! According to my research headgear is optional for Imperial officers so this is authentic, even though the imps look faaabulous in their caps! Another nice Imperial for my collection!

Imperial senior officer. This one is a simple headswap on a Tarkin. I don't seen to have enough Imperials! The Bespin guard head looks too young though, so I added some grey hair since this photo was taken. As you can see, even a simple customization like this gives a very different looking figure!

This guy is an Imperial technician, similar to the scanning trooper figure. This started as a Lando general, with the shoulders trimmed down and a head from a cheapo army figure. I left Lando's gun holster in place to make him look a little different from a scanning trooper, and the goggles and helmet make him look like a tech! The Imperial badge on his shoulder was hand painted. Another imperial to assist in my galactic takeover. Ooops, that's Palpy's galactic takeover!

Another Imperial! Up the Empire! How did I make him?

A model of Luke in Yoda's Dagobah swamp hut. I cut the roof off so you see but it looks awfully cramped in there!

AMT vinyl model of Luke. Pretty nice, but a bit too shiny. My grandson wanted it to look like a big action figure! I think a matt-coat would do wonders. Note the lightsaber, which was clear plastic in the model. I tried to 'tint' it green using diluted green enamel paint.

The rebel alliance has supporters from a myriad of repressed star systems. Here is a human rebel warrior made from a spare Orrimarko that I had. Head is a Luke head with hair painted black and an Endor rebel helmet. I added some chin stubble to give the Luke face a much "rougher" looking appearance! Another rebel to flesh out dioramas! Yes, sometimes it's fun to just imagine rather than reproduce a movie character. Keeps you young!

Snowtrooper. Duh! Yup, here's another quite acceptable figure - that cannot hold his gun in firing position! This was an almost identical customization to the Endor troopers, and I think it much improves the look of the figure.

Stormies! The commtech stormtooper. A wonderful figure - except for that stupid pose! What is it good for? Well check out the last picture. This is the pose that Hasbro gave us. THAT'S why this figure has a blast-mark! So here are the stormtroopers I wish Hasbo had given us - capable troops who can actually hold their weapons like they mean business! All the elbow joints have been re-positioned and are still movable. The hands were cut off and put back on with wire and so are movable too. One of these troops even has a rotatable lower right leg.

My grandson wanted me to make him a unique blaster for his commtech trooper, so I pulled some pieces out of my spares box and came up with this. I rather liked the look of it even if it is "fan fiction" - sure seems like it would pack a punch! He also requested some dirt added, like the sandtroopers, so I obliged him. I also repositioned his arms to actually be able to hold the weapon!

DROIDS

Revenge of the Sith Corporate Alliance Droid tank. Another AMT model, quite nice once painted up. Hmmm. Should be in 'vehicles' or 'droids'? Anyway, I tried to re-create that Kashyyk slimy-metal look from the movie. I think it came out pretty good, but I also think some droids hanging off it like in the movie would really add to the model. I suppose the small 'unleashed' figures might work, but the droids seem a little clunky.

Protocol droid gone bad! This little droid has been programmed in over six million forms of assassination! This is my concept of a protocol droid turned bounty hunter. (Well, why not? You can program them for anything, right? Since droids are a function of programming, they can't all be nice like C3PO.) I would think that a protocol droid, with humanoid body and large processing capacity would make an excellent and cunning bounty hunter.

I had a spare threepio so decided to try a repaint. White protocol droids appear a couple of times in the movies, but since I didn't specifically model a particular droid I gave this the name of C-3Y8.

The empire needs protocol droids too! Of course, it employs droids with an attitude, removes all emotion or empathy circuits and programs them to favor the empire in all cases of translation "ambiguity"! Meet D-9M8, who despite being ordered to pose for publicity shots does not seem to be radiating comradeship in these pics!

Medical droids! The skirted medical droid appears in the Dark Forces 2 video game. The red painted one was just an attempt to get a different look since I had an extra droid. If you were so inclined you could call this model a battle surgeon droid because of his color!

A model of a very dirty R2D2 peering into Yoda's Dagobah swamp hut.

This is a fan fiction R2 droid. We see droids of white, black, red, blue - so why not a yellow droid? I jazzed it up with some antennae to help give it a unique look. Hey! Is a droid a he or she? Or...? I always think this is a 'doctor droid' because it looks like a reflector on his/her/its' head.

Someone has been playing in the droid factory! "Frankendroids' created with Hasbro droid factory parts plus a few other bits.

NON-HUMAN CHARACTERS

An Aqualish, a walrus-faced alien. What? You thought there was only one of this species?? Oh no! At least, as long as they keep out of bar fights!

Ewoks! There isn't enough variety in the ewok action figures - so out with some customizing ideas! Now this has to be the simplest customization you can do. You take a Wicket and Logray 2 pack and switch headgear and pouch. I was so surprised at how effectively this created two new ewoks that I left them that way. I gave the first one a Wicket spear, and altered a spear for the second to give an axe-like look.

If you look at any photos of ewoks you will see a wide variety of weapons represented. All are based on primitive and natural elements - branches, stones, horns and such. These are my research notes gathered from the movie and still photos. Of course I decided to make some ewok weapons using sculpey.

Ewoks holding authentic weapons! Double pointed sticks, triple pointed sticks, animal horns, axes and a bow and arrow.

More Ewoks. Wicket has been repainted to a black-furred Ewok with a heavy-looking, if primitive, axe. Another Wicket had his white patches painted over and was given a custom pouch. This one (I haven't named any of these Ewoks) has picked up a stormtrooper blaster.

What we have here is a Wicket and Logray that have had heads and limbs swapped. Headgear is custom from flexible sculpey. 2 nice new Ewoks.

Melas the cantina alien. Here's my take on Melas, using a backwards Ketwol head of course. I wanted a different look for Melas - different than using the Ketwol body, that is - so I put the Ketwol head and arms onto a Han Solo body that I had left over from putting Han's head on a stormtrooper body. I also built Melas a - whatever it is - bong? drink with straw? Something to place in his hand anyway! I need to make a new cloak for this guy - the paint in the front isn't doing it for me.

A Kubazian. Alien from Kubindi. Dark goggles are most often worn by Kubazians to protect their eyes which are unusually sensitive to red light.

Here are two cantina Duros conversing. To give my custom Duros a unique look I used an Episode I Obi-Wan for the body, but kept the Duros boots with the blaster. Shoulders were rounded off and the neck scarf or shirt built up with putty. I cut the Duros hands off extra long and then trimmed the ends to fit the Obi_Wan arms. My Duros hands are therefore articulated, or at least rotatable!

Wald, friend of young Skywalker on Tattooine. I made a soft-goods robe but darn is it fragile! I used a young Anakin body and a repainted Greedo head. The hands from Greedo were cut down a bit so the fingers were not so long.

Yoda gets a spacy lost-in-the-force look while sitting with Luke. AMT model. I cut the roof to make a permanent display. Luke was cool, but I'm not so sure about that Yoda!

Coruscant Night Club patrons. When I made the human padawans for Yoda to train I was left with two great alien heads, so I decided to create some nightlife. The female is based on the Princess Leia collection Endor Leia with a sculpey skirt and disco colors! The 'male' is based on Greedo, whose head was used to create Wald, plus some more disco-inspired coloring!

VEHICLES

Customized Hasbro AT-ST. I took the Hasbro Hoth AT-ST and glued the legs in position so that it would stand up straight. I beefed up the hollow insides of the legs with plastic card. I then decided to add extra armor to the cab. This was inspired by WWII tanks that often had extra armor plate welded on by tank crews, or at least the maintenance guys. I made the front windows into a hooded single visor as per the original design drawings, a wheel to the inside of the hatch and some wire rails. Oh, I upped the firepower too!

A re-paint of an Action Fleet B-wing.

AMT B-Wing

AMT B-Wing. My attempt at battle damage, Star Wars space battle style.

Advanced TIE fighter X2. This is a version developed from Darth Vader's advanced TIE, with a reduced profile and "wings". I added proton torpedo tubes to my model. This is a customized Action Fleet Darth Vader TIE.

AT-ST AMT ERTL ATST model. Straight model build here but with a nice paint job. That is, a paint job that makes it look all beat up, used and sh**ty!! Remember, this is a used, lived in universe! (All Terrain Scout Transport)

Death Star. Two views of my Death Star model. This is the AMT/Ertl kit which was actually pretty disappointing. A lot of filling and sanding around the middle was required, and the surface markings were rather heavy and did not match any markings on the movie model! Adding to the problems was that no two pictures of the death star seemed to show the same surface markings! I tried to be as accurate as possible. In the end the most important thing is that it gives the right impression. I decided to be a little different and paint on the night side. This gives the model more of an in-space feel I think.

Jango Fett's Slave 1 from Attack of the Clones. This is essentially a repainted Action Fleet Slave 1. I made some minor changes - filling in the refueling port and cutting off a projection on the 'back' that should not be there. I kept the opening cockpit and modified and painted Boba to become Jango. I hear that Hasbro is going to issue this same model - a repainted Action Fleet Slave 1. Mine is better - I have a Jango pilot! I also modified the Action Fleet stand so that the Slave 1 can be shown in flight mode. The way the Action Fleet Slave 1 came, displayed horizontally, was a bit silly.

A model of the Millennium Falcon. This is the again somewhat disappointing AMT/Ertl kit, but at the time was the best Millennium Falcon around. Now of course Finemolds makes the vehicle of choice, so it's a shame that it is only available direct from Japan. The first picture tries to create an exciting chase scene. The last picture needs to be redone. The depth of focus is so narrow that the front and back of the model is out of focus.

Republic Gunship with custom gun pods. Close-ups show that each pod is equipped with gun controls and sights!

Not a custom, but the Action Fleet skiff and Jabba's sailbarge photographed as if really floating over Tatooine's dune sea.

This is the Acton Fleet Jawa sandcrawler photographed as if on Tatooine. This vehicle is not customized but I thought it made a neat picture.

Imperial shuttlecraft. Finally we have an AMT/Ertl kit that is actually quite nice. I decided to add battle damage to this one so it looks like it has been in quite a scrap!

This is not a custom, but the Action Fleet shuttle with Han and Chewie, having made landfall. Perhaps this is Endor in the winter!

This is the POTF2 electronic X-wing (the good looking one with the slightly droopy wings) photographed to appear to be flying through space.

Action Fleet Luke's X-wing with swampy decoration to represent Luke's craft lifted from the Dagobah swamp. Someone had an exclusive Action Fleet version (was it JC Penney) but you don't often see it even on eBay. I decided my own would be much cheaper and more authentic!

My X-wing Delta squadron with their Delta-yellow, Delta-blue and Delta-green X-wings. The pilots proudly pose for a group photo with their R2 units. Each X-wing sports a prominent Rebel logo plus custom nose-paint, along with the squadron's distinctive triangular color markings. I guess these count as fan-fiction vehicles since the color schemes came right out of my head!

A couple of custom Y-wings in red and green squadron colors. I made these to have some variety in the markings of my Y-wing fleet.

WEAPONS

Hasbro nerf-dart throwing Rebel Blaster given the Nick custom paint job to produce a movie-replica.

Hasbro toy turned into a movie replica.

Han Solo - style toy blaster from Hasbro given the custom paint treatment. Not quite as accurate a model as the blasters above, but much sweeter than bright orange!

Boba Fett's blaster. Say, if Boba is supposed to be such a great bounty hunter, how come his equipment isn't well maintained? (This was the dirtiest blaster EVER!)

The E-11 blaster rifle was a blaster rifle manufactured by BlasTech Industries during the Galactic Civil War. It was the standard blaster rifle of the Imperial stormtroopers. THIS version is an enhanced Hasbro knock-off!

Clone trooper heavy blaster.

**All images on this site are the property of Nick Turner.  If you like them then link to my site, don't steal them!**