My local game store, The Hobby Kingdom, has run a Christmas Paint Exchange every year for about the last 6-7 years. I started the first one when I was playing Warmachine, and took the tradition with me when I joined the Infinity group in 2014. The basic idea is that each participant drops off an unpainted miniature, which is then handed off to a random person to paint for them. The mini can be anything, but people tend to drop off mercenaries, civilians, and support models as it’s less painful when those types of ancillary models don’t perfectly match your army’s paint scheme.

This past year, I received my random model, and it turned out to be a civilian belonging to local feline tattoo artist Tom, whom you may recognize as the previous recipient of camels and knights and stacking elephants in addition to probably half a dozen small projects that weren’t worth posting to the blog. In other words, I am already way too good to Tom, and he absolutely doesn’t deserve any more of my beneficence. So when I saw the boring-ass model he contributed for me to paint…

…I immediately said “screw that” and started pondering what else I could do for him. Technically I already have a few of his other models that I’ve pledged to convert or paint for him, but even those weren’t really piquing my interest.

So, **** it.

I sculpted him a Boba Fett.

As you do.

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The model would be sculpted to go along with his Infinity army, using some stats I quickly cooked up:

As a mercenary model, I figured it fit the general theme of the submitted models, and would be far more interesting to me than painting up some dumb Space Flight Attendant.

Soooo… yeah.

I guess on to the sculpting now?

*shrug*

So, interesting side note right at the start: Infinity’s model range used to be in 30mm scale. All of the minis in their first wave (from the original rulebook) and second wave (from Human Sphere) were sculpted manually in this scale. However, as Corvus Belli transitioned from hand-sculpting to digital sculpting, they increased the model scale to 35mm in order to fit in more detail. It was a gradual transition (some models from Campaign Paradiso were still 30mm, while others were in the new scale), but everything being released now uses the larger scale.

The reason I bring up this history lesson is that I didn’t actually realize any of the above until this project. By a bit of a fluke, every model I bought and painted for my first two armies was from the first two waves; I’ve been buying new releases in the two subsequent years, but none of these new models have ever left their boxes or blisters. So when I went to rig up a skeletal armature for Boba Fett and measured the nearest models I had at hand to confirm the scale, I was a bit shocked that they kept measuring up to 35mm. Initially I thought it was only the big tanky power armor guys, but then I measured a few spindly Tohaa models and they, too, topped out at the 35mm mark.

With confirmation from half a dozen measured models, I accepted the scale creep and printed out a skeleton diagram in Photoshop at what would apparently be my new default sculpting scale.

One advantage I immediately noticed with the new scale was that it made it much easier to attach the two halves of my standard armature rig. Normally I build the legs and spine as one piece, and the arms as a second piece, and attach them after the fact. This attachment is quite easy on larger models like my recent Ram Knight, where the model’s towering 43mm scale gave me plenty of room to bind the two pieces together with extra wire wrapping. However, smaller models don’t allow this– a wire wrap around the spine of a 25mm or 30mm model will usually end up too far, leaving the wire protruding past the outer volume of the model’s chest. So when rigging up smaller skeletons, I have to attach the two components together with nothing more than glue, Green Stuff, and prayer.

As it turns out, 35mm wasn’t quite large enough to easily accommodate a wire wrap around two independent pieces, but it was just barely large enough to let me wrap the arm wire itself around the spine without protruding too far out. I had tried this method before with 30mm models to mixed success, but here it worked beautifully.

I am definitely looking forward to being able to do this again for future Infinity scratch sculpts. 😀

Once the skeleton was rigged up, I twisted it into the desired pose with pliers and sunk it into a champagne cork. I wanted the model to be hovering on its rocket pack while aiming down with its rifle.

As always, a thin layer of Green Stuff was laid over the skeleton…

…followed by a foundational layer of Fimo while the putty was soft, as Fimo can’t stick to the bare metal on its own.

(Quick aside: People have mentioned to me that they find it odd or annoying that I explain this step every time I write an article. My take on it is that I never know if any given article is someone’s first time here, so I make sure not to skip over any potentially confusing steps like this one.

Because I’m NICE.

SO NICE, YOU GUYS.)

More clay was added and smoothed into the existing layers to bulk out the model’s general musculature. This particular character wears slightly baggy clothes and a lot of strapped-on armour and baggage, so I don’t need to spend quite as much effort as I usually would on creating actual muscles– an approximately correct silhouette will do fine. 🙂

Now, when it came to the costume I would be applying to the model, I briefly debated whether I wanted to stick with the original movie costume or try out a more modern update like the Square Enix action figure. In the end I decided that Tom (being a huge Boba Fett fan, as well as a huge Deadpool fan… hrm… come to think of it, does that mean that I’m safe buying him Dog the Bounty Hunter DVDs for his birthday? I mean, based on the pattern, it seems like something he’d be into…) would probably prefer the classic look, so I started digging around for good reference shots. There was a lot of reference available, but most of it wasn’t clearly framed, so I took most of my reference from two illustrations:

This fan-made 3D model (credited to Louie Ishii) was the only 360-degree reference I could find. I eventually discovered that it differed from the actual costume in a few minor details, but overall it was still very useful to have a detailed turnaround

This painting by Uncanny Knack is closer to the real deal, so it helped me correct any errors with the main reference. It is also a great personality reference; I personally find it very helpful to imagine the attitude and mannerisms of the person I’m sculpting, as these invariably translate into the sculpted model through small posing details without me really meaning to do it. Having a shot of Boba Fett diving badassedly across a hectic firefight in front of me throughout the work was very useful for keeping his personality at the forefront of my mind. 🙂

So, with all of that said… let’s sculpt some costume details!

Here I’ve added clay to delineate the bottom of the pants (which are held fairly tight to his legs by a series of cloth straps) and create the basic forms of the knee pads. All clay is added to the model in very small shreds, which are blended together and given rough shapes with metal tools, and then smoothed over with Clayshapers.

I continued to move up the legs, refining the shape of the pant legs and adding rough blocks for the thigh pouches and belt.

More rough shapes! Here I’ve added hip pouches, fanny pack, and a very rough placeholder for the chest plates.

Satisfied with the general distribution of the clay, I started in with clayshapers to create clean detailing. Mr. Fett’s boots aren’t terribly complex, with only a bit of ribbing over the top and a set of what I assume are climbing spikes on the toes.

Moving up from there, I created the shaped cuffs on the bottom of the pant legs (which are slightly longer in the front than the back) and the bands that hold the pants tight to his legs.

Moving up the legs, I roughed out the “weird fiddly bits” underneath the kneepads, and added some details to the leg and belt pouches.

Next, I started working on the cloth texture of the pants– adding small wrinkles, as well as defining the side seams and the “shorts” seam on the thighs.

The wrinkling continued on the front, with tension creases being added toward the crotch.

The body was coming along pretty nicely by this point, but I wouldn’t be able to move up to the shoulders until the arms were done, and I couldn’t sculpt the arms until I knew the exact positions of his hands, and I wouldn’t know that until I sculpted the gun.

So, I started working on that.

Just like I’d done with the body, the gun needed a layer of Green Stuff putty around its wire armature, with a layer of clay then laid over the top.

In doing my research on Boba Fett’s costume, it turned out that he is traditionally depicted with two different rifles:

This rather silly-looking pea-shooter…

…and this slightly more respectable version with a longer and more detailed barrel. The first one would look a bit ridiculous in miniature scale (where weapons are often given greatly exaggerated proportions), so I opted for the larger version.

Using the above photo as my reference, I began pressing the clay into shape using metal tools.

The stock needed to be kept quite thin, hence all of the visible Green Stuff. The clay on the barrel and… uh… “machiney part” (shut up, I don’t know guns) were thicker, so they don’t show any of that weird marbling.

SCIENCE!

More details! I don’t know what the names of any of these bits are, so I’ll just say “I added bits to match the picture”.

That’s pretty much sculpting in a nutshell, right there. 😛

I wasn’t confident that I could attach the scope while the clay was still soft, so I created a pair of bumps for it to sit on (complete with grooves in the top to set the scope into later), and resolved to attach it after the main part of the gun had been baked solid.

Here’s how that looked. The attachment really isn’t very solid, but unless the model gets dropped hard, I don’t foresee any huge problems.

Note: I later went back and added details to the scope. You can see the modifications toward the end of the article.

With the gun finished, I went back and started building up the arms. As always, step 1 is to lay down Green Stuff, followed by a layer of clay.

The cloth on his jacket is looser and more bunched than the pants, so I needed to add a lot more wrinkles all over its surface. To start, I created a lot of really ugly gashes all over the surface.

I then went back with a clayshaper and smoothed these out, blending the end of each wrinkle into the next crease over.

Wookiee braids!

I added wrinkles to the back of his jacket. Largely pointless because he would be getting a jetpack and cap laid over top, but I like sculpting wrinkles, so I did it anyway. 😛

Also scheduled to be covered up by all the back accessories: the clasp securing the back of the belt pouches.

With all of the lower-level detail set in place, I figured it was time to build the aforementioned jetpack. 🙂

As with the gun, the jetpack’s central column was built around a piece of wire held in a pin vice.

I baked the column, and then transferred it to a piece of wood to build the rest of the jetpack. Fimo doesn’t stick any better to wood than it does to metal, so I laid a foundation of Green Stuff directly against the wood and then applied chunks of clay on top.

A few hours of detailing later, the jetpack was good to go. 🙂

So naturally, the next step was to attach the gun.

…what?

I have ADD.

Deal with it.

After bending the arms slightly to match up with the trigger and barrel positions, I attached the completed rifle to the model’s terrifying hook hands with super glue and putty. I then applied clay over the putty to start constructing the final hands.

THUMB!

Once the hands were detailed to… er… barely passable completion (whaddaya want, Tom isn’t worth the time it would take to do them properly), I added Señor Fett’s gadget-laden bracers to bring the arms to a close.

Next, I added… still not the backpack.

The helmet I guess?

Sure, let’s do that instead.

Heads are usually pretty difficult to sculpt, but that’s only when they’re covered in noses and ears and other meat-based protrusions. The Head of Fett, by contrast, is encased in a smooth helmet, so I didn’t need to worry too much about my usual gradual head construction process– I just started throwing wads of clay together until the general mass looked about right.

Sure, that looks fine.

UNLEASH THE CLAYSHAPERS!

Clay was removed from the cheek cavity, and bulked up slightly around the visor.

After a bit more smoothing, it was looking pretty good. 🙂

His antenna thing would require a bit more work, but all I could do for now was to sink the supporting wire in– I would need to wait until the model was baked before I could add any detailing to it.

ALRIGHT, FINE, WE’LL ADD THE BACKPACK.

JEEZ.

…after the cape is on. 😛

Mr. Fett’s cape is fairly small and hangs from the back of his left shoulder. As with any significant protruding detail, it required its own wire armature. It took quite a bit of bending and re-bending to get the edges where I wanted them while bringing the upper side underneath the arm, but eventually I got it there.

Surface-mounting the wires wouldn’t create a strong enough bond, so I dug a patch out of his back, all the way to the spine.

I filled this pocket with Green Stuff, and then mounted the wires with even more Green Stuff. I let this all set, which resulted in a bond directly from the cape wire to the spinal wire, which held them firmly where they belonged.

I then added ANOTHER putty block on top, with clay around the edges to conceal it.

And then, at long last…

…CAPE PUTTY!

…

…also backpack.

Initial cape putty was laid on VERY thin and then left overnight to set completely. The following day, I applied additional strips of Green Stuff to the hardened layer, and then added Fimo on top.

More Fimo was added to create Cape Swoops.

And then CAPE BOTTOM SWIRLS!

WHEEE!

(Spud is kinda getting tired of describing stuff, in case you can’t tell 😛 )

After the cape was finished, the last step was to take most of an evening to go over the model with a clayshaper and clean things up. Unwanted cracks were smoothed over, the edges of armor plates were sharpened, and any small bits I’d previously missed were added on.

Once I was satisfied that the model look as good as Tom deserved, I threw it in the oven and baked it all solid.

Once this was done, I was able to finish the very last detail: the horizontal bit on top of his helmet antenna. With the model baked, the wire was finally embedded firmly enough not to move when I applied the Green Stuff to it.

And with that, after probably 3-4 days of work, it was all ready for paint. 🙂

PAAAAAAAIIIIIIINT!

OH GOD WHY AM I STILL MODELING

IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE OVER

IT’S NOT FAIR

;_;

*sigh*

Blah blah blah, model needs fire to hover on.

Sigh.

Let’s make some fire then.

I GUESS.

Putty blobs go on the wires.

Lower blobs get sculpted into balls to look like smoke.

Upper blobs get shaped into swirls to look like fire.

Base gets flattened to look like paneling. To add a bit more interest to it, I decided to create slots like the carbonite chamber on Bespin in the second movie.

I didn’t do the best job of it. :/

Ehh, whatever.

It’s a base, it’ll do.

Oh, hey, look. Fire paint!

OH, HEY, LOOK!

ALL THE OTHER PAINT TOO!

Alright, model done, and Spud tired of writing.

Tom was a bit confused when he first opened it, but he recovered pretty quickly.

This was not, as they say, his first rodeo.

-Spud