I mentioned in my post a couple of days ago that I had bought a Halo guy
And that I was planning to put a Star Wars alien's head on it, and grunge it up so much that you would barely be able to tell what color its armor had once been. I mean, the guy is wearing teal armor...or is that aquamarine? I'm not sure.
Anyway, for once, I actually went through with something before two years had passed. This morning, I pulled out my paints, and a drill, and set to work.
Ponda Baba was the alien I chose to desecrate.
He has little articulation, and is stuck in this action pose so that I couldn't do much with him if I kept him as is. So, Walrus Man it is.
I warmed up the neck joint on both of the figures. The head popped right off of the Halo guy, but wouldn't come off of Ponda Baba for the life of me. So, I grabbed my cutters...
And played the part of the guillotine. It's alright, his head is better off separated from that body.
Ponda Baba's head was engineered differently than the Halo guy. The Halo guy had a socket in his head, and the ball joint was on the end of his neck. For Ponda Baba it was the opposite. The neck peg came out of his head, and connected through a hole in the shoulders.
So I had to remove the neck peg entirely, and then drill a socket to receive the Halo figure's ball joint. That was pretty easy, however. My wife got me a Dremel a few years ago, and the drill in that thing seems to be made for customizing action figures.
Next thing you know, the body and the head were united, and I had a whole new figure.
This guy, I figured I would call Laka Baba. He was Ponda Baba's older brother. Before Ponda Baba became a little rebel and fell in with the likes of Dr. Evazan, his brother Laka Baba ran away and joined the Aqualish military in the fight against the Covenant. Military life has been harsh, but nobody would have guessed that Laka would be the one still sporting all of his limbs, while his little brother crossed paths with a Jedi, and now wears a prosthetic arm.
But I still wanted to further modify the figure. I wanted that armor so grungy you could barely recall what color it actually was, if you remember.
I took straight up, unadulterated black acrylic paint, and slathered it all over the armor. Then, using a paper towel, I wiped a small portion of it off. I was really excited with the results. It looked appropriately grungy, and here he is, Laka Baba, ready to fight.
I love it. The teal is muted enough now that it doesn't seem weird at all for it to be that color. Now...uh oh, here comes trouble...I feel like I should go out and buy all the Halo figures I can get my hands on so I can make more of these kinds of guys.
I suppose that more importantly, I need alien heads to go on the figures first. I have a Hammerhead...er, uh, Tessek. Maybe I could get him on the squad.
If I did that, though, I'd need to do the hands and the feet as well. Like Empire Toy Works did with his Hammerhead kitbash.
The Halo figures could probably handle a little cutting to make that possible, though, I bet. I may have to try it. Maybe then, if it goes well, I could buy more figures, and do more mashups. Greedo would be cool as a Halo figure as well, I bet. I got one of him sitting around here somewhere too...
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