This is a MASSIVE vinyl kit. One of my good friends bought this for me ages ago, and at first, I was nervous. I was just getting into doing figure kits, and didn't have a ton of time on my hands, so did I really want to work this hard on a tertiary character from the Star Wars universe? It seemed like a ton of work, on a huge kit, with an only moderately recognizable character. But, I was gracious, smiled, said thanks, and went about my business. Eventually, I figured he'd want me to finish it up, but I had no idea where to begin.
It came in surprisingly few pieces, but there were some significant gaps, especially where the legs and arms met the main body. I filled the offending areas with Aves Apoxie Sculpt. So, nothing motivates me like a time crunch, and Aves has a limited, though moderately forgiving, working time. Its totally unusable for the first 5-10 minutes its mixed, then workable for about 30 minutes after that, and then starts to get crazy hard really fast. So, necessity being the mother of invention, I wondered how I'd be able to blend this giant chunk of clay/putty with the various nooks, crannies, and wrinkles of his skin. I didn't want to sand any part of the kit or else I'd risk losing detail. So, I wrapped the puttied parts in Saran wrap, and then used a clay shaping tool to make little creases all along the arms and legs, trying to match the creases and folds in the sculpt as much as possible. Once it all dried, I primed him up, and couldn't tell when the vinyl stopped and the putty began. Happy.
Looking back, I can't believe I painted this with just a paint brush. Again, another pre-airbrush kit, this whole thing was painstakingly painted with just regular ol' brushes, and LOTS of dry brushing. The "drool" was created by doing an armature of fishing line glued to his teeth, then covered in hot glue from there.
After all my hemming and hawing about the kit when I first got it, it actually became one of my favorite to do, and one of my better paint jobs on top of that. Rightfully so; it placed first in a regional model contest and went on to nationals after that.
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