Star Wars Characters Gallery

Luke Skywalker

In 1995, a company called Polydata, produced Star Wars "pre-painted" vinyl kits for Luke, Obi-Wan and Leia. The idea was clever in that instead of producing all of the vinyl pieces in the same color vinyl, as generally done by Horizon, Screamin', etc., they used different color vinyl dependent on the main color of the piece. For example, Luke's face and arms are molded in flesh colored vinyl, and Polydata painted the hair, eyes and light-saber handle; his tunic are molded in off-white vinyl, and Polydata painted the belt and accessories with brown, silver and black; and his pants and boots are molded in tan vinyl. The idea then being an inexperienced modeler or collector could have a "nice" model, by simply gluing together the parts, and not have to be good at painting.

However, for a modeler like myself, the paint job and finish of the colored vinyl is not realistic enough, so in 2004, I re-painted the whole model, except the light-blue eyes) to my preferred colors !! Still, even after painting this kit, it still looks sort of "toy-like" because of the hair and eyes ? A nice aspect of what Polydata did though is to provide a clear, but slightly blue-colored styrene piece for the lit portion of the light-saber.

The scale is fairly accurate since the completed kit is about 10.75" high, in the semi-crouched position. If extrapolated to an erect position of around 11", that would equate to a person just over 5'6" tall. Mark Hamil is 5'8" tall.

Obi-Wan Kenobi

This is another 1995 Polydata pre-painted kit that I built and totally re-painted in 2004. To me, the head and face (with the beard) is an excellent likeness. The scale is very accurate since the completed kit is just under 12" high, which equates to a person just under 6' tall. Sir Alec Guinness was 5'10" tall.

This kit had only 5 parts, only 4 of which can be used: the head and two hands are molded in flesh color; and the body and choice of two hoods were molded in brown. There are no feet for this kit since what Polydata did was make the body closed at the bottom, with the tips of his boots showing to make it look like he has legs under his cloak/tunic.

I chose to use the full hood, since I think that looks cooler. However, if I wanted to show-off the head paint job, I would use the retracted hood. I didn't glue the hood in place, so I could swap between them if I wanted to make a change. I then use "poster putty" to tack the selected hood to the shoulders.

As with the Luke model, Polydata provided a clear, but slightly blue-colored styrene piece for the lit portion of the light-saber. But isn't Obi-Wan's light-saber GREEN !?!? It looks like Polydata chose to "cut corners" here ?

Kaiyodo 1/6 scale Vinyl

Princess Leia

Though Polydata also made a Leia model kit, I didn't like it because she was carrying her blaster. I preferred her in a more stately pose, as in the 1994 release by the Japanese company, Kaiyodo. I feels as though Kaiyodo makes quality kits, EXCEPT that I do not feel as though they achieve a "true" 1/6 scale. This built Leia is 9.75" which equates to the real person being 4'10". Carrie Fisher is actually about 5'2" tall. This lack of true scale will be even more evident as I discuss their Han Solo, Boba Fett and Stormtrooper models below !!

I finally built this kit in 2004. It was a simple kit to build and paint. I base-coated her dress with antique white before dry-brushing it with white, so it wouldn't look like it was "unpainted", which all objects or parts painted in "all white" tend to look. Her boots are all white, with satin clear coat for a textural difference. Her belt is Rub-n-Buff silver.

I have to admit that I was disappointed the face doesn't "look more" like Carrie Fisher.

Han Solo

Back in 1995, when I first saw this kit available from Screamin', which was the U.S. distributor for Kaiyodo, it was the first "human face" model kit I wanted, because the resemblance to Harrison Ford was really close. To me most models with real human faces don't "look real", because we know what real human faces look like !!

I finally built this kit in 2004. The lower torso and legs was molded as one piece. In order to be able put both feet flat to the table top, I had to make a small slit at the bottom of the crotch seam. Then I filled that piece with Plaster of Paris to set the leg position. The rest was fairly straight-forward. I did leave the right arm NOT glued to the right shoulder, so that I could raise and lower the blaster position, as I felt suitable for how I wanted to display him.

The only other thing of note is that to achieve a really deep navy blue for his pants and vest, I first base-coated them black. Then I dry-brushed all the "top surfaces" with many passes of flat Navy Blue.

As with the 1/6 Leia model above, my only complaint is that the scale is way off ... the completed model, is 10.75" tall in the slightly crouched position. If extrapolated to an erect position of around 11", that would equate to a person just around 5'6" tall. Harrison Ford is 6'1" tall. This was very disappointing to me, esp. since right on the box, it states that this model is over 12" tall, which would have been a correct scale. I think Kaiyodo either has lots of problems with it's vinyl shrinking during the cooling process, or it's sculptors don't have a good feel of scale ?

In fact, I was going to put the Han model next to the Luke one in my diorama, but the Han one is so much shorter and smaller in girth, than the Luke one, that I had to put them far-apart, so as not to show their incorrect scale. If you look closely at the diorama at the top of this page, you'll even see that I raised-up the Han model with clear blocks to help give the illusion that Han is at least the same height as Luke !!

Chewbacca

This kit was released in 2005 by Kotobukiya. All of their SW kits are 1/7 Scale, pre-painted, "Snap-fit". As usual, I glued it together, puttied at the shoulders, and repainted it. You can see the before and after in the photos to the left. Though a very high quality air-brushed pre-paint, I thought the dark areas at the upper arms and legs looked too much like "stripes" and were too dark, so I used a lighter brown, and blended the darker areas with the surrounding areas. Also, I thought the face was "too light".

As you can see from the diorama photo at the top of this gallery, the 1/7 scale works well next to his partner Han Solo

Kaiyodo 1/6 scale Vinyl

C3P0

This kit was interesting to build and paint:

• there are a lot of small resin or styrene parts for mechanical linkages and projections that I never realized was part of C3P0
• I was able to leave the head and both arms unglued, such that I can swivel his head, or position either arm up or down (see photo of side view)
• I did not want to use gold paint, or even Rub-n-Buff Gold, since either was still rather dark in tone. But neither did I want the paint to be "too shiny" since the actual C3P0 was spray-painted by the LucasFilm SFX crew. So over the GREY primer, I used Rustoleum's Metallic Brass spray paint, that I had used around the house for other projects. This kept the brass coating from being "too shiny" (unlike the Iron Man model I did, where I wanted the brass to be "very shiny", so there I used a WHITE primer undercoat).
• It was a very tedious paint job to paint all of the exposed wires, over the black background in C3P0's mid-section

When done, this kit is a really nice model with great likeness and details for C3P0.

MPC 1/6 scale Styrene

R2D2

In 2004, I wanted to add R2D2 to my diorama. I had recalled that there was a 1/6 scale vinyl kit of R2D2 produced in the 1990's. Since I think it only has six pieces, and since vinyl parts do not lend themselves to being very detailed with respect to sharp or "mechanical" edges, etc., I was concerned with the amount of detail in such a vinyl kit. But I couldn't find any on Ebay anyway, except for recast ones from the Southeast Asia houses, but I refuse to buy a recast !! So, I decided to buy one of the styrene ones, and I found one of the original 1977 kits from MPC, which is a true 1/6 scale (6" tall when completed).

This was a very nice kit with white, clear blue, and chrome pieces. The chrome parts were too shiny for my taste, so I used Rub-n-Buff silver on all of them to give those parts the brushed aluminum look, that those actual parts were made from. I avoided using the decals, and actually painted-in all of the blue areas, and vents. Though the white plastic parts could have been left unpainted, the texture of the plastic didn't look right to me, so I painted then with flat white.

The nice thing about styrene kits for a mechanical subject like R2D2, is that there are a lot of nice features with movable parts (compare top to bottom photos):

• his head swivels
• his arms swivel at both the shoulder socket and wheel-pads, such that he can be positioned tilted or upright
• his center leg is retractable, though he won't stand if you do so
• a door opens on his left side, and a computer interface probe pops-out

Recast 1/6 scale Resin

Yoda

In 2004, after I had put together the above six "good guys" into the diorama, I realized Yoda, being so short, would fit perfectly between Luke and Obi-Wan's raised light-sabers. However, I could not find a 1/6 scale Vinyl Yoda kit anywhere. So I did what I had vowed never to do, I bought this "recast" one from one of those Southeast Asian model shops, which obviously deals in only recasts of original kits produced by Horizon, Kaiyodo, etc. !!

This kit is resin, not a material that I like to work with. The casting was poor around the fingers, and esp. in between the openings of his tunic. I spent 7 - 8 hrs. just grinding away what seemed like excess resin "flashing". Also, the tip of one of the ears "broke-off" during the grinding process inside of that ear. I had to glue and reconstruct that part. Otherwise, it is a pretty good likeness of Yoda. When my neighbors saw it, they wanted me to build them one, but I really did not want to bother with the hassle of ordering from SE Asia again, nor the work to clean-up the resin.

Two things of note are the addition of the cane, as part of the kit, and the fact that I realized that Yoda has a smattering of hair around the back of his balding head. After painting the model, I played around and used some cotton that I frayed, and then used watered-down Elmer's to tack into place (refer to the close-up photo).

Boba Fett

This 1994 release from Screamin' is a pretty cool kit, and after doing many 1/6 scale kits, this sucker is "HUGE" !! I got many compliments and raves on the finished product.

Until, I built this kit, I never realized Fett had on some of the gear he does. The kit came with a "cheesy" piece of cheesecloth to use for the cape. I made my own out of an old piece of a T-shirt that I roughed-up and washed harshly. I then air-brushed the green color in which also stiffened the cloth. I even put the hole in it, that you can see in 'Return of the Jedi'. The cape is detachable for transportation, etc.

I have three complaints about this kit:

• The rifle he uses is not the blaster that is used in the movie, and this one is more like a pistol.
• I thought the legs are proportionally too long to his upper body.
• The insignias for his left shoulder plate and right shoulder were "stickers", and should have been decals, so they would lay "flatter" against the surfaces.

When I got this kit, I had seen pictures of Screamin's line of 1/4 scale Star Wars characters and I was going to build their whole line of these characters in 1/4. However, after building it in 1995, I realized that my shelves and other display areas was built with 1/6 scale models in mind, so I sold it. But not to despair, I later bought the Kaiyodo 1/6 scale Fett model kit, which has even better detail, and to me, a more Fett-like pose. In fact, it's directly below !!

Boba Fett

This kit was released by Kaiyodo in 1993, and is probably the best Boba Fett kit available.

Well, it was a long time coming; I started this kit April 1999, and finally finished it Aug 2000, and then I waited until I got a digital camera (2.2 Mega-pixel) to take photos of it, to put up here on this site.

I really like this kit, esp. compared to the 1/4 scale one above. The rifle is accurate. The insignias are decals, and lay really flat. As with the larger one, I replaced the cape that came with the kit (a vinyl one), with one I made from cloth, but this time I soaked the battered T-shirt material, in the green paint, so it dried nice and stiff and holds the shape that I folded the cloth into.

I have two complaints about this kit. As you can see in the second photo, the completed model leans a bit too much forward. I don't know if I could have corrected this or not if I had noticed it when I was setting the feet, prior to filling them with Plaster of Paris. But the main complaint is that I think the scale is way off !! The model, to the top of his helmet is less than 11", equivalent to real person of about 5'6". The actual Boba Fett is 6'1" tall ! Well, I guess these Japanese sculptors think all people are as "small" as them ? Well, now I am gonna get some nasty notes ?

Book of Boba Fett

In 2018, I wanted to build another of these Screamin' kits (as above) for a fellow Star Wars geek, but I couldn't find that kit anymore, so I'm ashamed to admit, I settled for one of the ""knock-off" ones . The knock-off kit was definitely not as well molded as the original, and the decals were missing !! But I built and painted it as close to the one above as possible. In late 2020, when I saw in 'The Mandalorian' Season 2, that Disney brought back the Boba Fett character, I thought it would be cool to build the Screamin kit into the new "fatter" Fett version, so I bought another of the knock-off kits. However, it was then that I realized that there were no screen shots of what he looked like from the waist down ! So I put-off doing the conversion until February 2022, after watching the new 'Book of Boba Fett' series

The result, and more comparison photos to the original version, can be seen by clicking on the link below:
Book of Fett Conversion

Box photo

Screamin' 1/6 scale Vinyl, (same kit by Kaiyodo)

Darth Vader

Of the two Darth Vader kits available in 1995 (both available thru Screamin'), I preferred the 1/6 scale one (actually a Kaiyodo kit) because the pose was more realistic for Vader. Even that pose (see Box photo) was sorta boring and static. So I made three modifications:
1) Instead of having the left arm merely pushing back his cape, I rotated it up about 75 degrees so that it would look as though he is beckoning to Luke (in ESB).
2) I rotated his right arm about 15 degrees forward, and made a cut at that elbow so I could crook his arm about another 15 degrees; the effect is to make the lightsaber point slightly upward, instead of pointing down. I later added a "red beam" instead of having the lightsaber "off".
3) I rotated the head to look slightly to his left, as though he is looking at the person he is beckoning to.

The painting was relatively simple, I airbrushed him with various shades of black, and dry-brushing charcoal grays to highlight the tunic. The shoulder plates and some of the crotch trim are a "silverish-black". Otherwise, the trick to giving the model texture was to use various overcoats ... Liquitex High Gloss (acrylic) Varnish over helmet, face mask, shoulder plates, crotch plate, gloves and boots; and Testor's Dullcote over the cape and rest of the body suit.

The red beam was made by taking a translucent plastic tube; melting to seal one end, and then filling it with red paint. This gives it a "glowing" effect, instead of looking like a painted stick.

This kit has a removable helmet, which allows seeing the back of Vader's scarred head. But since the helmet is made of vinyl, it is slightly warped, and cannot be fixed, unless the helmet is glued to the head, but that ruins the ability to see the scarred head. I have since bought the AMT/Ertl 1/6 scale Vader kit, which has a styrene helmet. I may use that helmet on this kit. But the rest of the AMT kit looks pretty good, so I may want to keep the helmet with the AMT kit if that kit looks better than Kaiyodo one ... more on this later

AMT-ERTL 1/6 scale Vinyl

Darth Vader

In 1993 AMT/ERTL came out with their Darth Vader vinyl kit. AMT/ERTL was traditionally a maker of styrene kits, so I was surprised to see them issue vinyl kits. I finally built this kit in September of 2009 !!

I actually liked this one better than the Screamin' one above because :
1) I feel as though the pose is more "dynamic";
2) they provided a lightsaber made of clear plastic;
3) the helmet is made of styrene so it is thinner and not warped as with the Screamin' one above.

The painting was relatively simple, I airbrushed him one shade of black. Otherwise, the trick to giving the model texture was to use various overcoats ... Liquitex High Gloss (acrylic) Varnish over the helmet and face mask, shoulder plates, and crotch plate; satin over the gloves and boots. I dry-brushed his tunic with charcoal gray so as to contrast it to the other jet black parts. The shoulder plate insets are a "silverish-black".

Note that in the first photo, in order to show the texture of the blacks, I over-exposed the photo, thus the light-saber is "washed-out" and looks unpainted. In the lower photo, you can see where I gave it a red tinge, by using the air-brush and lightly misting it with Transparent red.

StormTrooper

This is a 1993 released kit from Kaiyodo. I enjoyed building this kit in 1998. Building it taught me things about the Stormtroopers that I did not realize before, such as what some of the equipment is: how the knee pads are different; that they have a holster for their blaster rifle (see back view); that the helmet is not attached (thus not sealed) to the upper torso; etc. In fact, I provide two front views, so you can see that in this kit, the helmet can be positioned as desired, and does not have to be glued in any position. In fact, the kit comes with a "faceless" head that is attached at the neck, and the helmet sits on top of that head.

Though this kit would seem relatively easy to assemble and paint, the painting actually got rather tedious. I airbrushed the uniform with white, and then sprayed it with clear satin overcoat, before painting in the black areas with flat black. The black areas represent the cloth body suit worn underneath the armor pieces, so it was tedious painting these recessed areas. The finishing touch was to apply the decals that came with the kit; 4 bluish decals for the vent areas in the side and back of the helmet; 2 bluish decals that went over the "earpieces" on the side of the helmet, and 2 black decals for the black vents on the breathing tubes, on the side of the helmet. When dry, the decals were sealed with Testor's Dullcote, applied with a brush.

Because the helmet can be re-positioned, it would be cool to build 2 or 3 of these, reposition the helmets on each, and have a bunch of them guarding Lord Vader, etc. I don't really see any way of repositioning the arms to make them look different than one another, since the left hand has a cupped shape, for holding the barrel of the blaster rifle.

As with the 1/6 Fett model above, my only complaint is that I think the scale is a bit off. The model, to the top of his helmet is just over 11", equivalent to real person of about 5'6" ... maybe it's really Luke in the outfit ?!?!

Emperor Palpatine

This is a 1996 kit released by AMT/Ertl, as part of the 1996 'Shadows of the Empire' storyline from LucasFilms. This was not a very successful line of models, because SotE was not that well received. I built this kit in 2005.

This is a fairly simple kit with only parts for the main body, two hands, the cane, and surprisingly to me, two short legs that had to be glued to the bottom, even though, you can hardly see them since they are covered by his long tunic. As with the Vader model, it was important to show a textural difference of the black-painted areas; the outer tunic has a satin clear coat painted over it, where as the inner tunic is left flat black. The only other thing of interest is that I painted the face and hands a very pale flesh tone. I even added just a hint of orange to the flesh paint, using a bit more orange around his baggy eyes. His pupils are yellow. The photos make his skin looks washed-out because it was tough to get enough light onto the black tunic without washing-out the skin parts.

Lando Calrissian

This kit was part of Polydata's second wave of pre-painted Star Wars kits, released in 1997. I built it in 2005. Though some would say Lando is NOT a Star Wars "villain", I put him with them because:

• when we first meet him in ESB, he turns Han and Leia over to Vader !!
• this model, with the pose and colors didn't "look right" on the "good guys" shelf
• there was still room on the "bad guys" shelf

Unlike the Polydata Luke and Obi-Wan kits that I built, I left a couple of the "pre-paint" areas as is. The texture and tone of the skin areas and face are very well done, so I only dry-brushed some dark grey on the hair, and painted-in the finger nails. Also, I left the back of the cape the original vinyl color.

As usual with vinyl molded parts, one side of the part is going to show "run marks" on it; that was the case with the gold side of the cape. I had to do a lot of grinding and sanding to get it to look somewhat smooth. I then used Rub-n-Buff Gold on the inside portion. Aside from that painting the shirt, pants, belt and gun were fairly straight-forward.