A big reason I got into customizing action figures is because nobody was making the characters I was interested in. As the big companies have made more and more obscure characters, I do feel less inclined to make my own stuff, but I still like to tweak figures here and there and add weapons that weren’t included with the original figures. The advent of 3D printing and the talented fan sculptors has allowed me to add a lot of cool accessories to my figures that are far beyond my skills to create on my own. Let’s take a look at a few accessories I recently received from Shapeways!
Most of the items I’m talking about today come from Prometheum Rising Heavy Industries’ (PRHI) shop on Shapeways unless I note otherwise. You may remember that we shared the PRHI GNK droid and Battlefront Shocktrooper accessories in the past.
Sniper Rifle
Battlefront II has become a big part of my Star Wars fandom, so I’m always looking for ways to add the weapons from that game to my collection. For some reason, the game developers decided that all the Imperial snipers in Battlefront II would be scout troopers, so I needed this sniper rifle for my biker scout.
It also works well with an Inferno Squad trooper as Inferno Squad member Del Meeko uses this rifle in the game. I printed this in black, and it looked decent with no paint. but if I were to do it again, I think I’d re-print in white. The white plastic tends to have a little sharper detail and less texture than the black. If you plan to paint anyway, I’d suggest printing in white.
TL-50 Heavy Repeater
The TL-50 is one of the best weapons in Battlefront II and the personal weapon of Iden Versio, leader of Inferno Squad, so this weapon is great to plus up that Gamestop Exclusive Inferno Squad trooper. I printed in black, and added metallic black paint later.
DLT-19D
This variation of the DLT-19 is used by Deathtroopers in the opening of Rogue One. It’s similar to the rifle that came with the Black Series Sandtroopers and 4-LOM. The Death Troopers who wear the pauldron and web gear sport this blaster, but unfortunately the Black Series version of that character did not come with this gun. This works great with the Death Trooper from that discounted Target three-pack and adds a little more variety to your Death Trooper squad.
Prototype Boba Fett Weapons
When they did a video screen test of the original Boba Fett, his armor and outfit was all white, as befitting his origin at the time as a type of super-Stormtrooper. This white armor has inspired a ton of merchandise, including a Black Series figure, but that figure includes Boba’s guns from ESB. The original prototype Fett had different weapons than what he ended up with and these two guns are meant to represent those weapons. Now that I look at the longer rifle, it looks like Shapeways broke the stock before it got to me. These were printed in white and sprayed a metallic black.
Tie Pilot/Nien Nunb/Cloud Car Pilot Blaster
This weapon came with a few vintage figures and as far as I know there is no film analogue for it. It’s a really great nostalgia piece that I liked adding to my TIE pilot. When Nien Nunb comes out, he’s getting one for sure. This one was also printed in white and sprayed with a black metallic.
Cargo Barrel
This one is a little unique because instead of ordering from the sculptor’s store on Shapeways, the sculptor, FigureWorks posted the model online at Thingiverse and I was able to upload it to Shapeways for printing. I’ve been wanting a bunch of these barrels for backdrops, but hadn’t quite figured out how to make an accurate one yet, so it was fun to try this out. It’s a little pricey, but it was fun to paint up and weather.
Imperial Crate
This was from sculptor Aldobme shop on Shapeways. Like the cargo barrel, I’ve been wanting some cool Star Wars crates for the background of my pictures. This one was kind of neat because it opens. These are pricey, but fun little projects and the hard geometrical shapes are something that really escapes me as a customizer.
Darksaber
Sabine Wren and Darth Maul both use the Darksaber at different points in their respective careers, so I’ve been thinking about scratch building one for a while now. When I saw azmorello’s model on Shapeways, I jumped at it because I think it looked better than what I was planning. I especially like this because way back in season one of Rebels I was hoping for Sabine to get a jet pack and the Darksaber and they finally did it in season three!
That’s all I have for today, but I really enjoyed these pieces so I’m sure I’ll get more as they become available. Got any cool 3rd party Star Wars items that enhance your collection? Let me know on the forums or the comments below!