The Hasbro Black Series expands slowly and steadily every year and I love it all, but I can’t imagine it will ever get near the breadth and depth of character selection built over 39 years in the smaller scale figures. That’s why I’m always interested in creators who make customs and add-on pieces that help fill in the world. Prometheus Rising Heavy Industries is one my favorite 3rd party Star Wars creators, and he recently created a GNK, or Gonk Droid, that can be 3D-printed through Shapeways. Let’s take a look!
PRHI had done a small run of 3D-printed GNK Droids a while back that I was really excited about, but I flaked and missed the sale date. I had become obsessed with perhaps scratch building a GNK when I saw that PRHI had decided to put the model for sale on Shapeways due to demand. The droid is split into five pieces: two feet, two legs, and the main body.
The sculpt has great proportions and shape and it feels immediately correct to my eye as a GNK Droid. Shapeways can print in a multitude of colors, but I chose white and used some Krylon Fusion to set down a base coat.
The original PRHI run (see above) featured a bunch of eye-catching paint schemes with brilliant rusty weathering details. I was tempted to attempt something like that or perhaps trying to recreate the Kenner GNK paint scheme. Part of the appeal of the Shapeways order is that I could customize him any way I wanted. In the end, I decided to try and match up the paint scheme of EG-86, a GNK featured in Star Wars Rebels.
The details of the sculpt don’t exactly match the details of the concept art, and I wouldn’t expect them to, so it’s not 100 percent accurate to the show but it’s close enough for me.
After I got the basic color scheme applied, I decided to add a little bit of weathering by way of a black wash.
The legs have two sockets at either end and they attach to the body and the feet to allow some decent articulation. The legs were initially a little loose, but the paint applications tighten up the articulation well.
The print is a little pricey at around $60, but that’s on par with stuff in this scale on Shapeways, and I really wanted this droid on my shelf. Finishing the GNK was a fun one-day project, and I’m happy with how it turned out.
Welcome to the droid pool, EG-86!
