Darth Jar Jar

Before Darth Jar Jar, I'd only printed and painted other people's designs. This was the first one I did completely from scratch.

I have a background in CG and VFX, but I've never been especially good at digital sculpting - I don't practice enough. I decided to try this after a conversation with Marc at Collectiques. I stopped by his shop to see if he’d be interested in any of my painted figures. I brought Marty McFly and Adam West. He wasn’t sure either would sell, and suggested I create something that wasn’t available elsewhere. He used Darth Jar Jar as an example. As far as I know, the only physical Darth Jar Jar out there is a Lego minifig.

Here's an early head sculpt, using reference frames captured from the films. I started on my tablet using Nomad Sculpt, then refined it on my desktop with Blender.

The rest of the figure, lightsabers, and base were also created in Blender.

Here are some raw prints and assembly tests. You may notice he appears mirrored from how he looks on the computer. That's because of a bug in the software I use to prepare files for printing. I didn't know this had happened until after the print completed. The print otherwise came out great, so I just rolled with it and ensured everything else was printed mirrored except for the Collectiques plaque.

This is the first pass of color. I didn't take many pictures during painting on this one.

When possible, I prefer to paint pieces before assembly. That saves me from having to get into tight spots. I wouldn't have been able to paint the skin texture on the back of his head or the underside of his ears if he was already assembled.

Here's a test of the electronics. I was initially going to use a battery pack, but I opted to use a USB-C board instead.

And here are the final photos.