build your own tusken raider thread

a few people expressed interest on how i bashed my hasbro tusken raider and i thought this might be a good thread for getting people started. and by all means add to this thread with any tips, tricks, advice, or any more how to's.

first start off with a hasbro tusken raider. there were 2 versions i believe. one with gaffi stick the other with a pistol & range finder.

Throw pistol away………….lol.
You can use the majority of this figure as is if you want or rework more parts like I did & do it fairly cheaply.
I used a cheap dragon body for better articulation & used the original body suit.

I also replaced the gloves but I guess you could mod those as well to fit a new body.
Notice I wrapped the arms a ways up.

I also kept & used the inner robe………I tried to tea treat it but the material doesn’t absorb real well but it stained it a bit

Now for wrapping the boots and eventually the head I picked up a fabric that is fairly thin & has a bit of a wrinkled look to it already (have no idea what this is called) & cut into 1/8” to ¼” strips. The more ragged the cuts the better (imho)

Use a dab of fabric glue and start wrapping the boots kind of loosely following the pattern that’s already there. Not too thick because they already are a bit big. Just enough to give it a more real look & feel. I used a green pastel chalk that I ground to a powder to get the color I wanted. Add a brown or black to darken it if so desired.

For the overcoat I used a light fabric & made a simple pattern for it. No real measuring, I just kind of winged it. I did make sure that it was long in the sleeve. Just buy cheap cottonish (?)fabric and give it a trial & error approach. I tea treated the fabric for a dingy look.



The accessories:
Respirator: repaint & replace the plastic wire with real wire (a paper clip or something thicker.)………..tip from dorgmal, thanks man.

next:

Bandoleers: you can use the existing & just weather it. I chose a cloth ammo bag & modded a bit with a strap. & used a cloth waist pack


Gaffi stick: original & weather. I may redo mine and extend it a bit.

Now, probably the most important aspect of the tusken raider, the head. Again to keep it fairly simple just use the old head. I cut out around the face part and glued onto a blank head. If you don’t want to do that you may want to dremmel the old one down a lot. If you don’t, it really comes out a bit too big. You can cut out the spikes as well. I managed to cut an x pattern around the spikes & transplanted it onto the blank head. I also cut some narrow strips of thin leather and wrapped around the mouth piece and a small strip down between the eyes.

okay update.............pics how to:


(No pics of this process but will add them soon as I start my next one.).........update pics
if you notice i did this head a little bit different.........i used a part from a fiber-optic connector for the piece under the eye.





Once all this is in place take the small strips of wrinkly fabric and fabric glue them on. Just basically wrap the head around like a mummy without covering the face or spikes.
Note: don’t use too much glue here. Threads & loose fabric make it more realistic looking.
now you can use pastels chalk powder and start weathering the head and the rest of the figure where you see fit. I actually sprayed a bit of dulcoat on the head to seal it (light coat)



Water treat the outer robe & futz your tusken……….(that didn’t sound right)….lol
Easy, cheesy, breezy



this is by no means the only way to do this figure. i just wanted to show the way i did it & for very little money at that. the most expensive items were the pouches & that probably wasn't over $6.00.
hope some more freaks share their recipes too.

Mate great tutorial thanks for sharing, now I have to get my hand son one of these guys and redo him.

Ron

Thanks for the step by steps. I think I want one now too. Every ebayer that has one on right now owes you a big thanks, cause all the freaks that want one now are going to be competing for this $5.00 fig and they're going to get more than they would've a week ago.

Excellent tutorial Barryo, thanks for sharing, can't wait to get started on one of these.

great tutorial man, i have one of these guys lying around so i might give the mod a try. great job!!!

very cool write up Barryo...now the hunt for a TR beggins...

barryo said:

first start off with a hasbro tusken raider. there were 2 versions i believe. one with gaffi stick the other with a pistol & range finder.

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Thats wierd, I didn't know one came with a Stormtrooper rifle. That means there's 3 versions, one came with a long rifle and binoculars, they were taken from luke when they knocked him out. It seems the stormtrooper rifle is out of place.

thanks guys, hope to see some tuskies in here soon.
vivisect, on the box they call it a rifle & its almost long enough to be one.. but it clearly (to me anyways) is not a rifle.

barryo said:

thanks guys, hope to see some sandies in here soon.
vivisect, on the box they call it a rifle & its almost long enough to be one.. but it clearly (to me anyways) is not a rifle.

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I meant there's, another one that comes with Lukes super long hunting rifle, almost the height of the figure, the same one that comes with the 100th figure Luke. They seem to have always referred to the storm trooper guns as rifles, since the are suppose to have a folding stock.

Spectacular, Bravo thanks for the mod break down.

Great instructions, I can't believe my eyes when I see the pic comparing the original figure with the reworked one... simply amazing!

Oi Barryo , stop giving away all the Tusken bashing secrets ! You're making it look too easy ! ( You do realise that for punishment I'm going to have to nick your pattern for the outer robe . Let that be a lesson for you , young man .)

Vivisect said:

I meant there's, another one that comes with Lukes super long hunting rifle, almost the height of the figure, the same one that comes with the 100th figure Luke. They seem to have always referred to the storm trooper guns as rifles, since the are suppose to have a folding stock.

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hmmm, i was actually thinking of trying to get a ssc farmboy luke rife and modifying it for my next one. i've never seen the one you speak of.

LOPIE said:

Spectacular, Bravo thanks for the mod break down.

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no problem, hope it helps someone.

the dude person said:

Great instructions, I can't believe my eyes when I see the pic comparing the original figure with the reworked one... simply amazing!

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thank you sir.

thundergod said:

Oi Barryo , stop giving away all the Tusken bashing secrets ! You're making it look too easy ! ( You do realise that for punishment I'm going to have to nick your pattern for the outer robe . Let that be a lesson for you , young man .)

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nick away, nick away......
but my real intentions of this thread is for everyone to contribute. we used to have a "building the ultimate terminator thread" in the aliens section & i thought we could do something similar in this one. kind of like the modding stormtrooper armor thread. the more the merrier.......:chew

barryo said:

hmmm, i was actually thinking of trying to get a ssc farmboy luke rife and modifying it for my next one. i've never seen the one you speak of.

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I've never seen one that came with the stormtrooper rifle, I wonder if Hasbro just ran out of the other and got lazy and used the stormtrooper gun. It just seems out of place for them to have one.

Now all I can find is that gun, but I had one on watch with eBay with the long rifle put the pictures gone because its an old listing now.

I think the story was that the figure was ready to ship out to stores but the accessory ( gaffi stick ) wasn't , so the initial batches went out with the stormtrooper blaster and macro-binoculars . I wasn't aware that it was also released with the long rifle . ( The Sideshow version is available at Toy Anxiety at the moment ).

Great tutorial,should inspire alot more tuskens to show up
the two Ive done over time follow a farily similar build up, I did however just wrap naked feet in cloth strips and built the head from scratch, wasnt hard just grab a spair head drill holes for eye 'tubes and cheek spikes then wrapped in thin cotton strips, the mouth section was built up from milliput and wrapped in leather.This is the first one a few years back, the rifle was a german KAR thingy dressed up with odd and ends.

The second one was more involved with hand made bandoliers matching the screen ones, same head build up, on a dragon body, midrift pouches are 1/6 thompson submachine gun, gloves were some tactical rapelling thingys as the ANh one seemed to just have some cheap garden gloves on him.I had to make an extra head for a forum member along side this build up, the nose was a stainless steel dome headed screw head dremeled and fitted>One of the screen used bandoliers was a Martini Henry ammunition bandolier,I tried to replicated this in thin leather.The second version included the outer robe i ommited in the first one, i got lazy with the rifle and used an ANh luke sideshow one.
Gaffii stick was scratch made from bits n bobs i think actually the club end was a modded vallejo model color paint bottle lid,with milliput sculpted around the edge.

barryo said:

but my real intentions of this thread is for everyone to contribute. we used to have a "building the ultimate terminator thread" in the aliens section & i thought we could do something similar in this one.

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I remember that... I was responsible for getting the name changed to the "Terminator Franchise Customs Thread" sorry about that...

speaking of that, I finally cast that hideous blue Arnold Schwarzenegger sculpt I made (I think at one point I was so ashamed of it I deleted most of the pics), been painting one up... doesn't look terrible, only pretty suckish...

you know, that thread was the reason I joined SSF! Ah... good times...

hurricane said:

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That pic is great, I can just imagine Luke being smacked repeatedly with the gaffi stick...

hurricane said:

Great tutorial,should inspire alot more tuskens to show up
the two Ive done over time follow a farily similar build up, I did however just wrap naked feet in cloth strips and built the head from scratch, wasnt hard just grab a spair head drill holes for eye 'tubes and cheek spikes then wrapped in thin cotton strips, the mouth section was built up from milliput and wrapped in leather.This is the first one a few years back, the rifle was a german KAR thingy dressed up with odd and ends.

The second one was more involved with hand made bandoliers matching the screen ones, same head build up, on a dragon body, midrift pouches are 1/6 thompson submachine gun, gloves were some tactical rapelling thingys as the ANh one seemed to just have some cheap garden gloves on him.I had to make an extra head for a forum member along side this build up, the nose was a stainless steel dome headed screw head dremeled and fitted>One of the screen used bandoliers was a Martini Henry ammunition bandolier,I tried to replicated this in thin leather.The second version included the outer robe i ommited in the first one, i got lazy with the rifle and used an ANh luke sideshow one.
Gaffii stick was scratch made from bits n bobs i think actually the club end was a modded vallejo model color paint bottle lid,with milliput sculpted around the edge.

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Yes. I'll take one please.

Too freakin' awesome Hurricane. I love this thread!