Custom Pop Rae Sloane

The Galactic Empire is dead.  It was not the sanctimonious rebellion and subsequent New Republic that brought the empire down.  It was a long buried contingency plan by the man who spawned the regime in the first place that would undermine its continued existence.    

The Galactic Empire had to die for something new to rise from its ashes.  As part of Emperor Palpatine's posthumous "screw you" to the regime he created, the contingency took the form of a purge of the weakest links that corrupted the galactic chain.  In its place, a new vision--the First Order.  The First Order is more than an imperial remnant.  Populated by only the best and the brightest, the First Order operates at the edge of known space and waits for a time when the galaxy once more stands on the brink of chaos as it had under the Old Republic.

The architect of this powerful regime is Rae Sloane, the last Grand Admiral,

For my project, I chose to create Grand Admiral Sloane.  Based on the cannon description, Sloane is in her early 50s, dark skinned, with long black hair that carries a streak of white in it.  She has been depicted as such in the WWII-style poster that comes as part of the novel, Star Wars, Aftermath: Empire's End.  

Dressed in the traditional white uniform of an Imperial Grand Admiral, Sloane presents a formidable presence.

To create Sloane, I used a duplicate Grand Admiral Thrawn figure and removed the head.  For the head, I used a Firefly Zoe Washburne figure.  I painted Thrawn's blue hands black t give the appearance of gloves.   

It should be noted that the Firefly series of Pop figures does not come with a spring neck like the Star Wars figures.  To affix the head, I had to widen the neck hole at the base of her head to stick the head in the neck of Thrawn.  Some white paint was used to add the white streak.

In the display, I placed Sloane in front of the novel detailing her rise to power and a small model of her flagship, the Super Star Destroyer Eclipse.  If you read the novel, you will know why she is positioned so close to General Hux.

Coming Soon: A New Custom Star Wars Figure

After reading Aftermath: Empire's End I came up with a great idea to create a new custom figure.  The novel is the last in a trilogy covering the fall of the Galactic Empire and the rise of the First Order.  All the action centers around the last Grand Admiral--Rae Sloane.  Sloane is a kick-ass woman who endures an ordeal by fire to emerge as the undisputed leader of the Imperial Fleet.  With no one to stand in her way, she can now re-make the Empire to fit her vision.  

Switching Gears: Star Wars

Yes, I know--I usually dedicate my posts to creating custom Star Trek Minifigures.  To be honest, I have made all the characters I could think of and have drawn a blank for inspiration of late.  I have moved away from the trek nation for now.  Instead, I have been busying myself with other concerns, but recently returned to the workshop with an idea.  As a Christmas present, my husband procured for me several of the Star Wars books created for the "new cannon" and a bobble head figure of my favorite character--Grand Moff Tarkin.

On my own, I procured a few of the other figures and use them as bookends.  While watching Return of the Jedi, I was inspired to make the fastidious, toadying technocrat Moff Tian Jerjerrod--referred to only as "commander" in the film.  Unlike Tarkin, Jerjerrod was a newly minted sector Governor tasked with creating a second ultimate weapon that would spell certain doom for the Rebel Alliance.  Of coarse, we know it was the Galactic Empire that would go on to face its doom.  The new cannon makes it clear that the Galactic Empire would cease to exist one year and one month after the Battle of Endor.  The surviving members of the Imperial Fleet would rally around the last Grand Admiral (Rae Sloane) and jump into the Unknown Regions to form the First Order.  There is reference to a few small remnants but that seems to be lip service to the fans who loved the idea of characters like Thrawn and Daala...and the like.    

Moff Jerjerrod represents the Empire at its end.  Devoid of brilliant figures like Tarkin and left with the sycophants possessing a sense of invincibility.  
     

To make this figure, I took the Pop Vynil head of General Hux and placed it on the body of Grand Moff Tarkin.

I used flat Grey paint to make the uniform and the cap to appear more screen accurate.

I painted over the Grand Moff rank insignia and used a cardboard representation of a simple Imperial rank plague for screen accuracy.  It should be noted that due to a costuming mistake, all the Imperials wore the same rank insignia--three red squares over three blue squares.  Since Jerjerrod was a Moff, his rank insignia would be five blue squares over three red squares and two gold squares.

I repainted the book to shine and also painted the hands to look like the black gloves Jerjerrod wore.  I thought of adding a small firing control button, since the last time Jerjerrod is mentioned in the novelization of Return of the Jedi he was the only one left in the command center and was about to push the button. I might add this later.

At present, I don't have any plans for other custom star wars figures but I might come up with some ideas in future.  

"I tell you, this station will be operational as planned" 

Captain Clark Terrell of the U.S.S. Reliant

Of the many guest stars to take a role in Star Trek, Paul Winfield rates in the top ten.  Like Mark Leonard, Tricia Neal, and William Windom, he brought his character to life in a way that made the performance stand out.  My latest creation is dedicated to his perfomance in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.  Captain Clark Terrell commands U.S.S. Reliant in a search for a suitable test site for the Genesis Project.  To a dedicated space veteran like Terrell, this rather mundane mission seems a waste of time.  

As Reliant locates a suitable planet in the Alpha Ceti system, Terrell is overjoyed that his tedium is about to end.  Unfortunately, scanners indicate a tiny bit of particulate matter that threatens to scrap the entire location.  The test site must be a dead world--totally devoid of even microscopic life.  Hoping to finally rid himself of his mission, Terrell and First Officer Chekov beam to the sand-blasted surface of Seti Alpha Six.

Once there, they are quick to discover the wreck of a transport ship half-buried in the sand.  As Terrell explores the ship, Chekov makes a startling discovery--the ship is none other than the infamous S.S. Botany Bay.  The derelict sleeper ship had been used to transport a group of genetically enhanced supermen away from Earth in the year 1996.  The leader, one of the most feared dictators of human history--Khan Noonien Singh!

Overpowered, Terrell and Chekov are used a pawns to exact revenge on the man who marooned Khan and his followers fifteen years prior--Admiral James T. Kirk.  Later, Kirk and his party discover that Khan has taken control of Reliant and is pursuing Kirk in very much the same destructive manner that Ahab pursued his White Whale.  With very much the same results.  Those of you who have yet to see the movie, check it out and then read the book.  

Using the deadly Seti eel to control his victims, Khan orders Terrell to kill Admiral Kirk.  Pulling his phaser, the Captain holds the Admiral at bay for a time.  However, as he struggles to resist it becomes apparent that while the eel is powerful, Terrell's will is stronger.   

Terrell fights against the control exerted by the slithering abomination long enough to regain his composure.

Still training his weapon on Kirk, he flings his communicator to the ground and collapses in a fit of agony.

Rolling back up to his knees, he once again points the phaser at the Admiral before turning it on himself.   Moments later, Terrell pulls the trigger and disintegrates.

To make Terrell, I took the head and hands from Capt. Sisko and placed it on the body of Admiral Kirk. The hair was from Klingon Commander Kor, re-sculpted to resemble Terrell.  The Star Trek: Innerspace Stargazer was used to stand in for the bridge of the Reliant.  

Beating the Alliance: What's Next for Mirror Universe Minimates

Is it possible that the somewhat open-ended conclusion to the Emperor's New Cloak represented a closed circle?  What are the possible endings for the mirror universe?  The Defiant once again flew circles around the clunky, embarrassingly large Nek'Var and captured Regent Worf.  The cat-suited Intendant Kira managed to escape.  By the end of the episode, it was clear the Alliance was on the back-foot.  All Captain O'Brien need do now is replicate a few dozen Defiant-class warships and make a fiery "grand tour" of Alliance worlds.  Can we expect different from a Terran?     

Whether Klingons and Cardassians accept defeat and surrender or fight to the death doesn't really matter.  The mirror universe will be bathed in blood for decades to come.  O'Brien seems an honorable man.  He has proven that since we first saw him meekly standing up to Odo in the ore-processing center.  However, he does live in a less than honorable universe.  To keep the peace, he may have no choice but to become the very thing he seeks to overthrow.   

Regent Worf is a prisoner of war.  Garek is dead.  Kira is on the lamb--yet still looking fabulous!  With the technical files from our universe, it is possible that O'Brien can create a mini-Federation from among the assorted oppressed races that constitute the Terran Resistance.  However, it is more likely that, given the nature of his universe, such an entity would fail to thrive or collapse into tyranny in the end.  It would not be wise to replicate Spock's hubris. 

The smart play would be for O'Brien to consolidate his power base by building more Defiant-class warships.  He could then assure loyalty to his vision by dispensing commands of these shiny new ships to commanders loyal to him.  Handing commands out like patronage to loyal commanders in order to keep the coalition together is the best way to ensure that he can guide the war towards its inevitable conclusion.  To be fair, O'Brien would not discriminate based on race.  Key commands would most assuredly be given to Terrans, Ferengi, Trills, Vulcans, and any other race associated with the former Terran Empire.  In the end, though, loyalty (and perhaps fealty) would be to the man who crossed through the looking glass and enabled the movement to succeed.
 

 

To ensure a greater tyranny doesn't rise from the ashes of the old, O'Brien would have to use less than honorable methods.  For the greater good, he would need to dispense patronage in the form of Defiant-class warships.  He would need to become a benevolent dictator.  Its simply the nature of his universe.  

Bashir Through the Looking Glass

He's not a brilliant doctor, but a harsh Terran pirate. 

This Julian Bashir possess all the bedside manner of the Bubonic Plague.  Armed with lethal cunning and a hatred for the Alliance, Bashir rose quickly through the ranks to become one of the principle leaders of the Terran Resistance Forces.

Little is known about his early life, but when we first see Bashir he is questioning the wisdom of an open attack on Terok Nor.  His loud objections to the proposed plan soon result in a smack-down at the hands of our Benjamin Sisko--who was posing as the movement's dead leader.

As time goes by, Captain Bashir becomes even more ruthless in his methods--itching for conflict, advocating scorched earth campaigns,
and delighting in subjecting a cat-suited Intendant Kira to the agonizer.  Bitch had it coming!   

Despite his sadism, he remains willing to volunteer for increasingly risky missions--such as taking his raider out in an effort to lure the Alliance away from the Terran base at Terok Nor.  His bravado was ultimately successful.  Throwing off the sensors of the Alliance fleet and leading them in a wild goose chase long enough for the rebels to bring the Defiant online, Bashir returns to the field in just enough time to do what he does best--kill Klingons. 

Hero?  Villain?  Human?  Whether you enjoy the darker side of humanity or like the prospect of a universe where humans are brigands and swarthy pirates or simply like the idea of Alexander Sidgig with scruff, the mirror universe never disappoints.  Oh wait, there's still Enterprise.

To make this figure, I took Space Seed Khan's hair and placed it on the head of a scruffy, random character from some line of figures I have never heard of.  I took the bear chested body of Khan (its actually under his gold dress tunic) and constructed the outfit from paper based on stills from the episodes in which the mirror-Bashir appeared.   I fashioned the holster from sculpy.  The Cardassian disruptor was inserted into the holster for effect.  The legs are from Klingon Commander Kor. 

The Terran Raider is the Maquis Raider Geronimo from the Star Trek: Strike Force collection.

Captain Jean-Luc Picard from “Yesterday’s Enterprise”

What started as a typical anomaly in space turned into a time-altering misadventure involving Klingons, a militaristic Federation, a ship from the past, and Tasha Yar finally finding a man!. 

 

The emergence of the battered Enterprise-C creates a ripple in time that results in an alternate reality in which the Federation is at war with the Klingon Empire.  Instead of meeting a heroic end defending a Klingon colony from Romulan attack, the Enterprise-C is propelled 22 years into the future.  A Federation vessel defending a Klingon colony would have improved relations between the two powers.  Instead, a fragile peace gave way to interplanetary war.  A war the Federation cannot win.    

 

The Picard of this new timeline is not the diplomat we have come to know.  Rather, he is a hardened veteran of a long-standing conflict.  In fact, everyone has changed.  Worf is gone…or rather, he never existed.  Tasha Yar is still alive—and looking fierce.  Counselor Trio is also absent.  To us this seems strange.  For the crew, this is reality.  The only person who feels that this reality is not quite right is Guinan; whose species not only has an affinity for obnoxious millenary, but a perception that transcends time.    

 

Guinan alerts Picard that what he perceives as reality is indeed an altered state.  The destruction of the Enterprise-C at the hands of the Romulans could have prevented it all.     

 

Conferring with Captain Rachel Garret, Picard reveals that the war is going very badly for Starfleet.  The Klingons have conquered almost half of the Federation.  Billions have died.  The most shocking revelation is that the best estimates indicate that defeat is inevitable within six months.  While one ship may make no difference is this reality, Picard stresses that 22 years ago one ship might have prevented everything.  With that, Garret agrees to go back—right into the firefight with the Romulans. 

 

Picard and his crew prepare to hold off the advancing Klingon ships long enough to allow the Enterprise-C to return to its own time.  In a fierce battle, the Enterprise-D takes a pounding.

 

With his First Officer dead, his shields gone, and a Warp Core breach minutes away, Picard takes control of the weapons.  The last image is so brilliantly shot it is actually breath-taking.  Flames all around him, Picard continues to fire at the advancing ships.  Just and the Klingons move in for the kill, the Enterprise-C enters the rift and the timeline is restored.  All’s well that ends well.                    

 

The high collars and metallic weapons belts present on all the officers portray a universe of ridged discipline.

 

To create this figure, I took the standard Picard in Duty Uniform and altered it to match the darker uniforms portrayed in the show.  The Silver belt was accomplished through metallic tape and incredibly careful painting.  Seriously, my eyes almost fell out of my head.  The high collar was simple sculpting.  

The Star Trek: Strike Force Enterprise was used for the interior shots.