Danz Borin
July 15, 2000 Update:
I was inspired to redo this figure by Keith Paquette's version of Danz Borin at KAP's Custom Universe. I always knew my original version was a little off, but Keith's made me realize how lacking mine really was. I went in a slightly direction from Keith, seeing Danz's suit as a cross between Ellorrs Maddak's and Nabrun Leids'. If you want to make this figure from scratch, I suggest you scroll down to the original version to find out the parts I used.
The major difference in the new version is that his chest is now made from the torso of an AT-ST driver. I sanded down all of the details on the torso, including the collar) using a dremel and sandpaper. Then I used an X-Acto knife to scratch the lines onto his chest and back. Next I cut the collar off the Bossk torso and glued it on the AT-ST torso. I used FIMO to fill in the gap between the collar and chest, and to widen the bottom of the torso near the waist. Because of the shape of the AT-ST Driver torso, I had to glue it to the waist at an angle (leaning forward), and fill in the gap with FIMO. So, there is no waist articulation. Working on the torso took up most of the time on this figure.
On the arms, I filed down the bulges near the shoulders, and I scratched lines into the forearms.
The pelvis and legs were filed down so that none of Bossk's straps and little devices were left. I then scratched lines onto the thighs. I removed the boots and replaced them with altered boots from a Space Quest figure I got at a Dollar Tree store (the boots are from the same figure I got my Kir Kanos head from.)
The helmet was modified by cutting off some of the bottom (below the rubber band on my original version). I also cut off the original rubber band and replaced it with a much flatter one.
The entire figure was repainted, mostly with white. Gray was painted on the helmet, ends of the sleeves, and parts of the boots. The black rectangles on his chest, back, and sleeves are actually pieces of electrical tape. After that I gave him a wash with some watered down gray (to dirty him up a little and bring out the lines I had scratched in). Lastly, he got a dull clear coat.
Original Version:
What you need:
- Bossk body
- Captain Piett or Ponda Baba forearms
- Regular Han boots
- Human head (such as a GI-Joe Duke head)
- Robocop helmet
This custom can be a quickie or a drawn-out deal, depending on how much detail you want to put into it. Start out by boiling the figure and getting it into pieces, then cut off the bossk feet and forearms. I think the Bossk body is a little tall, so I shortened the lower legs and the very bottom of the torso (like I did for my Bo Shek). Then put on the boots, forearms with sculpey, and rubber bands on the ends of the sleeves. With all in place, get the head and glue him together.
The Robocop helmet is not a perfect match for Danz's, so I had to modify it a bit. I cut a lot of the bottom off so that it didn't rest on the shoulders so much. Other details were filed off to match the film version, such as the circle above the visor. And of course, a rubber band was used to create the collar-clamp.
The color scheme you use is up to you. I used a scheme that I thought looked nice while still basically matching what we see in the movie. The five colors I used were white, black, light grey, dark grey, and silver. The helmet detail below shows that it's mostly light grey, with black on the sides, silver on the collar-clamp portion, and white on the small portion below the collar.
Use any head you want, since we really don't get a good view of his face in the movie. My choice of heads may not be the best, but it can be justified by the fact that Danz is seen in the Cantina smiling and boozing it up with some buddies. I gave him greyish-brown hair and painted his skin with a dullcoat. The more I look at him, the more he looks like Commander Sinclair from Babylon 5.
The inspiration for this figure came from Stephen Hayford's version of Danz Borin. This was one of those customs that I kind of fell into. When I saw the right Robocop figure and a Bossk on sale in the same mall, I knew what I had to do.
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