Shaak Ti (Togruta Jedi Master)

Shaak Ti was a female Togruta Jedi Master hailing from the planet Shili. She served as one of the last members of the Jedi High Council before the Great Jedi Purge. The Togruta Jedi was involved in many epic conflicts during the Clone Wars, including the battles of Geonosis and Coruscant. Shaak Ti was later able to escape Order 66, despite being in the Jedi Temple at the time of Darth Vader's attack. She fled Coruscant and traveled from world to world until finally landing on Felucia. Along the way, Shaak Ti found an orphaned Maris Brood and immediately sensed through the Force that Brood was a lost soul living on the edge of the dark side. Once on Felucia, Shaak Ti trained Maris Brood and the local Force-sensitive Felucians for an inevitable confrontation with the Dark Lord of the Sith, where she finally met her death. This figure is part of a group project that is ongoing at Yakface.com.

Parts: Head (Shaak Ti), Torso (Oola), Arms (Oola), Right Hand (Unknown), Legs (Oola), Loincloth (Slave Leia), Armband (Slave Leia), Lightsaber (Shaak Ti).

Supplies: Dremel, Super Sculpey, X-acto knife, super glue, Elmer's Glue, emery board or file, thread, facial tissue, Polly Scale paints, Testors paints, brushes and Testors Dull-Cote.

Reference: see reference picture.

Step One: The head from the Oola figure had already been used on a custom figure a couple of years ago, so I didn't have to remove it. The problem here was that the figure had no neck after the other head was removed. Using a cut piece of an old paintbrush for stability, I sculpted a neck using Super Sculpey. After curing, I set the head aside until much later.

Step Two: The body was (in my opinion) a very close match to the clothing worn by Shaak Ti in The Force Unleashed. The major undertaking here was Dremeling the leggings off so that she had bare legs. There were a few imperfections that I could not get rid of, but since certain parts of her legs will be wrapped in cloth, I didn't think it would affect the final product. I also cut off the open right hand and replaced it with one that could hold a lightsaber.

Step Three: Next, I painted the body with two coats of flat red. Then, I painted the remaining clothing a very dark brown. Once those two colors were dry, I applied a light coat of Testors Dull-Cote to seal and protect the paint while I continued working on the figure.

Step Four: The wrappings around her legs and left arm were made by cutting strips of facial tissue and moistening them with a solution of water and Elmer's glue. These strips were then carefully wrapped around the appropriate limbs. Once they had dried, the wrappings were all painted the same dark brown as her other clothing.

Step Five: The thin cords wrapped around her torso were made using heavy brown thread. A small dab of super glue was applied in a few places to keep it from moving later. The figure's existing belt was painted to match the one in the reference picture. The loin cloth was taken from a Slave Liea figure. It was trimmed and then heavily sanded on the back side so that when glued in place, there would be no pronounced edge. The loincloth was then glued in place. The arm band was made by cutting off the collar from the chain that came with the Slave Leia figure.

Step Six: In the reference picture, Shaak Ti's head tails were wrapped behind her head. I assumed that this was a practical step taken to keep them out of the way during lightsaber combat. In order to accomplish this, I dropped the head into boiling water and quickly extracted it with a spoon. While hot, I carefully wrapped the headtails the way I wanted them and then dunked the head in cold water. The headtails were then stuck in that position. After the head dried, I painted on the cloth wrappings that can be seen in the picture.

Step Seven: At this point, the head was super glued in place (there was not much choice in this due to the fact that I was forced to sculpt the neck). I then applied the final details such as the white marking on her arms and legs. I also repainted the face.