This figure conversion was done as joke gift for my wife. She absolutely hates Jar Jar Binks. I can't say that I blame her. One day I thought - "Wait, what if Jar Jar joined the ranks of the Sith?" and thus "Darth Jar Jar, Evil Sith Lord" was born. I'm sure a lot of other people have thought the same thing, but I don't think anyone has been crazy enough to do a figure conversion.

I started with a "Jar Jar Binks with Gungan Battlestaff" figure. I removed the vest and waist robe, and sprayed everything a flat white. I found out the hard way that the vest and robe need either Plasti-dip spray paint or H2O spray paint - my can of regular Krylon flat white never dried and made a sticky mess. Luckily I was able to clean it off with some mineral spirits and respray.

I used three colors for the body, eyes, and clothes. The skin was painted red using Golden Fluid Acrylics Quinacridone Crimson (Golden #02290). The Crimson was thinned down with some acrylic extender, and layered on over several painting sessions.

The layering (more like a glaze effect) gives both highlight and shadow when applied correctly. The clothing was painted using Golden Fluid Acrylics Carbon Black (Golden #2040-1). The eyes were done with Golden Fluid Acrylics Titanium White (Golden #02380) and the aforementioned Carbon Black. The nails on feet/ hands and the tattoos were done using a double-ended Sharpie Marker (fine/extra fine). I should probably mention that I painted the vest and waist robe separate from the figure, then re-attached them when they were dry.

Now, what would an evil Sith Master be without his Lightsabres? I used parts of the Gungan Battlestaff for the handles. Small "googly eyes" were added to the butt of the handle piece for some detail. A small "punch out" from the smallest setting on my leather punch made an "activator button". On the business end, a small piece of Evergreen styrene tube was added. The styrene tube was cut at an angle where the "blade" comes out. The "blades" themselves are children's practice sewing needles from the sewing section of the local "Mart" store. I cut the eyes off of them, cut them even in length, and glued them in the styrene tube. Spraying them flat white, I used the aforementioned Carbon Black and some bright silver craft paint for the handles, Golden Fluid Acrylics Pyrrole Red (Golden #02277) for the "blades." Perfect weapons for a Sith Lord.

The base is a wooden disk from the craft store, painted with the aforementioned Carbon Black. A large fender washer is glued on the bottom for weight and stability.

This is my first action figure conversion. It wasn't as much of a challenge as I thought it would be when I started it. Choosing a simple paint scheme and choosing not to modify the figure's pose helped make it easy. The lightsabre build was the most difficult part of the conversion, because I wanted them to be identical. Overall, I am very pleased with it, as is my wife, even if I did present it to her as a "joke" birthday present!