There is some art that is a joyful and pleasurable expression of its creator's heart and soul; a delight to craft from its conceptualization right on down to the end result. And then there are some that are a challenge of the artist's patience and a chore for the hot-tempered. This was one of those pieces.

Rebel Trooper was created for the Sci-Fi custom swap at the MLP Arena; and I have to tell you, I was in Star Wars heaven when I saw my partner's want list. Boba Fett and Jedi themes, just to name a few. So many possibilities were open to me that I spent several weeks just trying to figure out what I wanted to do. Finally I decided that I would make a sculpted Boba Fett pony; but after several days of hard work sculpting all that armor, he broke. Nay, he crumbled. And I nearly cried. Scratch that...I think I did cry.
So I scraped the bait clean of what remained of Boba's clay and went to look over my partner's list again, knowing that I couldn't take on the Fett man again without wanting to throw the whole pony at a wall. And that's when the Rebel/Imperial themed idea jumped out at me. All of a sudden I had this vision of a perfect pony Rebel Trooper and immediately went to work. But even with my newfound inspiration, this pony continued to torment me.
The sculpting process went smoothly enough, but half-way through My Little Trooper's bake I opened the oven door and prodded him a bit to see how soft the clay was, at which point I ended up breaking off the handle of his blaster. Later I tried to glue the piece back on but it wouldn't stay for anything.
As I pulled the tray that he was sitting on from the oven it hit the edge of the stovetop and Rebel Trooper took a dive, losing large chunks of his shirt collar (which you'll notice is absent from the finished piece) and busting his holster off entirely (this I managed to glue back on). As I tried to repair the broken collar more of it cracked and busted off. So much so that I was forced to remove the collar entirely. This left the back of his neck bare and looking odd, with a few empty hair plugs showing beneath his clay doo. And for the life of me I could not get his helmet to look smooth on top or straight underneath!

Despite the misery that this little guy put me through, I'm very happy with the end result. He was a challenge and a learning experience for sure, but he also makes a great addition to my ever-growing Star Wars customs portfolio.


Star Wars and Rebel Trooper are © Lucasfilm Ltd.
My Little Pony is © Hasbro.