"De wanna wanga?" - Olley x Jabba

Jabba the Hutt is, aside from Vader, probably the mode iconic Star Wars bad guy. I've wanted to make a Jabba and entourage for my Bob Olley themed Star Wars project for a long time, but I was struggling to work out exactly how.

Luckily a friend of mine donated me a failed 3D print of the seated genestealer patriarch (yes, I know this is morally suspect), and that was the start of Jabba as imagined by Bob.

I made Jabba by removing the legs from the patriarch and splicing them with the lower tail section of Bob's cavern crawler (sculpted for Reaper). I then added plenty of fatty blubber with greenstuff to join the two elements together. The result is probably anatomically suspect, but then so is Jabba!

I'm pretty pleased with how the elements tie together visually - the many-legged scaly tail section feels like it belongs with the 4-armed hard-shelled patriarch in a way that a movie-accurate slug tail wouldn't have!

I gave Jabba a nice greeny-brown paint job, with lighter areas on the belly and face. He also got a full coat of gloss varnish to dial up the sliminess.

Jabba crawling around is all very well, but what he actually needs is that iconic throne. I briefly toyed with the idea of scratch-building something, but after a bit of searching on eBay, I spied the Micro Machines Action Fleet Jabba playset:

First I removed the rubbery toy Jabba and the wheels from the underside. I then filled the void where toy Jabba would sit, before repainting (the little clear plastic bowl was helpfully removable).

Once you add Jabba, the whole thing really comes alive!

Seeing as I was working on Jabba, I decided I should also make Bib Fortuna. Bib was made from one of Bob's genestealer magi. I removed the originally collar / hood and some of the genestealer details from the robe and staff.

The head protrusions and tentacles are all added with greenstuff, with the staff topper coming from my bits box.

Once again, not a movie-accurate Bib, but close enough! I'm particularly pleased with the scarf-like drape of the right tentacle around his neck. I also like that the patriarch/magus relationship mirrors the Jabba/Bib relationship (anyone might have thought that GW copied it when they sculpted their figures?!).

Just a handful more Olley-themed Star Wars figures to go, then I can draw a line under this project and start on something else!