"In the decade preceding the Clone Wars, this Mandalorian instructor was discreetly summoned to the world of Kamino by Jango Fett to become a member of the Cuy’val Dar (Those Who No Longer Exist). Like the other 100 members of the group, his orders were simple: he was to be put in charge of a large group of clones that were to be trained as Clone Commandos. Accepting his assignment with eagerness, the instructor instilled his squads not only his combat experience, but also with his own quirks, traits and beliefs (as many other squads adopted from their handlers). Aside from the traditional Mandalorian values, notable values the instructor taught the squads he trained were the values of creativity, innovation and individuality. In addition, he felt that any good soldier should not only know his gear, but also modify it to best work for them. Although he understood, and respected in many ways, the efficiency of the Katarn-class armor that was assigned to the commando units, he constantly urged his squads to modify them inside and out to better suit their needs. As such, his squads gear was constantly improving, changing and generally breaking the Kaminoians strict rules of conformity (not that any Cuy’val Dar member ever really cared).

It was from his enjoyment of tinkering that the instructor designed his own custom armor. Wanting to capitalize on the Katarn-class armors overall sense of protection and self-efficiently (as it was essentially a mobile, armored camp for the wearer), the instructor combined these ideas with the traditional Mandalorian armor. No doubt commissioned for him by Jango Fett on one of his work-related absences from Kamino (as the Cuy’val Dar were allowed no contact with the outside galaxy), the instructor was greatly pleased with the final result.

As the Clone Wars erupted across the galaxy, the instructor took up a new contract as part of the Special Forces brigade of the Republic Army, a role that allowed him to go into missions with his commando squads against the Separatist threat; pitting his armor against the likes of the droid armies.

After all, a merc needs work too."

This guy was pretty much spur of the moment and a project I wanted to do using some fodder up. I'm a huge Mandalorian fan and I jumped on designing this figure when I found the head again in my fodder bin.

The recipe is fairly simple:

The body itself is made up from different Halo pieces I had in my fodder bin. The only major change I did to the body's structure was giving him a different set of feet, since the original pair were terribly warped. The pouches on his belt, ammo pouches on the leg and chest, the knives, the shoulder armor and knee armor were all fodder pieces and were trimmed down and epoxied onto the body for maximum connection (except for the right shoulder, which I'll get too).

The head is from a Boba Fett Transformer figure. I had used it before in one of my first custom figures and since the figure was, as I admit, god-awful looking, I decided to recycle. To make it work on this body, the head was further hollowed out, fitted and repainted (and the antenna of the visor still retains it's ability to lower up and down!)

Finally, the figure comes with 4 different items; the blaster rifle, scattergun, detachable thermal detonator and the Field Pack on his back. All came from my fodder bin. As I mentioned above, while I epoxied all the additional armor I put on him, I left the right shoulder armor (the red armor) with he ability to be removable. I did this because the Field Pack stays on the figure by using elastic bands and it's much easier to slip it on and off by removing the bigger armor piece and there is less of a chance you might put too much pressure on something else and pop it off in the process.

Hope you enjoy!