For those of you who are not massive Star Wars fans like I am, This is Admiral Gial Ackbar of the Rebel Alliance. He is from a watery world called Dac which is inhabited mostly by two races. They are called the Quarrenese and the Mon Calamari. The later is the race the admiral belongs to. (Although the Quarrenese look more like squids.) I'm sure that Disney will soon make a spin-off movie all about him. I would definitely go see it. I made the base of this statue way back in college and have been saving it for a great long time. (It's made out of wood.) I do that. I hold onto things forever with great intentions, but I should just use them and make another. (Something to think about.) I finally decided on the good Admiral to adorn this pedestal after watching a Star Wars - Clone Wars episode starring a young "Captain" Ackbar.
I decorated the base with a scene I got from a computer background. It was made to spread across a couple monitors. I've used it on my work computer a couple times and I thought it was fitting for the pedestal here. I traced the highlights onto the base and then painted them with paint pens. (I love paint pens.)
The Admiral has an armature made from aluminum foil, tape, wire and a coat hanger. All the detail is done with polymer clay (Sculpey). I also used two little wooden balls for his eyes. I painted him using a dry brush technique along with just slapping the paint on there. I used a gloss gel medium to get the wet look to his shell and skin. I also used a matte gel medium with a firm brush to give his tunic a cloth like texture that you can't see here, but it's there.
One of the things I'm really proud of are his hands. I put a lot of detail in his hands and I think they came out pretty well. He's got these cool little barnacle things on his palms. I imagine it being very uncomfortable to shake his hand. Plus he's got webbing between his fingers. At this scale it's really hard to keep those from cracking and breaking off, but I found a way. They were the first part I made of this statue and it was nerve racking the entire time. I was very worried about his hands, but they made it to the end. One recurring problem was how big the statue is. It's 20 inches tall and luckily I made the top of the base to come off. even then I had trouble getting it to fit in my oven at times, but I made it work. Below you can see the statue from several angles and you can see some of the images of the statue being created, too.
I hope you enjoy the good Admiral. I enjoyed making him. If you have any questions about him please ask away in the comments below. If I made any mistakes in describing Ackbar's race and origin please blame Wookiepedia. Thanks for being Above Average and reading this post. I hope you read some others and come back for more.