SE Boba Build (Complete)

Jesuit24

Hunter
This is where I'll collate my thoughts, frustrations, queries and demands as I put together my first Boba Fett costume. I'm planning on saving money wherever possible, if that means more work making things myself then so be it. If it's a homemade costume, I'll feel a lot more accomplished when I'm finished especially when I get to say 'I made that... out of cardboard'. I'm in the middle of making the helmet out of said cardboard. I'm following RafalFett's excellent templates and build thread and it's coming along quickly. The most expensive piece of the costume is the flight suit, vest and neck seal, which I don't realistically think I could make myself. I considered Bobamaker and Arkady but eventually chose empireprops (who I believe used to be cucblack) simply because it was the cheapest.

As for the helmet, this is where I'm at right now:
Helmet #1.JPG

I made the smaller sections out of the back of an A3 drawing pad while I waited for the larger A2 pieces in the mail. A lot of it is very rough, which I intend to rectify when I get hold of a dremel to even up the edges. I bought a flashing LED metronome kit from Maplin and plan to add a tilt switch. The rangefinder stalk feels pretty flimsy as it is right now. I plan to resin the interior and then sand the exterior flat to get rid of the wobble and clean up the rough cuts.
Helmet #7.JPG

I used spray adhesive to attach the templates to the card, making it easy to peel away when it wasn't needed, although when I ran out I used pritt stick which I applied a bit excessively. This resulted in the rough finish when I peeled it away. No matter; bondo solves all.
Helmet #8.JPG

Despite a few rough patches, I'm pretty happy with the ears. Bondo needed in a couple of spots with a general sanding of the edges with a dremel being in order. The 0.5mm card was the front of the sketch pad I used, doubling it up for 1mm measurements.
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Onto the helmet itself, I had a couple of sizing issues. The card structural insert was a little off, meaning I had to add and trim to match the dome base. I also had trouble sizing the inner and outer layers to the dome base/helmet base, but I think that was my fault in not adding another layer to the 330mm strip at the back. This resulted in the keyhole and visor matching the front and rear lines, but the ears being non-symmetrical. To fix this, I cut one ear off the outer layer and moved it back slightly to be more in line with the other one. I'm sure this means the ears will be slightly farther back that they should be, but I'm happy with how it looks and bondo will correct any ugliness from my cuts.
Helmet #2.JPGHelmet #4.JPGHelmet #6.JPGHelmet #5.JPGHelmet #3.JPG

Next up, cutting out the cheeks. I'm also thinking about gluing the helmet base to the bottom and cutting a hole out like I'm to do with the dome base.

CHECKLIST:
NECK SEAL - cucblack - complete
FLIGHT SUIT - cucblack - complete
FLAK VEST - cucblack - complete
HELMET - RafalFett templates - complete
GAUNTLETS - WOF templates- complete
SHIN TOOLS - RafalFett templates - complete
JET PACK - WOF templates - complete
JET PACK HARNESS - homemade - complete
ARMOUR - RafalFett templates - complete
CAPE - homemade - complete
AMMO BELT - Strumfett templates - complete
POUCHES - WOF templates - complete
SPATS - WOF templates - complete
GIRTH BELT - homemade - complete
BRAIDS - katarra8 - complete
GLOVES - parade glove conversion - complete
BOOTS - chelsea boot conversion - complete
BLASTER - Hasbro conversion - complete

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Wow! You did a lot of work on this! Everything looks pretty good, and I really like the ears and the rangefinder casing, although the stalk looks a bit rough, I'm sure you will correct it in no time. The helmet form is also great and is ready for the dome and the cheeks.

Keep up the awesome work!
 
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Thanks. It goes together really easily. Testament to you and WoF. Worst case scenario on the rangefinder; I redo it. Which isn't much of a problem, but I'll try and salvage it as best I can.
 
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I've added the cheeks and keyslot.
Helmet #10.jpg

Since I added an extra centimetre to one of the sides of the visor, I ran into a problem with the cheek on that side in that it was a centimetre shy. So I cut out another piece and added a centimetre widthways and traced out another larger cheek plate to accommodate the new measurements. So now, one cheek is longer by a whole centimetre along with that side of the visor, but looking at it, I'm hard pressed to visibly tell, even when looking for it. I'm probably going to run into some more issues on that side of the helmet when it comes to installing the dome, but I guess I'll deal with that problem as it happens. Here's a picture with the helmet lined up to the helmet base:
Helmet #18.JPG

Helmet #11.JPGHelmet #12.JPGHelmet #13.JPGHelmet #14.JPGHelmet #15.JPGHelmet #16.JPG

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Started working on the dome and I've already sunk a knife in my thumb. I cut out the visor but left the bottom intact for stability until it gets fibreglassed. I'm thinking I'll use the optional dome struts; I'm sure I'll struggle getting the dome done well so I may as well make it as easy on myself as possible.

Helmet #18.JPGHelmet #19.JPGHelmet #20.JPGHelmet #21.JPG

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That looks great, good work! It's fun being crafty and having the ability to tell people that you made your bucket out of a cardboard box!
 
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I wouldn't have as much fun if I'd just bought it ready made. This way, not only will I save a few pennies, but I'll have a blast making it AND have something I can be proud of.

Today, I started work on the dome section. It's as tough as it looks! I'm going slow to make as little mistakes as possible. Definitely a good decision to use the optional dome support pieces.
Helmet #22.JPGHelmet #23.JPG

Helmet #22.JPG


Helmet #23.JPG
 
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I wouldn't have as much fun if I'd just bought it ready made. This way, not only will I save a few pennies, but I'll have a blast making it AND have something I can be proud of.

Today, I started work on the dome section. It's as tough as it looks! I'm going slow to make as little mistakes as possible. Definitely a good decision to use the optional dome support pieces.
View attachment 73335View attachment 73336
Ouch... Hope your okay bro!
 
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I'm healing, although last night I came down with a severe reaction to dust after doing a big clean. It's a good thing I finished the bulk of the helmet now. All the dome pieces have been added, although it got slightly messier on the back of the helmet. I think the next stage is to fiberglass the interior. My first time fiberglassing, but those intricate dome support struts look to be difficult to glass.

Starting to take shape:
Helmet #24.JPGHelmet #25.JPGHelmet #26.JPGHelmet #27.JPGHelmet #28.JPGHelmet #29.JPG

One thing before I start with the resin though is there's a slight deformation in the mandibles. In the pictures they skew left, which will have something to do with the (pictured) right ear being taken back by a centimetre to horizontally match the (pictured) left ear; this meant I had to recreate the (pictured) right cheek by adding 1cm horizontally, causing it to become wider than the (pictured) left cheek. It's more noticeable when taking a photo into the bottom of the helmet:
Helmet #30.JPG
The front and rear sections are lined up vertically.In addition, before I do anything to the interior, I need to consider fit of the helmet. Here are pictures of me wearing it (forgive the fact I look ill because I am).

#1 My eyes with the eye slit looks correct for my eye line, although my nose will be pushed right up against the hypothetical visor and on the side shot, it looks noticeably tilted forward.
Helmet #31.jpg

#2 This on the other hand is me wearing it flat with the brow line straight across. Obviously, my eye line doesn't match up but I can still see with some severe tunnel vision. I could trim down the inner supports (which are currently 15mm thick) although I value the visible neck and don't really want to obscure it by trimming the top and having it sit lower (the picture in the top right of the forum is what I want to aspire the fit and proportions to be like). I could get away with it like this given the visor will obscure the fact my eyes don't match but I'm not sure it'll be very comfortable to be half blind.
Helmet #32.jpg

(Both pictures I'm keeping my head straight and level, and my crooked nose is not something I can really use as an indicator of symmetry on the helmet) I'm mostly musing to myself but thoughts, criticisms, etc welcome.

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Helmet #32.jpg
 
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Looks like you're going to put some crazy hours in on this. So far, Nicely DONE!! (y)
 
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One thing before I start with the resin though is there's a slight deformation in the mandibles. In the pictures they skew left, which will have something to do with the (pictured) right ear being taken back by a centimetre to horizontally match the (pictured) left ear; this meant I had to recreate the (pictured) right cheek by adding 1cm horizontally, causing it to become wider than the (pictured) left cheek. It's more noticeable when taking a photo into the bottom of the helmet.

The mandibles SHOULD lean to the right (as you wear it) because this same 'issue' is present on the original helmets too. If you look at the helmet measurement images (in the RWH v2 thread), you'll see that the mandibles are skewed to the right with 0.6 degree (more or less).

In addition, before I do anything to the interior, I need to consider fit of the helmet.

The original helmets had/has a padding under the dome and a chin strap to hold the helmet in place. The chin strap push the helmet to the front sticking your neck to the back/rear keyhole area.

Boba-Fett-Empire-Strikes-Back-Helmet-06.jpg Boba-Fett-Empire-Strikes-Back-Helmet-01.jpg Boba-Fett-Costume-Empire-Strikes-Back-Executor-16.png

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That's a relief. I don't plan on using a chinstrap, but forward foam padding should solve the helmet placement. With all the dome support arches matching my head shape, I doubt I'll even need that much padding as it's already pretty comfortable on my head. I've started fiberglassing the dome yesterday. It's pretty slow going due to all the dome supports I used; I can only get two arches covered at a time before the resin hardens, but the parts I have done are solid as a rock. I'm about two thirds around the dome and the helmet is already twice as heavy. Thankfully, my first ever adventure with fiberglass hasn't wasted that much resin and while I started messy, I seem to have picked up a pace to it and neatening the edges. Is it wrong the smell of resin is starting to grow on me? I'm certainly not going to forget that smell anytime soon. Once I've finally glassed the dome, it should be much easier on the sides with less obstructions. Is it a good idea to cover the edges of the visor area in fiberglass or should I leave them cardboard? I think I might have trouble attaching the visor to the rough fiberglass.
 
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A lot of progress. I've headed back home for the holidays so there's been a bit of a change of pace. Now I have access to a Dremel, I'm able to do a lot more work. I've fiberglassed the interior and started work on the bondoing. At this stage, there's one layer of bondo on the dome and cheeks, all sanded down. I'm surprised how well the dome looks after just one layer of filler. I've also been working on the ears and the rangefinder, the latter of which I've remade with plasticard. I'll show pictures of those once they're looking a little prettier.

Helmet #33.JPGHelmet #34.JPGHelmet #35.JPGHelmet #36.JPGHelmet #37.JPGHelmet #38.JPG

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Thats starting to take shape nicely! Good work. Looking at the picture of the inside of the helmet I'm glad to see that taping the battery packs in place and having a mish mash of wires is totally acceptable. lol
 
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Long time no update. I got the flight suit and have made a lot of progress on the lid. So I'll start with the helmet.

Helmet #39.JPGHelmet #40.JPGHelmet #41.JPGHelmet #42.JPGHelmet #43.JPGHelmet #44.JPG

Finally got some colour! I've done a tonne of filling and sanding over the holiday to get it to this stage, but it's almost ready for the next. Just a bit of light sanding left. I'm going to have to install the visor as part of the next stage in order to correct that pinch on the right mandible. When it's lined up, the arrows are centred. It means painting will be a bit more hassle, but with the visor installed, it'll give me the stability I need to cover some cracks near the edges of the eye slits with filler. The keyhole area is a bit of a mess, but I can't really get in there with a piece of sandpaper.

I've wired up the flashing lights. Still need a white LED for the lens along with a tilt switch. I have a question though; since I'm scaling this helmet down for my own proportions, a ready made Perspex block won't fit. Can I cut my own Perspex block with a Dremel, or will it melt into a mess like acrylic?

Helmet #45.JPGHelmet #46.JPGHelmet #47.JPG

Now the flight suit and flak vest. The flightsuit fits okay; it feels a bit baggy in the arms and legs but that may be me not familiar with a loose jumpsuit, the torso is perfect. But while the flak vest fits like a glove, it's way too long, reaching down a good couple of inches past my belly button. I've included a picture with me folding up the excess (forgive the mess, I'm just back from Christmas). Also, the beige colour is off, but then I guess I get what I pay for. Is there any modifications I can do to at least nudge it in the direction of screen accurate? Would airbrushing some white help? I know I'll be using the airbrush to weather it, so maybe I can subtlely lighten it too.

Flightsuit & Flak Vest #1.JPGFlightsuit & Flak Vest #2.JPG

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Helmet's going on hold until I can get hold of a visor. I need to find a material that is thin enough to cut to size and bend into shape. I know a T-visor won't fit unless I severely modify the helmet which I don't want to risk. For my Power Ranger outfit,I used acetate with window tint over it, but that was the first thing to give way when wearing it (it's amazing how many people suddenly want to grope your eyes when you have a visor on). In the mean time, I saw how much leftover cardboard I had from the helmet and got to work on the gauntlets.

Gauntlets #1.JPG

They're not as neat as I'd plan, but give sharp edges will be smoothed out with car filler, it does the job. I used WOF templates, but scaled them down significantly to form fit my skinny wrists. Next stage is to fill my domicile with more fiberglass fumes.

In addition, I also bought some LEDs and resistors. Here is the white light in my topper along with my scratchbuilt MQ-1 in it's housing.

Helmet #48.JPG

Question regarding gauntlet lights: how many are there? There's one at the back of the left gauntlet (and two in the flamethrower housing if you plan to light that up). Is there a mini-light light on the SE gaunts?

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